Álex Palou, five-timer: A champion, in every sense of the word
- Archie O’Reilly
- 5 hours ago
- 7 min read
Pole day at this year’s Indianapolis 500 was uniquely intense. With Saturday rained out, an entire weekend of qualifying was condensed into a one-day, high-pressure affair, led by a one-shot first round and promptly followed by Sunday’s more regular formalities.
For Álex Palou, the hand dealt was far from ideal. Thirty-first in the running order, in the heat of an oppressive day at the Speedway, was a tough slot. “My wife didn’t make it easy on me, getting that 31st spot,” he joked of the draw in the aftermath of his run. But as fraught as it may have been, his path to the Fast 12 was confirmed. By a scrape.
Such was the nature of the day, the turnaround to the proper pole-day proceedings was tight. Not entirely happy with his car, time was of the essence to get back to his Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) squad and debrief. But actually, that could wait.
After cycling through his post-run media beneath the podium at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, when he should have been bound for the paddock, Palou stopped in his tracks. Instead, he made a beeline to a group of kids, including a young girl sporting one of his jerseys, among a group of fans surrounding the perimeter of the podium area.
For a good 10 minutes, which could have been valuable time spent assessing his first qualifying run, he continued along the fence. Signing. Selfie-ing. Chatting. All with a great smile on his face - entirely authentic, for it is a part of the job he relishes.
When you reflect on the qualities of this great champion, his astounding on-track pedigree and the records naturally take precedence. But just as defining a part of Palou’s embodiment of the word is his character and the way in which he serves as ambassador for the sport; as a stand-up human being who never tires of giving back.
This all sprung to the forefront of mind again in Markham a fortnight ago, when Palou took it upon himself to visit and mingle with fans in the grandstands on a Friday where track action was ultimately cancelled due to the new street circuit being unfinished.
His roots are never forgotten, such is the humility with which he carries himself. And it is this character - the utterly pleasant and personable, coupled with a relentless drive to fuel the silent assassin - that has fed a beast who is transcending IndyCar.
From his very first day with CGR ahead of the 2021 season, Palou has become an adored presence within a team that has housed some of IndyCar’s greatest. Every year, even as success has mounted to unparalleled heights, his receptiveness to learn and keep evolving - both himself and the team - has been striking to the organisation’s head honchos.
Headed by a stark selflessness, he is the ultimate team man. You only have to look as far as his victorious radios for a symbolisation of that. “You make me look so good on track,” is a common gleefully delivered post-win call. Everything revolves around the collective.
“I only need to worry about myself driving,” he says. “I don’t really need to worry about: ‘Are the pit stops going to be good? Are my strategies going to be okay?’ I don’t really need to worry about big stuff from the team or the car. I only need to focus on myself - obviously working with the team, but I know they’re going to excel at what they are doing.
“I can focus on pushing myself and having fun. I just love every single day that I’m on track, whether it’s testing, whether it’s racing. I just love to be with the team and inside the car.”
Something of an unknown quantity from Barcelona, Spain - a product of Super Formula before being snapped up by Dale Coyne Racing for his rookie IndyCar season in 2020 - the team took a gamble on a raw product after only a single year in the series.
But over the past six years, the Palou-CGR collaboration, which was initiated after he impressed the team in the 2020 Indy 500 campaign, has grown beyond simply storied.
As he speaks in the media centre at the Milwaukee Mile, he has just become only the third driver in history to win five IndyCar titles - doing so in only a six-year period, a mere seven years after entering the sport and still at the age of only 29 years old.
“It’s tough to put into words,” exclaims Palou, who has won six races in 2026 en-route to securing his latest honour. “Everything, I owe to this team, to these two men [team owner Chip Ganassi and team manager Barry Wanser] sitting next to me, that they give me the opportunity to be not only a race winner, then a champion, now a five-time champion.
“It’s been incredible. I just feel like we just started yesterday. We’re just getting closer and closer. We’re having more fun and more fun each day. It’s been an absolute joy of a year. The last two years have been just magical for us.”
That ‘fun’ undoubtedly feeds the freedom and fluidity with which Palou drives, while it often emanates far beyond that, too. Every win - all 25 of them, now - is celebrated with the same delight and vigour. Every ounce of success is received with gratitude and appreciation in the moment, embraced and harnessed, rather than being brushed over, in a pursuit of more.
