Pato O’Ward finished second at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the fourth time in his career Saturday, with two such finishes each on the road course and the oval. He wanted to celebrate such excellence following Saturday’s Sonsio Grand Prix but couldn’t.

Will Power was similarly conflicted about his third-place finish in this event. Getting beat again by three-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Alex Palou sapped some of the fun out of it.

“I’ve yet to finish ahead of (him),” Power said of this season’s results.

O’Ward and Power thought they had a chance at victory when a rare restart came on Lap 72. That was their chance to pounce on Palou, who lost a 10.2-second lead. But those hopes were quickly dashed as Palou left them behind in the laps that followed.

They were resigned to what Palou keeps doing to the field.

“We fought hard today,” said O’Ward of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. “I was pretty happy with the balance of my car – I just missed it there in qualifying (he started eighth) with the issues that we had in the straight line. But the team fixed it, and it was good to have good pace.”

Power started seventh in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet. He scored his 106th career top-three finish – that ranks fourth in history.

Still, it wasn’t enough.

“It was just a solid day,” Power said. “Good pit stop strategy and speed. (Otherwise), it was a very uneventful day.”

Both O’Ward and Power enjoyed INDYCAR’s new rule requiring each car to use two sets each of Firestone’s primary and alternate tire compounds. That mixed up the race strategy, although the top-three finishers saved a new set of alternates for the final segment.

“I think we went into it with a lot of unknowns,” O’Ward said of the order tires were used. “I think a lot of people (thought), ‘Ah, it's going to be a red race,’ and some guys said, ‘Oh, no, they're going to (degrade fast).’ I think the (primary compound) was a lot better than what we thought, or at least from our camp.

“I think here it obviously puts some uncertainty in people's decisions, so to kind of see how aggressive you wanted to be with it. I really think in our street course compounds, if this rule would have been in effect in (St. Petersburg) and Long Beach, everything would have looked completely different. I think that would have made even better racing – more passes because now you're forced to do the (alternates).”

Like O’Ward, Power wants INDYCAR to apply that rule for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear on Sunday, June 1.

“Honestly, if you started in the 20s and everyone in front of you were on (the degrading alternates), you would drive to the front,” Power said. “You actually would drive to the front.

“I know you're going to have to take your medicine at some point – yeah, that would be a very interesting scenario.”

That was the essence of what O’Ward and Power had to say about the 85-lap race that ended the way three of the other four races have ended this season. Palou has been too good too often, so others need to take note and improve.

“You're definitely taking a very close look at what he's doing, what the team is doing,” Power said of Palou and the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. “I would say the last four races have been absolutely solid for me, if he hadn't been winning. Like, they're all top-five (finishes), basically – all finishes that make up for a great championship.

“But it makes everyone work harder, it really does.”