Three stories from yesterday’s IndyCar race at Laguna Seca:
1. Álex Palou has almost wrapped up the championship.
Palou now leads Pato O’Ward by 35 points, meaning he just needs an eleventh-place finish or better next week in the season finale to clinch his first IndyCar Series championship. Josef Newgarden is technically alive, I believe, 48 points back of Palou, but he’d need to get every point possible and have Palou get the fewest points possible to win it.
2. Colton Herta won.
Nice win for the Californian, for whom winning here is a family affair. Herta survived this early incident with his teammate to get the win:
3. Romain Grosjean is figuring this out.
The former F1 driver and 35-year-old rookie was one of the stories of the day. Here he is lapping Jimmie Johnson as he tries to run down Johnson’s teammate, Palou, up in second:
***
Two other good videos:
First, Takuma Sato, what are you doing, man?
Second, pretty place for a race.
Sacré bleu! That move by Grosjean going into The Corkscrew was . . . le ballsy.