Chip Ganassi Racing has a multi-champion superstar capable of extracting wins from what seem the most impossible of circumstances. Scratch that: it has two of them, because Alex Palou is a Catalan clone of Scott Dixon.
Reigning title holder Palou bobbed around in the mix for over half of the IndyCar season opener on the streets of St Petersburg, then suddenly emerged in the catbird seat with 28 of the 100 laps remaining when he surfaced from his final pitstop. The problem for Dixon was that he should have pitted at the same time, but didn’t…
In a race of three different strategies, Dixon looked to be in the prime position as his Honda-powered Ganassi car led Josef Newgarden’s Chevrolet-propelled Penske machine and Palou. The first to bail for their final pitstops was Newgarden. Two laps later in came Palou; next time round it was Dixon.
The veteran Kiwi was not only undercut by Palou, but also found Newgarden quickly sliding down his inside into Turn 1. How had this come to be?
Dixon, it transpired, had a malfunctioning radio. The Ganassi team wanted him and Palou in together, but he didn’t know, and had to rely on his fuel warning light. “We lost about two or three seconds on that in-lap, so that was a bit of a nightmare,” he said. “Yeah, needed like a lap board out there or something.”
Palou’s stunning early-stint pace on the prime compound Firestone tyres allowed him to stretch a five-second lead, but this was all eradicated when he caught tail-ender Sting Ray Robb and couldn’t get close enough to lap him. Luckily for Palou, Newgarden and Dixon couldn’t get close enough either.
