The Men Behind Alex Palou’s 2023 IndyCar Championship with Ricky Davis and Julian Robertson

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Speakers: Bruce Martin & Ricky Davis & Julian Robertson

Roger Penske:

This is Roger Penske and you're listening to Pit Pass Indy, sponsored by Penske Truck Rental.

[Music Playing]

Bruce Martin:

IndyCar fans, it's time to start your engines. Welcome to Pit Pass Indy, a production of Evergreen Podcasts. I'm your host, Bruce Martin, a journalist who regularly covers the NTT IndyCar Series.

Our goal at Pit Pass Indy is to give racing fans an insider's view of the exciting world of the NTT IndyCar Series in a fast-paced podcast featuring interviews with the biggest names in the sport.

I bring nearly 40 years of experience covering IndyCar and NASCAR, working for such media brands as nbcsports.com, si.com, ESPN Sports Ticker, Sports Illustrated, Autoweek, and Speed Sport.

So, let's drop the green flag on this episode of Pit Pass Indy.

Welcome to this week's edition of Pit Pass Indy presented by Penske Truck Rental.

Alex Palou had a fantastic season in 2023 as the driver from Spain scored his second career NTT IndyCar Series Championship for a Chip Ganassi Racing with a series high five victories.

But of course, the driver can't do it alone. It takes a dedicated team of engineers, crew members, mechanics, and sponsors to give the driver a championship winning effort.

Today we are going to meet two of the key members of Palou's Number 10 Honda Crew with Chip Ganassi Racing. Chief mechanic, Ricky Davis, and engineer, Julian Robertson.

Both men have been part of Chip Ganassi Racing for a very long time, and both have vital roles, not only on Palou's car, but the entire IndyCar team.

Up first is my exclusive interview with Ricky Davis for Pit Pass Indy.

Joining us now on Pit Pass is one of the key members of Chip Ganassi Racing's championship team with Alex Palou, it's chief mechanic Ricky Davis.

Ricky, I can't think of a more flawless season that we've seen in IndyCar recently than what Alex Palou had this year. Hasn't had a finish yet outside the top eight.

How many times in your career have you seen a driver that's been able to put a season together from start to finish like Alex Palou did in 2023?

Ricky Davis:

Honestly, I don't know that I have, at least I haven't been a part of it. We've had really good years but we've had the downsides of those races too. But you're exactly right, this has been a flawless year.

Bruce Martin:

But in a lot of ways, when you look at what he's been able to achieve, his victory at Portland when he clinched the championship was not only important because he clinched the title, but he also got the fifth victory of the season, which gives him the most wins in 2023 in IndyCar.

Ricky Davis:

Yeah, it was something. And he called it from the day we got there, he said, “We're going to seal this. We're going to win the race.” And it makes you nervous. And I don't jinx myself with that kind of stuff, but he called it 100%.

Bruce Martin:

And what makes that so unique is a lot of times we've seen drivers that have had the most victories and they win championships that way.

We've seen drivers like Will Power last year where he uses remarkable consistency with only one victory to win a title.

But this year, Alex was able to do it with both. And how rare is that?

Ricky Davis:

That is extremely rare. He has his sense of calm in the sense (a feeling and maybe it is in his body) that he knows what he can get out of the car and where we're going to finish, and he doesn't push that envelope.

And it's paid off. Look at the second race at Iowa. It paid off where we were almost lapped down. It goes yellow, now we're at the tail of the lead lap cars. It goes back green and he drives the thing around to third place because everybody, they just moved out of his way. I mean, and he was just cruising at that point.

Bruce Martin:

And the short ovals was always the one area that Alex said they're not his strengths, but he made them his strengths this year.

Ricky Davis:

Right. And again, it goes back to taking what it'll give you and not putting yourself in danger. And that's exactly what he did.

Bruce Martin:

The key thing that I see here at Chip Ganassi Racing is there's a lot of people that have been with this team, working with Chip Ganassi for a very long time, yourself included, Mike Hull, Barry Wanzer, who's recovering from his health issue, but a key part of this championship. Julian Robertson. These are all guys that have been with Chip Ganassi for a very long time.

What is the key to Chip being able to not only find good people, but keep good people?

Ricky Davis:

Well, I can tell you speaking just on my behalf, it's his loyalty to me and the things he's done for me and the way he's treated me. He's been fair, he is been honest. And I haven't had the desire to go anywhere else. I wanted to stay here.

And all the people you just mentioned, we build a base and we build a foundation for this team that just continues to grow.

We're not making big changes, not changing the world. We're not reinventing the wheel. We're just growing with everything that we know and what we've gained. And that's what's made us so much better.

Bruce Martin:

And the thing about Chip Ganassi, is you know up front how Chip feels. He wears his feelings on his sleeve, his emotions out in the open. And he demands excellence, he doesn't like to see failure.

When you work for a guy like that, is that almost easier than someone that you don't really get a good read on?

