Written by Archie O’Reilly
If it was not for an Indianapolis 500 pit box selection choice in 2020, things could have been very different in IndyCar across recent years.
In some ways, the placement of the No.55 Dale Coyne Racing entry next-door-but-one to the No.9 Chip Ganassi Racing stand kickstarted the making of a modern great IndyCar legacy and IndyCar career for the history books.
Tales of Coyne’s rookie driver qualifying seventh for his maiden Indy 500 with a failed weight jacker quickly spread. And once the pit lane order was reassembled post-qualifying, there was a chance for those at Ganassi to closely observe the little-known 23-year-old Spaniard, who had moved from Super Formula at the start of the year.
The paddock had already been put on notice by said driver finishing on the podium in his third-ever IndyCar race at Road America. And while the rest of the year was generally unremarkable results-wise, even if totally respectable en-route to a 16th-place championship finish as a rookie, those at Ganassi were sold.
Not even a crash to end the Indy 500 campaign would deter what they had seen that week. And by the time autumn arrived and the pandemic-marred 2020 season neared a conclusion, it happened that the team had an unexpected decision to make.
There were no plans for a change of driver. Alongside Scott Dixon, Marcus Ericsson had arrived in a third car that season and countryman Felix Rosenqvist had two strong seasons under his belt. But the No.10 car piloted by the latter suddenly became vacant.
Arrow McLaren came calling for Rosenqvist and the Swede, who finished sixth in the standings as a rookie in 2019 and won at Road America in 2020, obliged and was lured away by the enticing project. Ganassi were left with a decision to make.
But they did not have to think twice about the replacement.
A room in the J.W. Marriott hotel in Indianapolis was the location of a first meeting between the team’s leadership and Alex Palou. And within a week of the campaign coming to a close, there was confirmation of a move for the Coyne driver.
“It happened late for us in that year because Felix left us very, very late,” Ganassi’s managing director Mike Hull recalls. “We weren’t expecting that.”
It was Hull, who dovetails as long-time strategist for Dixon, at the forefront of observations of Palou from the No.9 stand during August’s Indy 500 running in 2020. Dixon would go on to win a sixth IndyCar championship that year.
“Maybe someday you will hear the story about his weight jacker [in] qualifying at Indianapolis, where it stuck for four laps,” he adds. “By pit selection, he was next to the Dixon car. The first time I’d seen those guys in action was Carb Day. I watched the action in his pit box. Then I watched his action on race day.
“I said to Chip [Ganassi, team owner] at that time: ‘This guy is special.’ For the monkey motion that went on in the pit lane for him on race day, for him to do what he did there, was absolutely extraordinary…
“We had an opportunity to talk to him in the fall. We snuck off to a hotel room in the J.W. Marriott and sat down and talked about it together with Chip and we chose him. I think it’s validated.”
The validation that Hull details comes from the success Palou has achieved from the outset as a Ganassi driver. When he won on debut with the team at Barber Motorsports Park in 2021, they knew they had a gem. But how quickly that transpired into greater success was far from expected.
By the end of that year, Palou had won three races, stepped on the podium eight times and was crowned champion as a sophomore on the streets of Long Beach to round out the year.
Hull, sitting beside Chip Ganassi, is recounting these early stages of Palou’s Ganassi journey three years later at Nashville Superspeedway. And at the end of Palou’s fourth year with Ganassi, the setting is a third champion’s press conference for the Spaniard.
“I can tell you that my expectation was that I was just hoping that we had a guy that liked ovals, liked road races, was going to grow with the team,” Ganassi says of his thoughts at the time of Palou joining the team.
“I had no idea what three of the next four years were going to be like. If I told you I had any other idea or expectation, I’d be lying to you. I had no idea it would be this much fun and this successful.”
In 2023, Palou became the first driver since Sebastien Bourdais in Champ Car 2007 to win the championship before the final race. He picked up 10 podiums in 17 races, winning five times and finishing no lower than eighth.
That same historic level was not matched as such in 2024. But Palou still won twice, stood on the rostrum six times and finished inside the top five on 13 occasions. This was enough to place him in a commanding position heading into the Nashville finale, when he wrapped up a third title - aided by only contender Will Power suffering a seat belt failure.
Defending his 2023 crown, Palou became the first back-to-back champion since Ganassi’s Dario Franchitti in 2009, 2010 and 2011. At 27 years old and five months, he is the second-youngest three-time champion - three months older than Sam Hornish Jr. - and achieved all of this as a first-time father in 2024.
“Quite a guy,” Ganassi says. “Days like today, I go back to when he first showed up in Alabama there with us, his first race. I know prior to that, we tested at Laguna Seca - he was quickest at the test.
“Then we went to the first race in Alabama… he was quick in practice. I’m like: ‘Yeah, he was quick in practice but he’s got to qualify, he’s got to race. Then he was quickest in qualifying. ‘Yeah, yeah, great job. But he still has to race.’
“Then the race. I remember he had Power and Dixon breathing down his neck the whole day. [He] won the race by about 10 feet over Power.
“Everything from there has just been a storybook unlike any other.”
Adding to the staggering Palou-Ganassi storybook is the fact that Palou almost left the team to join Arrow McLaren - he announced as much in 2022 - with the potential of a Formula One drive.
He was made to remain with Ganassi and honour his contract in 2023 while still being allowed as McLaren’s F1 reserve driver and part of its F1 test programme. But when the full-time F1 aspect of that deal did not pan out, Palou enacted a U-turn.
