Palou’s 11h place in Nashville locks up 3rd NTT INDYCAR SERIES title in four seasons; Lundqvist earns fourth top-10 finish in No. 8 American Legion Honda.
Able to clinch his third NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship with at least a 10th-place finish in Sunday’s Big Machine Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway, Chip Ganassi Racing’s (CGR) Alex Palou was facing some adversity.
But as he has regularly done during his time with CGR, Palou overcame.
After qualifying 15th and then getting hit with a nine-position starting grid penalty that dropped him to 14th, Palou managed to work his way up to 11th by the end of the race. That, couple with a disconnected seat belt resulted in dropping five laps for Will Power – who entered the race in second place behind Palou – gave Palou his third championship since 2021.
The championship came one race after CGR teammate Linus Lundqvist, driving the No. 8 American Legion Honda featuring Be the One branding, had clinched Rookie of the Year. Lundqvist qualified 10th and then finished eighth on Sunday.
Learning that Power had dropped laps didn’t cause Palou to lose his focus. “We just had to keep on going,” he said. “I have to thank everyone working on the 10 Car. Super proud. It’s been an amazing year, and I’m happy we got the championship back home.
“I have to thank everybody working on the No. 10 car, everybody at CGR back at the shop, and all of my teammates, DHL, American Legion, PNC Bank, Root Insurance and all of our partners. I’m super proud about it. It’s been an amazing year and I’m happy we’ve got the championship back home.”
Palou is the first driver to win back-to-back INDYCAR championships since Dario Franchitti won the 2009-11 INDYCAR titles, also driving the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. Palou joins an exclusive club of 13 drivers to win at least three INDYCAR titles, and at 27 years and five months old is the second-youngest three-time champ in INDYCAR history.
The title is Chip Ganassi Racing’s 23rd championship across all competitions and it’s 16th INDYCAR championship – just one behind Team Penske for most INDYCAR titles of all time. CGR has the most INDYCAR championships of any team since it entered the sport in 1990 – seven more than the next best team and nearly half of all INDYCAR championships awarded since 1990.
“(Palou) never broke a sweat,” Ganassi told NBC following the race. “It’s unbelievable the way he drives. The way he came into our team a few years ago down in Alabama. He won his first race out and it’s been smooth sailing since.”
Lundqvist’s fourth top-10 finish of the season capped a year that saw him finish 16th in the overall standings. He earned three podium finishes in his first full INDYCAR season.
“The last race of the year and the American Legion Honda had P8, which is okay,” Lundqvist said. “We wanted a little bit more but overall, not too bad. I think we drove a good race. I’m super thankful for the team. They did a great job. It’s good to finish the season on a high obviously for Alex to win the championship.”
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