LEXINGTON, Ohio — The late Vin Scully once said that losing feels worse than winning feels good. Alex Palou agrees with that sentiment.
“I think when you lose — I think we lost today,” he said. “It’s not like we got beaten, but we lost it, myself. Yeah, that’s going to hurt a little bit.”
After winning the pole at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, the driver of the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda dominated the NTT INDYCAR SERIES Honda Indy 200. He led a race high 75 laps and cycled off pit road with 16 laps to go ahead of Scott Dixon, who was on a two-stop strategy.
He maintained a two-second lead of his teammate, who thought “it would’ve been tough” to run him down and pass him for the lead.
“He had better tires, more fuel,” Dixon said. “It was going to be a tough situation.”
Then Palou made a “big mistake.”
The three-time INDYCAR champion got loose in Turn 9 and ran through the grass on exit. Dixon overtook him with ease and drove on to his 59th career victory.
Palou tried to catch him in the last five laps, but he lost the good in his rear tires and dirty air made it hard to catch Dixon. He brought the car home to a runner-up finish.
“The car was on fire today. The team gave me, as well, the strategy, the pit stops we needed to win the race.
“But yeah, man, it’s not over until it’s over, until you see the checkered flag. I was just trying to push. I was trying to open the gap a little bit more with Scott. I felt confident with the car.
“Yeah, just lost it.”
If there’s a silver lining to losing out on his seventh victory of the 2025 season, Palou extended his championship lead over Kyle Kirkwood to 113 points.
