Wanser 'didn't know we were on the right strategy until 10 to go'

Alex Palou and his race strategist Barry Wanser have an amazing connection that’s led to three championships, an Indianapolis 500 victory and six wins to far this season, but that doesn’t mean they always see eye to eye.

“I didn't agree with Barry's strategy call,” Palou said of the mid-race decision to have the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda pit from the lead as other strategies were in play. “I got to be grumpy for a couple of laps, and then I saw it was working out, and I started saying thank you again. It was interesting, but for sure, we got the win because of the team that we had on both pit stops and strategy. They made it look really good, and HRC gave us the mileage we needed to gamble and to make it with that stop that we did.”

Wanser, a battle-hardened veteran, took his driver’s displeasure in stride. He also admitted to not knowing whether the bold strategy call would work out in their favor.

“He doesn't get grumpy, so when he is grumpy, I know he's really mad and questioning what we're doing,” he said. “But I don't know if you were following that race – we didn't know we were on the right strategy until like 10 to go. We're reacting based on what we think is happening.

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"There was obviously a lot of cautions this race, but we made some strategy changes on the tires during the race that we went against what we all agreed on before the race, so he wasn't very happy about that, but we saw what our competitors were doing and who we were racing, so we had to make that change to be able to stay with them and then beat them. And it worked out.

"Look, today was luck to be on the right strategy because it was hard. There were several different strategies going on.”

Without another caution to ease Palou’s run to the checkered flag, significant fuel saving would be required to reach the finish line, and that’s what the runaway championship leader did while following teammate Scott Dixon. Palou even had enough to complete the cooldown lap, which was another sign of how well he’d risen to the go-fast-but-save-fuel challenge presented to him by Wanser.

“Not much [was left] but enough to make it to victory lane, which was good,” Palou said. “I don't think there's much left in it.”

So little, in fact, there was only one thing Palou missed out on during the cooldown lap.

“Couldn't do donuts,” he said. “I would have liked that.”