NTT INDYCAR SERIES: STREETS OF ST. PETERSBURG

February 28, 2025

Scott Dixon

Chip Ganassi

Mike Hull

Alex Palou

Kyffin Simpson

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome again to the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding race weekend and the Visit St. Pete Clearwater Media Center this weekend. No better way to kick off the weekend than with the reigning NTT INDYCAR Series champion, 16 titles and counting, and certainly they'd love nothing more than to get off to a strong start coming up on Sunday afternoon.

Joining us this morning, celebrating 35 years, 23 motorsports championships and more than 260 race victories, team owner Chip Ganassi. Good morning, Chip. The longtime managing director on the far end, Mike Hull, joins us, as well. Good morning to you, sir. The driver of the No. 8 Journey Rewards Honda, Kyffin Simpson, is here. Driver of the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, Scott Dixon, and driving the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, Alex Palou.

Chip, we'll start with you, celebrating, as mentioned, 35 years, which is incredible. Seems like yesterday when you got started --

CHIP GANASSI: Doesn't feel quite like yesterday but...

Q. Still at the top of the game, still very much in championship contention. What has been the secret to consistency over the years?

CHIP GANASSI: Well, I think it starts with the people, starts with great people, starts with great drivers. Nothing new there.

But I think what our guys are able to do is each year reassess what's going to be important that year. You have to -- in sports today, I said in my quote there that we're like a 35-year-old startup company, and I think what great people are able to do, the great people on our team are able to do, is each year sort of redefine the mission and the vision.

These days in sports obviously you have the obvious things with racing like finishing races and whatever. But we're down to today in the world of communication, you have group chats -- it's very hard to control the narrative with just your public relations people or whatever. You have a lot of communication going on today in the world that you didn't have 25 years ago. In sports especially (audio interruption).

You need to take a fresh look at it, and I think that's what our people are able to do, which is what makes it so exciting. When you have great people and great drivers, each year the tires change a little bit, the car center pressure changes, Rocket or somebody comes up with a new wing or a new whiz-bang thing you need on the car, and the drivers need to readjust their driving style, and that's what these guys are able to do year in and year out: Assess what the challenge is, accept that challenge, and move forward.

Q. Mike, for you, talk about 35 years, quite a milestone. Just maybe talk through what Chip described as consistency over the years. You guys have done it.

MIKE HULL: Well, Chip has had Chip Ganassi Racing for 35 years, so in this case he's got me age-wise because I haven't been with Chip quite that long.

I think what defines Chip Ganassi Racing is (audio interruption). For 90 percent of the people in motor racing, it's about forecasting change, and that's what Chip does an extremely good job of. It's about drivers like we have up here this morning. We have three of the best drivers in the business driving for us, and that's what Chip does a really good job of, also, is he's able to not necessarily hire those drivers but find those drivers, and those are drivers that work together like these three do.

That's who we are. That's who we've always been. I don't want to say the rest of history. That's not fair. But I think we've defined the history of INDYCAR racing for a long, long time together, and together is the word that we use. We're together on this thing.

Proud to be with him.

Q. Kyffin, for you, I know last year was a great learning experience for you. What did you learn from 2024 that you can apply here to 2025?

KYFFIN SIMPSON: Yeah, I think it was a great start to my INDYCAR career. I think 2024 was a good year for me. I felt like I was able to learn a lot and really get accustomed to INDYCAR racing and just everything about it.

I think starting 2025, we're just going to need to be building on that and continue to push for some good results this year.

Q. Do you want to talk about the Journey Rewards program, as well; what did you learn about some of that and playing it this year? Talk about that.

KYFFIN SIMPSON: Yeah, it's great to have Journey Rewards back on the car this year. We changed up the colors a little bit this year, so it's great to see the car back out on track with some new colors, and great to have them back for another year.

Q. Scott, year 25 for you, something like that --

SCOTT DIXON: Is it really? Feels like year two or three.

