NTT INDYCAR SERIES: BITNILE.COM GRAND PRIX OF PORTLAND

August 10, 2025

Chip Ganassi

Mike Hull

Alex Palou

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We're leading things off with our 2025 champions, champion driver, champion team, as well. Alex Palou came home third this afternoon. He's now the 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion. Four-time champion all told. Three straight now as Honda also wins the manufacturers championship.

Chip Ganassi, team owner, now his 17th NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship, which ties Team Penske. Congratulations to Chip.

Mike Hull, as well, long time managing director at Chip Ganassi Racing.

Alex, how does that hat fit?

ALEX PALOU: Amazing. I love the design and what it says. It fits nicely. I'm so glad that we got it. That was one of the two goals that we had this season and I'm happy that we got it this year again, three years in a row. It's amazing the work that these two persons do to put an amazing team together that gives us a chance to win every single weekend and fight for every single championship.

It's been amazing. This year has been even more than magical with the 500, with so many wins. Today we wanted a win, as well. We gave everything that we had on track. It didn't work.

But yeah, super happy.

CHIP GANASSI: Two more.

ALEX PALOU: Yeah, we have two more to try and win. Still hopefully we can get 10. Honestly, super happy. I still cannot believe that I'm a four-time INDYCAR champion. I'm going to enjoy every single second of it.

THE MODERATOR: You're the 30th driver all told to win both the Indy 500 and the INDYCAR SERIES championship.

ALEX PALOU: Nice.

THE MODERATOR: You kept pushing at the end. Why? Did you make a mistake there going off?

ALEX PALOU: We're here to win. That's why we're here. We've said it many times. When we come here, although we have that big goal of winning the championship, our priority is always to win races and win every single weekend.

We knew we had everything we needed to win. I saw that I had two small opportunities to try to get Lundgaard. I thought I could have done the same thing to Will. But it didn't work. Yeah, we gave everything. Even though could have been okay to stay third, we wanted to win.

THE MODERATOR: Chip, congratulations to you. 17 INDYCAR SERIES championships now. I think you have a rising star in the series.

CHIP GANASSI: Probably a good statement there.

I've never seen a guy work so quietly and diligently at his craft as this guy. I said in the beginning of the year that we're just scratching the surface of his talent. I still think he's got more in his gas tank, his tank, for this season, and he's got more in his tank for coming seasons.

You saw his desire in what he spoke about prior to the Indianapolis 500, going into that race, what the goals were, what the goals were when we left that place. Even though we had the win, he didn't lose sight of the big picture, for the championship.

I couldn't be more pleased. I obviously want to thank Alex, everybody that works for us. I want to thank everybody that ever had a hand on any of those other 16 championships. A lot of people aren't here or aren't with us anymore. They had fingerprints on these titles.

But today we're celebrating the 17th. Couldn't be happier.

THE MODERATOR: Mike, to Chip's point, you think about all the great people that have driven for this team, Alex Zanardi, Dario, Scott Dixon, Alex has now four. Your thoughts?

MIKE HULL: My thoughts are basically in football you have to have an elite quarterback, not a quarterback. That's what we have in Alex. We have an elite athlete who drives a race car. You have to have people on the offensive and defensive line. That's what we have in the building and that's what we have, as we saw today, in all three pit boxes today.

That's what it takes. Alex represents all of us. He represents the past, the present and the future of Chip Ganassi Racing. We're really proud to be part of having a driver like Alex be with us hopefully for a long period of time. Hopefully he never gets tired of what he does.

THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions.

Q. Chip, what does this mean to you as a team owner to have Alex in your team, winning three in a row?

CHIP GANASSI: Well, obviously it means everything. I mean, it's what we strive to do. When you have a group of people like we do, and you plug in the right driver at the right time with the right engine, the right tires, the right chassis, the right engineering, this is the result of that.

It means an awful lot to me. It means an awful lot to a lot of people in Indianapolis at our headquarters. It means a lot to my family and to Alex's family I'm sure, and 150 other families that rest on our shoulders week in and week out.

Q. Alex, where does this rank in terms of your career today?

ALEX PALOU: In terms of my...

Q. Career today?

ALEX PALOU: It's the best. The way I've been feeling this year, incredible. Like every single weekend it's been getting better and better. Like, we've won so many races. We won the 500. The feeling you get after winning that race, an explosion of amazing feelings. People keep reminding you about that every single day when you wake up, which makes it feel even more special.

Today to win my fourth INDYCAR championship, and to bring one more to Chip Ganassi Racing, to be able to clinch it early, it feels amazing.

