Reflection / Sean Gallagher

Competing in the Indy 500 is a ‘pathway to humility’

Alex Palou has dominated IndyCar racing for the past four years, winning the series championship in 2021, 2023 and 2024. So far this season, he continues to be head and shoulders above the competition, winning five of the series’ first six races, including the 109th running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 25.

So, maybe it wasn’t a surprise when he took the checkered flag at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway last Sunday.

Nonetheless, Palou’s win was not a dominant one. He led only the last 14 laps of the race.

Drivers who dominate the race don’t always win it, though. Mario Andretti led 170 laps in 1987 before mechanical issues ended his run with 23 laps to go. His son Michael Andretti led 160 laps five years later and was 30 seconds ahead of the second-place driver with 11 laps to go when his car’s fuel pump failed.

And racers who dominate open-wheel racing in the U.S. don’t always win at Indianapolis. The last time a driver started off a season leading up to the 500 as Palou did earlier this year was legend A.J. Foyt in 1979. He finished the 500 that year a very distant second to first-time winner Rick Mears.

In many instances, the winner of the Indy 500 is the driver who can stay close to the front through the long race and avoid crashes and mistakes during pit stops.

That was the recipe for the first 500 win for Palou, a 28-year-old Spaniard.

Cool weather conditions and some risky racing led to several crashes early in the race. Two accidents happened on pit lane, one leading to an injury of a pit crew member. Alexander Rossi, who won the 100th Indy 500 in 2016, saw his day end with a fire during a pit stop.

Through it all, Palou remained safe, narrowly avoiding a collision on pit lane early in the race. And he stayed competitive, always in the top 10, but not in the lead until lap 186.

His pass of 2022 Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson for the lead shows how narrow the margin can be in the race between winning and, at best, finishing second. Entering into turn one, Ericsson moved slightly up the track to get a good angle into the corner. That left a window open for Palou that he had to take advantage of in a fraction of a second.

He did, shooting low under the Swedish driver, taking the lead and never relinquishing it.

But Palou’s hold of the lead in the race’s last 14 laps wasn’t all due to his great racing skills. A good part of it had to do with two slower cars being in front of him at the time of the pass. Staying behind them increased his fuel efficiency, allowing him to avoid pitting to refuel before the end of the race.

Key factors in Palou’s victory were thus out of his control. He was never around the seemingly constant carnage early in the race. And there just happened to be two slower cars ahead of him when he took the lead that helped him make it to the end.

As dominant a driver as Palou has been since 2021, competing at the Indy 500 is a pathway to humility.

So is our Catholic faith in our journey to heaven. St. Paul showed us in his Letter to the Philippians that Christ is our leader on that path. Even though Christ was God’s Son, “he humbled himself, obediently accepting death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:8).

We are only children of God by adoption, not by nature like Christ. Therefore, we have all the more reason to be humble before the great graces that our heavenly Father gives us that lead to the many little and sometimes big victories of our lives of faith.
 

(Sean Gallagher is a reporter for The Criterion.) †