Q. You've got to go back to, what, like 2005 last time you finished outside the top 10 in the championship and arguably now the championship is as tough as it's ever been. What's been the secret for you? You talked a lot about consistency. You've been consistent, obviously.

SCOTT DIXON: Yeah, I think '04 and '05 are definitely years that we tried to forget at the team, but obviously I think the years we learned the most, as well, and definitely built a fantastic foundation for the future.

Last year I think for us, we got off to a great start, led the championship at the first half of the season, I think, and then it kind of went downhill pretty quickly with a lot of things I thought that were kind of out of our control.

Luckily -- well, not luckily, but Alex and the 10 car team did a fantastic job to go back-to-back, which was huge for him and huge for this team. I'd like to think that the off-season for us has been huge in the fact of diving in deep and understanding what we need to do, obviously, for this season, as well.

I think all of us are quietly confident. I think the team is always confident. Looking forward to a strong year and hopefully a championship for the 35th anniversary.

Q. Alex, for you, a lot of talk about a three-peat or at least that possibility. It hasn't happened since Dario Franchitti in 2011. He was driving for -- who was that team he was driving for?

ALEX PALOU: 10 car.

Q. How do you make it happen in 2025?

ALEX PALOU: Session by session. It's been an amazing two years, going back-to-back. It's very been very different. I would say '23 we felt like we had a lot of speed everywhere and were winning a lot of races, and last year we had a lot more issues, a lot more mistakes on track, as well, and we just want to get back on form. As Scott and Kyffin and Chip and Mike said, we've been digging deep this off-season to look better in places that we normally struggle a little bit more. Like St. Pete, for example, it's been a place that myself personally, I've been struggling in the past, so hopefully we can start the year off strong and finish it off strong.

Q. Talk about a really cool DHL program you guys announced yesterday with an employee on the rear wing and they're coming to the track each and every weekend.

ALEX PALOU: Yeah, so we're going to have different names of small company owners throughout the States, and they're going to be on the rear wing. If we win, they're going to have their name on Victory Lane, as well. Yeah, that's the goal.

Q. FOX begins its new era with INDYCAR this weekend. How exciting and how important is that from a business standpoint to have that type of promotion from a major network like FOX, especially with all the viewers they got for the Super Bowl commercials?

CHIP GANASSI: Yeah, I think obviously we've seen -- I don't know if there's ever been a network that had the Super Bowl, the INDYCAR Series and the Indianapolis 500 all in the same year, so it makes for a lot of great cross-promotions. I go back to FOX when they became FOX Sports, I remember, way, way back, and we were all thinking at the time, gosh, FOX Sports, how can you possibly do a better job than ESPN, in the day of putting racing on live television.

When you've been around this business as long as I have, you remember when races used to be on a tape delay or a week delay or whatever. Then it was the same-day delay. Then it was live. When FOX came in, we all thought, gosh, nobody could possibly do better than, like I said, than ESPN, and they blew it out of the park.

Now you have, here we are 25 years later or whatever, you have an executive there in charge of FOX Sports that's from Indiana. He gets INDYCAR racing. He likes INDYCAR racing. He's always wanted to be involved with the Indianapolis 500, and here he is now doing it.

I think you certainly have the pieces and the foundation of a great structure to build going forward, if you will.

MIKE HULL: The other day in the building, Eric Shanks came to the building, and after the time that he spent with all the employees at Chip Ganassi Racing, he walked around the shop floor, and maybe that answers the question for you. The enthusiasm that he has for INDYCAR racing was very, very evident. That in itself doesn't sell INDYCAR racing, but I think FOX Sports that he represents does.

We're excited to be part of this. We're excited to be part of FOX certainly. You'd be remiss if you didn't say thank you to NBC for all the effort that they've put into this thing for a long, long time. But I think sometimes when you study the competition - we do that - you learn from what they do and you make it better. That's what FOX Sports is very apparent that they're going to do. They're going to make it better for all of us that are in this room.

