Chip Ganassi didn’t waste much time in saying that Alex Palou will be back in the No. 10 Dallara-Honda in 2024 to defend his NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship.

“Alex Palou’s going to be in our car,” Ganassi boasted. “I can tell you that.”

See, at this point last year, it was looking more and more likely that Palou would be back in this ride for 2023 but it would be the third and final season in it. Back in July 2022, Ganassi announced that they had exercised their option on Palou for 2023. Shortly after, Palou took to social media saying that the report from his own team wasn’t true and not only would he not come back to Ganassi, he’d move over to Arrow McLaren Racing instead.

Talk about a bombshell.

Now, 12 months later, they’re champions again for the 2nd time in 3 years and the once rocky relationship is as strong as ever. The best is still yet to come and I feel like Palou finally woke up and realized this.

That’s not good for the rest of the paddock.

Even for much of this season, everyone kind of thought Palou was essentially on his final leg at Ganassi. He was going to McLaren for 2024.

Then, with McLaren on the F1 side looking much stronger and having two drivers on the first year of new contracts and both being 22 year of age or younger, the F1 aspirations for Palou was looking more and more slim, at least with McLaren.

With 2024 looking like he’d be in the McLaren INDYCAR camp, Palou started to wonder why he was making this move in the first place. Why leave a championship winning organization for another team in the paddock?

With Ganassi, Palou has 9 wins and 23 podiums in 49 starts. McLaren has 4 wins as a whole in that same span.

It makes little sense to leave a ride of this caliber. Nothing against McLaren but doing so would be a downgrade.

While Palou still wasn’t willing to discuss 2024 yet like his team owner was, he did open up about F1 and the McLaren deal.

Last summer, you can tell Palou wasn’t happy with Ganassi. He felt like he was being devalued. Ganassi felt like Palou was getting greedy. It wasn’t a good place.

McLaren danged the F1 carrot over Palou and it was enough for him to want to leave. See, Ganassi took a chance on Palou in the Fall of 2020. With Palou wanting to drive for Ganassi, Ganassi in turn knew Palou needed him more than Ganassi needed Palou.

At that time, the 10 car wasn’t anywhere close to the way that it used to be.

Since Dario Franchitti retired at the end of the 2013 season, Ganassi struggled to find any balance to this team. Dixon had won three championships and 17 races in the seven year span between 2014 and 2020. He also scored 45 podiums in that time frame too.

By comparison, the No. 10 car had 115 starts between three drivers in that same span. They had two wins, 17 podiums, 30 top fives and 64 top 10’s. The points finishes?

7th, 8th, 7th, 10th, 13th, 6th and 11th respectively.

Dixon’s?

3rd, 1st, 6th, 3rd, 1st, 3rd and 1st respectively himself. He was no worse than sixth with the 10 car being 6th or worst in all seven years.

That’s a stark comparison from what it was when it was Dixon and Dan Wheldon as teammates between 2006 and 2008 and then Dixon and Dario Franchitti from 2009 through 2013.

The 10 car in that span had 19 wins, 52 podiums, 75 top fives and 97 top 10’s in 133 races. The points finishes were second, fourth, fourth, first, first, first, seventh and 10th respectively.

Ganassi likes winners and was impressed with what Palou did with Dale Coyne Racing in 2020. So he felt like he would give Palou a two-year contract with a team option for the third. It gave Palou stability for a couple of years to prove he belonged and Ganassi gave Palou the equipment and resources to shine in this opportunity.

In year 1, they won the championship. Palou felt like it was time to pay him like the driver that he was. Ganassi felt like Palou signed a contract and he needed to honor it.

So, with being disgruntled, Palou sought out a way to get out of his contract. In came McLaren. In came a team with an INDYCAR ride and two cars in F1. With what Palou says next, you can tell F1 was offered…

“I said it many times that it was not my fully focus,” Palou admitted on Sunday after scoring his 2nd championship in 3 years. “Then when an opportunity came, I had to go for it, I felt.

“At the same time I know I’m not 21 or 19. I’m already 26, which is good. I’m not saying I’m old, but I mean, it’s not that I’m super young.

“So next year I’ll be 27. If an opportunity comes in the future, which is like really, really small chances, I’ll think about it for sure, 100%.”

He’s not wrong. McLaren seemed like it dangled the F1 carrot but couldn’t deliver on that promise. With Palou seeing that a year too late, it nearly cost him his ride with Ganassi too.

But, I think this also goes to show you how much Ganassi values Palou too. He literally never wavered in this whole process. He maintained that he’d always give Palou a car capable of winning and was going to fight for what was right.

