No Rest for Palou: INDY NXT test latest stop in busy offseason

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INDIANAPOLIS — Alex Palou has spent his offseason driving just about everything he can and now the five-time INDYCAR champion is preparing to add another race car to his growing list.

Palou will make his first appearance behind the wheel of an INDY NXT car Friday when he participates in the Chris Griffis Memorial Test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, another assignment in an unusually busy offseason for the Chip Ganassi Racing driver.

Between testing INDYCAR’s next-generation IR-28, competing in the Petit Le Mans sports car race for Meyer Shank Racing and an entry in the Indianapolis 8 Hour, Palou has hardly slowed down since the INDYCAR season ended.

He's even found time to enjoy some football, attending an Indianapolis Colts game and making plans to attend Saturday's college football matchup between Ohio State and Indiana.

But first comes a new challenge: Learning the nuances of an INDY NXT car, a machine that has less horsepower, less downforce and different braking characteristics than the INDYCAR he has mastered. He will be filling in for CGR full-time INDY NXT driver Carson Etter, who is recovering from offseason shoulder surgery.

"It'll be tough," Palou said. "I mean, it's very tough always to go from a car that has more downforce and, like, carbon brakes and stuff to some car that is a bit smaller, less downforce, less power, and it doesn't have as much performance."

Palou, who has never driven an INDY NXT car, said the experience is more about gathering information for Chip Ganassi Racing than proving his speed.

"I'm excited to help the team see how that car feels," he said. "But at least I know the track, so that will make it easier. And, yeah, excited to see what that car is capable of and helping the team as much as I can."

The Chris Griffis Memorial Test is an annual offseason evaluation for INDY NXT, IndyCar's primary development series. Named in honor of Chris Griffis, the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports team manager who died unexpectedly in September 2011, the event gives teams an opportunity to evaluate drivers, experiment with setups and begin preparations for the following season.

This year's test is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 16, on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. Teams will be permitted to run from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with both established drivers and prospective newcomers participating.

Also participating for CGR will be Alessandro de Tullio, Alexander Koreiba and Frankie Mossman.

De Tullio is also entering his second season in INDY NXT. He drove for A.J. Foyt Racing and had eight poles, two wins and finished sixth in the final points standings. Raised in Miami, De'Tullio races under the Argentinian flag.

Koreiba is entering his second year as an INDY NXT driver who drove for Juncos-Hollinger Racing last season with a career-best finish of 10th at Milwaukee. The Branson, Missouri, native also has sports car experience and in 2023 finished ninth in the LMP3 class at the Indianapolis Grand Prix. 

Mossman is from Newport Beach, California, and participated in the Chris Griffis Memorial Test in 2024. He competed in the 2025 USF Pro 2000 championship for Velocity Racing Development. 

"It is an exciting group for us to be taking to the Chris Griffis test. Our program has grown significantly in the first two years and to have a mixture of veteran pace and young promise, we are looking forward to maximizing their skills on track," said Chris Wheeler, director of CGR driver development. 

For Palou, the assignment is a departure from his usual responsibilities as the centerpiece of Ganassi's INDYCAR program.

The Spaniard has dominated the series in recent years, winning five championships in six seasons and capturing the 2025 Indianapolis 500. But he acknowledged that experience alone won't make the transition to the smaller INDY NXT car seamless.

Palou raced in European Formula 3 earlier in his career and believes some of that experience could translate to the INDY NXT machine, although it has been nearly a decade since he competed in a comparable car.

"Probably like the current F3, which I drove, I mean, maybe already almost eight to 10 years ago," Palou said. "So, yeah, it'll take me a little bit to get used to. I know I won't be at, like, 100%. But I think we don't need to."

The important distinction, he said, is that Friday is a test rather than a race.

"The good thing is we're not racing. We're just testing. We're just trying to learn as much as we can," he said.

Palou said his years in INDYCAR have shaped his driving habits, particularly his braking technique and the way he interprets the handling of a car. Those instincts will require some adjustment in INDY NXT.

"I think that the experience for sure, it might help," he said. "But at the same time, I have so many things that I do on the current car, like the way I brake and the way I feel the car, that it's completely different to INDY NXT for sure."

The test comes just days after Palou was back in the cockpit of INDYCAR’s new IR-28 chassis Monday at Sebring International Raceway in Florida.

The car, scheduled to debut in 2028, is undergoing an extensive development program. Palou and Alexander Rossi have been responsible for much of the early validation work, testing the machine on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and oval before moving to Sebring's notoriously bumpy circuit.

Palou completed 43 laps Monday at Sebring, where the emphasis was on durability and gathering information about how the new chassis handles demanding conditions.

The test followed consecutive weekends of sports car racing.

Palou competed in the 10-hour Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta on Oct. 3, sharing the No. 93 Acura ARX-06 with Renger van der Zande and Nick Yelloly for Meyer Shank Racing. The race marked another opportunity for Palou to compete in top-level endurance racing outside his regular INDYCAR commitments.

He then returned to Indianapolis for the Indianapolis 8 Hour weekend, where he was entered in the international GT endurance event at the Speedway.

Even his leisure time has been packed.

Palou attended an Indianapolis Colts game during the offseason and plans to travel to Saturday's Ohio State-Indiana football game, adding another American sporting experience to a schedule already filled with racing.

The variety of assignments has given Palou an opportunity to experience dramatically different racing machinery, from the next generation of INDYCAR to endurance prototypes and GT cars.

Friday's INDY NXT outing will add another perspective, this time in a car designed to prepare younger drivers for the very series Palou has dominated.

"The CGR INDY NXT program is still young and while we have grown a lot over the last two years, the opportunity to have a driver of Palou's caliber in the car will provide a lot of insight as we continue to grow the program moving forward," Wheeler said. "Maximizing our internal resources has proven to be beneficial to CGR's ecosystem since the company's inception and we expect this to be nothing different."

And although the five-time champion is accustomed to setting the standard, he is approaching his latest assignment with different expectations.

For one day, the goal is not another victory or another championship.

It's simply to learn.