IndyCar Star Alex Palou Praises Bubba Wallace After Brickyard 400 Win

Alex Palou celebrates his win in the July 27 Java House Grand Prix of Monterey.

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Alex Palou is having a season for the ages in IndyCar as the Chip Ganassi Racing driver closes in on his third-straight NTT IndyCar Series Championship, fourth overall. He has won eight races of the 14 held so far in IndyCar this season, and with three races left, Palou is just two wins from joining AJ Foyt in 1964 and Al Unser in 1970 with 10 wins – the most of any IndyCar driver in a season.

Palou’s biggest win this season came in the 109^th Indianapolis 500 on May 25.

Those are Michael Jordan-like numbers for Palou as Jordan led the Chicago Bulls to six National Basketball Association (NBA) Championships and is considered the greatest athlete in the 20^th Century.

Bubba Wallace won the NASCAR’s Brickyard 400 presented by PPG at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway driving for 23XI Racing on July 27. Jordan owns that team along with NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin.

The Java House Grand Prix of Monterey started after the Brickyard 400 was underway, and because of a brief stoppage for rain in the NASCAR race, the two races ended within five minutes of each other.

I had a chance to tell Palou that Wallace was the winner on the same 2.5-mile oval that Palou conquered in the Indy 500, here was his reaction.

“Oh, it’s amazing,” Palou told me. “Obviously, I didn’t know because we were racing and we were focused before the race happened, but yeah, it’s amazing.

“I think they have been pushing for a long time. It’s their first win there at the Brickyard, so it’s amazing to see that.

“Hopefully that allows me to meet or to have one picture with his team boss, Michael Jordan. That would be amazing.”

Palou is from Barcelona, Spain. That was the sight of the Olympic Games in 1992 when Jordan was the headliner of the “Dream Team.” It was the first time players from the National Basketball Association (NBA) were allowed to compete in the Olympics and with a team that included Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Charles Barkley, David Robinson, Scottie Pippen, Karl Malone, Patrick Ewing, John Stockton, Chris Mullin, and a young college star named Christian Laettner from Duke, it was the greatest collection of basketball talent in Olympic history and were Rock Stars when they arrived in Spain.

At that time, Jordan had already established himself as the most popular athlete in the world and would go on to lead the Chicago Bulls to six NBA World Championships, including two “Three-peats.”

Palou was born April 1, 1997, so he wasn’t even alive when the Olympic Games were played in Barcelona, but he certainly knows the greatness of Michael Jordan.

Palou’s dream is to meet Michael Jordan and have a picture taken with him, which would be a great marketing opportunity for the Indianapolis 500, the Brickyard 400, IndyCar, NASCAR and to a lesser degree, the NBA.

But Palou also understood the historical significance of Wallace’s victory in the Brickyard 400. It remains one of the crown jewel races on the NASCAR schedule even if it doesn’t draw the massive crowds that it once did when it first came to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1994.

The historical significance with Wallace’s win is obvious as it’s the first time a Black athlete has won a race at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the 2.5-mile oval.

“I think it’s great for the sport,” Palou told me. “It’s great for NASCAR, but it’s also great for us.

“It’s great for auto racing in general. That’s a special victory for NASCAR and for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

“I think it would be a great idea for IndyCar and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to get us together.”

It would be a fantastic marketing opportunity to bring this year’s Indianapolis 500 winner together with the 2025 Brickyard 400 winner and his team owner, Michael Jordan, together at some point soon to help showcase the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as one of the greatest venues in sports.