IndyCar champ Alex Palou responds to Tom Brady enquiring about his secret to utter dominance

IndyCar champion Alex Palou responded to NFL legend Tom Brady's curiosity about his generational winning streak in 2025. Palou began the 2025 IndyCar season in pursuit of a third consecutive championship and fourth overall, which would level him with some of the racing series' legends.

Winning in the premier American open-wheel racing series isn't easy, as it is arguably the most competitive racing series in the world. However, within one season, Alex Palou defied this special IndyCar feature and turned it upside down.

The Chip Ganassi Racing driver began the season with a sensational run, winning five of the first six races. This was impressive on many levels, and the last of those victories was at the 109th Indianapolis 500, the biggest race on the IndyCar calendar. Though some difficulties crept in as the season progressed, the 28-year-old added three more victories to his bag and won the championship with two races to spare. The last time a driver won eight races in an IndyCar season before Palou was Al Unser Jr in 1994.

IndyCar insider Marshall Pruett had interviewed Palou after the Portland race weekend, where he won the title. Pruett posted the interview on his YouTube channel on Tuesday, December 23. In one segment, he shared that Tom Brady, now employed by FOX as an NFL analyst, had spoken with Townsend Bell, his FOX colleague who works as an IndyCar analyst, asking what makes Palou so special.

"It's very tough to compare myself to other drivers," Alex Palou replied when presented with Brady's question [8:15 onwards]. "What I know is that I don't think there's anybody that loves this sport more than me. Maybe they match, but they don't love it more than me. That's all I think when I wake up part of my beautiful family." "I love being part of the cars, I love the smell, I love to be part of the people, I love the fans. I just love it so much. There's nobody that thinks about it every single day more than me. That's probably the only thing that makes me work a little bit more, that makes me never settle. And it's amazing to hear that about Tom," he added.

Tom Brady became an honorary part of the IndyCar community in 2025 after FOX became the exclusive broadcasting partner for the American racing series and began cross-promotions between the NFL and IndyCar.

Alex Palou shares details of his conversation with Tom Brady at the 2025 Indy 500

Alex Palou celebrates his victory at the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500 - Source: Getty

Tom Brady was in attendance at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the 109th running of the Indy 500 on May 25 this year. As part of FOX's promotional plans, the seven-time Super Bowl winner, who had made a cameo in a preseason promo centered around two-time Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden, was set to ride the "Fastest Seat in Sport," aka a modified two-seater Indy car, which would be driven by NASCAR great and former IndyCar driver Jimmie Johnson.

In the aforementioned interview, Alex Palou divulged details from his conversation with Brady on that day, which eventually concluded with the Chip Ganassi Racing driver winning the race.

"I met him at the 500," Palou said. "We had a meet and greet of like five minutes. You know, just a normal... take a picture, 'I'm Tom', 'I'm Alex', blah, blah, blah. He was so locked in on what the Indy 500 was, why did I win the previous two championships, and he wanted to learn, 'What's the difference between you and other guys?' I was like, 'Well, I don't really know.'" "But he's so locked in about being the best, and he was such a great guy. Like he could have said, 'I'm Tom Brady, take a picture with me, post it,' that's it, but he was like very locked in for like 20-30 minutes," the four-time IndyCar champion added.

Alex Palou secured the Indy 500 win, his first, with a lap 186 overtake on Marcus Ericsson that gave him the race lead. With 14 laps to go, he defended well enough not to let the 2022 Indy 500 winner retake the lead, immortalizing him as one of motorsport's greats.

Edited by Yash Kotak