Palou praises Kyffin Simpson's Mid-Ohio qualifying result

Alex Palou has commended Kyffin Simpson's best ever qualifying result at Mid-Ohio and said that it was achieved "not by luck".

Simpson, who joined IndyCar in 2024 with Chip Ganassi, qualified third in yesterday's session after knocking out Palou's championship rival, Kyle Kirkwood in the Top 12.

By doing so, Simpson secured that he would have his best ever start in IndyCar due to never before being in the Top Six.

While Palou would have enjoyed that it was his teammate that meant Kirkwood couldn't challenge him for pole, his praise focussed on Simpson's age in comparison to his fast pace.

In the post-qualifying press conference, Palou said: "We need to remember that he's very, very young. He's 20.

"He's been picking up a ton of speed, especially this year, as I said. 

"I think he's in front of one Penske car in the championship standings now with a couple of incidents and mechanical issues that he had. 

"If you look at the performance he's had, he's been really, really fast, and it's not been just by luck. I think he just finished in Road America sixth or fifth, so that was pretty good."

Simpson has achieved two top 10 results in the 2025 season with a best result of fifth in the Detroit Grand Prix. 

At Road America, the Caymanian driver finished sixth.

Currently sat in 16th in the IndyCar championship standings, he sits one place above former IndyCar world champion and aforementioned Penske driver, Josef Newgarden.

After qualifying, Simpson said: “It was incredible. It was a tough qualifying and it was very close, especially in those first couple of segments.

“So just barely slipping through in sixth place in both of them was a little nerve-wracking and then being P3 in that session, I was very surprised about but very happily surprised."

Simpson is one of the few drivers up front with a saved set of red tires.

Asked his thoughts on this, Simpson spoke confidently that he thinks that's "pretty good for us".

He continued: "I think we've got a lot of pace. We felt good and now we can just focus on the race and do our best there."

Palou also spoke on Simpson's extra alternate tires options and called it a "huge advantage."