Things were going too well for him to leave Ganassi behind. And en-route to his second championship in 2023, he decided that he would rather stay put long-term given McLaren’s F1 lineup of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri was - and still is - more than secure.
And so Palou rebuilt burned bridges at Ganassi despite legal disputes - possible given the calibre of driver and asset to the team that he is. It is now McLaren Racing and its CEO Zak Brown who are furious with Palou amid ensuring court cases for unhonoured contracts and wasted money.
Ultimately though, Palou is a ruthless winner. And in his position, it was a case of: why leave where you have the best shot at winning? His decision to remain with Ganassi has been beyond vindicated as Arrow McLaren continues in its building phase as a young IndyCar outfit.
A fascinating aspect amid the controversy and pair of lawsuits is the human side of Palou. As cutthroat as some racing decisions have been, off the track he is as genuine, bubbly and humble a person as you will cross paths with.
“I think a side of him that a lot of people don’t see is his humour,” Ganassi says. “He’s got a great sense of humour. To me that’s important in the world today. There’s a lot of things going on in this world on a day-to-day basis.
“Alex, he is as serious as they get as a race driver. I can tell you he has a good, sharp wit and a sharp humour. I like that a lot about him.”
There is a feeling that Palou is the type of driver that raises the level team-wide and it comes as absolutely no surprise that Ganassi had no intention of allowing Palou to leave.
Even when adversity strikes, he continues to prove unflappable.
After his No.10 machine ground to a halt with a failed battery on the pace laps for the penultimate race of 2024 at the Milwaukee Mile, threatening to eliminate his championship advantage, he never looked panicked. He even shared smiles on the pit stand before re-entering the race many laps down.
After a rare crash in the first race of the doubleheader at Iowa Speedway - one of very few he has been at fault for across his career - he rebounded to finish second only one day later. For the decisive finale in Nashville, he had a subpar qualifying and was made to start 24th due to an engine penalty but again never appeared close to beaten.
Even looking back to 2023, having started on pole and led much of the early part of the race, he scythed through the field to salvage a fourth-place finish in the Indy 500 after being confined to the rear following a hit from Rinus VeeKay in pit lane.
“I think what Alex does well and better than most is he recovers,” Hull says. “He mentally recovers. He works immediately with his teammates and the people that work on his race car. They solve problems together.
“With the way IndyCar racing is today, the cars are so equally matched that where you qualify often determines where you race in the race. You can do one of two things… He gets the most out of today.
“Guess what that does? The fallout is every team member sees that. It raises the entire room. Guess who else does that? Scott Dixon. Alex Zanardi, Jimmy Vasser, Juan [Pablo] Montoya. They all had that in common.
“They raised the level of the room. That’s what he does.”
Palou is already in the conversation with many of the greats across IndyCar’s history, becoming only the 13th driver to achieve three or more championships.
It has taken only five years in IndyCar for Palou to reach the midway point to legendary teammate Dixon’s title tally. And Dixon’s six championships are bettered only by A.J. Foyt’s seven and matched by nobody else.
What we are currently witnessing in IndyCar is something special.
“We’ve been lucky to have some great drivers on the team over the years,” Ganassi says. “You want to make the obvious comparisons but I don’t know that you can.
“At his age to be doing what he’s doing, having the experience that he has, especially with the series the way it is today, now with some ovals. These guys aren’t exactly oval meisters we’re bringing along that are excelling in the series today. There are some better oval racers out there - I’m sure he’ll tell you that.”
But while the absence of an oval win is a stick used to beat Palou with by some, he could well be an Indy 500 winner - and is a pole-sitter - and is far from being a poor oval racer. No champion can be a one-trick pony, let alone Alex Palou.
“To have a guy like Alex on your team, three championships in four years… I don’t know how many guys have three championships. Not that many,” Ganassi adds. “He’s in pretty rarefied air right now.
“His name has to be among and certainly in the conversation of the great drivers. He’s certainly in the conversation of the greatest.”
Palou has added 14th, 15th and 16th championships for Ganassi since arriving at the team. And while Team Penske made a 23-year head start, Ganassi now places one title behind its closest rival for total championship wins.
Since unification of the top American open-wheel series in 2008, Ganassi has won 11 championships. And since the team entered the sport in 1990, it has seven more titles than any other IndyCar outfit.
“It’s Chip first of all,” Hull says of the standards set at Ganassi. “Besides being a terrific owner, finding resources for us that we can’t find ourselves, he emphasises to every crew member on the team, and it starts with the drivers, they have to be totally unselfish.
“They have to give more to their teammate than their teammate gives back to them. When that does happen, then the whole team is one team. It’s one team.
“Race drivers like Alex, you look at their career at the time that they begin to do extremely well, it’s at that crossover moment when their ability, their experience and the team and its resources come together.
“You have to take full advantage of that because in that case it’s all about today. Hopefully today lasts for quite a while with Alex with Chip Ganassi Racing.”
It bewilders to think that, five years ago as he raced to a third-place championship finish in Japan, Palou was still unknown to the American racing scene.
It was December of 2019 that Dale Coyne Racing - long-time specialists in nurturing young talent - announced that the then-22-year-old would be making the step to IndyCar. And after his 16th-place championship finish that year, nobody could have foreseen how the next four years were to pan out. Not even Chip Ganassi.
But those at Ganassi did know they were watching something special back in August 2020 during the delayed Indy 500 campaign.
And that something special is quickly turning into something quite legendary.
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