Alex Palou, who is a three-time NTT IndyCar Series champion and is coming off of his first-career victory in the Indianapolis 500 this past weekend, may be eyeing dabbling into stock car racing sometime down the line.
In an appearance on Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour Podcast this week, the 28-year-old open-wheel hotshoe was asked what else he’d like to do in his racing career now that his goals in the NTT IndyCar Series are quickly being realized one after another.
Harvick then asked whether NASCAR would be of any interest to the driver.
Palou’s face lit up, and the driver didn’t skip a beat. He’s open to getting behind the wheel of a NASCAR Next Gen car.
“Oh, absolutely. I’d be down for that,” Palou said. “I mean, it’s a very different car, it’s a very different kind of racing, but I know I would get smashed by all of you guys on ovals, but I would love to give it a try at a road or a street course.”
While he’s never competed in a stock car before, Palou has shown otherworldly talent in the NTT IndyCar Series, this season especially.
Palou has racked up five wins through the opening six races of the 2025 IndyCar season. Surely, there would be a team that would love to try out the science experiment of putting the driver behind the wheel of one of their race cars in the NASCAR Cup Series garage, right?
One team that immediately comes to mind is Trackhouse Racing, which fields a part-time PROJECT91 entry, which is fielded for world-class drivers attempting to make starts in the NASCAR Cup Series. Helio Castroneves competed in the season-opening Daytona 500 in the No. 91 entry, while Kimi Raikkonen competed in two NASCAR Cup Series road course events for Trackhouse in 2022 and 2023.
Factor in that Palou drives for Chip Ganassi Racing, which sold its NASCAR Cup Series operation to Trackhouse Racing a few years ago, and you have a very intriguing path for Palou to get behind the wheel of a NASCAR Cup Series race car.
