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Marshall Pruett, Racing columnist
On the time of his first crowning as an IndyCar sequence champion in 2021, Alex Palou was a vibrant new star who rocketed from anonymity to American open-wheel racing’s mountain high. Two years later, after a season of utter domination through which he gained extra races than any driver in 2023, Palou sealed and delivered his second championship for Chip Ganassi Racing, which has elevated the smiley child from Spain who loves espresso and fried hen — and never as a combo, fortunately — to the lofty distinction of being one of the best of IndyCar’s subsequent technology.
Since he joined Ganassi’s workforce, Palou has captured 9 wins and 24 podium finishes in three seasons of labor. These 9 victories additionally match the variety of wins captured by the Arrow McLaren workforce, which he was meant to affix, throughout its 22 years of existence. In reality, Palou has amassed extra wins in his temporary IndyCar profession than half of the ten full-time groups that compete within the sequence. Let that one marinate for a second.
Among the many 27 pilots on the grid, Palou was IndyCar’s quickest driver in 2023, incomes the highest common beginning grid place of 6.00 throughout 17 races. He lives for the struggle that follows qualifying, although, the place his beautiful race-day performances this season earned him 5 victories and 10 podiums — and he led 11 races — all of which went unmatched. For the primary time since 2007, an IndyCar driver clinched the title earlier than the ultimate race; Palou produced a crushing lead within the standings that allowed him and his No. 10 Honda crew to have fun with one spherical left to go.
Presumably essentially the most spectacular feat of Palou’s championship run was his ending file, the place his worst consequence throughout these 17 contests was a pair of eighths. Just one different driver in IndyCar historical past, California’s Harry Hartz, completed eighth or higher throughout a complete IndyCar season of 17 races or extra, and that happened 101 years in the past.
These gaudy statistics are one other driving power behind the notion that Palou is one thing actually particular. By the numbers, Palou simply authored considered one of IndyCar’s best beatdowns of the trendy period, however that does not imply his closest rivals share the identical opinion.
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If Palou had been an NFL quarterback, the 26-year-old could be hailed by some as a superb “recreation supervisor” in the identical belittling approach two-time Tremendous Bowl champion Eli Manning was typically dismissed throughout his profession. To others, he is the closest factor IndyCar has to Patrick Mahomes, the younger face of the game who has earned two titles by age 27.
The drivers Palou has mollywhopped cannot resolve whether or not he is extra Manning or Mahomes. Mexico’s Pato O’Ward, IndyCar’s hottest star who drives for Arrow McLaren and completed a distant fourth to Palou within the championship, leans towards Manning.
“I feel he is obtained an excellent understanding of win a championship,” O’Ward stated. “Apart from him being good behind the wheel, and having an excellent workforce, he is in a workforce that may assist him win races, so he would not should take a variety of dangers. And I feel that is what in the end has helped him, and he will proceed to assist them. He’ll at all times be a contender.”
Veteran Graham Rahal, whose IndyCar profession began as a teen in 2007, earned two pole positions for his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing workforce on the best way to ending fifteenth within the championship. Like O’Ward, the 34-year-old respects Palou however is not prepared to provide him his flowers.
“I feel he is tremendous level-headed and I do not assume highs and lows have an effect on him very a lot,” the 34-year-old stated. “And I feel that is why he is achieved nicely sitting subsequent to [Ganassi’s six-time champion] Scott Dixon, as a result of if you concentrate on that an excessive amount of and take into consideration who you are within the room with him, there’s a variety of stress, however I do not assume it fazes Alex.
“He is coming into an ideal situation. He is coming to Ganassi, which is a superb workforce. Alex has actually achieved one of the best job, however should you have a look at Ganassi as a workforce, you have a look at what it is achieved for [2022 Indy 500 winner] Marcus [Ericsson’s] profession, reworked his profession. And Palou is an actual steady-state man. I imply, I am not saying he is a ‘system quarterback,’ however what I’m saying is, ‘proper place, proper time.’ Maximizing the chance makes a giant distinction.”
Rahal made the argument that others have introduced with Palou, and two-time System One world champion Max Verstappen, seven-time F1 champ Lewis Hamilton and fellow seven-timer Michael Schumacher. Take the Mercedes away from the Briton or shift Palou from Ganassi to a lesser workforce, they usually would not be hailed as generational greats.
“If he went to a different workforce, he would not succeed as a lot,” Rahal proposed. “However I do not assume Scott Dixon might have gained all he is gained, or if [Team Penske’s] Josef Newgarden stays at Fisher Hartman Racing, or involves us as an alternative of Roger [Penske’s] workforce, is he a two-time champion?”
