IndyCar
Alex Palou: Chasing Chip Ganassi Racing and INDYCAR History heading into Toronto
TORONTO, ON (July 20, 2025) — Alex Palou and the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda team are looking to make team history when the NTT INDYCAR SERIES takes to the streets for the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto.
Palou and the No. 10 team are off to the hottest start to an NTT INDYCAR SERIES season in sixty years! Palou’s victory in last Sunday’s race at Iowa Speedway was the Spainard’s seventh victory in 2025.
Could Palou be putting together the best season ever in INDYCAR and at CGR?
“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. You’ve got to talk about Franchitti and Montoya and Dixon and all the champions we’ve had, Vasser and Zanardi,” said Chip Ganassi.
That’s no small praise from a team owner that has amassed 16-Championships in 35-years. The team owner who has fielded cars for drivers Arie Luyendyk, Michael Andretti, Bryan Herta, Jimmy Vasser, Alex Zanardi, Juan Pablo Montoya, Kenny Brack, the late Dan Wheldon, Dario Franchitti and Six-time Series Champion Scott Dixon.
If you base it on wins in a season leading to a Championship at CGR, that honor would go jointly to Zanardi and Montoya. Zanardi won 7-times in his 1998 Championship season and JPM amassed 7-wins in his 1999 Championship season.
Scott Dixon, who has won six Championships with CGR in the No. 9 Honda, visited the top step on the podium 6-times in his 2008 Championship season.
“Some of us have had years like that where everything just clicks,” said Dixon. “For him and for the 10 car group, it’s firing on all cylinders. You can’t say enough good things about what that whole group is doing. They’re just doing a hell of a job.”
Dario Franchitti won three Championships at CGR winning 5-races in his 2009 title year, three races in his 2010 Championship season and four wins in his 2011 title triumph.
Vasser won 4-times in 1996 leading CGR to their first of four straight titles and Zanardi added three more for seven team wins in ’96.
Palou’s three wins in four races to start 2025 just missed out in tying Dixon’s three-wins-in-a-row to start the Covid-altered 2020 season.
Palou’s best season at Chip Ganassi Racing, until now, was 2023 where he racked up 5-wins en route to his 2nd series title.
Team Manager Barry Wanser, who has worked with guys like Montoya, Franchitti and Dixon says Palou is as talented as anyone who has ever driven for the Ganassi team.
“He’s right up there with the Montoya’s, the Franchitti’s and the Dixon’s,” said Wanser of Palou. “Alex basically brings to us the same thing Dario did to the 10 car. He gave us all the options. So when you look at strategy and options during the race, whether it’s before the race or the tire choice, the starting tire, the setup of the car, and then what he has to do for us in the race to perform against everybody, he gives us all of those options.”
The best seasons ever in IndyCar were AJ Foyt’s 10-win season in 1964, a season where he won 7-races in-a-row and 10-of-13.
Al Unser Sr. matched Foyt’s 10-win total in 1970, winning 10-of-18-races that season.
Palou reached 7 wins this season in 12-races, something Al Unser Jr accomplished in the 1994 season.
Mario Andretti won 9-races in 1969 – including the Indianapolis 500 followed by Foyt’s 7-win campaign in 1974 that Zanardi matched in 1997 and Montoya repeated in 1999. Paul Tracy, Cristiano da Matta and Sebastien Bourdais are other drivers who have scored 7-wins in-a-season.
The eight wins by the Ganassi team in 2025 are two wins shy of the team record of 10-wins in a season, set in 1998 by Zanardi (7) and Jimmy Vasser (3) and duplicated by Dixon (5) and Franchitti (5) in 2009.
Time will tell where Palou matches up against these all-time greats, so instead of complaining and whining on social media after the races Palou wins, sit back, relax and appreciate what you are witnessing, it’s history in the making.
LEBANON, TN (July 18, 2026) – Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood is sitting atop the speed chart after the first NTT IndyCar Series practice at Nashville Superspeedway.
Kirkwood’s No. 27 Sam’s Club Honda turned a fast lap of 23.7447 (197.097 mph) around the 1.33 mile oval to best Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou, who turned a fast lap of 23.7605 (196.996) in the No. 10 DHL Honda.
Team Penske’s David Malukas was third quick with a 23.8362 (196.340) in the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet. Malukas’ car however got loose in Turn 2 and slammed backwards into the wall.
Malukas exited the vehicle under his own power and walked to the AMR Safety Vehicle. Malukas was taken to the infield care center. NTT IndyCar Series officials issued an update a short time later saying he was being taken to a local hospital by private vehicle for further testing. He has not been cleared to return to the cockpit at this point.
Malukas was also assessed a nine-place grid penalty for an unapproved engine change entering this weekend.
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon rounded out the Top 10 with a quick time of 23.9932 (195.055) in the No. PNC Bank Honda. Palou and Dixon’s CGR teammate Kyffin Simpson was 20th at 193.346.
