Alex Palou prevails at Road America for back-to-back wins

Alex Palou of Spain passed Colton Herta late in the race and sped away for his second straight win and third of the season at the Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America on Sunday in Elkhart Lake, Wis.

Palou steered his No. 10 American Legion Honda past Herta, the polesitter, on the outside and into the lead before Herta faded to the finish because he was one lap short on gas.

Palou won by 4.561 seconds over Josef Newgarden. Mexico's Pato O'Ward was third and New Zealander Scott Dixon was fourth, while Herta rounded out the top five.

The 2021 IndyCar champion, Palou extended his season points lead to 74 over second-place Marcus Ericsson of Sweden. Palou won last week in Detroit, as well as the GMR Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway's road course.

"We're going to try and keep it rolling," Palou said on the USA Network broadcast. "We have an amazing team behind (me)."

Making victory taste even sweeter for Palou was how his team got there. Palou crashed during practice on Saturday and his team had to scramble to get a backup car ready.

"It's been an amazing weekend, honestly," Palou said. "We started with a lot of speed. Big mistake by my part in practice, too. But it was amazing. They had only an hour and a half to rebuild all the car. We went back on track and it was even better than in practice too. Super happy. They gave me the pit stop that gave us the win, as well."

It marked Palou's seventh career IndyCar race victory.