Minutes after securing his third consecutive NTT IndyCar Series championship and fourth in five years, Alex Palou enthusiastically spoke five words that should alarm his competitors.
“I cannot wait for more,” the Chip Ganassi Racing phenom said in victory lane at Portland International Raceway following the BITNILE.com Grand Prix of Portland.
“We have two more to try and win,” Palou said, referring to the final events, scheduled for Milwaukee and Nashville.” Still, hopefully we can get 10 (victories). Honestly, super- happy. I still cannot believe that I'm a four-time IndyCar champion. I'm going to enjoy every single second of it.
“This year has been even more than magical with the 500, with so many wins,” the eight-time winner this season said. “Today we wanted a win, as well. We gave everything that we had on track. It didn't work.”
He said he was aware that Pato O’Ward, his closest rival in the standings and the lone driver who could force him to wait at least one more race for that historic championship, had experienced an electrical malfunction that took him out of contention. Still, Palou tried boldly, but unsuccessfully, with four laps to go to pass second-place Christian Lundgaard and eventual winner Will Power for a ninth victory.
“We're here to win. That's why we're here,” Palou said. “We've said it many times. When we come here, although we have that big goal of winning the championship, our priority is always to win races and win every single weekend. We knew we had everything we needed to win.
"I saw that I had two small opportunities to try to get Lundgaard. I thought I could have done the same thing to Will. But it didn't work. Yeah, we gave everything. Even though could have been okay to stay third, we wanted to win.”
If enough is never enough, Power understands it. A two-time series champion and Indianapolis 500 winner himself, Power recognized Palou’s threat to the rest of the field.
“I think you have to have a very close look at what he's doing. I think Ganassi is certainly performing at a very high level right now. Palou is probably the most impressive guy I've seen come along in a long time—in my career, actually,” Power said. “A complete driver who has qualifying pace, but then he's just so good at walking the tightrope of risk versus reward, race craft, then his race pace.
"He's absolutely a full package. Man, he's going to be a very, very tough guy to beat.”
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