Bob Pockrass
FOX Motorsports Insider
“In terms of pace, I think there’s over 10 cars that can win this race,” said Arrow McLaren driver Pato O’Ward, who starts third.
Both Ganassi and Penske have affiliate drivers starting in the top 10. Felix Rosenqvist of Ganassi affiliate Meyer Shank Racing starts fifth; David Malukas of Penske affiliate A.J. Foyt Racing, starts seventh. In the final practice Friday for the Indy 500, six of the top-nine cars were Ganassi or Penske cars or their affiliates, led with Newgarden as the fastest and Dixon third.
“It’s just practice,” Newgarden said. “You want to be good in practice but practice doesn’t tell the whole story. … Our car has been pretty phenomenal all month.”
In the pit stop competition Saturday, three of the four finalists were either Ganassi or Penske crews with Newgarden’s team winning. That is an example of the depth Newgarden was talking about, and that depth was built over decades of competing at Indianapolis.
“We’ve both been here for a long time,” Ganassi said about the long-time battle with Penske. “And so I think our teams understand what it takes to be competitive here. And I don’t think it’s any secret that we spend a good bit of our R&D [research and development] budget on this one race.
“We want to do better at it. You win this race, it can change your career, change your life.”
The Ganassi drivers are well aware of that. Palou has won the series title in three of the last four years and appears on his way to a fourth title, having won four of the first five races this season.
Newgarden admitted earlier this year that Palou was in his head a little because of the success. If this race comes down to two drivers, it could very well be Palou and Newgarden — the Ganassi driver who has dominated the series and the Penske driver who has won the last two races here.
For Newgarden, he felt that the team inched ahead of Ganassi last year.
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“When it’s for real, we’re going to see where everyone is really at,” Newgarden said.
Palou has never won on an oval and he said his career wouldn’t be complete unless he can earn an Indianapolis 500 win.
“I don’t think [it would be complete],” Palou said about a career with no Indy 500 win. “Maybe 90 percent, but I don’t think it would be 100 percent.”
Even though Palou has won four of the first five races, Ganassi doesn’t think he has the momentum coming into the race.
“I’d like to say they mean we certainly have momentum on our side, but the fact of that matter is, those races are nothing like the Indianapolis 500,” Ganassi said.
And the facts are Penske has won this race 20 times.
“He has the advantage of knowing he’s won this race more than I have,” Ganassi said. “He has that advantage, and there’s no replacement for experience at this.
“So it makes our job a little tougher. It’s always been my goal to measure ourselves against the best, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter@bobpockrass.
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