After the form of intestine punch Alex Palou and the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing staff obtained on Sunday when {an electrical} concern killed the battery within the championship chief’s automobile on the parade laps, it might not have been a shock to search out the staff in a state of anger and disappointment on the finish of the race.
However that wasn’t the case.
One crew member appeared up, smiled, and mentioned, “Sport seven,” referring to the title showdown coming with Staff Penske’s Will Energy that strikes to the season finale on September 15 at Nashville Superspeedway. In truth, moments after Palou pulled into the pits and stopped at his field, crew chief Ricky Davis wasn’t busy attempting to cheer up his mechanics and engineers; he was giving them pats on the shoulders, fist bumps, and smiling broad—filled with optimistic vitality.
The staff’s resolve all through the alarming electrical fault that turned the automobile off, then fried the automobile’s battery, is what saved them within the hunt regardless of shedding 29 laps whereas working by means of the issues that turned Palou’s race day the wrong way up earlier than it began.
“All of us have the identical spirit,” a proud Palou advised RACER. “I imagine it’s all the time been like that [since] day one, and it’s not one thing we simply say. It’s one thing that you can have seen in the present day.”
The No. 10 went from twenty seventh and final to nineteenth on the end because of the trouble expended by Davis and his crew. Palou misplaced the championship lead whereas mired towards the again as Energy led greater than 1 / 4 of the race.
However with Energy’s unforced error and spin and shedding a lap of his personal, the swift work to get the Ganassi driver again within the sport as Energy soldiered residence to a disappointing tenth was sufficient to protect most of Palou’s lead within the Drivers’ standings.
“We had a giant concern that was out of our management,” Palou added. “We tried all the pieces. We thought we solved it. We truly didn’t. After we went out and stopped once more, after which we modified the battery and another stuff … all the pieces we may in virtually no time, and [then] went again out. We have been completely satisfied for each single level we’re getting on the market in the present day. Yeah, it’s unhappy, however it’s what it’s. It’s the game.”
