Chip Ganassi calls Alex Palou 'the best driver' after his historic Indy 500 win
Jimmy Vasser, Alex Zanardi and Juan Pablo Montoya gave Ganassi four consecutive championships. Scott Dixon teamed with Dario Franchitti to restart another four-year title streak. Marcus Ericsson won Ganassi his fifth Indianapolis 500 victory in 2022, ending a 10-year losing streak in 'The Greatest Spectacle in Racing' for Ganassi.
Now he has Alex Palou on his roster, and as he leaned to kiss the first Spaniard to ever win the Indy 500, Ganassi had a message for him.
'You're the best driver,' the team owner said. 'Unbelievable, man. Unbelievable.'
It was the expected ending of a bizarre, crash-filled Indy 500 in which Palou won for the fifth time in six races this season but in the one event Palou was adamant he needed to win to ever have a complete racing resume. He's already the two-time defending IndyCar champion and has won three titles in the last four years, all with Ganassi.
'I think he's one of the greats. It's that simple,' Ganassi said. 'Certainly we've had some great drivers on our team, and he's right there, at worst, shoulder-to-shoulder with all the rest of them.'
What a start
There have only been two drivers to win five of the first six races of a season in the modern era — Al Unser Sr. and A.J. Foyt, with Foyt winning the first seven and that included the Indy 500.
Now Palou is on a similar dominating pace and with 11 races remaining in the IndyCar season, he takes a 115-point lead over Pato O'Ward in the championship standings to this weekend's race in Detroit.
Palou says the results are not solely driver based and acknowledged the work of his No. 10 Ganassi team.
'I think I get a lot of credit because you see that I'm the only one driving the car. But there's a huge team behind that is making me look very good on track,' Palou said. 'Whenever we've had the chance to win, we've been able to execute. And that's taking into account not only the setup, but the strategies, the pit stops.
'I've been telling you guys that I know that this is not normal,' he added. 'But I'm glad that it didn't end (at Indy) and that we got the wave until the 500 at least.'
How did he win the 500?
Palou won Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway by losing it to Helio Castroneves in 2021.
Palou finished second as Castroneves won for a record-tying fourth time, and Palou begged Castroneves to tell him what he'd done wrong. Castroneves wasn't interested in sharing his secrets.
So Palou studied the film, tried to understand how Castroneves used the traffic to keep Palou behind him, and steadily improved his craft on ovals. His Indy 500 win marked the first victory for Palou on an oval.
'Thanks to Helio, I was able to read the traffic good,' Palou said. 'I knew that because of how the strategies were shaking up at the end that we were going to have traffic. So traffic, even though you were P2, you were actually P5 or P4. So you had to take that into account. So I was just trying my best to try and read it and get on top of it.'
He was seeing two and three moves ahead, something he learned from Castroneves' winning move, and it gave Palou the guts to make the final pass with 16 laps remaining. It was an incredibly early move in a race that has been decided the last several years by a series of late-lap passes.
'I think I'm here because of 2021 for sure,' said Palou.
What comes next?
Palou is still being sued for nearly $30 million by McLaren Racing in a breach of contract suit after he changed his mind in late 2023 to leave Ganassi for McLaren ahead of the 2024 season.
The two teams had been engaged in a tug-of-war over Palou since he had signed contracts with both teams and McLaren wants every dollar back it spent on developing him as its Formula 1 driver and damages accrued when Palou did not join the IndyCar team.
But he lives his life as if this lawsuit isn't hanging over his head — or even bothers him just a bit.
It's tricky, though, because Palou is so hot right now many are beginning to openly ask why he isn't in F1. There's theoretically at least one seat open next year with the new Cadillac F1 team owned by Dan Towriss, who also owns the Andretti Global IndyCar team and watched Palou beat his driver Ericsson to win the Indy 500.
Palou doesn't believe a spot remains open to him in F1 after the McLaren mess, but more important, is content where he is with Ganassi.
'I would understand (if teams don't want me), but I am super happy where I am,' Palou said. 'I mean you can see that. I've not had any conversations with anybody and I am not knocking on doors. I promise 100% I have had no conversation and no one with my (management) team has had any conversations with anybody.'
