Alex Palou happy with Ganassi-Shank alliance as INDYCAR sees teams collaborate

When Pato O’Ward was comparing the strength of the Arrow McLaren organization to others on the INDYCAR grid last month at Thermal, he made a little quip:

"Four Ganassis are always at the front," he said. "I know there's only right now two Ganassis that are usually at the front, but the Shanks count."

The power of the new Chip Ganassi Racing-Meyer Shank Racing relationship could continue to grow. And it could be on display this weekend at the Grand Prix of Long Beach. 

INDYCAR has two prominent alliances: The Ganassi-Shank relationship, which started this year after Shank ended an alliance with Andretti Global, and the Team Penske-A.J. Foyt Racing alliance that started in August 2023.

Both of those relationships turn the three-car programs of Ganassi and Penske into potentially five-car programs when it comes to the sharing of information. When Ganassi went from five cars to three this season (veterans Scott Dixon and Alex Palou and second-year driver Kyffin Simpson remained), some of the group that worked with Marcus Armstrong went with Armstrong — who is still under contract with Ganassi — to Shank.

Foyt newcomer David Malukas has a Penske engineer assigned to his car, and while he has said he has a multi-year contract with Foyt, the prevailing undercurrent is that if he succeeds, he could be a Penske driver in the future. 

The Foyt-Penske relationship was a big talking point last May when both organizations were strong.

"We have had good cars here at Foyt, and part of our alliance for us is we struggled on road and street [but] we were good in the speedway," Foyt driver Santino Ferrucci said last May. "That's where Penske kind of wanted to make up some ground. … It was a very helpful relationship for us."

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