Alex Palou feels like "Lightning McQueen" after beating Josef Newgarden for Iowa crown

Alex Palou won Race 2, the Farm to Finish 275, of IndyCar's 2025 double-header at the Iowa Speedway. It was the Chip Ganassi Racing driver's seventh win of the season in a race that Josef Newgarden seemed destined to win. After the victory, the reigning champion reflected on a new in-race personal best and compared himself to a beloved Disney character from the movie 'Cars', Lightning McQueen.

Palou started the race in pole position. However, Newgarden, starting in P4, soared to the lead in the first third of the race. Unfortunately, the Team Penske driver fell victim to two ill-timed cautions and finished the race in P10, while Alex Palou cruised to take the checkered flag.

The race witnessed 382 total passes, and 229 of those were for position. Palou's racing accounted for 28 of all on-track passes. When presented with this statistic in the post-race press conference, the Spaniard said, via ASAP Sports:

"Nice. Yeah, I think that's my max. I was passing so many cars, I felt like I was Lightning McQueen or something. It's the first time that I'm not getting overtaken every single lap on a short oval. It was fun. It was very fun.

"There was a lot of traffic, which was good. It was fun getting to see different people struggling in different areas, then you would get to another car and he would be running the line that you liked, and then you would struggle for five, ten laps. But it was fun."

Alex Palou led 194 of 275 laps to eventually bring home a Chip Ganassi Racing 1-2, with teammate Scott Dixon finishing behind him. Meyer Shank Racing's Marcus Armstrong rounded up the podium, his second in IndyCar.

Alex Palou respects Josef Newgarden for "hard racing" in Iowa Race 2

Josef Newgarden leads Alex Palou at the 2025 IndyCar Race 2 at Iowa Speedway - Source: Getty

Josef Newgarden is known as the 'King of Corn Country' for being the IndyCar driver with the most wins (6) at the Iowa Speedway. He took his first step towards a seventh win during Race 2 on Sunday, July 13, by overtaking Alex Palou for the race lead on a lap 65 restart.

The two-time Indy 500 winner extended his lead to around 3.5 seconds over the next 60 laps or so. Unexpected cautions eventually made his day worse, but his battle with Palou was tough and clean.

In the post-race press conference, Palou spoke about their battle, saying:

"Yeah, it was hard. It was hard racing. I think we got small contact heading into 1 when he passed me. It wasn't bad. It was good enough to be in the marbles. But yeah, you had to fight hard. I think he knew that, without that, that I would have been able to be side by side in Turn 1 and kind of hold the position. But it was tough."

With the victory, Palou extended his championship lead to 129 points over Pato O'Ward, winner of Race 1 at the Iowa Speedway. As for Josef Newgarden, his P2 finish in Race 1 and P10 finish in Race 2 made him go from 19th in the standings to 14th after the double-header.