It's the best. It just keeps getting better. It's not that you can compare this one to 2021 or last year. This is by far the happiest and the best I've ever felt in my life.

Q. Alex, can you explain what happened with Lundgaard at the end. You wanted to pass, but you pushed out.

ALEX PALOU: Yeah, I got two chances. One, I got in front of him, but I couldn't really go on power on exit. I tried to make an aggressive move, then I tried the same on the outside.

I knew going round the outside is normally not a good idea, but it was the only gap that I saw. It was the only gap that I could see it was going to happen. I knew we had, like, eight seconds on the back to fourth place. If I spin here, if something happens, it's going to be okay.

I didn't want to go home without trying. I tried my best. If I was in his position, I would have done the same exact thing. It doesn't feel good when they do it to you, but I was going around the outside, so...

Q. I thought you had enough push to pass to try same thing to Power.

ALEX PALOU: I thought if I was going to have a chance to get past Lundgaard, I would have the same for Power. You never know what can happen. For sure we had the car, the tires and the push to pass to try to get him.

Q. Chip, does having Alex Palou and the rest of the team that's bringing you all this success, does that spoil you for the future or just raise your expectations?

CHIP GANASSI: Well, it certainly makes it more difficult to hire other drivers, I can tell you that. When you have a year like we've had, you talk to these other drivers that they've had one or two wins in their career, I feel so bad.

I say to Mike all the time, We're spoiled. There are good drivers that come and talk to us about possibilities. I feel so bad when I'm spoiled with Palou and Dixon and Franchitti. It spoils me. Yes, it spoils me.

Q. Alex, you're here to win. What keeps you driven to improve?

ALEX PALOU: The love for the sport. I love the sport. I love working with my team, my mechanics, my engineers, everybody that is involved in racing to go through race weekends and try and be better than everybody else. We keep on trying to improve, whether it's the car, driving, whatever we can, try and just be a little bit better than we were before.

That's what drives us. It's not really the championships and numbers. Obviously that's a big part and we love that. It's kind of a reward that you get. But what we love is coming to every single weekend at the track and competing.

Q. Alex, there's a lot of change in front of you at the beginning of that race there. How do you stay in your own head to accomplish what you want to accomplish?

ALEX PALOU: Yeah, you mean here with the strategies and so on?

Q. At the beginning of the race.

ALEX PALOU: I knew what was going on. Like, everybody divided in two different strategies. I thought we were going to look better than we actually did. When I pitted my first time, I was in traffic and I couldn't really get passed through them easily. I got passed through them, but it took me 15 laps. I couldn't get the lap to Power. He actually increased it to 20 seconds.

I knew our chances were going to be tougher because I was going to have to push the tires a little bit more and the fuel and the push to pass. Ultimately we got there. We kind of got those 20 seconds off, showing that our pace was amazing. But then it was tough to get past.

Q. Alex, what did the team tell you when Pato had his problems? Did that give you any relief or change in attitude?

ALEX PALOU: Yeah, I could see on one of the screens on the straight that the No. 5 was going super slow. Then Barry told me on the radio.

That's not what you want a championship fight to go at. At the same time I thought that our mentality already going towards the race was try and win the race. It's not like my mentality went from being defensive or trying to look for any other car. I was just with my eyes on Power, that 12 car, trying to get him. Although I knew at that point probably that meant that we're going to win the championship, I knew that we had a race to win.

Q. Chip, I want to know how you felt as Alex was racing hard for second and third position in the closing laps. I personally have heard you remind drivers about the big picture, what they're racing for many times. You maybe as the owner are, Hey, let's finish where we have to finish, we have the championship.

CHIP GANASSI: No, I agree with you, you heard me say that many times.

It depends on the situation, the driver. Like Alex said, we go into this race with that 10 car team, every race, we want to win the race, okay? That's how we got to this point. We talked about it many times. We didn't change anything today. We didn't say get in front of this guy, get behind that guy. You can't play God.

We got here by running the races a particular way. We didn't change up today. We're not going to change up at Milwaukee or Nashville either.

When he was fighting for second or third, I was fine with it. I got to say my heart skipped a beat when he went off there, but other than that I was all for it, yeah.

Q. Does not winning today take away setting the all-time win record, but he can tie it, is that something that matters to you?

CHIP GANASSI: Not really. That's something you talk about someday with your grandkids talking about the numbers. We set out at the beginning of the year with some goals. We still have goals to accomplish. We want to move Dixon up in the points. He can still get up there higher. Kyffin can get up there higher. That's what we're focused on right now.

There will be plenty of off-seasons and years ahead to talk about championships and records and what have you.

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations. Thank you.