Why Alex Palou is invested in making IndyCar's Barcelona race 'a complete success'
IndyCar’s first European race since 2007 will be less than 15 miles from where Alex Palou grew up. When the series visits the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on July 18, 2027, it will mark a homecoming for the five-time IndyCar champion.
Palou is from Sant Antoni de Vilamajor, Spain, a village in the province of Barcelona and the autonomous community of Catalonia. Before leaving Europe to race in Japan’s Super Formula series in 2019 – which led to his first IndyCar ride with Dale Coyne Racing in 2020 – Palou started in six open-wheel races at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, with one win coming in the 2014 Euroformula Open Championship.
The Grand Prix of Barcelona, which IndyCar signed to a 10-year deal to host, will mark another chance for Palou to get a win at home. Palou – who drives the No. 10 Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing – is prepared to be the series’ marketing centerpiece for its first venture out of North America since 2013.
“I don’t really know what we’re going to do in terms of promotion,” Palou said Friday after the race was announced. “But I’ll be all up for it and ready to do it, because it’s (in) my best interest that it’s a huge success and that there’s as many people as we can (get) here, as many new fans as we can, and that it’s a complete success.”
IndyCar continues to market its best driver, who has won four straight championships and 25 total races. Whether it be having Palou at the announcement of the race or his appearance on Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff pregame show ahead of the Indiana vs. Ohio State football game, the series has leaned on the defining driver of the 2020s to help its growth.
Palou is a primary catalyst for IndyCar and Penske Entertainment’s trust in this race in Barcelona. Penske Entertainment CEO and president Mark Miles admitted so.
“Unequivocally, the answer is this guy (Palou),” Miles answered when asked what he credits for getting a race in Europe again. “We could race, I believe, in short order in a few different countries. We wanted to start with one that we think we can have enormous confidence in.”
For Palou, this race will also provide a chance to make him a household name where he’s from. Despite his success, Palou previously proclaimed that many Formula One drivers – Spanish or not – hold more fame than he does in Spain.
“I don’t think I’m getting much more media time in Spain,” Palou said in May 2025, weeks before he won the Indianapolis 500. “I think they have the people that they’ve been following from the beginning, and maybe it’s growing a little bit, but I wouldn’t say they’re (paying) much attention to it, except for the media that we always have.”
Now that Palou has won the Indy 500, the IndyCar event that holds the most worldwide relevance, he’s known a little more in Spain. That win, along with the dominance of winning 14 races over the past two seasons, raised more eyebrows than his three championships before it did. Racing back home should only do more for Palou’s popularity.
“I think this is for sure going to help a lot,” Palou said of the Grand Prix of Barcelona. “I think the last couple years, especially last year – winning the 500 and the championship, and when we took the Borg-Warner (Trophy) here, we did a good media tour around Spain – I think that kind of helped a lot to make everyone understand what IndyCar was and who I was.
“I think it keeps on growing. But for sure, this is going to be the biggest change. I mean, you’re taking the race to their houses. It’s going to be so easy for them to know what’s going on.”
In Miles’ time in Spain closing the deal for the race and announcing it, he felt Palou was well-regarded.
“Maybe he isn’t known by everybody in Spain, but he is respected and appreciated as a driver and he will be known,” Miles said. “And that’s just a precious opportunity in Catalunya and in Spain and then I think in Europe.”
While Palou is the only IndyCar driver from Spain, the series sees the Grand Prix of Barcelona as a chance for all its European drivers to race close to home again. With four seats still not filled for 2027, there will be at least eight Europeans racing full-time in the series next year. (Dutch driver Rinus VeeKay’s expected re-signing at Juncos Hollinger Racing will make it nine.)
Twelve IndyCar drivers have raced at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in other series. Now, they’ll return to the road course next summer.
“It’ll be my hometown race, but it’ll be the home race for like more than 10 drivers that are from Europe, and they are only a couple hours away from here,” Palou said. “So it’ll be very good. Hopefully we get a lot of new fans that they then (follow) all our schedule.”
With more eyeballs on him than he’s ever received at home, Palou understands the expectation of winning will likely be higher than at any race other than the Indy 500. The Grand Prix of Barcelona will present Palou with a challenge that he’s ready to take on.
“There’s more pressure because there will be more people pulling for me,” he said. “There will be my family that – I never have all my family or all my friends (at races). But at the same time, there’ll be this amazing pressure that I’ve always wanted to have of having a home event where everybody’s pulling for you.”
Leaving North America is a leap that IndyCar hasn’t taken in over a decade. The series’ faith in the success of the Grand Prix of Barcelona is directly tied to its belief in Palou as IndyCar’s marquee driver.
Zion Brown is IndyStar’s motorsports reporter. Follow him at @z10nbr0wn. Get IndyStar’s motor sports coverage sent directly to your inbox with our Motor Sports newsletter. Subscribe to the YouTube channel IndyStar TV: IndyCar for a behind-the-scenes look at IndyCar and expert analysis.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Why Alex Palou is invested in making IndyCar’s Barcelona race ‘a complete success’
