Chip Ganassi Racing manager treasures Alex Palou: "He makes it look easy, but it's not"

Chip Ganassi Racing manager Barry Wanser praised Alex Palou after the Spaniard scored his third win of the 2025 IndyCar season at Barber Motorsports Park. Palou dominated the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix by leading 81 of the 90 laps and finishing 16 seconds ahead of the field.

The victory marked Chip Ganassi Racing’s 139th win in IndyCar and Palou’s second career win at the 2.3-mile road course in Alabama. Palou started from pole and never gave up the lead in a performance that showed why he is a three-time IndyCar champion.

After winning the 2021, 2023, and 2024 titles, Alex Palou is now aiming for a fourth.

He leads the championship with 196 points and holds a 60-point lead over the rest of the field after just four races. He won the season opener in St. Petersburg, followed by a victory at The Thermal Club, and finished second at Long Beach.

Speaking after the race, Wanser explained (via ASAP Sports) what makes Alex Palou so special:

"I think his patience and his ability to absorb all of the information. When things come along that challenge the drivers, like the use of the hybrid system with the deployment and re-gen, he mastered that pretty easily. It's things like that where he adapts to the car, adapts to the needs, gets the most out of the car all the time."

"The track here, 2.3 miles in length, it's worth about 2/10ths of a lap if you use it correctly, get the most out of it. He gets it every lap. It's things like that. Again, he makes it look easy, but it's definitely not easy. There's so much to it with the build of the cars, the engineering of the cars, and the pit stops," Wanser added.

Christian Lundgaard finished second at Barber, but he never came close to challenging the CGR driver for the win. With 13 races still to go in the season, Palou already looks like the favorite to win the title again.

---

What did Alex Palou say after his dominant win at Barber Motorsports Park

After leading nearly every lap and winning from pole, Alex Palou described his day at Barber Motorsports Park as “perfect.” He said the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda was fast from start to finish and gave credit to his team for their strong preparation and support.

“It was the perfect day,” Palou said (via Motorsport.com). "I would say a perfect weekend. First time we were rocking that number 10 HRC livery. I'm super proud of everybody that has been working on the #10 car and Chip Ganassi Racing and HRC as well. Yeah, honestly, it's been just a perfect day. The car was amazing — super fast, and I just had a ton of fun. I was a bit lonely there, but I loved it. It was an amazing day."

Palou ran alone out front for most of the 90-lap race, while many other drivers behind him were trying to make the right call on tire strategy. Every car was required to use both the black primary tires and red alternate tires at some point.

Most of the top finishers used the slower black tires early in the race to get them out of the way. That gave them more time on the faster red tires later. Even though there wasn’t much wheel-to-wheel action for Palou, he said he still enjoyed the drive.

Alex Palou will race again on Saturday, May 10, at the Sonsio Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course. He won the 85-lap event last year and will try to win it again this weekend.