Indianapolis 500 winner Palou joins the Mercedes team for the Indianapolis 500 Eight-Hour. Palou's first GT3 race since 2019 in the Intercontinental GT Challenge final round.
Alex Palou, the three-time IndyCar champion, will compete in the Indianapolis 8 Hour race next month as a GT3 driver when he teams up with Mercedes team Lone Star Racing.
For his first GT3 race since 2019, the Spaniard will compete in the Intercontinental GT Challenge finale on October 3–5, with factory drivers Luca Stolz and Fabian Schiller.
That year, Palou competed seven of the eight Super GT circuits in a McLaren 720S GT3 entered in the GT300 class, and peaked with second at Autopolis alongside 2004 Le Mans 24 Hour winner Seiji Ara.
After defeating Will Power at Nashville SuperSpeedway earlier this month to win his third US open-wheel title, Palou said, "I wanted to do the race if there was a chance. I went to cheer Dani Juncadella when he raced in Indianapolis two years ago."
"Thanks to AMG, I have this fantastic possibility to win the race.
"Indy is a circuit I know very well, and I have some prior experience racing in the GT3 cars, even though I will need to master the characteristics of the car.
"The weight of the GT3 vehicles makes it really difficult to be on the limit, but overall grip will be less than what I am used to.
"I am very excited to enjoy myself and compete for the victory at the Indianapolis 8 Hour. Gaining another trophy at the end of the season would be incredible."
A GruppeM Racing entry for Maro Engel, Jules Gounon, and Mikael Grenier will join Lone Star's entry in the Pro class at the Brickyard, while the GT World Challenge America championship will use a merged grid for its final event.
Although it has not yet announced drivers, the BMW squad WRT plans to try to retain the title it won with Dries Vanthoor, Philipp Eng, and Sheldon van der Linde last year.
Over the past three years, in addition to his IndyCar commitments with Chip Ganassi Racing, Palou has made infrequent outings in sportscar races.
In 2022, he competed in the Daytona 24 Hours driving a Cadillac DPi-V.R. operated by Ganassi. This year, he tested the hybrid-powered V-Series.R LMDh in Daytona and finished sixth in his Le Mans début.
In 2025, Ganassi will hand off control of Cadillac's factory entries in the World Endurance Championship and IMSA SportsCar Championship to Wayne Taylor Racing and Jota, respectively.
Alex Palou, the current IndyCar Series champion and three-time winner, will compete in the Intercontinental GT Challenge season finale at the Indianapolis 8 Hour Presented by AWS with Mercedes-AMG.
The 27-year-old joins Fabian Schiller and Luca Stolz onboard Lone Star Racing’s entry next weekend (October 3-5), which doubles as this year’s Fanatec GT World Challenge America Powered by AWS title decider. You may also read this; Reactions to Austin Dillon's Penalty in NASCAR
Mercedes-AMG entered six cars in the Brickyard, which it won with Craft-Bamboo in 2022. Palou's is one of the two Pro entries. The second works entry run by GruppeM Racing is shared by Factory stars Maro Engel, Mikael Grenier, and Jules Gounon, who is competing as the IGTC champion for the last time this year. The manufacturer's mostly Pro-Am lineup is completed by SunEnergy1, Regulator Racing, Triple Eight JMR, and RealTime Racing.
Its sole chance of winning the IGTC drivers' championship is currently Stolz, but his Spanish co-driver's performance will make for an intriguing side story.
Palou never won the storied 500, but earlier this year, while driving for Chip Ganassi Racing, he secured pole for the Greatest Spectacle in Racing after winning back-to-back IndyCar races on the same road course as the 8 Hour.
However, he is also familiar with GT3 equipment. His quick ascent in the United States since making his debut five years ago overshadows a mostly unremembered part-season Super GT program in Japan with Team Goh and McLaren; in 2022, he visited IGTC as a sign of his admiration for the class.
"I wanted to do the race if there was a chance, and I went to cheer fellow Spaniard Dani Juncadella when he raced in Indianapolis two years ago," he remarked. "Thanks to AMG, I have this fantastic possibility to win the race.
"Indy is a circuit I know very well, and I have some prior experience racing in the GT3 cars, even though I will need to master the characteristics of the car. The GT3 cars are obviously different from IndyCars in that they have closed cockpits. The weight of the GT3 vehicles makes it really difficult to be on the limit, but overall grip will be less than what I am used to. I am eager to enjoy myself and compete for the victory at the Indianapolis 8 Hour. To win another title and end the season on a good note would be incredible.