Look at the view that somebody has provided for you guys here today. Racing at places like this are what FOX Sports are going to take and catapult on to the next level.

We're excited about this. We're excited about what the opportunity is.

Q. For Alex, over 125 million people saw the Super Bowl telecast and your commercials were there. Over 100 million people now know who Alex Palou is. Just how important is that to get that type of connection and name recognition on that broad of a group of people?

ALEX PALOU: Yeah, it was fun. It was huge. I think they did an amazing job on the three commercials they did so far for INDYCAR, making it look as cool as INDYCAR is, fast and entertaining. Yeah, I just feel super lucky that I got a commercial on the Super Bowl. It's as big as it gets to get a commercial there.

It's not only been there, it's been during the NASCAR races. It's been on fuel stations in INDYCAR that I've saw people posting. It's great. As Mike and Chip said, the effort that they are putting, I think it's already surpassed all the expectations, and I think there's more to come. I'm excited to see how they do throughout the season, but I know it's going to be great for us.

Q. Scott, what happened on the first day of testing at Sebring? I know you've been around for a long time, but do you feel behind at all having lost a day?

SCOTT DIXON: Yeah, it's definitely not ideal, but those are the circumstances that you have sometimes. I think luckily, the teammates across our situation definitely helped being able to test all the stuff that we maybe didn't get to. But yeah, I think any track time is big, obviously now when we only get kind of one day before the season. That definitely magnifies it a little bit. But yeah, you can't do anything about that.

Q. I know you don't pat yourself on the back and you just worry about the next session, but as competitive as the series is right now, do you appreciate what it is to repeat and how difficult it will be to try to go out there and do it again?

ALEX PALOU: Oh, absolutely. Every night before going to bed I do a little bit on my -- I'm joking. It's been amazing. I feel super lucky to have the opportunity I have every day to be in a competitive series but then in a competitive environment with the 10 car. So it's amazing. I don't give that for granted.

I know there's a lot of people that is trying to catch up and trying to get better, but we're doing the same. As you can see in 35 years of history in the team, they've won 16 INDYCAR championships. If they were not hungry in the building, they would have won one or two, maybe three. But everybody here is super hungry to get more, and we don't look back.

Q. Scott, I know of all the places that you have won in your career, St. Pete is not yet one of them. What would that mean to you to be able to tick another box on this track this season?

SCOTT DIXON: Yeah, it would be big. It's a place I've always wanted to win. I think we've come close several times. I think we've had seven or eight podiums.

I don't know, got to keep knocking on the door and hopefully it's going to open at some point. I know some years we came very close, and maybe if we hadn't made a couple mistakes or even two years ago with how the caution fell and we got caught out by the blend line that kind of really hurt. Hopefully we can have a smooth weekend across all the cars, and hopefully it's three or five of us fighting for that win.

Q. I know there's been a lot of changes in INDYCAR this off-season between leadership, talks about new car, things like that. As a veteran of this sport, what do you make of the changes that have taken place as we get started with this season this year?

SCOTT DIXON: Change is inevitable. Obviously I think the biggest change was when Penske came in and definitely took over the series. I think that's been huge, I think, for the sport and for us in stability.

Obviously we'll have to see where the recent changes kind of take us, but there's been some big ones.

Q. What made you take this career trajectory and stick with it and spend 35 and make this your life's work?

CHIP GANASSI: I had a smart-ass answer for that. I'm too lazy to work and too nervous to steal. All that was left was racing.

I don't know. Obviously when I got into racing, I was just trying to avoid getting a real job, if you will, back in the day.

In the early '80s when I got involved in INDYCAR racing, the sport wasn't as great as it is now. The sport wasn't recognized as a real business, if you will. It was a sport of kings.

