Alex Palou: “nobody to blame but me” with 2nd at Mid Ohio

On a day when his car was sporting an OpenAI livery, Alex Palou finally proved that he’s human behind the wheel.

Palou was following the usual script for the majority of Sunday’s Honda Indy 200. After taking the pole on Saturday, the Spaniard proved dominant at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. He avoided any starting chaos, pushed out his advantage when the race went green for its final two stints and emerged from his last pit stop with the lead, despite teammate Scott Dixon stretching fuel to make one less stop.

Heading into the closing laps, Palou was unchallenged. All he needed to do was keep his wheels on-track.

Then…he messed up.

Palou was rolling around the challenging 2.258-mile circuit with six laps remaining when he mistakenly ran off-course in turn 9. It was a minor error, but cost the Spaniard enough time to let Dixon slip by for the lead.

“Just a stupid mistake… Just lost it a little bit on entry and then couldn’t really get power going on,” Palou said.

With a quicker car and Dixon conserving fuel, Palou’s race wasn’t over there. He closed back up on his legendary teammate and spent the final three laps searching for a way around him. But passing is a struggle at Mid-Ohio, and Palou never found a way by.

Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing, Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing, Christian Lundgaard, Arrow McLaren

Photo by: Penske Entertainment

Palou took the checkered flag .4201s short of his seventh win in 10 races. The 28-year-old showed a smile and voiced happiness for his teammate in the aftermath of his incident. But even as he kept his cool, his disappointment shown through.

“The car was amazing all weekend, all race,” he said. “Everybody on the 10 car did an amazing job on pit stops and strategy. … “Nobody to blame but me. Just got a bit wide on entry and lost it completely.”

Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing

Photo by: Gavin Baker / Lumen via Getty Images

Sunday’s result isn’t a bad one for Palou on paper. Even as he lost the race, the Indianapolis 500 winner added to his championship advantage. Among races he’s finished this year, he’s yet to take the checkered flag worse than second on a road course. All told, Sunday’s loss will be little more than a rare blip amid a dominant championship run barring a historic collapse in the season’s final two months.

But Palou is still a racer. So he’ll feel the sting of a win that got away for a long time.

“It sucks. It hurts a lot,” Palou said of the loss. ‘Obviously it’s still a good day, but it hurts to lose it like that. At least we got it in the team, so they can feel proud of all their work.

“Big, big mistake.”

Photos from Mid-Ohio – Race