IndyCar champ Alex Palou breaks down the lessons he learned from Jimmie Johnson, Scott Dixon about how to win a title

Alex Palou’s teammates have multiple championships on their resumes. And the young IndyCar driver took notes.

Alex Palou knows he didn’t become a first-time IndyCar Series champion by himself.

In addition to his Chip Ganassi Racing teammates who work to make his No. 10 Honda as fast as possible, Palou was guided through only his second IndyCar season by several multi-time champions, like teammates Scott Dixon, Jimmie Johnson and Tony Kanaan — plus Dario Franchitti, who’s been working as a mentor-coach in the Ganassi organization.

When listing them all off, Palou joked he had no idea just how many total championships that group has put together. (Altogether, they have 18 championships: Dixon with six, Franchitti has four, Kanaan adds one and Johnson amassed seven in NASCAR.)

“It’s insane,” Palou told For The Win. “The opportunity that I got to learn from all them and to lean on them and to tell them how I feel or what’s my issue — it’s been great.”

And Palou has taken notes, particularly from Dixon and Johnson. He said learning from these past racing champions “100 percent” helped him earn his first title.

The 24-year-old newly crowned champion from Barcelona began competing in open-wheeled racing in the Euroformula Open Championship in 2014 before starting in the Formula 3 Series and competing at the All-Japan Formula 3 championship. But, as he told The Athletic earlier this year, his “biggest target” was making it to IndyCar. And win a title.

His rookie IndyCar season was with Dale Coyne Racing, but he made the jump to Chip Ganassi Racing, the now-14-time IndyCar championship team, for his second season, surrounded by champions.

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Palou said while Dixon — who was the defending IndyCar champ — is “relentless” on the track, he’s also poised and calculated. And Palou has tried to learn from Dixon’s approach and composure.

“It was not about learning how to be quick; it’s more about learning how to be consistent, how to manage the races,” Palou explained. “The way he thinks about the races, and the way he tries to put himself in the best position — that’s what I learned.”

Consistency is one way to describe Palou’s second IndyCar season. After finishing 16th in the standings as a rookie in 2020, Palou won the first race of 2021 at Barber Motorsports Park, and then went on to win two more at Road America and Portland International Raceway, plus one pole, eight podiums and 10 top-5 finishes in 16 races.

Even on IndyCar’s biggest stage at the Indianapolis 500 in May, Palou got loose during qualifying and slammed into the outside wall. His team repaired the car, Palou remained composed and he qualified sixth before finishing as the runner-up behind four-time Indy 500 champ Hélio Castroneves.

“[Dixon is] always is able to get 100 percent out of the car, and he always maximizes the opportunity he has,” Palou continued. “So if he has a bad day, instead of making it even worse — trying to go for a crazy overtake or crazy strategy — he just tries to make it just a normal day.”

There’s plenty for Palou to learn from 41-year-old and 21-season veteran Dixon. But in IndyCar, Palou has one more year of experience on Johnson, so he said they leaned on each other.

“It was weird just because sometimes [Johnson] was asking me questions, right?” Palou said. “And I was like, ‘Jimmie, you’re the champion here. I am the guy asking you questions.’ But no, he was working super, super hard this year, and he was getting up to speed. I think next year, he’s gonna turn around lots of faces.”

So what could Palou have learned from Johnson, a 46-year-old IndyCar rookie who faced a steep learning curve in a new racing discipline? A champion’s mindset and an “amazing” worth ethic, he said.

Palou said he learned how Johnson thinks and operates and then tried to mimic it, which sometimes included being woken up at the crack of dawn by the former NASCAR driver.

“If I was a seven-time NASCAR champion now, I wouldn’t be working that hard,” Palou said. “He’s able to text me at five in the morning, thinking about the setup of the car or something about the simulator or or something to improve. So I learned the work ethic.”

Palou added that Johnson also advised him about what to expect through the final weeks of the season. Palou was clearly a championship contender, and in addition to any internal or team pressure, he said Johnson warned him about more weight from the media reciting stats, odds and points scenarios to him.

And Johnson helped him “forget about all that” and focus on the job, Palou said.

“It’s been awesome to being able to ask somebody how to deal with that or how to think about that,” he said.

“It was my first time, and [Johnson] did it for a long, long time. So yeah, I’ve been extremely lucky to get lots of tips from these two guys.”

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