But I think (audio interruption) INDYCAR racing a viable business for people like Chip Ganassi or today like a viable business like Mike Shank or -- you don't have to be a multi, multimillionaire to have an INDYCAR business, if you will.

That's how the sport, from my point of view, has changed quite a bit in 35 years. More people know about it. It's recognized as a -- you can have a business and go out and you can beat billionaires at it.

Q. What would you have done or what would you be if you weren't in racing?

CHIP GANASSI: That's a great question. I haven't thought about that for a while.

Q. An astronaut?

CHIP GANASSI: Off the cuff, no, I wouldn't be an astronaut, no. That's a great question. Maybe a pilot. Maybe a jet pilot or something.

Q. Kyffin, we haven't officially met yet, but I'm curious being on this team, you hear the history of Chip Ganassi Racing, your second year here. What do you take from the guys alongside you and how are they able to help you and grow in this sport?

KYFFIN SIMPSON: Yeah, you just learn so much from them, even just sitting in the same engineering room as them. You catch little things they say, how they talk to their engineers, how they portray the feelings that they have from the car to their engineers, little things like that.

I get to see all their data and video, as well, which is a huge help for me, as well. All these little things add up for me and just help me develop my skills and just push me to be the best that I can.

Q. For Chip and Mike, you guys are returning to INDY NXT in 2025. What excites you about being back in the series, and what are you looking to get out of your INDY NXT program?

CHIP GANASSI: Yeah, INDY NXT for us, we've always looked at it as a place that can bring along not only sponsors and team members but drivers, as well. We've had a lot of success with guys that have come out of that series from time to time.

It deserved a closer look by our team, and I think that's why we're there. We've been in other forms of racing over the years, and it's kind of nice to have everybody in one location now this season. I don't have to be running between racetracks on the weekends.

I think it's kind of nice. I'm looking forward to it. I think we have two great young guys driving the cars. We have a good -- people have commented about how good our cars look prepared, so let's hope they go as fast as they look, and we'll be okay.

MIKE HULL: Thanks for the question, first of all. I think what Chip Ganassi Racing has done for a long, long time is when a vacuum opens, we fill it. We had an extraordinary run in sports car racing for a long, long time. We want to do that again, certainly. Presently there's not an opportunity to do it the right way. So we had people, we have shop space, and we have an opportunity. We've never looked at an opportunity as being a short-term solution to the loss of a product; we've looked at it as an opportunity to move forward. So that's what INDY NXT does for us.

Plus the fact that Roger Penske is pushing it really, really hard. Let's face it, it's part of his dynamic going forward, and we want to be part of that going forward. So we've done it for more than one reason. But the retention of people and being able to find out close-hand who the drivers are in INDY NXT going forward is a big, big opportunity for us. We're proud to be part of the program here at INDYCAR racing, which includes INDY NXT.

Q. For all of you, I'm curious what your thoughts were of the charter announcement. Were you surprised to see that come to INDYCAR? What was your take on that when it was announced?

CHIP GANASSI: I think it's a great thing. I've said before, I thought -- maybe that's something that doesn't translate down to fans per se. I don't know that it's a fan-centric decision by the series, but it's something that the team owners badly need, to have a solid -- again, this goes back to my earlier comments about being a viable business. That's what the charter system does is it makes these teams be a viable business.

If you have strong teams, you're going to have a strong series. It just trickles down from there. You'll have strong races and you'll be on solid footing on a worldwide basis.

It's something that happened in INDYCAR racing that I think someone is going to look back on, maybe doesn't seem that way right now a year or two down the road, but you're going to look back on the charter system someday and go, boy, that was a big move in the sport.

MIKE HULL: Yeah, I would answer that question by you should ask that question to Ed Carpenter. The thing is right away in the short term, he found a partner to help raise the level of his team. I think that's what you're going to see going forward at the behest of the charter system is the strengthening of the teams to be solid.

