Speaking on ‘Off Track’ Podcast, Four-Time IndyCar Champion Hails IMSA’s Challenges
By Tony DiZinno
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Alex Palou has won 20 IndyCar races and four series championships in the last five years, so he’s quickly established himself as the leading light in the open-wheel series.
But in IMSA, he’s hungry to capture his first win. And that desire only grew after this past weekend’s 74th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, where Palou ended sixth in the No. 93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06 he shares with full-time IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) drivers Renger van der Zande and Nick Yelloly.
Palou joined the “Off Track with Hinch and Rossi” podcast this week with co-host James Hinchcliffe and producer Tim Durham. In lieu of 2021 Rolex 24 At Daytona winner Alexander Rossi, who was part of an Acura-winning Rolex 24 effort with Wayne Taylor Racing, Palou filled in this episode as the extra “Alex.”
“Hopefully one day I’ll be able to win an IMSA race,” Palou noted on the podcast. “I’ve been trying for the past four or five years. I’ve never won an IMSA race.”
He added of the challenge of an IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup event: “Every race is like an Indy 500.”
And what became apparent quickly was how much respect he has for the IMSA environment and the challenge that comes with being the third driver.
“It’s very tough, man; it’s a tough track,” Palou said of Sebring on the podcast. “It’s not easy being the third driver, like not knowing much the car. And yes, I know it, as I’ve had two years with this car. But it’s not my everyday car. Renger and Nick are the priority, right? It’s their car. They need to set it up the way they want to race. And I’m just there to try and help.”
A late race pit lane penalty assessed to the No. 93 car dropped it to an eventual sixth-place finish in GTP. The result didn’t hurt Palou’s enthusiasm for the experience, though. If anything, he took more away from the learnings of traffic management both in his class and with other classes as part of the multi-class racing format.
“I was in practice one, and I’m just trying to figure out the bumps in (Turns) 1 and 17,” Palou said. “After five laps, I was, let’s say around the (good) lap times. They called me to do a setup change and I started crying! I was like, just leave me alone!
“But they said, Alex, you need to pit. I was like OK good, anyway.
“It’s good to be the bonus guy. At the end of the day, my job there is to do the best I can to help Renger and Nick. It’s not to qualify or finish the race. It’s good fun though.
“When I’m in the IMSA car, I know what my job is, but then I get in the car and I’m like, ‘man, I need to overtake this car, I really need to!’ And then I’m like, ‘Alex, don’t do it, don’t do it!’ Oh, I did it.
“I would say that it makes me a better driver, in my opinion is the traffic, the traffic management. How do you overtake the GTs or LMP2s. You have to change your driving style every single corner. I think it’s like a learning curve that never stops in the IMSA world.”
The full episode then ventures to Palou recapping his win in the St. Petersburg IndyCar season opener and a look ahead to the remainder of his season, as he goes for a fourth consecutive IndyCar championship.
Palou’s next scheduled IMSA start is as third driver in the No. 93 Acura at the WeatherTech Championship season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans, Oct. 3.
Palou will have a chance to see IMSA cars in person as a spectator on two upcoming companion weekends with IndyCar, with the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 18 and the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix on May 30.