Crash causes Alex Palou to finish 20th in Illinois race

The American Legion livery on Alex Palou’s No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda has brought the popular 24-year-old driver from Spain much success this season in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES season.

The last time Palou’s No. 10 carried The American Legion livery prior to last Saturday night’s Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, Palou was celebrating in victory lane at Road America on June 20.

That was Palou’s second NTT INDYCAR SERIES victory this season and at the time, solidified his ranking as the championship leader.

Palou was back in The American Legion car this past Saturday at the 1.25-mile short oval in the shadows of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, across the Mississippi River.

Unfortunately for Palou and The American Legion, he was involved in a three-car crash on a Lap 65 restart that also involved Chip Ganassi Racing teammate and fellow championship contender Scott Dixon and Rinus VeeKay of Ed Carpenter Racing.

Palou entered the race with a 21-point lead over Pato O’Ward of arrow McLaren SP in the battle for the championship with four races remaining. Palou’s 20th place finish combined with O’Ward finishing second to Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden has dropped the Chip Ganassi Racing driver to second in the standings.

O’Ward leads Palou by just 10 points heading into the final three races of the season, beginning with the Grand Prix of Portland on Sept.12.

“It’s disappointing when you have a big sponsor like The American Legion and something like this happens,” Palou told The American Legion after he was checked and released from the infield care center. “We had really big race together at Road America and I wanted to have another really good result for them tonight. 

“But we couldn’t finish it.”

The crash came on a restart as the field charged into Turn 1. It appeared that Ryan Hunter-Reay’s Honda slowed, stacking up the field. Rinus VeeKay, in the No. 21 Sonax Chevrolet for Ed Carpenter Racing, hit Palou’s Honda first and then Palou’s broken front wing spun Dixon.

Palou’s Honda was too badly damaged to continue in the race, and he finished 20th. VeeKay was also out of the race and finished 21st.

Dixon was able to get his Honda repaired and back on track before dropping out of the race for good later in the race after completing his 100th lap, 79 laps down.

It was a 31-point swing for Palou as O’Ward is now on top of the standings.

“It’s painful and it’s painful for The American Legion and for all of the sponsors,” Palou said after the crash. “Nothing we could have done differently. We did our job from 21st to P10 at that moment. We did our jobs. We were good mentally. We were strong. We did the same at Indy road course and it didn’t pay off. With three races to go, we can still win this thing.

“I thought I was on the outside and clear of him.”

VeeKay owned up to causing the crash and was visibly distraught that his incident had a dramatic turn in the NTT IndyCar Series championship race.

“I was definitely the one starting the accident,” VeeKay said. “I was really focusing on Scott Dixon. He got behind I think Rosenqvist (actually Hunter-Reay), and he had to really slow down himself. I got on the brakes, tried to get it slowed down and I couldn’t get it slowed down as much as I wanted to. 

“I feel bad for those two guys that I took out. There were in a good place in the championship. I don’t know if I should blame myself for the accident. I tried my best, but it was really hard to stay out of trouble in the position I was in.”

VeeKay referred to the fact that Saturday night’s race at the 1.25-mile World Wide Technology Raceway was just the four oval race all season and the first since the 105th Indianapolis 500 on May 30. He complained that on many of the restarts, then-race leader Colton Herta brought the field to the green too slow.

“It’s been a long time since everyone has run on an oval,” VeeKay said. “Everyone was aggressive. Everyone was backing up, even on the pace lap. If it keeps going like this, Iowa 2.0 is going to happen (referring to last year’s airborne crash on a slow restart when he landed on top of Herta’s aeroscreen). We have to fix things. On that start, I couldn’t avoid anything. I was in a really good spot. I could not afford something like this happening to me. It’s a really bad feeling.

“I’m not really blaming anyone for this accident, not even myself.”

Palou has had a relatively consistent season until the past two races. He had a blown engine on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and was an early exit in the Big Machine Spiked Coolers Grand Prix.

One week later, he crashed out at WWRT in Gateway.

Palou gave his side of the incident.

“I just saw the replay once,” Palou said. “I didn’t analyze it 100 percent, but in my opinion, I was on the outside because I saw there were so many cars on the inside and I didn’t want to get checked up. I was clean with Scott. We were side-by-side and then I got checked up by another car and hit.

“It’s a shame.”

What is most a shame for Palou is he battled back from a third-straight six-position grid penalty for an unapproved engine change because his engine blew up last Saturday.

“It doesn’t help if you are running your position and doing your race, but if you have to make up some spots it’s harder,” Palou explained. “I thought we did a really good job. On Lap 60, we were at P10 starting P21. We had a really good car; some really good pit stops and did our job today. Unfortunately, we didn’t finish it.

“We overtook cars on the track. We overtook cars on pit lane. We were off to a good night. We knew qualifying was a really bad run compared to what we could have done and knew our race pace was better than our starting position, even without the grid penalty.

“I was angry because it was something I couldn’t do different. If I make a mistake, I’m angry, but it was my fault. If it were the last lap of the race, I understand. But it was still early. We were in a good position. It was hard work getting from P21 to P10. It was frustrating because of that.

“It’s over now. We have to focus on Portland.”

Palou spoke with VeeKay in the infield care center after the crash and asked him what he was thinking?

“I didn’t see a video before, but I asked, what was that?’” Palou asked. “He was starting 23rdand he was doing a good job as well. I told him, ‘Man, we did all that hard work together. Why do we have to crash together? It was time to just have a good race and pace ourselves.’ It didn’t work out.”

Palou is not intimidated by his rivals or his challenge for the championship, with three races remaining.

“It’s nothing that scares me,” Palou said. “We were going to be in a really good position at Indy Road Course. We were fast there. We were going to be in a really good position today. We were fast here. It’s not like we are slow and don’t know how to get there. We are here and have had some issues that presented us some problems.

“We will have some weekends that will be really good for the 10 car.

“I think we are lucky. I’m driving for Chip Ganassi Racing in IndyCar, leading the championship at the moment. The race is not done yet. I think I’m quite lucky.”