IndyCar: The Palou contract mess isn't the first time Chip Ganassi has been down this road
In August of 2008, Mike Hull, Managing Director of Chip Ganassi Racing, got a call from his boss about one of the team’s drivers, Dan Wheldon.
“You're not going to believe this: Dan has decided he doesn't want to drive our car next year,” Ganassi reportedly told the stunned Hull. The team had offered Wheldon a contract extension in May, which Wheldon had at the time given all indication he was going to sign.
But when he heard that Chip was talking to Tony Kanaan about possibly taking over the seat (Kanaan ended up staying with Andretti Green), Wheldon, feeling betrayed, decided to take a deal with Panther for 2009 instead.
As luck would have it, events concerning a driver currently racing in a different series ended up determining how the situation would play out.
A year earlier, when reigning IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti decided he wanted to leave Andretti Green Racing to give NASCAR a try, Ganassi agreed to give him a chance in his currently driver-less and sponsor-less No. 40 Cup car.
Ganassi had considered Franchitti for the 42 the previous year, but instead jumped at the chance to sign another former Indy 500 champion - Juan Pablo Montoya, who had left the McLaren Formula One team in the middle of the 2006 season. It took some back and forth in the press before McLaren boss Ron Dennis would agree to release JPM from his contract to finish the year driving for Ganassi in the Nationwide Series to prep for 2007.
Montoya happily got in touch with his old IndyCar buddy to welcome him to NASCAR and the Chip Ganassi Racing team.
But after less than a full season, Franchitti had already had enough of stock cars and was ready to return to the open-wheel world. Ganassi, who with Wheldon’s departure suddenly had a vacancy in his IndyCar team, was more than happy to move the Scotsman over, giving him the seat for the final race of 2008 after the details had been worked out to let Wheldon finish the season with Panther.
Ganassi was thrilled with getting the former champion on his team and wished Wheldon nothing but the best on his way out, calling him “a class act both on and off the track”.
Pairing 2007 champion Franchitti with Scott Dixon, who had taken the 2008 title during Franchitti’s sabbatical, gave Ganassi a dominant duo, as Franchitti would win the next three championships, with Dixon adding a second place in the standings and two thirds. Franchitti also won the Indy 500 for the team in 2010 and again in 2012 (his second and third times winning the Greatest Spectacle In Racing overall), but the 2012 victory at Indianapolis turned out to be his last trip to victory lane, as a horrific crash in the Houston street race in October 2013 would end his career.
Needing to fill one of the top seats in IndyCar, Ganassi turned back to Kanaan, who had been the subject of the discussions that had led to Wheldon leaving five years earlier – this time completing the deal. Kanaan was the defending Indy 500 winner and had a series championship on his resume, but in the next four years with the team only managed a single race win and a season-standings best of seventh (twice).
The team expanded to four cars in 2011, but increasingly the team had become “Scott Dixon and the rest”, and after 2017 the team decided to replace Kanaan, and drop the two other cars entirely. From the departure of Wheldon in 2008 through the 2020 campaign, Dixon and Franchitti had 13 top-five finishes in 17 combined seasons, and all other drivers for the team had zero in 21 attempts.
So, in October of 2020 when CGR announced it had signed a young, mostly unknown Spanish driver named Álex Palou Montalbo to be the No. 10 car’s fourth driver in five years, it didn’t exactly make a big splash across the IndyCar world. Palou had made a couple of starts in Formula Two, gotten a race win in the Japanese Super Formula in 2019 and had joined Dale Coyne racing for 2020 in what many assumed was a typical financial transaction for DCR.
In his pandemic shortened rookie season Palou had brought home a third place at Road America and two more top 10s, but ended up finishing the season near the bottom of the standings among full time drivers -- 16th place, to be precise.
But while it wasn’t obvious to casual observers, someone like Chip Ganassi was able to see the talent that Palou possessed, even while Covid restrictions were creating a difficult environment for someone with no experience at IndyCar venues.
The 10 car was once again looking for a driver after Felix Rosenqvist, who had taken rookie of the year in 2019, somewhat shockingly jumped to go from CGR to McLaren for 2020, and Ganassi gave the job to Palou.
It took all of one race for Palou to give CGR what was only its second non-Dixon win since 2014, and he proved it was no fluke as he started pilling up the trophies, including a third place at the Indy 500 and his second win of the season at Road America, followed by a third victory at Portland.
When he came in second at the years penultimate race at Laguna Seca, the reality hit: barring a disaster, Alex Palou was going to be the series champion. A fourth-place finish in the season finale at Long Beach sealed it. At long last, Chip Ganassi had a team that was more than just the Scott Dixon and friends show.
Which brings us forward to this month, with Palou announcing he’ll be the next to leave Ganassi to go to McLaren, quite possibly sending his predecessor, Rosenqvist, out of IndyCar and into Formula E. And unlike some of the other divorces in this saga, this one -- at least thus far -- looks like it’s going to be a messy parting of the ways.
A week ago, CGR had publicly announced it was exercising the option year on the final year of Palou's contract for 2023, including a supposed quote from Palou about his excitement about having one more year with CGR.
Then, about five hours later, McLaren issued its own press release that it had signed for 2023, along with Palou accusing CGR of falsifying a quote the team had attributed to him as part of their announcement. CGR immediately responded by claiming the driver is contractually bound to the team for at least one more year and is not going anywhere.
At Sunday’s IndyCar Grand Prix of Toronto, Ganassi made one statement, simply that “Alex Palou is under contract to my team for next year”. It may be important to note that he used the words “under contract” and not “Alex Palou is driving for my team next year”. Rumors have been flying that Ganassi could remove Palou from the car at any time, with even NBC commentators mentioning during the race that CGR has Ryan Hunter-Reay available as a possible replacement for Palou, if necessary.
The mood of the team boss was no doubt brightened by Dixon bringing home the victory at Toronto, leaving teammate Marcus Ericsson still atop the standings with Palou in third and Dixon in fifth. Palou is only two points behind second place Will Power, and one can only imagine the reaction should Ganassi pull the young Spaniard out of the car for the final races of the season, particularly if he were to be in position to challenge Ericsson or even Dixon for the title.
As for next season, it could potentially become an even worse mess.
What would seem like the best outcome for all involved would be for McLaren to negotiate some form of financial compensation to get Palou out of his contract and let everyone move on, but the possibility that either or both teams could decide to leave the driver out to dry exists.
When asked about the situation in the post-race press conference, Rosenqvist replied that it doesn’t look at the moment that Palou is going to race at all next season.
While we certainly have a long way to go before we get to that point, everyone in IndyCar will be watching to see if the next big move regarding Palou is on the track or in the courtroom.