Indianapolis, October 3-4 – Monaco Increase Management Alex Palou wrapped up his weekend at the Indianapolis road course by taking 9th place finish in the second event of the Harvest GP of the IndyCar series.

The 23-year old Spanish rookie had suffered some misfortune in Race 1: after being convincingly quick in free practice, he could not find the pace in the final stages of qualifying and ended up in 9th row. He gained several positions after the start, eventually taking the lead of the race thanks to a delayed pit-stop strategy. But a drive-through penalty for pit exit violation pushed him back to 25th place and he had to work his way up again to 17th.

Palou reacted promptly to the disappointment and in Race-2 he qualified 4th overall, having missed first row by a mere 5 hundredths of a second. The race turned out to be dictated by fuel strategies and the #55 Dale Coyne Racing with team Goh driver held on to 9th place, with a comfortable lead over Simon Paugenaud but unable to catch series leader Scott Dixon for a better position.

“It was a good day with the #55 Guaranteed Rate Honda”, said Palou. “We improved a lot from yesterday. Our target for the race was to finish in the Top 10 and we did,” said Palou. “It was the first time for me doing a fuel strategy race like this and it worked out so I’m happy. This is where I think we belong, in the top 10, so hopefully we can finish out the season with another good result in a few weeks.”

Next up for Palou will be the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, the final race of the 2020 NTT IndyCar Series season, on October 25.