Alex Palou was ‘ready’ for Ganassi lawsuit as ‘way you resolve conflicts as grown people’

INDIANAPOLIS – Alex Palou learned Tuesday night that he was being sued by Chip Ganassi Racing, but the defending NTT IndyCar Series champion wasn’t surprised by the lawsuit.

“I was ready for it obviously,” Palou told NBC Sports in a Thursday interview at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “Everybody knows that there’s a conflict, and that’s the way you resolve conflicts as grown people, so yeah. I was ready for it.”

Aside from legal proceedings that seem virtually unprecedented in auto racing history, Palou said little has changed since the contract dispute that has left him being claimed by two teams for 2023.

Hours after Ganassi announced it was exercising an option on Palou’s contract for next season, McLaren Racing announced that Palou had signed to join its organization without specifying which racing series (the team fields cars in Formula One, IndyCar, Formula E and Extreme).

Palou still hasn’t talked to team owner Chip Ganassi in nearly three weeks, and he has yet to talk to any Chip Ganassi Racing executives since the lawsuit became public Wednesday morning after being filed Tuesday afternoon in an Indiana commerical court.

But Palou still maintains it’s business as usual for his No. 10 Dallara-Honda team. He worked on the driving simulator Wednesday to prepare for Saturday’s race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, and he still believes he can defend his title in part because communication remains “normal” with his crew.

“I’m trying to keep them as focused as possible on the work we have now, which is try to perform on track,” he said. “And try to block as much as possible the noise around us. I just try to communicate as much as possible and keep everybody that works on the 10 car as focused as possible.