Currently there's 25 charters. I don't think that's going to go up, and I don't know if it's going to go down. But the reality - Chip hit on it - it strengthens the financial aptitude of the people that are in the series.

The series is growing. Certainly FOX is part of that. But I think the INDYCAR Series generally with the stature that it's going to have going forward will enhance -- will be enhanced by the charter system.

Q. For Scott, coming into every season, you hear about records you could break, and as Dave said, 25 years, the sort of longevity. Does that concept of legacy, breaking records, matter to you, and what are your feelings when you hear this sort of stuff?

SCOTT DIXON: I don't know. I just want to win. I don't know. I don't really look back. I just look forward to the next race, starting a new season for me. The fire still burns very strong, and honestly, all I'm focused on is winning this weekend. I think a lot of the times I've mentioned, once you leave the sport, hopefully you're happy with what you've achieved along the way. But yeah, I just care about this weekend.

Q. What would you say remains the biggest motivation almost?

SCOTT DIXON: Getting beat is probably the biggest motivation.

Q. For Alex, it's been a massive rise for you over only five years in INDYCAR. When you first moved over here with Dale Coyne Racing, what were your expectations, and did you expect to have three championships in five years in INDYCAR?

ALEX PALOU: No. No, I did not expect that. My expectation was to try and get -- be part of INDYCAR, try and be here for a long time, but again, yeah, Chip decided to give me the best car and the best opportunity to try and win races from the second year.

Yeah, I did not expect that, but I love it.

Q. Chip, on the OpenAI thing, that's a completely new thing to motorsports, sponsor. How difficult is it right now to find new companies, especially these big tech companies that are new and changing the world, and get them involved into motorsports?

CHIP GANASSI: Yeah, that's a good question. How difficult is it? I don't know. Sometimes it seems really difficult, but you find someone that -- you just start a conversation some day with somebody, and the next thing you know, you find out there are people in the company that are interested and it seems to -- it seems easy then. When you meet the right people that are interested, it's fine.

I think it's when you're trying to talk people into it that don't care about it, that's difficult. But there are a lot of -- I hate to use the word synergies, but values, common values, common goals. Obviously there's nobody more -- we've been lucky over the years to be associated with a lot of great brands, and I'm really proud of the brands that we've brought to the sport, that we've been involved with in the sport. Some of the biggest names in motor racing have been here at Chip Ganassi Racing.

There's nobody more current today than ChatGPT, and what's more current than AI? We've all played with it on our phones and we're all learning as we go along how valuable of a tool that is in every aspect of our life. Every aspect of our life. I'm just amazed myself, just starting to play with it the last month or so.

We're very, very excited. Obviously it's going to help with our engineering and our research, R&D. I just couldn't be more excited about it, I'm telling you. There's nobody more current. I sent a tweet to Sam at man the other day and he gave me a heart, so I'm kind of excited about that.

Q. When you play with ChatGPT, what kind of questions do you ask it?

CHIP GANASSI: I'll show you because it keeps a record of the questions you ask it. I can't find it now. Like I asked one day, who were the 10 most efficient -- I don't want to get into -- I can't tell you that story. (Laughter.)

I asked it to write a thank-you note. I said, how would you write a thank you note to someone who is a tech person. They wrote a thank you note. If you want to write it this way and you want to write it that way. It gave me five examples of a thank-you note to a tech person versus a thank-you note to someone you're in a relationship with or something.

I just thought it was great. I asked it about efficient business jets one day. What are the top 10 most efficient business jets and the prices they sell for. It just rips off the information in five seconds. It's crazy.

I'll tell you, you might laugh at me, but I'll tell you what, each and every one of you should be on that platform. I mean, it's just incredible what you can ask it and what it comes up with for answers. It's incredible. It'll give you the odds of all the people -- it just loads you up with data in seconds.

THE MODERATOR: No better way to start off 2025 than with the reigning NTT INDYCAR Series champs. Thanks for your time here this morning. Good luck this year.