The Spanish effect
Palou is unsure if his Indy 500 win will gain him any attention in Spain, where he became the first Spaniard to win the race. The country celebrates soccer and F1 drivers Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz Jr., while Palou, from Barcelona, remains under the radar.
He said he noticed at Indianapolis Motor Speedway more Spanish fans and flags than he's seen at any other IndyCar race in his six seasons racing in the United States.
'I don't know what it's going to be for Spain. Hopefully they are celebrating as much as I am,' he said. 'Hopefully that gets more fans, more people. There was a lot of Spanish flags here, which I did never see before.'
His focus is instead on building his fanbase in the United States and in Indiana, where he resides during the season and has embraced the community. Palou wore a Tyrese Haliburton jersey in the Indy 500 parade, and had it on again Sunday night when he showed up in the second quarter of Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals between the Pacers and the New York Knicks.
'That's going to help some people in Indiana to know me,' he said of the standing ovation he received at the game.
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New York Times
32 minutes ago
- New York Times
Ethan Holliday could go No. 1 in the MLB Draft. It would be a pick 4 generations in the making
STILLWATER, Okla. — In the leadup to Sunday's MLB Draft, many pundits will note the Holliday family's deep baseball ties. Matt Holliday played 15 years in the major leagues and made seven All-Star games. His oldest son, Jackson, was drafted first overall three years ago and is now the second baseman for the Baltimore Orioles. Advertisement Now, Ethan Holliday is next in line for a baseball dynasty forged under the endless skies of Oklahoma. He is a gifted 6-foot-4 shortstop with tremendous raw power from the left side. He has a chance to go to the Washington Nationals first overall, and if he doesn't go there, draft experts predict he will go fourth to the Colorado Rockies, the same organization that drafted his father. Some may mention that the line doesn't actually start with Matt, Jackson, and Ethan. Tom Holliday — Matt's father and Jackson's and Ethan's grandfather — was a longtime Division I baseball coach, including a seven-year run as the coach at Oklahoma State. His brother, Dave, is a veteran scout for the Philadelphia Phillies. Matt's brother, Josh, is now the coach at OSU. There are other families out there who have made baseball their business. The Alous, the Boones, the Griffeys. Thirteen pairs of brothers have been drafted as first-round picks. B.J. Upton went second in 2002, and Justin Upton went first in 2005. But if Ethan were to go No. 1, it would be the first time in baseball history two brothers have both been 1-1 picks. Only Peyton and Eli Manning have done that in any major American sport. Try to explain how Jackson and Ethan both grew up to be so good, and everyone in the family shrugs. Part nature, part nurture. 'This was all by accident,' Tom says. No amount of nature, though, guarantees this level of familial athletic success. No amount of nurture ensures that even two physically gifted boys will become elite prospects at this level. That kind of feat takes generations to build. To grasp how all this came to be, you have to rewind more than 100 years. To understand how the Hollidays built a foundation where baseball is intertwined with family, where relentless work is assumed and exceptional achievement is expected, you have to leave Oklahoma's red-dirt plains, take an oblong detour through the desert and head to the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. That's where a man named Donald Holliday had a dream. Donald Holliday was born in 1918 in the little town of Somerfield, Pa., a place they later razed and flooded to create the Youghiogheny Dam. He was one of 11 children. Most of his siblings were into fishing or hunting, the mountain life. Donald had an affinity for baseball. As the family legend goes, the famed Yankees scout Paul Krichell discovered Don. He was a talented catcher, and the scout began making arrangements for Don to report to spring training. But this was the outset of World War II. Don was called into the Army. He was in North Africa when a blast went off and ruptured his left eardrum. By the time the war was over, he still had dreams of showing up to Yankees spring training and sliding into pinstripes. But his hearing was permanently damaged. He was older now and could hardly get into a squat. Real life beckoned. He never stopped following the Yankees. Advertisement Donald became a truck driver in Uniontown, 55 miles outside Pittsburgh. He worked from 4 a.m. until sundown. For his youngest boys Tom and Dave, baseball was a way to capture his attention. 