When Alex Palou won his first NTT IndyCar Series championship in 2021, one of his teammates at Chip Ganassi Racing knew a thing or two about winning racing titles.
It was seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson, who was in his first season in IndyCar after one of the greatest careers in NASCAR history.
That season, Palou had the speed and the coolness to win races and challenge for a title but racing for pinnacle series championship was something new for the driver from Spain.
A ‘MORE’ NORMAL IMAGE: Palou wants to rehabilitate image in 2024
He credited his long talks with Johnson on helping him win the title in 2021. Palou said Johnson taught him how to approach a championship battle and how to properly prepare for the mental aspect of being a champion outside of the race car.
Palou and Johnson remained teammates in IndyCar in 2022 before Johnson returned to the NASCAR Cup Series to become a team owner of Legacy Motor Club in 2023.
But the young Spaniard and the legendary stock car champion kept in touch and remain good friends. Johnson continued to call and text Palou, as well as teammates and friends Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti, and others at Chip Ganassi Racing.
This season, Palou won his second IndyCar championship in a style befitting of Johnson’s dominance during his spectacular run of seven NASCAR Cup Series championships.
Palou led IndyCar in victories with five, including four in a five-race period that included wins on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in May, the Detroit Grand Prix and Road America in June and Mid-Ohio on July 2.
Just as Johnson made a habit of taking control in NASCAR Cup Series championships, Palou did the same by controlling the 2023 battle for the title. He was the first driver to clinch the IndyCar championship before the final race of the season since Sebastien Bourdais won the Champ Car Series title with one race remaining in 2007.
In an exclusive interview with Johnson, NBC Sports was able to dig deeper into the friendship between the “Seven Time” and “Two Time” champions.
“I’ve stayed in touch with Alex, but not there week in and week out,” Johnson told NBC Sports from the United Kingdom (where he has been living with his family). “There is some distance, but I always watch Chip Ganassi Racing from afar.
“I’m so happy Alex had the success he did. Dixie (Scott Dixon) got hot at the end of the year. I’m completely surprised Marcus Ericsson is leaving. I was really impressed with Marcus Armstrong and the year that he had and excited for his next adventure, including the ovals for next season, which will be a lot of fun for him.
“I didn’t need to add any more assistance to Alex this season. I stayed in touch by sending him plenty of text messages congratulating him and such. He is such a quick study ultimately. We all know that and see that. He has been able to grow and mature on his own and had a stellar year once again.”
Well, our test got canceled due to weather conditions, so here’s a pic of Jimmie explaining me why he’s got the fire suit on. 🥶@JimmieJohnson @CGRTeams pic.twitter.com/s0tuoDGKrT
— Alex Palou Montalbo (@AlexPalou) March 7, 2022
Palou revealed to NBC Sports the morning after the Sept. 10 season finale at Monterey, California, that the friendship he built with Johnson and the advice he received helped win a second IndyCar championship in 2023.
“I keep in contact with Jimmie a lot,” Palou told NBC Sports. “He is not on the team anymore physically, but he is there texting us almost every weekend. He keeps track on the IndyCar schedule and keeps in contact with Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti and almost all of the team. He texts me now and then.
“When I have any issues on the ovals or anything that I might think, I just call and ask him because he is the best at it.
“He is amazing. He is an amazing champion, and he is an amazing person, also.
“I miss him a lot. I wish he were here every weekend. You learn a lot from him. In some races, he was struggling and still learning the Indy car on road courses, but the way he would work and the way he would approach and talk to the engineers was remarkable.”
My first helmet swap! 🤩
— Alex Palou Montalbo (@AlexPalou) September 23, 2021
And yes, it was with this legend. Thanks @JimmieJohnson 🙌 pic.twitter.com/RulasiLjD4
During Johnson’s historic NASCAR Cup Series career, he won seven championships including a record five in a row from 2006-2010. He won a sixth Cup title in 2013 and tied two legends – Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt – with a seventh NASCAR Cup Series championship in 2016.
He also won 83 Cup Series races including two wins in the Daytona 500 (2006 and 2013) and four wins in the Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (2006, 2008, 2009 and 2012).