Ricky Davis:

Absolutely. Because he could be mad at you at this particular moment for this particular reason. And more times than not, it's a very good reason. And then it's forgotten. He gets it out in the open. He gets it off his chest, you know where you stand with him and you move forward.

And I believe that he looks at you to see how you react from that and go forward.

Bruce Martin:

Since unification in 2008, 10 out of 16 seasons, Chip Ganassi Racing has won the championship. Alex Palou's title this year was the 15th for Chip Ganassi Racing overall.

You look at those numbers and you could really put them up as the best numbers in IndyCar series racing history over that span. To be part of a legendary effort like that, how does it make you feel?

Ricky Davis:

Oh yeah, it’s great. I mean, I don't know if I could explain it because when I came here, when they hired me to come here, they had, I think before I got here, one, maybe two wins.

So, to be a part of all that and to watch yourself grow with the team, that's all you want. You want to win races. And that's what we're hired for and that's what we'd love to do. And I don't know, it's heartwarming, I guess is the way to put it.

Bruce Martin:

And as far though as the way the whole strategy works, Julian Robertson, the engineer, devices the strategy. Barry Wanser calls the race strategy. The last two races this year was Mike O’Gara, who filled in admirably, by the way, at Portland and also, at Laguna Seca.

And then how does that information then get relayed to what you do with the car? You prepare the car, what's your role working with the engineering staff?

Ricky Davis:

Well, it's the same thing. We make sure that we have everything on the setup sheets and the build sheets, exactly how we need it. And if I have questions, I go up, I talk to them.

And I relay what we need or what may not be the best thing for the car that we might have to change to keep going the direction we're going.

And then during the race, I have a little bit of input. They're not afraid for me to speak up because sometimes it sheds a light on things. But the way we've been running this year, I haven't had to say very much.

Bruce Martin:

And Alex Palou admitted that after the situation, he'd put himself in in 2022, he had to repair things a little bit with Chip Ganassi Racing. But it seemed like in 2023, the attitude and the mood with the team and with Alex has never been better.

Ricky Davis:

It's never been better. And the thing is, it never got to a low point. We were all wondering once we hear it from the rumor mills or somebody sends us an article, whatever, and yeah, you start worrying about it.

But it's like I told him, “Guys, if it's true and he's in our car for the rest of this year, we want to send him out of here with as many wins and a championship as we can. Our job is to support whoever sits in that car.”

And he's one of the top five guys that I've ever had driving my race car. And that's who I wanted to have come back. And once we found out he was coming back, it was smooth sailing.

Bruce Martin:

Now, you have the opportunity to turn this kid into a legend the same way that Scott Dixon has become a legend at Chip Ganassi Racing. He is going to be multi-year with the team and the operation. There's some great things ahead for this operation.

Ricky Davis:

Absolutely. And I told him the other day that I wish I was 20 years younger because my future would look really bright. But yeah, we plan on getting him as many championships as we can for as long as I can be here.

Bruce Martin:

And wrapping up with Ricky Davis, the chief mechanic of Alex Palou's No. 10 American Legion Honda Chip Ganassi Racing. A little bit of your background, the Ricky Davis story in a few minutes as we close here.

Ricky Davis:

Well, I started by chance we got quarter midgets. We moved to Arizona when I was about six, seven years old. We ended up racing quarter midgets. We stumbled upon that and it's been my dream ever since to be a race car driver.

My brother and I went on to build our own midgets, our own sprint cars, our own engines, everything we could.

And once my dad passed away, it kind of wasn't the same. And I got a phone call from a guy named Bill Martin in Arizona that got me an interview with Vince Granatelli. I've been doing it ever since.

I never thought I'd get the job. And here it is, 33 years later, I'm still doing it.

Bruce Martin:

And it's been 33 years of excellence and success. Ricky Davis, chief mechanic, the American Legion Honda for two-time NTT IndyCar Series Champion Alex Palou. Congratulations on another title, your Fifth in your career with Chip Ganassi Racing. And thank you for joining us today on Pit Pass Indy.

Ricky Davis:

Thanks, Bruce. And I just want to give a shout out to Barry Wanser. Buddy, I hope you're getting better every day.

Bruce Martin:

We'll be right back to Pit Pass Indy after this short break.

Josef Newgarden:

Hey everybody, this is Josef Newgarden, winner of the 107th Indianapolis 500. And you're listening to Pit Pass Indy presented by Penske Truck Rental.

Bruce Martin:

Welcome back to Pit Pass Indy, presented by Penske Truck Rental.

Next up is Palou's race engineer, Julian Robertson, who has a fascinating story of how he got to Chip Ganassi Racing over 30 years ago in this exclusive interview for Pit Pass Indy.

Another one of the men behind Alex Palou's 2023 NTT IndyCar Series Championship is race engineer Julian Robertson of Chip Ganassi Racing.

Julian, you've been with the team for a very long time and I think one of the keys to Chip Ganassi Racing success is his ability to find good people and keep good people. So, reflecting on how you got started with Chip.

