Alex Palou is the reigning IndyCar Series champion and defending Indianapolis 500 winner. He now has the Rolex 24 at Daytona in his sights.
“It’s like you go through a season in only one day, because there’s so much going on, in the car, out of the car, it’s a different experience to what I’m used to,” Palou said in an interview this month.
Palou will contest Daytona for a fourth time in five years, part of a four-driver crew of the No. 93 Acura ARX-06, run by the Acura Meyer Shank Racing with the Curb Agajanian team, in the leading Grand Touring Prototype class.
“I’m used to just doing sprint races, being alone for two hours, but then you go into Daytona and the atmosphere and how you work with your teammates, it just feels very nice,” he said. “It’s the first race of the year. It feels like you’re starting the year off strong because you can get so many laps in quite early, and then you have different series in the same race — it’s a very fun way of racing.”
Palou described the ARX-06 as “very, very different” to his usual IndyCar machine: “It’s a lot heavier, a lot longer, the tires are made for bigger stints, you have more adjustments with the differential, you have a lot more electronics, you need to adapt a little bit on the way you drive, you cannot go as aggressive, you need to be a little bit more gentle with all your inputs as a driver.” But, “at the end of the day, at the speed we go, the basics are very similar.” It’s quite easy to adapt from one car to another, he said.
Endurance events, such as Daytona and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, hold a particular appeal for Palou.
“You’re not only battling what happens in the car, issues that you might have, contact with other cars, but also the energy levels from everybody, from yourself,” he said. “I think it’s very challenging. I love that part. I see myself doing more. I tried Le Mans two years ago, I couldn’t do it last year, and I’m trying to do it again in the future because these are some of the races that I want to do and win.”
Palou, 28, enters 2026 after an extraordinary 2025 season. He claimed a runaway third successive IndyCar title, his fourth in just his sixth season. That included the Indianapolis 500 crown for the first time.
“I know I’ll go from probably one of the best, if not the best, year of my career, because it’s tough to win eight races, win the championship — three in a row — win the 500,” Palou said. “Like the emotion you get and the amount of success is tough to beat, or to be close to that. So I know it’s probably going to be my best ever year. But at the same time, it’s very cool that I had the opportunity to live this.”
His team boss in IndyCar, Chip Ganassi, does not doubt Palou’s ability.
“I’ve never seen a guy work so quietly and diligently at his craft as this guy,” Ganassi said after Palou’s 2025 title. “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.”
The two-time Formula 1 drivers’ champion and two-time Indy 500 starter Fernando Alonso also admires Palou.
“He’s a legend in IndyCar, and he will be a legend always in IndyCar,” Alonso said last year. “He’s a very, very talented driver.”
Palou, who lives close to Indianapolis with his wife and young daughter, is eyeing several more years in IndyCar.
“Maybe the motivation for some athletes is to get numbers of ‘Oh, I need to be a champion, or win three or two or six championships,’” he said. “For me, obviously I want to win 15 championships if I can, but it’s not really what motivates me — what motivates me is waking up every day, working with myself and the team and seeing if we can push the limits a little bit more.”
Palou accepts that the door to Formula 1 “is now closed,” though he holds no regrets, having tested for McLaren, including in a free practice session at the 2022 United States Grand Prix. He calls himself “very lucky” to have had those opportunities and is “happy because I tried,” he said. “I gave everything I had. It didn’t work out.”
A contract dispute with McLaren is still ongoing after Palou walked away from a deal to drive for the team in IndyCar.
For now, there’s the more pressing matter of trying to pick up a Rolex, which is given to the drivers of the winning car at Daytona.
“I want to win that race for sure,” Palou said. “I take it very seriously. One hundred percent, I do this to try and win, not only to have fun. At the end of the day, the most fun I have is when I try and win. So, yeah, we go all out.”
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