Daytona rookie Alex Palou is extremely excited about his Daytona debut, saying he is taking in as much as he can during his first IMSA weekend with Chip Ganassi Racing.
The reigning IndyCar champion will be making his debut in the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship aboard Ganassi’s #01 Cadillac DPi-VR. Dubbed the ‘champion’s car’, Palou will share the car with Scott Dixon, Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande.
Amongst three multiple-time winners of the Florida classic, the Spaniard is notably the odd one out as his resume in sportscars is notably limited compared to his co-drivers.
After coming up through the ranks of European single seaters, he switched focus to Japan in 2018. There, along with a programme in Super Formula, he took part in seven races in the Super GT series with a McLaren 720S GT3.
A title-winning season with Ganassi in IndyCar has now led to a spot on the Daytona squad, where his lack of experience has done nothing to dampen his spirits.
“This is my very first 24 hour race, I am drinking through a firehose,” Palou said. “I am feeling good and super excited to get the year started.”
“I don’t like breaks. I would race every weekend if I could. It’s good to be here in Daytona and in my first prototype race at the end of the day it’s so close to a single-seater.”
“I am really happy to be sharing the car with three other teammates and a 24-hour race. I can’t imagine the crazy things that would happen in 24 hours.”
The style of racing at Daytona, with 61 cars split across five different classes of cars, is a significant departure from the single-make competition that Palou has become used to after two years in the NTT IndyCar Series.
“The traffic is something I don’t think I will ever get used to,” he stated. “Seeing 60 other cars on the track is crazy. And seeing the speed differences between the LMP2, DPi, etc., It’s quite insane.”
“It makes you have to work all the time when you are on the track. In INDYCAR, sometimes the race or session settles in and you can relax for a couple of laps or so, and here you can’t.”
“You get to a car that is 20 seconds slower and you have to decide if you are going to pass him on the inside or outside. The stints go by quite quick because every corner is different.”
The prospect of racing in the deep hours of the night is also a new one for the 24-year-old, but one that he says he is eagerly embracing – even stating he is volunteering for the so-called graveyard shift.
“I am looking forward to being the 3 a.m. guy. I think I am going to wake up at 1 a.m. and want to be in the DPi car. I hope to do some night sessions, I am looking forward to waking up at a crazy hour to drive.”
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