It’s why he started 2022 off with 3 podiums in 4 starts. Then word came out that Palou was looking to leave. Drama set in. Over the next 12 races, Palou had just 2 podiums. But, even with the legal battles, Palou was delivering top 10’s in 8 of the 12 starts too. Imagine what he could do with full access and a happy live again.

Enter Monterey last year. Everything was starting to cool and Palou dominated. A plan was taking shape and access was back.

Ganassi fought hard to keep Palou for 2023 and he won. Now, with Palou seeing that F1 wasn’t going to happen anymore and Ganassi being a man of his word, he saw that maybe this man truly does care for him.

Word is Ganassi offered Palou a substantial raise to stay for the foreseeable future. However, Palou also had a deal with McLaren. Here we go again.

But, Palou wasn’t willing to go to McLaren in INDYCAR. He was willing to fight to stay with Ganassi.

A new contract was what Palou was after and Ganassi was after keeping his prized possession.

Ganassi felt so strong about Palou that he was willing to take his own driver to court over it. He wasn’t going to let Palou get away that easily.

Now, the two are champions again.

With a better relationship, Palou carried that over to 2023. 8th in St. Pete led to 3rd in Texas. That led to 5th in Long Beach and again in Barber. He sat 3rd in points coming into the Month of May.

That’s where this championship was won.

He led 52 of 85 laps in his GMR Grand Prix win. 8 days later, he won the pole for the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500. A race that he was hit on pit road by Rinus VeeKay, he still rebounded to finish fourth.

Palou went from 9 points down entering May to 20 points up leaving it. No one would seriously threaten again.

Palou would win the next three rounds (Detroit, Road America, Mid-Ohio) to open up an insurmountable 110-point lead over second place (Scott Dixon) leaving the annual Fourth of July weekend stop on the rural Ohio road course.

He’d surely slip up right? No one had clinched the championship early since Sebastien Bourdais in Champ Car in 2007 or Dan Wheldon in the IRL in 2005. In this era of INDYCAR, could Palou really do the unthinkable?

He came into Portland 74 points up on Dixon. That’s the largest margin since 2008. The average margin with two races-to-go is 24.3. Last year it was 3. The year prior with Palou over Pato O’Ward was 25.

Now, it’s 74. It’s unprecedented and Palou never wavered one bit giving Ganassi their 15th championship and 3rd in the last 4 years by scoring his 5th win of the season in Sunday’s BITNILE.com Grand Prix of Portland.

However, I still maintain that you have to go back to this time last year for those mended fences. Since Monterey, Palou has finished in the top 8 in literally every single race (17 races). His average finish is an astounding 3.58.

6 wins, one runner-up finish, three 3rd place runs gives him 10 podiums (58.8%). He’s had 13 top five finishes (76.4%). He’s untouchable.

Only 15 times now has someone won the title under the age of 27 years old. Palou has done it twice (24 years, 5 months, 25 days in 2021).

“As Chip calls it, you’re either a Sunday driver or your not. I think with Alex we have a Sunday driver,” Dario Franchitti said a few years ago of Palou.

Since Palou has been in that 10 car, his ride has outperformed Dixon in fact. In 49 starts in this span, Palou has 9 wins and 22 podiums. Dixon has 5 wins and 14 podiums.

“Yeah, I mean, I always say that he’s my obviously biggest fear,” Palou said of Dixon. “I think he’s one of the best INDYCAR drivers, if not the best, that we ever had.

“Not only that, but he also has the best team around, which is the same as I have. So it’s tough because we couldn’t really hide anything or we couldn’t really — I mean, like in the 10 car we couldn’t really have an advantage on him because we were sharing everything. He knew what was going on.

“So obviously he pushed a lot the last couple of weeks, couple of months; but I’m glad that we were able to seal it and especially with a win.”

Palou’s average finish with Ganassi is 6.52.

Dixon’s average finish in this same span is 6.72.

“Unfortunately for one reason or another, we haven’t found that right combination for a few years,” Ganassi said of the 10 car in 2021. “You have to work just as hard. Sometimes you’re probably working harder than the guys on the 10 car and the 8 and the 48. They have to work harder sometimes than the champion.

“It’s as big as it gets. Just to see this young man come along, it’s been a few dry years in the 10 car. I go back to think of Dario and Dan Wheldon in the 10, all the successes they had.”

That’s why Ganassi valued Palou as much as he does and why he didn’t waver on wanting to keep him around. As a result, they’ll stay together for more years to come.

“I’m happy honestly,” said Palou. “As long as I keep on winning championships and races or battling for championships I think I’ll have a great career.”