IndyCar: Palou schools’ field at Laguna Seca, Power wins title

With fans crowded on the hills around the track, Alex Palou schooled the entire NTT IndyCar field to win the 2022 season finale IndyCar race in the Firestone GP of Monterey by a massive and rather boring 30 seconds.

Palou was so far ahead in his Ganassi Honda he underscored just how good the defending IndyCar champion is and why the Arrow McLaren team is desperate to steal him from Chip Ganassi.

Josef Newgarden drove a great race to come from the back to finish 2nd ahead of his Penske Chevy teammate Will Power who took third to lock up his 2nd IndyCar title.

Felix Rosenqvist and Christian Lundgaard rounded out the top 5 with Lundgaard winning rookie of the year.

Palou was the 9th different winner of 2022 and led 67 of 95 laps.

This was the 17th INDYCAR SERIES championship by a Team Penske driver, extending the team’s record. Power beat teammate Josef Newgarden to the crown by just 16 points.

Will Power

This is only Power’s 2nd INDYCAR Championship.  The Aussie has had four 2nd place finishes over his career for the title.  Consistency earned him this one.

” Yeah, what a great weekend all around. I couldn’t really enjoy the pole yesterday because I was so focused on the race.”

“A lot of stress. A lot of stress this weekend. Not really any other — I was pretty calm all year. Once I got in the car and we started rolling, it was fine.”

“I told myself I’ve got to give everything I can. I can’t lose any position here, and the car was — the tires, yeah, it was interesting. Some sets of tires were really good, and some were not quite so good. A bit of a difference there.”

“But yep, mentally drained. Couldn’t show the sort of emotion that I showed when I won the 500.”

“But it’s been like a long journey over the year. I think it’s pretty fitting that we just did another solid day, just a sort of long-game day like today. That’s just been the story of our year.”

“Yeah, car came alive in the last stint and no problem.”

Alex Palou

Palou ended his reign as series champion with his first victory of the season in the No. 10 NTT DATA Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, dominating and beating Newgarden to the checkered flag by 30.3812 seconds, the largest margin of victory this season, with ease.

The win came after a fraught summer marked by a still-unresolved contractual dispute for Palou’s driving services next season between Chip Ganassi Racing and McLaren Racing.

Word is Arrow McLaren will pay Ganassi $10 million to buy out Palou’s contract and he will drive for Arrow McLaren starting in 2023.

Palou’s drive today was characteristic of his ability to drive his Chip Ganassi Racing machine.  The distraction during the last half of this season was the news that Palou was leaving Ganassi and going with McLaren next season.  And the media quizzed him every chance they got even though he told them nothing.

The Spaniard’s drive today is why his team is not wanting their driver to leave.

Palou commented on his win today. “We knew it was going to be a tough race even before coming here this weekend because we tested here, and we kind of had good sessions, bad sessions during the weekend. Today we ended up really good in the warmup. Super happy with the car.”

“And then yeah, with that engine penalty, we just knew it was going to be tougher, at least the first stint, but to be honest, yeah, our car was on rails today. Didn’t struggle with tire deg like we did at Portland and the last couple of races.”

“I don’t know, but man, I’m happy that we ended this way.”

“I knew we were going to have years like that, seasons like that. There was a bit more drama than we wanted, but happy to finish here, and hopefully we can start the same way next year.”
 

Josef Newgarden

The disappointment was all over Josef Newgarden’s face when he came to talk with the media following the final race of the season.  His driver’s suit had white marks all over from his sweating during the race.  The American fought his way from 25th to 2nd.  Winning five races this season did not provide enough points to win the 2022 championship.

“Well, we tried today for sure. We gave our best, as we always do. Alex was tough to catch today. I think he just was incredible, particularly on the last couple stints. He did a really amazing job. It was going to be hard to get to him.”

“I really wanted to — we got all the way to second, and I’m like, we just need one more spot, but he seemed a little out of reach today. So tremendous job by them.”

“Happy we were able to fight back to where we did. It was a tough day, and we knew we had to fight. Ultimately we’ve come up short in this championship.”

“We’ve got to be in a different position next year and fight a lot harder so that we can hopefully be in a much more favorable position coming into this weekend, and I believe we can do that.”

“It’s been a really tough year. It’s been good in a lot of ways, but it’s also been really negative in a lot of others.”

“I’m excited for a reset, excited to come back next year, and I know we’ve got the team to do the job.”

Race Results

Race Statistics
Winner’s average speed: 103.277 mph
Time of Race: 2:03:31.0628
The margin of victory: 30.3812 seconds
Cautions: 1 for 3 laps
Lead changes: 7 among 5 drivers

Lap Leaders:
Power, Will 1 – 14
Ilott, Callum 15
Palou, Alex 16 – 18
Rosenqvist, Felix 19 – 23
Power, Will 24 – 26
Palou, Alex 27 – 67
Newgarden, Josef 68 – 72
Palou, Alex 73 – 95

NTT INDYCAR SERIES Point Standings: Power 560, Newgarden 544, Dixon 521, McLaughlin 510, Palou 510, Ericsson 506, O’Ward 480, Rosenqvist 393, Rossi 381, Herta 381, Rahal 345, VeeKay 331, Grosjean 328, Lundgaard 323, Pagenaud 314, Malukas 305, Daly 267, Castroneves 263, Sato 258, Ilott 219, Johnson 214, Harvey 209, DeFrancesco 206, Kirkwood 183, Kellett 133, Tony Kanaan 78, Ed Carpenter 75, Santino Ferrucci 71, Tatiana Calderon 58, JR Hildebrand 53, Juan Pablo Montoya 44, De Silvestro 34, Marco Andretti 17, Sage Karam 14, Stefan Wilson 10