If anyone had never heard of Alex Palou before May 25, 2025, they will now after his victory in the 109th Indianapolis 500 on Sunday.
The 28- year old from Barcelona, Spain and the current driver of the No.10 DHL Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing, has only been in the IndyCar series for six seasons but has three championships and 16 career wins to his name, to go with the recent “500” victory.
Palou started his career in Europe, racing in karts at the age of six and as he moved up the ranks, he may not have won everything but raced against some of the best in the world while doing so.
Palou’s family has no connections to the auto racing world and despite that, he was given a second-hand kart to start his racing journey. Palou would go on to win multiple karting titles in Spain from as a young child and work his way up to the international karting ranks, winning the WSK Euro Series title in 2012.
That championship, featured the likes of current IndyCar drivers Callum Ilott, Santino Ferrucci and Robert Shwartzman, Mercedes Formula One driver George Russell, Aston Martin F1 driver Lance Stroll, former NASCAR Truck Series driver Dalton Sargeant and former F1 driver for Haas, Nikita Mazepin.
After winning the WSK Euro Series, it was time for Palou to transition to open-wheel racing. He joined the Campos Racing team for the Euroformula Open Championship at 17. Palou would finish third in that championship, winning three races and three poles.
Palou continued to stay with the Spain-based team in Campos throughout his junior career and moved up to the GP3 series in 2015 (now merged with the Formula 3 series, two steps below F1).
After suffering reliability issues early on in the season, Palou would start to find form later in the season, posting several top 10’s and winning the final race at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, the first Spanish driver to do so. Current Haas F1 driver Esteban Ocon would win that championship, with former IndyCar driver Luca Ghiotto in second.
Palou would stay in GP3 in 2016 with Campos Racing, finishing 15th in the championship standings, with only one podium at Silverstone. Competing alongside Palou would be Ferrucci, Ferrari F1 driver Charles Leclerc, Williams F1 driver Alexander Albon, former F1 driver Nyck De Vries and former IndyCar driver Tatiana Calderón.
For 2017, Palou left the GP3 series and moved to the World Series Formula V8 3.5 (formerly known as the Formula Renault 3.5 series) for Teo Martín Motorsport. Here Palou ran a partial season, competing alongside Calderón and former IndyCar driver Pietro Fittipaldi.
Despite not running in the full season, Palou finished 10th in the standings, even winning a race at the Nüburgring in Germany. Palou also notched three pole positions and podiums for the short season.
Also in 2017, Palou made four Formula Two starts (the series below F1), with Campos Racing. Racing at just two circuits, Jerez, in his native Spain and the Yas Marina Circuit, Palou managed a highest finish of eighth in the two races at Jerez. Yas Marina saw Palou finish 12th in both races in Abu Dhabi, garnering five points on the season, 21st in the championship. Leclerc would win F2 that year with Palou crossing paths with Ilott, Ferrucci, Albon, de Vries, Ghiotto, and Lando Norris.
Taking the next step in his racing career, Palou entered into a full season campaign in F3, returning to the series for the first time since 2016. This time, paired with Hitech Bullfrog GP, the Spaniard would notch seven podiums and two fastest laps across the 10-race campaign, ending the season seventh in the championship. Palou once again ran into Shwartzman, current IndyCar drivers Devlin DeFrancesco and Marcus Armstrong and former F1 driver Mick Schumacher on his road to the IndyCar series.
With the road to F1 backed up around this time, Palou started the switch and the move to Japan to race. The switch started in 2017, while racing in F2 and the World Series Formula V8 3.5.
Joining the Threebond with Drago Corse team, Palou made a full season effort in Japanese Formula Three, finishing third in the championship with 10 podiums and five poles, Palou cemented himself as a promising talent in Japan at 20 years old.
After the F3 campaign in 2018, Palou fully committed to racing in Japan in 2019, starting out in the Super GT GT300 class driving a McLaren 720S GT3 for the McLaren Customer Racing team. Palou and teammate Seiji Ara finished 15th in class for the season, with a season-high second place at the Autopolis circuit.
2019 was also when Palou competed in the Super Formula series, the top open-wheel series in Japan. Palou finished third in the championship that year, with one win at Fuji Speedway and three poles, with TCS Nakajima Racing.
After Japan, Palou made the decision to come to the United States of America and take a shot at IndyCar.
Palou came into IndyCar in 2020 as an unknown driver, joining up with Dale Coyne Racing, in partnership with Team Goh, an established team in the Super Formula series. The difference in cars was slim as well, coming from the 550 horsepowered Super Formula to the 650-700 horsepower of the IndyCar.
Palou made several IndyCar tests in order to be ready for the 2020 season and had a baptism by fire with his debut in the Genesys 300 at Texas Motor Speedway, one of the fastest tracks on the calendar, at that time. Palou would finish 23rd on debut after crashing with Rinus Veekay.
As the 2020 season went on, Palou would show signs of the driver that he is today, producing consistent results, with a podium at Road America and a ninth on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course. Finishing 16th in the standings, with a history of consistent results and out-performing the equipment, the future was bright for Palou in IndyCar.
Then Chip Ganassi came calling and as they say, the rest is history.
Ganssi tapped Palou to drive the No.10 car after Felix Rosenqvist left for Arrow McLaren. Palou delivered on the gamble that Ganssi took after winning on debut at Barber Motorsports Park. Breaking through for his first win, the floodgates opened for Palou, now a six-year veteran of the sport.
“He certainly delivered out of the blocks there at Alabama. His first race with us he won,” Ganassi said of his driver after the Indy 500 win on Sunday. “The guy continues to just change the record book.
I think he’s one of the greats. It’s that simple. 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, and it just adds to it, Marcus Ericsson won here with us. It’s just a great thing. He’s clearly in that group now.”
Palou has now broken records in the 2025 season, becoming just the third driver to win five-of-the-first-six races in an IndyCar season. Only A.J. Foyt and Al Unser have accomplished such a feat.
It’s hard to debate against Palou being cemented among the greats of IndyCar racing after his “500” win. At 28, coming from a family that worked hard to make sure he lived out his dream of driving race cars, Palou will keep breaking records and further cementing himself with the likes of Foyt, Unser, Mears, Dixon, Franchitti, Castroneves and Kanaan.