Chip Ganassi Relishes Alex Palou's Incredible Season: 'You're Seeing History Made'
Fourteen races into the year, Palou has eight victories. In two other races, he has finished second. He has won five poles and led the most laps in five races this year.
Oh, and one of those victories was the Indianapolis 500.
"This guy is in a league of his own," Ganassi told me on Sunday after another win at Laguna Seca. "There are a lot of great drivers out there, and we've been fortunate to have a lot of them.
"And this guy's right at the top."
No driver has won more than 10 races in a year, and Palou still has a chance to break that record with races at Portland (road course), Milwaukee (1-mile oval) and Nashville (1.33-mile oval).
Can he get to 11?
"I don't know many people who would bet against that," Ganassi said. "Who knows?"
What is not up for debate is the monumental season Palou has had, as he has all but clinched his fourth series title. He just needs to average a 16th-place finish over the final three races.
Ganassi has had seasons where his drivers have won more than eight races. Dixon and Dario Franchitti combined for 10 wins in 2009. Alex Zanardi and Juan Pablo Montoya each had seven-win seasons during the time of the split of INDYCAR into two competing series (which many would consider diluted the field).
"We're really, really, really pleased and excited and happy to be watching and being a part of history," Ganassi said.
When a driver wins eight times in one season, the driver will need to have some good fortune. But Palou seems to have taken advantage of every opportunity, every mistake by another front-running driver.
"It's not like we're lucking into these things," Ganassi said. "He's dominating. Today [at Laguna Seca], it looked like the red tire, the soft tire, was the preferred tire and he was on the hard tire running away from the field.
"The entire field was on the red softs, and he was running away from them on the hard tire."
That was by design. When a driver has the fastest car and is in the zone like Palou, the team finds the strategy that plays to its strengths.
Palou has not been shy about not wanting to change strategy. He doesn't want to go the conservative route, and he doesn't want to throw away points at races.
A week prior to Laguna Seca, that bit him when he finished 12th using a strategy that didn't pan out at Toronto. He lost 30 points to second-place Pato O'Ward in the process.
"We talk about it every week," Ganassi said. "We've got people still breathing down our neck, and we want to remember how we got here. And that was racing the way we know how to race: Go for the wins."
After that race, Palou took the blame for advocating for that strategy.
"Alex wants to try to claim the responsibility," said his strategist Barry Wanser. "Myself and the race engineer were like you can't claim all the responsibility for what went wrong.
"Part of it's on us. But that's just the type of guy he is."
The type of guy Palou is remains one who continues to learn and perform. In just his second INDYCAR season, he won the title with three victories in 2021. He won just once in 2022 before a five-win season on his way to the 2023 championship.
His 2024 crown came in a year when he earned just two wins but no driver had more than three.
Palou's 2025 season has included his first oval wins and not just at Indianapolis. He also won on the Iowa oval, which is just short of a mile in length.
"He had a great, great race in Iowa a few weeks ago, his first short oval win," Ganassi said. "These are not easy things to do, especially for a kid coming out of Europe."
What has allowed him to do it?
Ganassi said the same thing that made him pretty much an instant success story in the series.
"I go back to his first race with us years ago down there [Barber Motorsports Park] in Alabama, when that was the first race of the season," Ganassi said. "He came out and just did really good. He had [Will] Power and [Scott] Dixon breathing down his neck all day and it didn't seem to bother him.
"The wind in his sails hasn't let up yet. This guy is on a roll. We haven't seen the best of him yet. You're seeing history made right now, and it's incredible to watch."
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
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