Five-time IndyCar champion Alex Palou tops Indy NXT test at Indianapolis
Archived — this story has rotated out of today’s deck. It is kept here in full.
The gist
Five-time IndyCar champion Alex Palou led a 22-car Indy NXT field at IMS with a 1m14.5050s lap.
The Ganassi driver's rookie run gives the team junior-car setup data for 2027.
Background
Alex Palou is a five-time IndyCar Series champion who drives for Chip Ganassi Racing. Indy NXT is IndyCar's feeder series, and Ganassi fields a four-car program there that slipped in competitiveness last season, with its best finisher placing 14th of 24 drivers. Palou was put in one of the team's Dallara IL15 Indy NXT cars at the Chris Griffis Memorial Test, an annual IMS road-course test named for a former Schmidt Peterson Motorsports team manager who died in September 2011, to help assess the car's setup ahead of 2027. He is also one of the drivers testing IndyCar and Dallara's new IR28 chassis, having run it at Sebring days earlier.
How it unfolded
- Oct 13, 2026Palou completed his fourth day of testing the new IR28 chassis at Sebring International Raceway, the car's first test outside Indianapolis Motor Speedway; his day was cut short.
- Oct 15, 2026Reports said Ganassi would put Palou in one of its Indy NXT cars at the Fall Combine/Chris Griffis Memorial Test at IMS.
- Oct 16, 2026Palou drove a Ganassi Indy NXT car for the first time and led the 22-car field with a fastest lap of 1m14.5050s on the 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course.
- Oct 16, 2026Tymek Kucharczyk finished second (1m14.8209s), followed by Max Taylor, Max Garcia and Jack Beeton.
Who’s saying what
- Palou
- He said it felt strange to be a rookie again in a car he had never driven, and that he did not expect to be first.
- Palou
- He said moving to a smaller, lower-downforce car with less power and no carbon brakes would be tough, but he was excited to help the team see how it feels.
- Ganassi
- Team official Chris Wheeler called it an exciting group mixing veteran pace and young promise, and said the team looks forward to maximizing their skills on track.