‘What, Me Worry?’ As Points Lead Shrinks To 73

For most of the season, Alex Palou’s No. 10 Honda at Chip Ganassi Racing sports the iconic red and yellow DHL colors.

But this weekend at one of the premier resort areas in Wisconsin, the NTT IndyCar Series championship points leader has a paint scheme and sponsor that is a perfect fit for a weekend at the lake.

It’s Solo Cup, the iconic red, plastic cup that can be found at Fraternity Keggers, Sorority Parties, Basement Bashes, Softball Games or any places where a Keg on Ice is being tapped.

And for the minors, the red solo cups work great with soft drinks, lemonade, tea and any other beverage that doesn’t include alcohol.

The Red Solo Cup means “Party” and “celebration”, and Palou is hoping to celebrate a sixth victory in IndyCar with a win in Sunday’s XPEL Grand Prix at Road America.

“Obviously it makes it super fun, and I think it’s perfect timing, as well, for Solo to enter IndyCar for the first time and for us to run the car,” Palou said. “I would say probably Road America is one of the coolest atmosphere tracks that you see, like kids are on vacation, they are camping, people are having fun there all around the track.

“It’s probably the best weekend to start out with Solo.

“Yeah, I don’t know what I’m going to have yet in case we win, but that’s something that hopefully it’s a good problem to have after the race.”

The late Toby Keith made the plastic cup famous in 2011 with his song “Red Solo Cup” off the album “Clancy’s Tavern.”

It was the only song on the album Keith did not write or co-write.

“I heard it from one of the engineers, yes,” Palou said when asked if he had ever heard the song? “I was not familiar with the song before.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea that I sing, but I can play it if we win. So maybe that’s close.”

Cause For Celebration

In 2025, the three-time NTT IndyCar Series Champion has much to celebrate.

When Palou won the 109^th Indianapolis 500 on May 25, it was his fifth victory in the first six races in 2025. His lead in the championship was a staggering 115 points, more than two full races worth of points.

Just two races later, Palou’s lead in the NTT IndyCar Series has dwindled from 115 to 73 after the June 15 Bommarito Automotive Group 500.

But to borrow a phrase from the iconic Alfred E. Neuman of Mad Magazine, “What, me worry?” as he heads to Road America for the XPEL Grand Prix of Road America.

“I mean, keeping track of the points, like you always keep an eye on it, obviously, but I would say that focusing on the championship, that only goes on the last two races,” Palou explained his mindset. “Whenever it’s like you already know that hopefully you’re in the fight or not.

“Hopefully it’s only yourself and three other drivers and you know what you need to do, or you know who you need to fight for.

“Now we’re fighting against everybody, so it just doesn’t really make much sense to count points. It’s good to have a look at them when you’re leading and see that hopefully we can extend a little bit more the gap, but I think now — the way we got here was by racing hard and going aggressive on strategies and trying to go for wins.

“I think that’s the way we need to continue racing.

Hopefully we can have a look at who we’re racing against towards the last two, three races of the year.”

Palou started ninth and finished eighth last Sunday night at the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway. Prior to that, he finished 25^th in the 27-car field for the June 1 Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix after he was punted into the tire barriers by David Malukas.

“I felt good at St. Louis even though it didn’t really go smoothly in our way, but yeah, I’m excited for Road America,” Palou said. “It’s a place I love. It’s a place that we’ve done really, really well in the past, and it’s one of my favorite tracks in the calendar for sure.”

Palou’s Previous Success At Road America

Palou is a two-time IndyCar race winner at Road America, and he scored his first career podium finish at the 4-mile, 14-turn. Road course in 2020 when he drove for Dale Coyne Racing.

“I guess I had great cars there,” Palou explained. “Honestly, even my first year with Coyne, I got my first ever IndyCar podium there, and I had a great car, great strategy, and then with CGR we’ve always been running very fast.

