Palou “living on amazing cloud of happiness” in IndyCar

Credit: Dominic Loyer

Álex Palou is bewildered at first. “Really?” he exclaims.

But indeed, since joining Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) in 2021, the four-time IndyCar champion has finished on the podium in over half of his races with the team. 

To be precise, with a first Long Beach win - the 22nd victory of his career - Palou has taken his 47th podium in his 89th start in the No.10 car, accounting for 52.8 percent of races since the beginning of his sophomore 2021 season.

There is a coy giddiness when the statistic is posed to him post-race on Sunday.

“I mean, it’s incredible,” he reacts, ever-modest but now grinning ear-to-ear and with a hint of laughter. “I don’t know what to say. This team is amazing; it just gives me the opportunity every single weekend to have a car that is capable of fighting for wins or for podiums or for top fives. Whenever I’m not in the zone, they put me there with pit stop strategy or the car. 

“Yeah… no comment.”

With victory at Long Beach, regarded as second-in-command to the Indianapolis 500 by way of prestige as a blue riband event on the IndyCar calendar, Palou has ticked another scarce unticked box as he continues to build a legendary IndyCar legacy in record time.

It marks his 11th win in 22 races since the start of last season, when he was already a three-time champion, accounting for half of his career wins. 

“Every win is so special,” said Palou, with three wins now in the first five races in 2026 as he chases a championship four-peat. “Obviously the 500 is always going to stay up top. This probably ranks top three. It’s super, super cool. But we’ve been so lucky to have so much success. 

“It just feels like I’m living on this amazing cloud of happiness.”

Credit: Dominic Loyer

Starting from third in a race where passing proved challenging, Palou was made to work for this latest win. From the outset, he knew he needed to be decisive; a Lap 2, Turn 1 overtake on Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward to seize second place signified that. 

“I knew that it was probably one of our only chances to get the pass,” Palou assessed. “I actually saw that during practice, he was the strongest on the used [hard-tyre] primaries. I wanted to get ahead of him as quick as possible. I got a really good run out of the last corner; I didn’t know if he was going to block or not. He probably wasn’t expecting it.”

Indeed, that was O’Ward’s sentiment after falling foul to something of a sneak attack from Palou.

“You caught him off guard because he complained on the radio that they never told him you were that close,” relayed Palou’s strategist Barry Wanser, sitting beside his driver for post-race media duties. “He didn’t use any overtake, never defended.”

Palou smiled in response: “That’s good.”

From that early point onwards, the race settled into a rather action-lacking rhythm. This owed largely to the onus placed on management and fuel saving on the much-preferred two-stop strategy, even though Palou and his team had doubted after warmup whether a pair of 30-lap stints on the softer alternate tyre would be possible under the two-stint mandate.

It was crucial to have ensured no other car was between himself and the race lead, but he still struggled to make inroads on Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) pole-sitter Felix Rosenqvist.

“You need aggressivity to try and get to the front. But as soon as I saw I couldn’t get Felix because he was very fast, not defending [and] was pulling a bit away, it was all about patience trying to keep the track under control, the fuel and wait for the right time. 

“I think we could have fighted a little bit but he was a bit stronger than us today. We were just trying to figure it out, if we were able to go one lap longer on fuel.”

Credit: Dominic Loyer

The lead duo ultimately both made their first pit stops on Lap 30 and the threat of an overcut from Palou was fended off, with Rosenqvist maintaining the lead, owing to his MSR crew matching their CGR technical allies on pit lane.

But unfortunately for Rosenqvist, timed exactly at the beginning of the second pit cycle, a caution brandished for debris both eliminated his controlled lead and triggered another head-to-head pit-stop battle. This time, though, the whole field pitted at once and Palou’s clear pit-in and pit-out - owing to his Barber win - at the far end of pit lane was critical.

CGR delivered and, by the finest of margins, now on his favoured primary tyres after fulfilling his two alternate stints, Palou edged out of the pits ahead of Rosenqvist to assume the lead.

“My team. Yeah, my team,” Palou insisted on what gave him the edge. “The pit stop, that was everything. I was trying to do the best job I could on track to give us our best chances on fuel and on tyres [but] I know without that pit stop I would probably not be here now.

“The confidence was super high because I know the crew has been doing an incredible job, especially this year and last year. But it only takes one second, a small mistake, and then suddenly you go from second to seventh. The guys know as well. The pressure that they have to take that moment was pretty high. Incredible, the work they did.”

Humility going a long way to defining his champion status, Palou is ever-keen to heap praise upon his team. And on the Californian streets on Sunday, there was no better exemplification of why this driver-team combination has risen into the pantheon of IndyCar’s greatest.

Had it not been for that pit stop, as Palou indicated, the outcome may well have been different.

Credit: Dominic Loyer

“I was not giving up [but] I think it would have been very, very tough for us to get [Rosenqvist],” he analysed. “We were trying everything possible to just overset our pit stop, try and get one lap further [but] he was already three seconds ahead, which is what you lose on an out lap. It would have been close. 

“I was happy with my car but struggling a little bit more on the soft tyre than on the hards. On the hards, I felt super confident, was able to pull a bigger gap. It would have been really, really tough. My confidence was high but I think my chances were low.”

But once Palou had taken the lead in the pits, there was no looking back - there rarely ever is. His final stint calculated and composed on the harder compound, he was able to oust Rosenqvist by just shy of four seconds at the chequered flag.

With Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood missing out on a podium by half-a-second behind CGR’s Scott Dixon, Palou has retaken the championship lead by 17 points after five rounds. In strikingly similar form to last year, albeit this time with a DNF after a crash at Phoenix Raceway, he is again yet to finish a race worse than second before the Month of May.

The challenging continues to be made look almost a breeze, as an air of ominous inevitability lingers still around Palou and his team. But their success is never an accident.

“We put a lot of efforts into this,” Wanser asserted. “It doesn’t come easy - I know a lot of people are saying that. We know every week we have to show up, the cars have to perform, the team has to perform. We need to make good decisions. It’s hard to win in IndyCar. 

“Everybody on the team is doing just a great job. We’re able to capitalise. It’s a dream.”

That dream is a continued nightmare for the remainder of the IndyCar field. But for Palou, a fantastical period of almost unparalleled success continues on at brutal force.