Palou clinches IndyCar title as Herta wins at Long Beach

Palou becomes first Spanish champion

A few eyebrows were raised when Chip Ganassi Racing hired the relatively unknown Palou for this year on the back of his rookie season in 2020 with Dale Coyne Racing. But the 24-year-old has paid back that faith in a manner no one could have expected. He won the first round at Alabama Motorsports Park in convincing style, claimed further wins at Road America and Portland, then did exactly what he had to do with a safe fourth place at Long Beach to become the first Spaniard to win the IndyCar title.

Palou entered the weekend already with one hand on the crown thanks to a healthy 35-point lead over main rival, Arrow McLaren SP’s Pato O’Ward. Penske’s Josef Newgarden was the only other driver in with a mathematical chance of stealing the glory, but at 48 points back the two-time champion needed a near-miracle at Long Beach. He gave it his best shot, qualifying on pole position, but couldn’t stop the force of nature that was Colton Herta from beating him to the race victory. Had he won it wouldn’t have made any difference. Palou shadowed Ganassi team-mate and six-time title winner Scott Dixon to succeed the Kiwi as champion with a solid fourth place. “What a race. What a year. What a season,” said an overjoyed Palou. “This team is amazing. I don’t know what to say. Super-happy.”

More heartbreak for McLaren

A matter of hours after Lando Norris lost victory at the Russian Grand Prix, McLaren took another body-blow in California after O’Ward’s title shot deflated on lap two through no fault of his own. The 22-year-old Mexican started eighth, two places ahead of Palou, but any chance of overturning his points deficit ended when Ed Jones made a clumsy lunge at the tight hairpin. Jones slid up the inside of James Hinchliffe’s Andretti Autosport entry and tapped the rear of O’Ward’s car, spinning him around. It was unnecessary and a frustrating way for McLaren’s first full season back in IndyCar to end. O’Ward did continue but a broken driveshaft on lap 18 was a legacy of the contact and his title longshot was spent.

“It’s not the first time (Jones) has hit us,” said an understandably miffed O’Ward. “And not the first time he’s done something stupid this season. So I just wish he could use his head a little bit more; at least respect the guys that are fighting the championship. I don’t know what else to say.”

His team boss Zak Brown missed Sochi to stand on the McLaren pit wall at Long Beach and his frustration was all too obvious. “Definitely not a great day, both here and in Russia,” he said. “But both the team and Pato have done an incredible job all season. We were taken out by a kind of amateur move before the race had really started.”

Herta shows his class

Colton Herta’s second win in as many weeks and third of the season, a tally equal to champion Palou’s, highlighted once again why Andretti Autosport rates its young American so highly. The 21-year-old qualified a disappointing 14^th, but then used tyre strategy and plenty of aggression to tear through the field. His use of the softer red-walled Firestones early in the year and judicious use of the push-to-pass powerboost feature led to a series of terrific passing moves, Herta demoting Newgarden for what was effectively the lead on lap 33 of 85. Yellow flag caution periods kept it tight and left Herta vulnerable to attack late in the race on his slower black-walled hard tyres. But he soaked up pressure from Newgarden with a maturity beyond his age to clinch another well-deserved victory. “Winning here has been on the bucket-list for so long,” said Herta. “We had a great car, on red or blacks.”

Grosjean misses out on rookie title

Former Haas grand prix driver Romain Grosjean completed his successful first season in IndyCar with another fine cameo, running as high as fourth and rubbing wheels with Alexander Rossi before dropping out with damage from his final appearance for Dale Coyne Racing and Rick Ware Racing. The non-finish meant Penske’s Scott McLaughlin claimed the rookie of the year title, but that is a minor blip for Grosjean who has rediscovered his love for racing in America this year. Having survived that horrific fireball crash in Bahrain last year, the Frenchman is now building a new life for himself in the land of opportunity and will step up to Andretti Autosport next season. He didn’t quite manage to win a race this year, but three podium finishes were a decent return and more than enough to convince Michael Andretti that he’s an IndyCar force to be reckoned with.

Simon Pagenaud ended his time at Penske with a fifth place in Long Beach, ahead of Andretti driver Rossi and Jack Harvey, the Briton making his final start for Meyer Shank Racing. Harvey replaces double Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing after five years with MSR, a move that he hopes will vault him among IndyCar’s exciting new guard and give him a shot at the 2022 title. Ex-F1 ace Sato finished ninth in his final start for RLL, behind fellow veteran Sébastien Bourdais.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.