“Last year we kind of struggled a little bit, especially in the race with those three Penskes finishing one, two, three, and we were kind of there alone in fourth place. But I feel like this year hopefully we can get back on speed and try and fight for the win.”

Team owner Chip Ganassi continues to believe Palou continues to get better season after season.

“It’s the beauty of the sport that you can always get better at everything,” Palou said. “You can always get better at going a little bit faster, getting more speed, just saving better the tires, saving more fuel, managing better how you are aggressive in defending or overtaking.

“There’s so much stuff that you can always be a little bit better that I think there’s no limit, and you can see that in amazing drivers like Dixon, Power, these guys that have been around for so long, and I think Power said the past weekend that he’s been driving the best that he’s ever done.

“I believe in that, and I think that it’s the beauty of motorsports, that you can always keep on pushing yourself to try and be a little bit better.

“Where do I think I can get better? Well, everything. A little bit faster, hopefully better on short ovals, better on qualifying up front and defending moves or overtaking. I think there’s always stuff that you can improve on.”

Narrowing The Gap

Since the Indianapolis 500, Kyle Kirkwood has won both races and Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward has helped narrow the gap in points.

Again, Palou is not worried.

“I said it before the 500 and after the 500, that the same way we won like four or five races in like a very short period of time, there could be somebody else could do the same because it’s not impossible,” Palou explained. “We’ve done it, so somebody else can do it, as well, and we’ve seen that with Kyle. I think obviously without his penalty at the 500 he would be even a lot closer.

“It didn’t add any pressure at all just because I didn’t ever think that it was done or it was ours or anything like that. I knew that we just had a perfect start of the season, and obviously you could see a big point difference.

But yeah, I expect that it’s going to get very tight. It’s going to make it interesting.

“I just hope that we are there at the end to fight for it.”

The diversity of the IndyCar schedule is evident from the past three four race weekends. On May 25, it was the Indianapolis 500 on the massive 2.5-mile oval. On June 1, it was the streets of Detroit on a short and tight street circuit. On June 15, it was the 1.25-mile short oval just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis.

America’s National Park Of Speed

This weekend, it’s a track known as “America’s National Park of Speed” – the 4-mile, 14-turn Road America road course.

“I think that’s what makes IndyCar so challenging, as well, is you go from a really small track at Indy road course, then you go to a superspeedway, then you go to the bumpiest track that we have in the calendar with Detroit and very tight walls, and then you go to St. Louis which is a completely different track and now you go back to Road America, which it’s like going back to the circle of Indy road course,” Palou said. “Preparation-wise, I would say for the driver it’s not as hard as probably for the team, the mechanics, the engineers, getting the setup right and also building the car to, like, the different specs.

“But for the driver it’s just amazing that you get to focus on different places and different techniques of driving. It just keeps you sharp, keeps you studying a lot, and I enjoy that. I enjoy that part a lot.”

The new IndyCar chassis and engine package will likely be pushed back to 2028, which means the current Dallara chassis will be in action for 16 years.

Again, Palou responded with a “What, me worry?” answer.

“Honestly, at the end of the day, I don’t care,” Palou said. “Would I like a new car that looks a little bit better and has more power? Yes. But do I really care at the end of the day? No, I don’t care. As long as everybody has the same exact car and the racing is good, I do not care what we do.

“I think it’s important that whatever we do, it’s good, and it’s not going to affect our product, which is just fun racing, really close racing, and just like the pure IndyCar that we have.

“As long as we keep that in mind, if it delays one year, two years, I do not care, and hopefully that gives enough time to everybody like all the teams, Dallara, IndyCar, to come up with a great solution that everybody is happy about visually and also, like, speed-wise and power-wise.

“So yeah, at the end of the day, I don’t care. As long as we all get to do the same, it’ll be good.”

For Alex Palou, the points lead may be dwindling, but with a maximum of 54 points available in each race, he has reason to say, “What, me worry?”