Johnson grew up an IndyCar fan and dreamed of driving an Indy car as a youngster, but his career path took him to NASCAR. He retired as a full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver after the 2020 season and made the dramatic career switch to live out his boyhood dream as an IndyCar driver beginning in 2021 with Chip Ganassi Racing.
Palou joined IndyCar in 2020 with Dale Coyne Racing and Team GOH. Team owner Chip Ganassi was impressed with the Spaniard and hired him for the team’s No. 10 Honda beginning in 2021.
That is how the friendship, and mentorship, between Johnson and Palou began.
“As far as Alex taking the advice, it’s not as if we sat down and I lectured him,” Johnson said. “It’s the friendship we had and some comments at key points in time in time when it was stressful for him. Good stress, bad stress – there were a couple of moments he had to overcome some issues, and started deep in the pack and various things that went on. It was passing comments I had for him that helped give him confidence and maybe see the bigger picture.
“As I was able to be a good teammate and friend and share a little wisdom and experience from my life experiences with him, he was very keen to pick up those subtleties and apply them.
“In typical Alex fashion, he was such a quick study and learns so fast and doesn’t need to be lectured or this deep level of understanding. He absorbs so much, ultimately. He is so good at it.
“I really believed he did that this second championship year and had others to pull from like Scott Dixon and the success that Ganassi has in general and all the champions that are in the building. He has been able to naturally absorb that energy and that mindset and that understanding, the coping skills to deal with pressure. He has done an amazing job.”
Johnson said Palou’s 2023 season was reminiscent of some of his best days in the NASCAR Cup Series.
“Reflecting back on my time, what resonates to me is when you are in the zone, you are just in the zone,” Johnson told NBC Sports. “When you are a young driver coming up through the ranks, I wondered what it would be like to have a hot streak like my heroes had and what that must feel like and be like.
“Ironically, I found myself in that role. You learn to get comfortable with it, but you also understand it might not last forever, so you try to savor the moment. You are fearful it will disappear and hang on to whatever is working and replicate that mindset and work ethic and feeling the car and communication with the team.
“Doing that once, winning a championship once, winning a race is a huge feat. What is so impressive is when you are able to win multiple races or multiple championships, to stay in that sweet spot and sustain what is required to be champion, to be the best, to win regularly, to lead a team, lead an engineering group.
“There are so many elements to motorsport that sometimes it gets overlooked and how much of a team sport it really is, and the driver is that centerpiece and the driver helps hold that together and everybody rallies around it.
“To see his continued success and he has only been in IndyCar for four seasons, won two championships, countless race wins, the guy has done such an incredible job. Also, dealing with a lot of the stress from his contracts and such.
“I’m thoroughly impressed with everything he has done.”
Although Johnson didn’t succeed as an IndyCar driver, team owner Chip Ganassi loved the championship attitude that he brought to the racing team.
Consider the numbers.
Johnson won seven NASCAR Cup Series titles. Chip Ganassi Racing legend Scott Dixon has won six IndyCar Series championships.
This year, Palou won his second IndyCar title in three years.
Dixon is 43 and his next championship would tie AJ Foyt’s IndyCar record of seven. Dixon has 56 career wins, just 11 short of Foyt’s IndyCar record of 67.
Palou is 26 and his best years are still ahead of him.
That is why he is considered a “generational talent” in IndyCar.
“It’s amazing to have two championships now,” Palou told NBC Sports. “I think we just got started and I have a lot of winning to learn as much as possible, to improve myself, improve the team and improve together and get as many wins, as many championships and as many Indianapolis 500 wins as possible.”
Johnson believes Palou has the necessary ingredients to enjoy spectacular success, but he is also approaching a period of life where it can start to get complicated.
“Time will tell,” Johnson said. “Right now, he is making it look easy. We’ll see where life takes him. Where his personal aspirations go, professional, that all starts weighing on a driver as he gets deeper in his career.
“He is plenty young, but he’s married and starting a family, how does that weigh in? Four or five years in being a parent, there are these elements that can weigh on a driver and team and what is required.
“It’s early, but what he has done in just a few years in IndyCar is nothing short of spectacular.”