The identical declare may be made with any elite athlete. Ship a rookie Tom Brady from the New England Patriots to the Jacksonville Jaguars, and he may be out of the league by his mid-20s as an alternative of being the NFL’s GOAT. In each occasion, although, the Verstappens and Bradys and Palous are the difference-makers, which kicks the legs out from below this odd perspective.
“He is in a superb alternative with Chip, however on the similar time, I feel Alex is outstanding as a result of he is quick and has nice race craft,” Rahal conceded. “And I feel that is what a variety of guys lack. And I am not going to say names, however you possibly can provide you with an inventory of drivers which are quick, however on Sundays, cannot put all of it collectively. That is the place I feel Alex is actually good.”
If there is a blemish on Palou, it is in his off-track dealings with groups, which has lowered the esteem through which he is held by most of IndyCar’s paddock.
One other race win ✔️ One other championship ✔️
Go for a experience with @AlexPalou and the No. 10 crew throughout the #PortlandGP.#INDYCAR // @CGRTeams pic.twitter.com/WfDW3WmHt3
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) September 5, 2023
The grand and embarrassing contractual embattlements with Ganassi in 2022 — when Palou refused to just accept the phrases of his deal and signed with Arrow McLaren for 2023, which led to a lawsuit from Ganassi to implement the contract and a countersuit filed by Palou’s now-former administration workforce on his behalf — made for an unsightly and strained relationship. Each side finally dropped their circumstances, and Palou was given a reconfigured settlement by Ganassi that will permit his exit for Arrow McLaren on the finish of 2023.
In early August, although, together with his second championship nearly in his palms, Palou knowledgeable the winless Arrow McLaren workforce that he wouldn’t honor the contract he signed to go away Ganassi and drive for the McLaren group led by Zak Brown in 2024. McLaren is now taking Palou to courtroom within the U.Okay., the place the Related Press reported that famed English racing workforce is looking for greater than $20 million in damages, which features a wage advance for the 2024 season.
For the second time in 13 months, the Spaniard has an indignant workforce boss with a military of legal professionals looking for damages that will take a number of lifetimes to pay if a decide guidelines towards him. The enjoyment of profitable one other championship is tempered by the authorized and monetary jeopardy he is going through.
“I suppose I like drama,” he stated with a figuring out smile final weekend on the season finale in Monterey.
That drama has additionally change into a punchline amongst his rivals. Requested if he’d rent Palou as his agent, Rahal laughed and stated, “No.” Colton Herta went one step additional, saying, “F— no!” They envy his success, however not the boiling cauldron Palou locations himself in frequently.
Unimpressed by his behind-the-scenes habits, a number of drivers additionally joked concerning the $1 million Palou simply earned for profitable the IndyCar title and the way he will not see any of it as a result of it is probably headed McLaren’s approach.
Take all the pieces that Palou has created for himself after becoming a member of Ganassi, and there is no cheap argument to make that he is not centrally liable for turning into a double champion.
Seated subsequent to Dixon, and Ericsson, Palou has outperformed each with relative ease. Dixon is the undisputed better of his technology and considered one of IndyCar’s all-time greats, a benchmark that solely Palou has crushed this decade in Ganassi’s internecine battles. The final time that occurred, it was 2011 when a fellow legend by the title of Dario Franchitti outran Dixon by profitable three straight championships for Ganassi.
There’s one ultimate side of Palou’s unimaginable success with Ganassi that may’t be ignored: He wasn’t the primary alternative for the job.
Given a brief negotiating window on the finish of the 2020 season, Ferrucci tried his greatest to interrupt free from Coyne, however the workforce refused to grant a launch. Palou, who’d impressed Ganassi with a powerful rookie efficiency on the Indianapolis 500, wasn’t tied to Coyne on a long-term deal. Because of Ferrucci’s lack of ability to barter his approach into free company, Palou, who completed sixteenth within the championship, was signed for pennies on the greenback in comparison with the established stars within the sequence.
Because the outdated sports activities adage goes, “One of the best capacity is availability,” and in Palou, we have come to know him as a two-time champion due to his former workforce proprietor’s refusal to half methods with Ferrucci.
With Palou, there’s at all times extra to the story. Impending fatherhood, authorized troubles and chasing a 3rd title are the following chapters to put in writing. Spending life within the highlight, and within the eye of the storm, has change into the norm for IndyCar’s most complex champion. He does certainly love drama.