INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Theres 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 cant 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.

Youre 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. Hes already the two-time defending IndyCar champion and has won three titles in the last four years, all with Ganassi.

I think hes one of the greats. Its that simple, Ganassi said. Certainly weve had some great drivers on our team, and hes 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 OWard in the championship standings to this weekends 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 Im the only one driving the car. But theres a huge team behind that is making me look very good on track, Palou said. Whenever weve had the chance to win, weve been able to execute. And thats taking into account not only the setup, but the strategies, the pit stops.

Ive been telling you guys that I know that this is not normal, he added. But Im glad that it didnt 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 hed done wrong. Castroneves wasnt 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 Im 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 isnt hanging over his head or even bothers him just a bit.

Its tricky, though, because Palou is so hot right now many are beginning to openly ask why he isnt in F1. Theres 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 doesnt 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 dont want me), but I am super happy where I am, Palou said. I mean you can see that. Ive 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 hes seen at any other IndyCar race in his six seasons racing in the United States.

I dont know what its 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.

Thats going to help some people in Indiana to know me, he said of the standing ovation he received at the game.

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In the Pits analyzes the biggest topics in auto racing.

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在过去的35年里，Chip Ganassi Racing培养了众多杰出的赛车手，但Ganassi可以轻松列举出他们中的佼佼者。

吉米·瓦瑟（Jimmy Vasser）、亚历克斯·赞纳迪（Alex Zanardi）和胡安·帕布罗·蒙托亚（Juan Pablo Montoya）为Ganassi赢得了四个连续的冠军。斯科特·迪克森（Scott Dixon）与达里奥·弗朗奇蒂（Dario Franchitti）联手，重新开启了另一个四年的冠军连胜。马库斯·埃里克森（Marcus Ericsson）在2022年为Ganassi赢得了第五个印第安纳波利斯500英里大赛的胜利，结束了Ganassi在“赛车界最伟大的盛事”中连续10年的不胜纪录。

现在，他已将亚历克斯·帕劳（Alex Palou）纳入麾下，当他俯身亲吻首位赢得印第安纳波利斯500英里大赛的西班牙车手时，甘纳西（Ganassi）向他传达了一条信息。

车队老板说：“你是最好的司机。” “难以置信，太厉害了。难以置信。”

这场比赛的结局在意料之中，它充满了奇怪的撞车事故，帕洛在这六场比赛中的第五次胜利，但在这一场比赛中，帕洛坚定地认为他必须获胜，以完善他的赛车履历。他已经是两届卫冕印地车赛冠军，并且在过去四年中获得了三项冠军，所有这些荣誉都来自甘纳西车队。

“我认为他是其中一位伟大的车手，就是这么简单。”Ganassi说道。“当然，我们的车队中也曾拥有过一些伟大的车手，而他则与他们并肩，至少也是并排站着。”

真是美好的开始

在现代赛车历史上，仅有两位车手在赛季的前六场比赛中赢得了五场胜利，他们是Al Unser Sr.和A.J. Foyt，其中Foyt更是连续赢得了七场比赛，其中包括著名的印第500英里大赛。

现在，帕洛也处于相似的统治地位，印地车赛季还剩11场比赛，他在本周末底特律的比赛中在积分榜上领先帕托·奥沃德（Pato O��Ward）115分。

帕鲁（Palou）表示，这些成绩不仅仅取决于驾驶员，他还肯定了其第10号盖纳西（Ganassi）车队的努力。

帕卢说：“我认为我得到了很多赞誉，因为你们看到只有我在开车。但是在我身后有一个庞大的团队，他们让我在赛道上看起来非常出色。每当我们有获胜的机会时，我们都能执行到位。这不仅仅考虑到设置，还包括策略、进站。”

我一直在告诉你们，我知道这不是正常现象。但我很开心（在印第安纳波利斯）并没有结束，我们至少在500米处还有浪。

他是如何赢得500的？

2021年，帕洛在印第安纳波利斯赛车场（Indianapolis Motor Speedway）的比赛中以不敌赫利奥·卡斯特罗内维斯（Helio Castroneves）而获得胜利。

