Palou, Dixon Look to Overcome Grid Penalties at Gateway

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

MADISON, Ill. – On a notoriously difficult to pass race track like World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, track position is the name of the game.

But when the green flag drops on Saturday’s Bommarito Automotive Group 500, the Chip Ganassi Racing duo of Alex Palou and Scott Dixon will have the work cut out for them following grid penalties assessed to them this weekend.

Both cars exceeded the engine limit rule in place when they put in their fifth motor of the season ahead of this race, which in turn caused them both to be assessed a nine-position grid penalty.

Palou, the current NTT IndyCar Series points leader, will drop from seventh to 16^th place on the starting grid, with his teammate, six-time series champion and defending Gateway winner falling to 19^th after his 10^th place qualifying run.

With passing likely at a premium on Saturday, both cars will likely have to go the strategy route to try and make up track position throughout the evening and hopefully things will fall their way to end on a good note.

Palou to his credit is taking a more optimistic outlook on their situation, hoping that the second lane will open up to allow more passing and they can make their way forward that way.

“If we can go on the second groove making it work, I think there’s more deg than everybody expected, which is great,” Palou said. “It’s gonna be four, five stops, three if there’s a ton of yellow, but it’ll be tough. So, I think it’ll be more interesting than the last couple of short oval races we had.”

Regardless of how Saturday night shakes out, Palou will still have a hold on the points lead with his current 49-point advantage over Will Power with five races remaining in 2024.

Despite that safety net, Palou is still on the offensive, looking to come out of Gateway with an even bigger lead.

“I mean, it wouldn’t feel nice to lose 40 points tomorrow,” Palou added. “It feels good, with the points that we have now, but we need to extend it. We don’t need to lose anything.”

Meanwhile, his teammate Dixon will be eyeing a repeat of the strategy play that netted him the win at Gateway a year ago when he started in 16^th place, but was able to save enough fuel to make one less pit stop than the entire field, leapfrogging his way to the lead and on to the win.

“I think if you do a three stop for this year, you win clearly as well,” Dixon said. “The mileage is gonna be much harder to get, I think this year, just with the weight of the car and then also added drag to it. But you get a caution at the right period and you take the risk, you know, sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t.

“We will work harder, you know, obviously looking at all options. Especially for us right now, the 10 will be starting, what 16th and we’ll be starting 19th. So, that’s not a great day for us, especially for the championship.”

Currently third in the standings, 53 points behind Palou, Dixon added that having both he and his teammate deep in the field needing to make up ground for the championship will be tricky, but the main goal remains to go for the win and hope things shake out his way in the end.

“You know, you’re really racing for the win. That take takes care of itself,” Dixon said of the points battle. “Toronto was interesting where I think we would’ve made 10 or 12 points on him and then a late restart, which takes three other cars, four other cars between us out.

“They do a hell of a job, man. So, we just gotta keep it up.”