Such is Palou’s relative youth - the youngest driver to reach the four-title milestone last year and now the five-title mark, too - he could yet race for the best part of another two decades, if he so desires. But he also knows, even if that is the case, that this run, unlike any other seen in IndyCar’s history, will not possibly go on forever.
“I don’t know how long this is going to last. One year? Five years? Ten years? Fifteen years?” Palou poses. “I don’t know how long we are going to be able to be up top. But I’m enjoying every single day with this team, with this car.”
Currently, his form is showing scant signs of subsiding, as the rest of the IndyCar field remains stumped and almost in awe of something they simply cannot find the means to match. This fifth title marks four successive crowns, making Palou the first driver since the reunification and only the second ever - after Sébastien Bourdais - to complete a four-peat.
For the third time, with an emphatic 100-point advantage heading into the Laguna Seca season-closer, he has won the championship by the previous rarity of clinching before the season finale, having also done so with one race to spare in 2023 and with two rounds to run in 2025. He now stands only behind Scott Dixon’s six titles and A.J. Foyt’s seven, with the outright record almost already in sight, given the runway left in his IndyCar career.
“Absolutely,” insists Chip Ganassi, when asked whether eight championships would be attainable for Palou. “You’d be crazy not to believe that. I don’t know what the odds are in Vegas of that, but I wouldn’t want to bet against it. It can absolutely happen.
“We’re in the midst of a generational thing here - a generational driver. Four in a row has been done before, but five out of six hasn’t been done before. That’s something that’s unprecedented. We’re in the midst of that right now. It’s not over.”
Palou is not necessarily driven by a chase of these records. But they certainly continue to mount as a racing dynasty is forged, with his five titles with the team second to only Dixon’s own career tally with CGR as the most fruitful driver-team combination. Dixon was 38 years old when he won his fifth title over a period 10 years greater than the Spaniard.
Palou’s fifth title also raises CGR’s all-time tally to 18, which guides them clear of Team Penske for the most all-time, despite only debuting in IndyCar in 1990.
“If it wasn’t for Roger [Penske] setting the bar, there wouldn’t be a bar to exceed or to shoot for,” Ganassi utters. “I want to thank him for doing what he’s done for IndyCar racing for so many years, making it possible for someone like our team to come along and win 18 championships. So my hat’s off to him.
“I know he’s not going to sit idly by being in second place now. We’ll have to see because this guy to my right [Palou], he’s got a lot left in the tank, as Roger likes to say. Roger has a lot left in the tank, too. He’s going to be here for a while doing this. Stand by for more fun.”
For some, the idea of Palou still having more in the tank may be regrettable, for a certain crowd has been led to perceive his dominance as boring. That in itself serves as a marker of how unheard-of his run - particularly with his 14 victories and 14 pole positions in the past two years - has been, considering IndyCar is so renowned for its competitiveness.
He has brought a predictability to something famously unpredictable and inevitability where uncertainty has long reigned. But as he continues to break that new ground, it becomes more and more of a privilege to be witnessing unmatched history unfolding before our very eyes, in real time.
You cannot help but be captivated by a once-in-a-generation talent plying his trade in a manner that is changing the landscape of an entire sport. Not that this was something Palou ever expected.
“I never thought I would be, first of all, an IndyCar driver,” he reflects. “Never thought I could make it. Never thought that I would have the chance to be a professional race car driver. That was my dream. When I had the opportunity to be an IndyCar driver, that was already a huge achievement. I was living the dream.
“I remember Chip giving me that chance to drive for a championship-winning team; at that moment, they just won in 2020 with Scott. That was mind-blowing. Since then, I feel like I’ve been on this incredible cloud where everything has been so good for me. Chip and everybody at CGR, they’ve been giving me all the tools. I have the people around me; they take so much care of me and they make me look so good on track.”
Whatever way you look at it, the Álex Palou era is a special one for IndyCar - and for everyone watching, whether they come to acknowledge it or not. It is one that should lead onlookers to step back and appreciate in real time, rather than do so in retrospect.
Sport works in interesting ways; people love to hate those who are dominant. But the champion that he is, in every sense of the word - without a flaw to pick in the character that couples with a legendary talent realised in record time - Palou makes himself almost impossible to begrudge.
As he has said himself exhaustively but so fittingly, these are truly magical times for Palou and his No.10 team. And these are days that will be remembered for the rest of time.
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