'A way to connect with him,' Dave said. The boys stood on the porch under Pennsylvania stars, swinging a bat while Pittsburgh Pirates games sounded over the radio. Sometimes Donald sat in the kitchen, radio to his right ear, barely able to decipher the crackling signal of the Yankees game. On the rare occasions Donald got off early on a Friday, he would bound through the door, smile on his face, pep in his voice. 'Get in the car,' he'd say, 'We're going to New York.' They made the pilgrimage to old Yankee Stadium, stayed for the games Saturday and Sunday, then drove back to Pennsylvania. 'He was so into baseball,' Tom said all these years later. 'We had to explore it.' In 1971, a letter from the desert helped Tom set a new trajectory. Don sat across the kitchen table, smoke billowing from a cigarette in his hand, while his son shuffled through a stack of mail. Notre Dame, Ohio State, Michigan State, Pitt and more. Tom was a terrific high school quarterback on a losing team with a shoddy offensive line. He was also an all-region baseball player. At that table, Tom weighed his options. He wanted to play baseball, but he was from a cold-weather state, and only one place wanted him on a baseball-only offer. That was Yavapai College, a small school in the middle of Arizona with a swashbuckling coach named Gary Ward. Sometimes Tom saw the letters, assumed they were advertisements for a strange school whose name he couldn't pronounce. Something in Donald Holliday's gut told him Tom should take those letters more seriously. 'That guy writes you all the time,' he said. 'Maybe give that guy a chance.' 'He didn't say much,' Tom says of his father. 'But when he did, you listened.' It's a Thursday morning in Jenks, Okla., south of Tulsa, at the 6A state baseball tournament. Matt Holliday leans forward and grabs onto a black chain-link fence. Cowbells ring from the stands, and Stillwater High players run onto the field. None of them move with quite the same grace as Ethan Holliday. He's tall and sleek, with long hair, all-American looks and one hell of a pedigree. Advertisement 'I want my kids to pursue their passion,' Matt says. 'The fact that it matches up with something I'm passionate about, it makes it all the better. If they had picked music or something like that, I would be able to stand by and clap but not necessarily able to help.' Tom, Josh and all of Matt's family live within a 10-mile radius in Stillwater, the kind of college town where people come back and measure time against the institutions that remain. The Hollidays are one of those institutions. Ethan hits left-handed and grades out with easy plus power. He's bigger and a more aggressive swinger than his older brother. Their games differ, and so do their personalities. Jackson, slowly finding his groove in his second season with the Orioles, is level-headed and serious, a lot like Matt. Everyone says Ethan is more emotional, maybe like his mother, Leslee. Maybe more like Tom. 'A little bit more life of the party, wears his emotions a little bit more on his sleeve,' Matt says. 'I think that's part of having kids. All your kids are different.' Leslee is the great-niece of Bob Fenimore, an All-American football player at Oklahoma State who finished third in the 1945 Heisman Trophy race. It is not only the Holliday genes that make Ethan and Jackson preternaturally gifted. But the baseball aptitude? That's a distinctly Holliday trait. Before the 2022 season, Matt accepted the job to become the St. Louis Cardinals' bench coach. He resigned from the post before the season started, deciding he needed to spend more time with his family. MLB players still trek to Oklahoma to hit with Matt, who — if he wants it — could still have a future as an MLB coach or manager. 'If you want to feel bad about where you are as a hitter, go hit with the Holliday family,' said 14-year major leaguer Matt Carpenter, who once rebuilt his swing in Stillwater. Advertisement The Stillwater High Pioneers wear blue and yellow, but in the stands, multiple kids wear Orioles jerseys with Jackson's No. 7 — the same number Matt wore for much of his career and the same number Ethan wears now — on the back. Three years ago, Jackson and Ethan played on the Stillwater High team, just like Josh and Matt did way back when. Now Brady Holliday, Josh's son and Ethan's cousin, hits leadoff and plays second base as a sophomore. 