Qualifying takes place at 3:00 p.m. on Fox and the IndyCar Radio Network.
INDIANAPOLIS, IN (July 2, 2026) – Six-time Series Champion Scott Dixon is leaving Chip Ganassi Racing following the conclusion of the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series Season the team announced in a statement Thursday before the series races at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Complex this weekend.
MADISON, IL (Sunday, June 7, 2026) – The king of World Wide Technology Raceway has returned to his throne.
Josef Newgarden won for the sixth time in 11 starts at the 1.25-mile oval just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, enduring two rain delays during the race Sunday night to win a feverish, fascinating Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline. The victory was Newgarden’s second this season, as he also won in March at the 1-mile Phoenix Raceway oval.
SEE: Race Results
The two-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion has captured 15 of his 34 career victories on ovals shorter than 1.5 miles. This win came as he was still recovering from a lower leg injury suffered two weeks ago in the 110th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge.
“Great job to the group,” Newgarden said. “Just a methodical night. We had a good car to start. It wasn’t perfect, but it really came to us just when we needed it. It was a track position day.”
Newgarden, who started eighth, drove his No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet to victory by .6613 of a second over the No. 28 Delaware Life Honda of fellow Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericsson, who still managed a season-best finish. Christian Rasmussen finished a season-best third in the No. 21 Splenda Chevrolet of ECR.
Rinus VeeKay continued the trend of season-best finishes by ending up fourth in the No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet, with Scott McLaughlin rounding out the top five in the No. 3 DEX Team Penske Chevrolet that featured a throwback livery honoring the 2009 Indianapolis 500-winning car driven by Helio Castroneves.
Newgarden took the lead for good on Lap 221 after a spirited duel with Rasmussen that began almost immediately after a restart on Lap 212. Rasmussen dove under Newgarden in Turn 1 for the lead on Lap 215, but Newgarden drove past Rasmussen in Turn 3 for the top spot on Lap 219.
One lap later, Rasmussen again drove under Newgarden for the lead in Turn 1, one of his race-high 38 on-track passes. But Newgarden countered again in Turn 3 one lap later for a lead he would not surrender. It was the most decisive of an event-record 268 passes for position in this frantic race.
Ericsson sped under Rasmussen for second in Turn 3 on Lap 225 and set his sights on Newgarden. But one lap later, a plume of smoke trailed from the No. 4 Combitrans Amazonia Chevrolet fielded by A.J. Foyt Enterprises for Caio Collet, who was enjoying the best race of his rookie season by leading seven laps and running consistently in the top five in the second half of the race.
That triggered the last of four caution periods, with another wrinkle to concern Newgarden and the lead pack. A host of trailing cars entered the pits for fresh Firestone Firehawk tires, while the top eight cars stayed out.
McLaughlin made a spirited charge toward the front on the restart on Lap 234, climbing from ninth to fifth in just four laps. But the Kiwi and the other cars that pitted for tires didn’t have enough traction from the fresher rubber or speed to challenge the top four down the stretch.
Meanwhile, Newgarden maintained a gap of around one-half of a second over Ericsson over the closing 10 laps and never was threatened.
“You’ve got to give a lot of credit to Marcus,” Newgarden said. “I thought he was incredibly strong. I don’t really think there was much between us, so it was a matter of who was going to get position on each other, and that was going to seal the deal. He drove a great race.”
Said Ericsson, seeking his first win since March 2023 at St. Petersburg: “I’m very proud of our performance, but at the same time it’s tough to lead that many laps … I thought we had it at some points, but Josef is the best in the business on these short ovals.”
Two red-flag periods totaling 50 minutes kept strategists’ heads spinning on the pit wall as various permutations and fuel options were considered.
Chip Ganassi Racing rolled the dice earlier in the race by calling NTT P1 Award winner Alex Palou and his teammate Scott Dixon to the pits to top off fuel as soon as the pits opened after the first red flag period, which lasted 38 minutes. The hope was to get enough caution to need one fewer fuel stop than rivals or be out front when a race-ending rain shower arrived.
But neither happened, and Palou paid the price dearly.
The four-time series champion entered the pits on Lap 203, two laps after Dixon had to enter a closed pit for emergency service as his No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda was running out of fuel. Palou’s No. 10 HRC Chip Ganassi Racing Honda sputtered when it entered the pit lane and ran out of fuel, and he was forced to coast to his pit box for a stop made even longer when his engine wouldn’t refire.
Palou’s car restarted, and he returned to the track to finish 17th. The two short oval races this season have been Palou’s Achilles’ heel. He finished 24th after contact in March at Phoenix, and that result and tonight’s disappointing showing are his only finishes outside of the top seven all season.
Reigning series champion Palou’s lead in the standings was trimmed to 49 points over Kyle Kirkwood, who finished sixth in the No. 27 Sam’s Club Honda of Andretti Global.
The next NTT INDYCAR SERIES race is the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America on Sunday, June 21 at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
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