Alex Palou, the two-time defending IndyCar Series champion, is coming off his third championship in four years as he heads into 2025. It will be his fifth year with Chip Ganassi Racing, which a few years ago would have been a surprise after he had signed to join McLaren, sparking a legal battle that continues to this day and had Palou semi-jokingly thanking his many lawyers in his championship trophy acceptance speech.
Palou sat down with FOX Sports at Indianapolis Motor Speedway after last season to talk about winning the 2024 and looking ahead to 2025 — where he hopes to finally earn that first win on an oval.
How would you characterize the 2024 championship season? Compared to the others, not as many wins, but a slew of top-5s?
It's been different. Every season is different. I would say we were super lucky in 2023 with so many wins, super consistent, lots of podiums. This one was a bit more challenging. We got two wins, which they are hard to get. In IndyCar nowadays, it's super hard to get a win, so still getting to [win] felt great. But it was a bit more about consistency. I would say we got a bunch of top-5s, a little bit of drama here and there with Iowa, where we crashed and Detroit, where we couldn't score many points either. It's been a complete year [in 2024]. I would say this is my favorite one so far. My daughter was born back in 2023 in December. So it was the first time that I could, let's say, experience racing with her, and also having this one back to back with so many issues that we actually had, it felt amazing.
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Nobody gets 10 podiums because of luck, though, as you did in 2023. Do you feel like you raced as well in 2024 or better or worse than 2023?
I think it's tough. I would say that some races, we actually maximized our performance this year while last year maybe it felt like we had potential for more. But there's been some races this year as well that didn't feel like we got it right — both in, I would say, car performance or driving-wise. Racing is hard. You have a magical year. We got the advantage of that [in 2023]. So I'm happy that without having a crazy, magical year, we're able to win the championship as well.
Some people would say, OK, three titles. What more is there to do? But I imagine winning on an oval is first on the list and winning here at Indianapolis is probably double No. 1 on the list. Obviously, you'd come back anyway. But does that provide any more intensity to come back and defend?
Yeah, absolutely. It's been crazy that we haven't won on an oval yet. It's hard to win races, as I said, but we've been close. We've been second, second, second, third, fourth — we've been around knocking on that door various times, especially at this place at IMS, it's so hard to get a win with 200 laps, 500 miles, five-to-six pit stops. A lot can happen, and everything needs to fall your way during that month, but especially during that day to try and win it. We'll try and work harder this year with the team, with myself, try and get our first oval win, and hopefully it can be here.
There's always a debate — should there be more ovals? Should there be fewer ovals? Do you want more ovals or do you, because you're so good on the road courses, are you like, let's keep it the way it is?
I think it depends. If you add in some different oval tracks. I'm up for it. I know I'm struggling a little bit more than other places, but in time, someday, I'll get it right, and someday, hopefully we'll start winning on ovals as well. I'm not a big fan of doubleheaders on ovals. I think it's a lot of work for everybody — for drivers, mechanics, the crew especially, they work so hard. And also for the fans, it's like they see the same thing all over. But I think we're stepping out a little bit from doubleheaders. I think we're going to keep one at Iowa, which is just like one event where we have double races. But I'm excited for new races. If we keep on adding races, I'll welcome it. I like to race. So wherever we go, I'll be happy.
You certainly have had the drama off the track and some people would just fold and just would not be able to compete at such a high level with it going on. What is it about either your upbringing or an experience that you feel like allowed you to put what's going on off the track out of your mind and perform so well on the track?
We for sure have had a lot of drama off the track, more than what we would have liked for sure. But the good thing is that it's a little bit in the past. So 2022 was really hard. I would say even 2023 was a lot. At the end of the day, my job is just to race, to try and go hard on track, try and be the best every day that I put my suit and my helmet on — and that's very easy compared to other issues that you could have in life. So, yeah, there was a lot of drama. There was pressure and bad media that I myself created. It's not that it was somebody else's fault. But, yeah, it is what it is. I'm still living my dream. I was still racing in IndyCar. I was still fighting for races and championships. So I couldn't complain. So maybe that's why it was easy to focus.
Will it be different with three cars in 2025 instead of five as you had in 2024 in the Ganassi IndyCar stable?
When I first came to the CGR team, we were already four. It doesn't really change much. I think it doesn't change with CGR, the organization, because they are capable of running eight cars. So running five for them didn't really create any drama. Running three, it's not going to suddenly make things worse. If something, I think it probably will help focus a little bit more. But as I said, we were capable of running eight cars. So it's not going to be a big deal of like, "Oh, now we have enough mechanics." No, we had plenty. We had plenty of engineering as well. So I'm excited for the future. I'm excited for trying to maximize what we have in three cars. But I would say the good thing, the advantage of having five cars was that we get five different sorts of data. While nowadays we will get two less. So, anyway, same as all other teams.
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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