'I graduate next week, and it's hard to believe,' Ethan said after his final high-school game. 'I'm proud of my time in Stillwater, and I'm looking forward to what's next. But Stillwater is my home. It's home forever. Nothing can take that away.' Sitting at a breakfast joint in Stillwater, Tom twists his head left, then right. The boy who once yearned for his father's attention is now the patriarch of a baseball dynasty. Those letters from Ward led to Tom playing two seasons as a catcher at Yavapai College. He finished his college career at Miami, then played one professional season in the Pirates system. There was a job at Miami, then a year at Arizona State. Ward won junior college national titles in '75 and '77, and after that 1977 season, he practically had his pick of DI jobs. Wherever he went, Ward wanted Holliday to be his top assistant. Tom favored UCLA or Cal. But Ward was from a tiny Oklahoma railroad town called Ramona, and he liked the school in Stillwater. 'Oklahoma State?' Tom said. 'Where the hell is that?' With a wife and baby in the car, Tom arrived in Stillwater, 15 miles that feels like an eternity off Interstate 35, and went straight to the baseball field off Knoblock Street. It was called University Park back then, and it was a travesty. Grass grew in the baselines. Weeds, six feet high, covered the infield. There was a massive pile of dirt between second and third. Advertisement Tom found a pay phone. 'Well,' Ward told him, 'get it ready for practice. We got a lot of work to do.' They sifted the dirt, pulled the weeds, bled and sweat under a sweltering summer sun. That first year, they won 40 games. Over the next 19 seasons, Oklahoma State went to the College World Series 11 times. Pete Incaviglia pinged home runs that scraped the sky. Robin Ventura stacked hits like the bricks they used to build the new Allie P. Reynolds Stadium. All the while, two small boys soaked it all in. Josh and Matt Holliday grew up living and breathing Oklahoma State baseball. They chased foul balls, mimicked players' stances, stole cookies out of Ward's desk. OSU players were their heroes. They played on a big stage. Their world felt small. 'There was never a time that baseball wasn't anything other than a passion that we learned to work at and respect,' Josh said. '(Dad) taught us to do that. He prepared us. He pushed us. He toughened us up and made us competitors. He never sugarcoated anything but he made us believe anything was possible.' Josh grew into a quarterback, star baseball player and valedictorian at Stillwater High. Matt went on to become a star quarterback, too. Unlike his father and brother, he was tall and sculpted, taking more after Kathy's side of the family. They all still laugh about the time Matt came home with a C on his report card. Josh, who once tossed his younger brother's Nintendo over the back fence thinking it would help keep him focused, was yelling. 'C is for average. You're not average.' The two nearly came to blows, one of the only times they ever fought. That night, Matt came to his parents' bedroom said, 'I won't get any more C's.' In a recruiting class that featured Michael Vick and Carson Palmer, some services considered Matt the best quarterback recruit in the country. He had offers from all over but committed to play two sports at Oklahoma State. Advertisement When the first round of the MLB draft came, teams shied away, fearing he wouldn't sign. Dave Holliday, Tom's brother, worked for the Rockies back then. Long story short: Colorado drafted Matt in the seventh round. He received an $840,000 signing bonus and a contract clause that would allow him to return to football after three years. Matt chose baseball and never looked back. Tom was Ward's pitching coach and ace recruiter for 19 seasons, until one day in 1996, Ward told his old protege his back hurt and he had seen enough. Tom was soon named head coach, tasked with taming the monster they built. Josh played for his dad at Oklahoma State, then spent two years in the Blue Jays system. More than the grinding existence of a fringe prospect, he wanted the life he watched every day growing up. Teaching, coaching, helping. He came back and worked for Tom as an assistant. While Matt rose up the pro ranks, they lived this baseball life together. Until 2003, when — another long story short — school politics got messy, and Tom Holliday's contract was not renewed. The Cowboys had missed the postseason in three of his final four years. Josh has called it one of the hardest times of his life, the family thrust out of the place where they had invested so much. 