Chip Ganassi calls Alex Palou 'the best driver' after his historic Indy 500 win

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — There's a long list of racing greats who have passed through Chip Ganassi Racing over its 35 years in existence — but not so lengthy that Ganassi can't rattle them off the top of his head. Jimmy Vasser, Alex Zanardi and Juan Pablo Montoya gave Ganassi four consecutive championships. Scott Dixon teamed with Dario Franchitti to restart another four-year title streak. Marcus Ericsson won Ganassi his fifth Indianapolis 500 victory in 2022, ending a 10-year losing streak in "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing" for Ganassi. Now he has Alex Palou on his roster, and as he leaned to kiss the first Spaniard to ever win the Indy 500, Ganassi had a message for him. "You're the best driver," the team owner said. "Unbelievable, man. Unbelievable." It was the expected ending of a bizarre, crash-filled Indy 500 in which Palou won for the fifth time in six races this season but in the one event Palou was adamant he needed to win to ever have a complete racing resume. He's already the two-time defending IndyCar champion and has won three titles in the last four years, all with Ganassi. "I think he's one of the greats. It's that simple," Ganassi said. "Certainly we've had some great drivers on our team, and he's right there, at worst, shoulder-to-shoulder with all the rest of them." What a start There have only been two drivers to win five of the first six races of a season in the modern era — Al Unser Sr. and A.J. Foyt, with Foyt winning the first seven and that included the Indy 500. Now Palou is on a similar dominating pace and with 11 races remaining in the IndyCar season, he takes a 115-point lead over Pato O'Ward in the championship standings to this weekend's race in Detroit. Palou says the results are not solely driver based and acknowledged the work of his No. 10 Ganassi team. "I think I get a lot of credit because you see that I'm the only one driving the car. But there's a huge team behind that is making me look very good on track," Palou said. "Whenever we've had the chance to win, we've been able to execute. And that's taking into account not only the setup, but the strategies, the pit stops. "I've been telling you guys that I know that this is not normal," he added. "But I'm glad that it didn't end (at Indy) and that we got the wave until the 500 at least." How did he win the 500? Palou won Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway by losing it to Helio Castroneves in 2021. Palou finished second as Castroneves won for a record-tying fourth time, and Palou begged Castroneves to tell him what he'd done wrong. Castroneves wasn't interested in sharing his secrets. So Palou studied the film, tried to understand how Castroneves used the traffic to keep Palou behind him, and steadily improved his craft on ovals. His Indy 500 win marked the first victory for Palou on an oval. "Thanks to Helio, I was able to read the traffic good," Palou said. "I knew that because of how the strategies were shaking up at the end that we were going to have traffic. So traffic, even though you were P2, you were actually P5 or P4. So you had to take that into account. So I was just trying my best to try and read it and get on top of it." He was seeing two and three moves ahead, something he learned from Castroneves' winning move, and it gave Palou the guts to make the final pass with 16 laps remaining. It was an incredibly early move in a race that has been decided the last several years by a series of late-lap passes. "I think I'm here because of 2021 for sure," said Palou. What comes next? Palou is still being sued for nearly $30 million by McLaren Racing in a breach of contract suit after he changed his mind in late 2023 to leave Ganassi for McLaren ahead of the 2024 season. The two teams had been engaged in a tug-of-war over Palou since he had signed contracts with both teams and McLaren wants every dollar back it spent on developing him as its Formula 1 driver and damages accrued when Palou did not join the IndyCar team. But he lives his life as if this lawsuit isn't hanging over his head — or even bothers him just a bit. It's tricky, though, because Palou is so hot right now many are beginning to openly ask why he isn't in F1. There's theoretically at least one seat open next year with the new Cadillac F1 team owned by Dan Towriss, who also owns the Andretti Global IndyCar team and watched Palou beat his driver Ericsson to win the Indy 500. Palou doesn't believe a spot remains open to him in F1 after the McLaren mess, but more important, is content where he is with Ganassi. "I would understand (if teams don't want me), but I am super happy where I am," Palou said. "I mean you can see that. I've not had any conversations with anybody and I am not knocking on doors. I promise 100% I have had no conversation and no one with my (management) team has had any conversations with anybody." The Spanish effect Palou is unsure if his Indy 500 win will gain him any attention in Spain, where he became the first Spaniard to win the race. The country celebrates soccer and F1 drivers Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz Jr., while Palou, from Barcelona, remains under the radar. He said he noticed at Indianapolis Motor Speedway more Spanish fans and flags than he's seen at any other IndyCar race in his six seasons racing in the United States. "I don't know what it's going to be for Spain. Hopefully they are celebrating as much as I am," he said. "Hopefully that gets more fans, more people. There was a lot of Spanish flags here, which I did never see before." His focus is instead on building his fanbase in the United States and in Indiana, where he resides during the season and has embraced the community. Palou wore a Tyrese Haliburton jersey in the Indy 500 parade, and had it on again Sunday night when he showed up in the second quarter of Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals between the Pacers and the New York Knicks. "That's going to help some people in Indiana to know me," he said of the standing ovation he received at the game.