Alex Palou Grabs Pole In Milwaukee As He Chases IndyCar History
Palou can tie an IndyCar record if he wins the final two races of the season
Alex Palou has already locked up his fourth overall, and third-straight NTT IndyCar Series championship, but he still has something to compete for: putting his name in the history books.
Palou sealed the championship deal two weeks ago in Portland, but with 2 races left — this weekend in Milwaukee and next weekend's season finale in Nashville — Palou could tie the record for the most wins in a single IndyCar season.
He has eight heading into Sunday's race at the Milwaukee Mile, and the record is ten, shared by AJ Foyt and Al Unser, who accomplished the feat in 1964 and 1970, respectively.
So, with eight wins under his belt and two races left, it doesn't take a math whiz to know that tying the record is very much in play.
However, the first step towards this would be qualifying well for the race.
The one-mile oval has only a slight banking through the corners, forcing drivers to approach it a little more like a road course than other ovals.
Two drivers got caught out in earlier runs. Colton Herta had an incredible save to keep his No. 26 Honda for Andretti Global out of the wall.
That ruined Herta's run, but what a job he did to keep his crew from spending the rest of the day rebuilding that car.
The other was Felix Rosenqvist in the No. 60 for Meyer Shank Racing. He has been solid on ovals all season, but made a costly mistake this weekend.
Palou was the last driver to make his two-lap qualifying run and was looking to knock the very impressive David Malukas of AJ Foyt Racing from provisional pole.
If you've been watching IndyCar this season, what happened next will not shock you.
Palou will start on pole ahead of Malukas and Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward for Sunday's race as he chases history.
You can catch the Snap-On Milwaukee Mile 250 on Sunday at 2 PM ET on Fox.