'In many ways, looking back, it was a blessing,' Josh said. 'But it didn't feel like one. It felt like something you loved didn't love you back anymore.' Tom went on to be Augie Garrido's pitching coach at Texas. Josh went out on his own coaching odyssey, including stops at Georgia Tech, Arizona State and Vanderbilt. Matt, meanwhile, blossomed into an All-Star outfielder, revered both for his hitting prowess and his savvy leadership. He traveled the big-league circuit with his family. A young Jackson grew up hitting rolled-up straw wrappers with butter knives at the dinner table. He smacked sock balls over the fish tank in Tom and Kathy's living room. He was a sideshow in major-league clubhouses, where Matt's teammates marveled at his innate ability to mimic any swing. Then, one day in 2012, another twist of fate. Tom Holliday got a call from Mike Holder, the AD at Oklahoma State. Holder told Tom he was going to hire a new baseball coach. He wanted Josh, but only with Tom's blessing. Tom gave his approval. Josh brought back the interlocking O and S on the team's caps and restored the team's old-school jerseys. He once said his only hesitation was that he might care about the place too much. Advertisement 'This is my major leagues,' he said. A few years later, after Tom was done coaching at Auburn, he and Kathy loaded the trucks and moved back to Stillwater. 'I was worried about being around,' Tom said. 'But we said, 'To hell with it. We're gonna go, because we're gonna be together.'' At the end of Matt's playing career — which, toward the end, took him to Donald Holliday's beloved Yankees — he, too, moved his family from their home by the ocean in Jupiter, Fla. 'We're coming to Stillwater,' he told his father. 'To visit?' Tom asked. 'No,' Matt said. 'To stay.' Baseball molded this family, scattered them across the country, then brought them all back together. 'In the end,' Josh said, 'you only go out and work so you can come back home and be with your people.' Tom Holliday watches his grandsons less through a sentimental eye and more with the hardened focus of an old coach. But his eyes still get misty when he thinks of his father. What might Donald Holliday think of all this? That one elicits a laugh. 'Probably,' Tom said, 'he would light a cigarette, sit there and say, 'You know, we need to get Jackson traded to the Yankees. Or, don't let Ethan go to anybody but the Yankees.'' Here in Stillwater, the next generation took to the game because it was interlaced with life. Tom threw batting practice to Jackson, took Ethan down in the garage to vent and hit soft toss after a bad day at school. As they grew older, Jackson, Ethan and cousin Brady gathered each morning to take grounders and hit BP. 'Everyone in our family lives in Oklahoma, so being able to go back and go out to their land, be around all my cousins and uncles, it was pretty cool,' Jackson said. Out at Matt Holliday's property, there's a Wiffle Ball field and five No. 7s stuck on orange walls. Matt spent a season on Josh's staff at Oklahoma State. Tom spent summers coaching dozens of draft picks on Cape Cod. Uncle Dave lives about an hour away in Bixby. To this day, Matt, Ethan and Jackson hit and work out at OSU. The kids grew up on home-run derbies and competitions in the cage. Advertisement Matt has another son, Reed, who is not yet in high school. Josh has a daughter, Olivia. Matt's daughter, Gracyn, watches every game, talks baseball on the ride home like the rest of them. 'Man,' Tom says, laughing. 'We really ruined these kids.' Five hours after Ethan Holliday's last high school baseball game, he stood on the concourse at the shining O'Brate Stadium with his father and a handful of teammates, watching Oklahoma State play. Tom was up in the booth broadcasting for ESPN+. 'They have my back no matter what,' Ethan said of his family. 'If I didn't have my circle, I'd be out of whack. They're my people, and I'm really thankful.' Donald Holliday died in 2001 and never met his great-grandchildren. But Josh has memories of visits to the house in Pennsylvania, playing Wiffle Ball and listening to the Pirates on the radio. In this odd little town where everything is painted orange, Tom Holliday's boys recreated their childhood. And maybe without knowing it, they built the kind of life Donald Holliday wanted. (Top photo of Matt, Ethan and Jackson: Daniel Shirey / MLB Photos via Getty Images)
Yahoo
33 minutes ago
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Fox News
36 minutes ago
- Fox News
Padres' Jason Adam reveals how he learned he was selected for All-Star Game
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