Palou: IndyCar career “not successful” without Indy 500 win

Credit: Chris Owens

Three-time series champion Álex Palou has agreed with the notion that his IndyCar career would be incomplete without winning the Indianapolis 500.

“Absolutely, I agree,” said the current championship leader, who is bidding for a third successive IndyCar title. “As an IndyCar driver, if you’ve not won the Indy 500, you’re not going to be 100 percent complete. 

“That’s what we’re working towards. We’ve been learning. We’ve been getting closer and closer and I feel more comfortable every time that we’re on track. Hopefully we can change it soon. 

“If my career ends in like 20 years and I’ve not won an Indy 500, it’ll be for sure not a successful career.”

Palou has started the 2025 season with four wins in five races, with his only non-win a second-place result at Long Beach. It is the best start to a season for a driver since AJ Foyt in 1964.

But he knows this form is unprecedented and will come to a close at some point, so he is making sure he enjoys every victory. 

“It’s fun,” Palou said. “We take every win as if it’s the first one and the last one. We don’t know when the next one is going to be. You always want and work towards trying to be able to celebrate almost every race weekend. But the truth is that it’s tough to win. 

“You need every single piece to be perfect. Whenever we get that chance, we celebrate and, at least during that moment, we take it and enjoy it as much as possible and then switch to the next one.”

Credit: Joe Skibinski

Throughout Palou’s current run and three title-winning campaigns in his first four years with Chip Ganassi Racing, it has been credited as a bulletproof collective effort from the driver and his No.10 team.

“Obviously he’s doing what he’s supposed to do,” team owner Chip Ganassi said. “The team is doing what they’re supposed to do. Look, I feel bad for some other teams - not because we’re beating them but they haven’t had a chance. 

“Some of these guys are beating themselves, whether it’s in the pits or they’re having mechanical issues. We’ve been the benefit of that. But obviously for four of the first five races, the No.10 car has done everything right - not put a wheel wrong, got in and out of the pits, got through the start, had the right strategy, whatever you want to say. 

“It’s hard to get everything right, believe me. But that’s what we’ve been working at for 35 years. It’s down to the people on the team. Their kids are having a bad day in school… I hear it all. But when you have everybody rowing the ship in the same direction, you’re going to have some amount of success. And right now that’s what’s happening. 

“Like Álex said though, we treat every one like it’s our first win and it could be our last. We want to enjoy the ones we do. But that’s what we work at every day.”

Now, attention switches to the Indy 500 as Palou searches for confirmation of IndyCar immortality. And for this one marquee race of the year, the task at hand becomes bigger than the chase for a championship.

Credit: Chris Owens

“We have a lot of the season to go yet but our focus has shifted away from the series to the [Indy 500] now,” Ganassi said. “We go from thinking about the championship to thinking about the race. 

“We try to get the most out of every day and that’s what it’s all about when you get here. You can’t get out over your skis.”

Palou has had success at Indy - winner of the pole in 2023 and runner-up as an IndyCar sophomore in 2021. But as qualifying weekend nears, it is not expected to be straightforward for drivers given the addition of the hybrid system and the forecast of gusty wins.

“It looks like it’s going to be a little bit cooler, which is a nice situation,” said 2008 Indy 500 winner and six-time champion Scott Dixon. “It’s easier just to miss things [in the wind]. If you’re getting gusts, gears are a little bit harder to get right. 

“It may change some of the hybrid strategy if you’re getting a lot of limiter; you may regen more and deploy more throughout the run as opposed to other strategies that you had set in mind. It’s just more variables. It will definitely be difficult.

“The degradation over the four laps is definitely up with the weight. It will just create opportunity for more mistakes so you have to be really dialled in.”