LEBANON, Tenn. — Álex Palou‘s poor qualifying run and pending engine penalty dramatically tightened the IndyCar championship race the day before the season finale at Nashville Superspeedway.
Palou has a 33-point lead over Will Power and needs only to finish ninth to win his third title in four years.
But after Saturday’s slow qualifying run, his cushion will be deflated to seven points based on points as they run when the race begins Sunday.
“That wasn’t ideal,” Palou said after qualifying.
He said the car was far more comfortable in morning practice and that his No. 10 crew would try to figure out went wrong before Saturday’s final practice session. Rain limited the final practice to a 15-minute session, and Palou wound up 10th fastest. Power was back in 19th.
“The first lap wasn’t so bad. The second lap was just really, really bad,” Palou said. “Not what we wanted. Not what we needed. But, yeah, we need to move from 24th tomorrow.”
The title fight is realistically only between Palou and Power; Power’s Team Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin will be mathematically eliminated as soon as Palou starts Sunday, and McLaughlin has joked on social media all week about all the evil ways he could keep Palou from starting.
Hey @AlexPalou, wanted to invite you over for dinner this week. I’m making sushi from scratch, don’t worry though, my fish guy is legit.
— Scott McLaughlin (@smclaughlin93) September 9, 2024
Palou, though, is unflappable and wasn’t bothered in the least about accepting IndyCar’s nine-place penalty on the starting grid for an unapproved engine change. He just figured he was going to lose nine spots from wherever he qualified and drive his Honda through the field and to the title.
But in a rare bad day for the Chip Ganassi Racing driver, his run was slow and he was 15th in qualifying. Once the penalty is applied, Palou will drop back to 24th for Sunday’s start.
Power, meanwhile, qualified fourth and was grinning on pit road as he saw where Palou ended up. He knows he already had his shot to take control of the championship two weeks ago in Milwaukee when Palou suffered an engine issue that kept him from starting the race.
Even though Palou eventually saved his day with a 19th-place finish, Power flushed the miracle opening away by spinning and finishing 10th on a day he led 64 laps. McLaughlin won the race instead for Penske.
And Power is in some strange beef with Scott Dixon, who he believes has been racing dirty lately and…
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