Dale Coyne Racing has found their first driver for the NTT IndyCar Series 2020.
Spanish driver Alex Palou will race for the American team.
Palou has recently raced in Super Formula in Japan, which we formerly knew as Formula Nippon. He won the Rookie title and became the overall race winner too.
He will bring the Team Goh name to the USA, so his car officially will be run by Daly Coyne Racing with Team Goh. He raced for Team Goh in the Japanese Super GT category in 2019. The Goh name might ring a bell for some sportscar fans, with the team previously competing and winning at the 24 Hours of Le Mans 15 years ago.
The 22-year-old racing driver hasn’t raced in the USA before, so not only will he have to learn a new car. He will also have to learn new tracks, and of course, racing on ovals too. He did, however, test an Indycar earlier this year at Mid-Ohio, so he has a bit of an idea regarding his new challenge.
This will be the first time since 2012, for a Spaniard to be a full-season driver in the Indycar series. Oriol Servia was the last one to do so, and he has raced one or more races each year since – except 2019, where he didn’t even try to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 in May. However, it’s another Spaniard grabbing a lot of headlines, in the shape of Fernando Alonso. He competed at Indy 500 in 2017 but failed to qualify for the 2019 edition of the race.
Alex Palou will replace Sebastien Bourdais, who lost his seat just one a month ago, but then has gone on to find a job in the sportscar world. Dale Coyne Racing will be announcing the teammate of Palou in the new year.
The NTT IndyCar Series 2020 starts on 15 March in St. Petersburg, Florida.