Alex Palou prevails at Road America, Scott Dixon fourth

Photo: PHOTOSPORT

Alex Palou of Spain passed Colton Herta late in the race to speed away for his second straight win and third of the IndyCar season at the Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America in Wisconsin.

Palou steered his No.10 American Legion Honda past Herta, the polesitter, on the outside and into the lead before Herta faded to the finish because he was one lap short on gas.

Palou won by 4.561 seconds over Josef Newgarden. Mexico’s Pato O’Ward was third, while Herta finished fifth.

New Zealander’s Scott Dixon, Scott McLauglin and Marcus Armstrong fourth, eighth and 24th respectively.

The 2021 IndyCar champion, Palou extended his season points lead to 74 over second-place Marcus Ericsson of Sweden. Palou won last week in Detroit, as well as the GMR Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course.

“We’re going to try and keep it rolling,” Palou said on the USA Network broadcast. “We have an amazing team behind (me).”

Making victory taste even sweeter for Palou was how his team got there. Palou crashed during practice on Saturday and his team had to scramble to get a backup car ready.

“It’s been an amazing weekend, honestly,” Palou said. “We started with a lot of speed. Big mistake by my part in practice, too. But it was amazing. They had only an hour and a half to rebuild all the car. We went back on track and it was even better than in practice too. Super happy. They gave me the pit stop that gave us the win, as well.”

It marked Palou’s seventh career IndyCar race victory.

– Field Level Media