Bob Pockrass
FOX Motorsports Insider
MONTEREY, Calif. — Even Chip Ganassi, with his trademark line of “I Like Winners,” couldn’t have predicted such a dominating season like the one Alex Palou has put together in 2025.
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.
Alex Palou after winning the 109th Running of 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.
Alex Palou after capturing the pole for Laguna Seca
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 seemed just like the crimson tire, the smooth tire, was the popular tire and he was on the arduous tire working away from the sector.
“The whole area was on the crimson softs, and he was working away from them on the arduous tire.”
That was by design. When a driver has the quickest automotive and is within the zone like Palou, the staff finds the technique that performs to its strengths.
Palou has not been shy about not wanting to vary technique. He does not need to go the conservative route, and he does not need to throw away factors at races.
Per week previous to Laguna Seca, that bit him when he completed twelfth utilizing a technique that didn’t pan out at Toronto. He misplaced 30 factors to second-place Pato O’Ward within the course of.
“We discuss it each week,” Ganassi stated. “We’ve acquired individuals nonetheless respiratory down our neck, and we need to bear in mind how we acquired right here. And that was racing the way in which we all know methods to race: Go for the wins.”
After that race, Palou took the blame for advocating for that technique.
“Alex desires to attempt to declare the accountability,” stated his strategist Barry Wanser. “Myself and the race engineer had been like you may’t declare all of the accountability for what went unsuitable.
“A part of it is on us. However that is simply the kind of man he’s.”
The kind of man Palou is stays one who continues to be taught and carry out. In simply his second INDYCAR season, he gained the title with three victories in 2021. He gained simply as soon as in 2022 earlier than a five-win season on his approach to the 2023 championship.
Alex Palou in the course of the NTT INDYCAR Collection Java Home Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca
His 2024 crown got here in a 12 months when he earned simply two wins however no driver had greater than three.
Palou’s 2025 season has included his first oval wins and never simply at Indianapolis. He additionally gained on the Iowa oval, which is simply in need of a mile in size.
“He had an incredible, nice race in Iowa a number of weeks in the past, his first quick oval win,” Ganassi stated. “These will not be simple issues to do, particularly for a child popping out of Europe.”
What has allowed him to do it?
Ganassi stated the identical factor that made him just about an immediate success story within the sequence.
“I am going again to his first race with us years in the past down there [Barber Motorsports Park] in Alabama, when that was the primary race of the season,” Ganassi stated. “He got here out and simply did actually good. He had [Will] Energy and [Scott] Dixon respiratory down his neck all day and it did not appear to trouble him.
“The wind in his sails hasn’t let up but. This man is on a roll. We have not seen one of the best of him but. You’re seeing historical past made proper now, and it is unimaginable to observe.”
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports activities. He has spent a long time overlaying motorsports, together with over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting Information, NASCAR Scene journal and The (Daytona Seaside) Information-Journal. Observe him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
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