Simpson holds his ground for Road America breakthrough

Kyffin Simpson had an underwhelming start to his third season with Chip Ganassi Racing, but the 21-year-old from the Cayman Islands rectified that problem on Sunday as he led the team home at Road America’s XPEL Grand Prix.

Polesitter Alex Palou helped in that regard after failing to press the pit lane speed limit button on his steering wheel, which caused his No. 10 Ganassi Honda to exceed the limit and earn a drive-through penalty for the error. And with Palou—who doubles as the championship leader—returning to the track behind his young teammate, Simpson might have been expected to move aside in the No. 8 Honda and let Palou fly by to recover more positions, but that’s not what happened.

Simpson was initially pressed by his teammate but held his ground, fought off a passing attempt by Palou, and motored ahead to build a lead that left him in fourth place as Palou was credited with fifth.

“At this team, Chip always says rule number one is to not hit your teammates, and as long as we don't do that, we're free to race,” Simpson told RACER. “And I was on for a top five there, just as much as he wanted it. And we raced respectfully, and I’m super grateful to him for that. It was a fun little battle there, as well. You know, we went back and forth over a couple corners, and it was very close and kept it clean.”

Simpson’s determination to fend off the four-time champion earned Palou’s respect.

“He's doing his own race, and he has to go for it,” the Spaniard said. “If he would have let me by, he would not have been near the podium today. The only rule we have is not to crash each other, and we didn't, we we're close…we maybe kissed a little bit, which is good, but that's how we want to race, and I would not like it any other way.

“Obviously, if you're in the last lap of the championship, and he could help, I know that he would do it, but not today. He's doing his own race.”