Paddock Buzz: Alex Palou's Rare Mistake Ends 30-Race Qualifying Streak

NTT INDYCAR SERIES points leader Alex Palou will have to deal with a rare mistake.

The four-time series champion (photo, above) crashed in the Top 12 qualifying session and qualified 12th in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. He will start Sunday's race a position higher following the six-spot grid penalty of Ed Carpenter Racing's Alexander Rossi, who qualified eighth, for an engine change after last week’s race at Portland International Raceway.

“I just lost it,” Palou said. “I lost the rear entering (Turn) 10. It’s a shame. We had a good car. It was really fast. My mistake. It’s on me.”

The last time Palou started outside the top 10 was 24th in the 2024 season finale at Nashville Superspeedway. He charged to 11th while racing for the championship. The last time he started outside the top 10 on a street circuit was Toronto in 2024. He started 18th that day and finished fourth.

“We have a really fast car,” Palou said. “That’s a good part. It’s going to be tough. It’s a different race for sure. I’m going to focus on trying to make up some positions.”

Palou enters the weekend 110 points ahead of Kyle Kirkwood in the standings, and that's a cushion of more than two races with five to go. Andretti Global's Kyle Kirkwood, who is second in the standings, was caught out in the opening round of qualifying when teammate Will Power spun with 57 seconds remaining in the session, followed by the crash of Team Penske's Josef Newgarden’s crash that ended the round.

Kirkwood will start 15th in the No. 27 Sam’s Club Honda for Andretti Global. David Malukas is third in points, 118 back, and will start seventh in the No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet.

Palou and Kirkwood have won seven of the last eight street races, with Palou winning three of the past four. Malukas seeks his first victory in his 75th series start.

Their fight through the field in Sunday’s 90-lap race is worth the price of admission.

“Car is really good,” Kirkwood said. “Not meant to be for where we qualified. But, car is fast and I’m really happy with it.”

Drivers Happy With Markham Street Course

The first on-track impressions of the drivers were overwhelmingly positive after Saturday's laps around the new 12-turn, 2.1-mile temporary street circuit. The Markham streets were fully repaved ahead of the inaugural race creating a smooth, wide surface with multiple passing opportunities.

Power, who leads all active drivers with 17 NTT INDYCAR SERIES victories on temporary circuits, was particularly impressed with the new pavement.

“Probably the nicest street course we’re going to go to,” Power said. “Arlington was an event and the presentation was very good. But here, I’m just talking about a track surface. It’s a full resurface.”

The series previously competed in Toronto at Exhibition Place near downtown, where 39 races were held. This weekend marks INDYCAR’s return to the Greater Toronto Area and its first race in Markham, about 25 minutes northeast of downtown Toronto.

The 25 drivers in the field expect Sunday’s 90-lap race to produce plenty of action, with the smooth surface, wide track and multiple passing zones offering plenty of opportunities.

“I think honestly the track looks fantastic,” Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon said. “For a first-time event, the surface looks really good. The track layout is really good.”

Dixon, who ranks second among active drivers with 14 temporary-course victories, echoed Power’s assessment of the pavement. He starts eighth in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.

Rossi, a two-time street-course winner at Long Beach in 2018 and 2019, also liked what he saw.

“I think the layout is incredible,” Rossi said. “Obviously, the surface looks great. A lot of the fencing is awesome, Arlington spec. So I think there’s a lot of good things about what we have in front of us.”

Palou got his first peek at the circuit on the Honda simulator earlier this week and was impressed by both the layout and the investment in the event.

“It looks great, like the layout and the new tarmac,” he said. “I think it’s one of our most fun street courses of the year. Markham has done an incredible job with the investment, with the layout and everything. So far, it’s incredible.”

Kellett finds new role in INDYCAR world

Dalton Kellett spent years focused on one thing: going as fast as possible.

Now, the former NTT INDYCAR SERIES driver is focused on something much different — helping lead his family’s business.

Kellett, who turns 33 on Aug. 19, competed in three INDYCAR SERIES seasons before returning to K-Line Group of Companies in a senior executive role. He is president of K-Line Insulators Ltd., part of the third-generation, family-owned Canadian company that has become a leader in high-voltage utility services.

The transition has given Kellett a different perspective on work, competition and leadership.

“It’s been a really interesting few years for me,” Kellett said. “Obviously, I spent so much time in motorsports, like my whole life going through school and all that.”

Kellett believes the skills developed through racing have translated to his new role, even though the day-to-day demands are considerably different.

“When you’re racing, it’s a craft,” he said. “You’re hyper-focused on driving and the really intense level of focus, singular focus that requires. Whereas the business side, you’re getting pulled in all kinds of different directions all the time.”

The biggest adjustment, Kellett said, has been the nature of the pressure.

“In racing, it’s like nothing and then peak for a few days,” he said. “Whereas in the business world, you’re at 30, 40-percent all the time with spikes every now and then, so it’s a totally different level of stress and workload.”

Kellett’s new role also has allowed him to stay connected to racing. K-Line is an official partner of the inaugural Markham race, providing temporary power and utility infrastructure for the event.

“I still love racing, love motorsports, love the IndyCar world,” Kellett said. “To get to be involved in a different part of it is a unique experience. It’s fun to get to apply that to something that I really love.”

That role has given Kellett a firsthand look at everything required to build a temporary street circuit, from the driver’s perspective to the operational side.

“It’s a lot of preparation leading up to the event,” he said. “With this being a new venue, there are definitely unknowns from all sides. Where’s stuff going to go? What’s the final layout going to be for the fan zones? Where are all the different vendors that need power?”

K-Line began staging generators and other assets about a week and a half before the event, with 10 to 15 people working on-site, often into the night.

“It’s a pretty complicated thing to put together,” Kellett said. “It’s a lot of stuff that the fans just wouldn’t see, and frankly, they shouldn’t notice because it should just work.”

Odds and ends

• Scott McLaughlin has four top-seven finishes in the last five races and starts third in the No. 3 Gallagher Insurance Team Penske Chevrolet. McLaughlin has the sixth-most points accumulated on street courses this season.
• Christian Lundgaard starts second in the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. He has the fourth-most points scored on street circuits and three top-eight finishes in the four street events this season.
• Series rookie Mick Schumacher has raced in Canada plenty of times in the European ranks, including FIA Formula 2 and FIA Formula 1 races in Montreal. So while Markham is a new track for Schumacher, being in Canada provides a sense of familiarity. “Being in Canada makes me feel at home a little bit because they’re on kilometers an hour,” Schumacher said.
• Rinus VeeKay starts sixth in the No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet, the fourth straight race he has started in the top 10 and his third consecutive Firestone Fast Six appearance. VeeKay saved an extra set of soft alternate Firestone Firehawk tires for Sunday’s race.
• Alexander Rossi earned his second top-10 starting spot in the last three races. He starts eighth in the No. 20 ECR Java House Chevrolet.
• Bobby Rahal (photo, above) won the inaugural race on the downtown streets of Toronto in 1986. His driver, Louis Foster, starts on pole for Sunday’s race, the first on the streets of Markham.