MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Three weeks can make a big difference in a championship battle.
After winning the Indianapolis 500, Alex Palou appeared to be sailing toward his fourth NTT IndyCar Series title. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver had won five of the six races and held a 115-point advantage over Pato O’Ward, with Kyle Kirkwood another 11 points behind.
But after Kirkwood earning his second consecutive victory on Sunday night at World Wide Technology Raceway, while O’Ward finished second, that margin has shrunk considerably.
Palou now holds 73-point advantage over O’Ward and 75 points over Kirkwood.
“It’s double digits again,” Kirkwood said of the point lead. “Triple digits are never a good sign in a championship. Moving closer. It’s still a long way to go.
“He’s (Palou) good at a lot of races that we’re coming up to, so those are the ones that are going to really count. This has been a track that we haven’t been amazing at so, it’s great to claw back some points here.
“But everybody knows we’re going to go to Road America next week and he’s going to put on a show there and we’ll have to do everything in our power to keep him from looking shiny once again on road courses.”
O’Ward, who is winless so far this season, believes his Arrow McLaren team is poised to make a run.
“The guy (Palou) has been on a run. He has five wins or something. I’ve got zero wins. I’ve just got a handful of podiums. We need to start racking up some wins, and that’ll make that points count come down a lot faster than what you’re seeing now,” O’Ward said.
“I feel like we’re just sitting at bay right there just waiting for our run to come, so hopefully that does come to life, and yeah, I think it’s going to be a tight end to the championship.”
Kirkwood said his Andretti Global team needs to keep chipping away at Palou’s advantage.
“Ultimately we’re just going to have to keep doing what we’re doing, trying to win as many races as possible and get as many points as possible, and hopefully that will pan us out into a good position,” he said. “But I can tell you that we’re going to do everything in our effort to claw back at him. It’s still a long way away. 75 points is deep. That’s almost two races.”