帕洛乌以第二名完赛，而卡斯特罗内斯以创纪录的第四次胜利完赛，帕洛乌恳求卡斯特罗内斯告诉他自己哪里做错了。但卡斯特罗内斯对分享他的秘密不感兴趣。

帕鲁（Palou）研究了录像，试图理解卡斯特罗内维斯（Castroneves）是如何利用交通来保持自己在帕鲁（Palou）身后，并逐渐提高了他在椭圆形赛道上的技艺。他的印地500赛胜利标志着帕鲁在椭圆形赛道上的首次胜利。

Palou表示，多亏了赫利欧，我才能很好地阅读交通情况。“我知道，因为比赛结束时策略的转变，我们会有交通问题。所以，虽然你是P2，但你实际上是P5或P4。因此，你必须考虑这一点。因此，我尽力去阅读它并超越它。”

他能够预见两到三步的棋，这是他从卡斯特罗内维斯的制胜之举中学到的，这给了帕洛在还剩16圈时敢于进行最后冲刺的勇气。在最近几年中，这场比赛的胜负一直由一系列的末圈超越决定，而他的举动异常早到。

帕鲁（Palou）说：“我认为我之所以能来到这里，肯定是因为2021年的表现。”

接下来会发生什么？

在2023年末，Palou决定在2024赛季前离开Ganassi转投McLaren Racing，因此他仍被McLaren Racing起诉，索赔近3000万美元的违约金。

自从帕洛乌与两支队伍都签约后，这两支队伍就陷入了争夺帕洛乌的拉锯战中。迈凯伦希望他能回归，因为帕洛乌作为其F1车手所投入的每一分钱都希望能得到回报，并且当帕洛乌没有加入印地赛车队时，还产生了相应的损失。

但他仿佛并未受到这场诉讼的困扰，依然过着他的生活——甚至没有因此感到一丝烦恼。

尽管如此，这也颇具挑战性，因为Palou目前炙手可热，许多人开始公开质疑他为何不在F1。理论上，明年至少有一个空缺席位，由丹·托瑞斯（Dan Towriss）拥有的新凯迪拉克F1车队将提供这一席位，而丹·托瑞斯也拥有安德雷蒂全球印地车队（Andretti Global IndyCar team），他目睹了Palou击败他的车手埃里克森（Ericsson），赢得了印地500赛。

Palou不相信在迈凯伦的混乱之后，F1中仍有一个空位留给他，但更重要的是，他目前对在Ganassi的处境感到满意。

我理解（如果队伍不想要我），但我在这里很开心。

西班牙效应

帕洛（Palou）不确定他在西班牙的印地500（Indy 500）比赛胜利是否能引起关注，他在那里成为第一个赢得该赛事的西班牙人。西班牙人庆祝足球和F1车手费尔南多·阿隆索（Fernando Alonso）和卡洛斯·塞恩斯（Carlos Sainz Jr.）的胜利，而来自巴塞罗那的帕洛则一直默默无闻。

他说他在印第安纳波利斯赛车场（Indianapolis Motor Speedway）上注意到了比他在美国六季的印地赛车（IndyCar）比赛中看到的更多的西班牙球迷和旗帜。

我并不知道西班牙会怎样。希望他们像我一样在庆祝。

他的重心放在了在美利坚合众国以及他居住的印第安纳州建立自己的粉丝基础，并在那里融入了社区。帕罗在印第500赛车的游行中穿上了泰瑞斯·哈利伯特的球衣，在东部联盟决赛第三场比赛中，当他在第二节出现时，又穿上了这件球衣，对阵步行者队和纽约尼克斯队。

那将帮助印第安纳州的一些人了解我。

《在Pits》对汽车赛车领域中的重大话题进行了分析。

美联社汽车比赛新闻：