Monaco, January 30 – Monaco Increase managed driver Alex Palou ended his maiden Rolex 24 at Daytona in 14th position overall, but the final standings do not reflect the effort and the performance that he and his team-mates at Chip Ganassi Racing put into the grueling race. The #1 Cadillac crew formed by Bourdais, Van der Zande, Scott Dixon and Palou himself looked all set for a win or at least a podium finish until about halfway through the race when disaster struck, in the form of electrical issues. The #1 car was forced back to the pits for a lengthy stop, in order to allow the team’s mechanics to fix a throttle issue arisen during one of Bourdais’ driving shifts, and to replace a broken alternator. When the Cadillac rejoined the track it was some 42 laps down and had to fight back from P38. But Palou and his team-mates never gave up and Alex’s final stint was nothing short of sensational, in that he helped the team with a strong comeback. MIM driver Palou also managed a fastest lap with a best time of 1min33sec724 in the process! The final stages of the 2022 Rolex 24 turned into a sprint race as the race resumed after a caution period for a frantic finale in the last 30 minutes. Victory went to the #60 Acura of Jarvis-Blomqvist-Castroneves-Pagenaud while Palou and his team-mates managed to curtail their huge initial gap by another 3 laps to finish only 39 laps from the leaders. MIM’s Palou thoroughly enjoyed his first experience in the endurance classic (“it really impressed me!”, he said) ahead of the start of the 2022 IndyCar season in less than one month, which he will enter as the reigning series champion.