Julian Robertson:

Okay, I've been here 30 years now, mate. Celebrated that a couple of weeks ago. Went to university in Imperial College London to do aeronautical engineering. So, at the time I entered university, I was into airplanes.

At Imperial, there was a couple of wind tunnels that did a lot of race car work. By the time I left university, I was big time into race cars.

So, left college and went straight to Team Lotus in Formula 1, 1985. Joined just after Senna won Portugal. Kind of did Formula 1 up until the very end of ‘91. Mainly as a designer and some aerodynamics and running data systems because I was the youngest guy to start.

Kind of left there as assistant chief designer. When the money started running out at Team Lotus, I was kind of looking for other opportunities.

Got a call, “Hey, do you want to come IndyCar racing in America?” So, I was young, free, and single at that time. So, I just came over to America. Started with Dick Simon Racing in ‘92. Did ‘92 with Dick and into ‘93.

And then Chip was starting the Renault thing getting fairly heavy for 1994. So, kind of my experience engineering IndyCar and as a designer in F1, I kind of got pulled into Chip Ganassi Racing middle of ’93. And I've been here ever since.

Bruce Martin:

So, you began with Arie Luyendyk, correct? In ‘94.

Julian Robertson:

Began tail end of Arie Luyendyk.

Bruce Martin:

And then Michael Andretti came in in ‘94.

Julian Robertson:

Then Michael Andretti came in in ‘94. Yeah, Morris Nunn was still engineering Arie at the end of ‘93. Then ’94, Morris left Ganassi briefly then rejoined middle of ‘94.

But yeah, I was engineering Michael in ‘94 when we got our first win in surfers. Then kind of came on from there. I was Vasser's race engineer when we won the first Champ car or car championship back then in ‘96.

Bruce Martin:

And a lot has changed over your career. Back then the Renaults and the there was a lot of chassis competition in CART and Champ Car. The teams really had to be engineering driven.

Over here in IndyCar, it’s the single chassis with DeLorean. But yet the engineers probably work harder in some ways to find the most minute edge that they have over the competition.

So, how would you describe how the engineering game has changed over those years?

Julian Robertson:

Back then there were obviously bigger games to be had. You were looking for the big ones and the details. There wasn't so many people, there wasn't so much effort because there wasn't so many people. So, you just look for the big gains.

Now, it's more difficult to find the small gains, but all the effort is going into finding many small gains and there's quite a lot of people involved. There's quite a lot of good people involved on the engineering side in Chip Ganassi Racing.

We work in a lot of different areas, and we just keep pushing to find the gains, the gains, the gains. They all keep adding up.

Bruce Martin:

Working with a driver like Alex Palou from an engineering standpoint, what's it like working with him compared to other drivers you've worked with in your career? It seems like the guy can drive the wheels off anything.

Julian Robertson:

Yeah, he can drive the wheels off anything and he's smart. The guys who win the championships and stuff are smart drivers. Like you look at Dixon and Dario and all that kind of thing. They know what's going on. Alex is one of these guys who knows what's going on.

We work pretty well together talking about everything. But he's totally switched on. He understands everything that's happening. He has good input. Yeah, it works well.

Bruce Martin:

When you have the debriefs with him and also the other Chip Ganassi Racing drivers, your debrief room is pretty jam packed to get all the engineers, and the drivers, and Chip in there.

But the ability to freely exchange information, how good is he at telling you exactly what he wants on the car?

Julian Robertson:

Oh, he's good. I think most drivers are good at telling you what they want. It's a matter of achieving it that's a difficult part. Most drivers are fundamentally after the same kind of thing.

We share information totally at Chip Ganassi Racing, like back at the shop, all the engineering groups are working on all the cars. It's only kind of when we get to the track and actually in a session that we kind of split up into our individual roles.

Yeah. Set up wise and development wise, all cars talk to each other. All the engineers talk to each other during the session. We're going back and forth on what we're doing to keep everybody up to speed. We're trying to push the whole thing forward is the goal.

Bruce Martin:

Chip has a very good ability of finding talent on the team, but also keeping talent. What is the key to his success and the fact he's been able … well, you've been here for 30 years, Mike Hull's been here for over 40 years. There's a lot of great people. Barry Wanser has been here for a very long time.

I mean, there's Mike O’Gara has stepped up and become a leader. What is Chip's ability to not only find great talent but keep great talent for a very long time?

Julian Robertson:

Yeah, they're a whole bunch of people who've been with the team a number of years. Many have been here more than 20 years at this point.

There's definitely a culture of kind of winning and trying to do as good as possible at the shop. And when you walk in the door you kind of realize that everybody's putting their best efforts into it.

And if someone kind of joins the team and isn't putting their best efforts in, it is kind of pretty obvious and kind of six months later they kind of leave of their own accord normally because they realize everyone else is working hard and trying to get it done.

So, there's definitely a win and a quality culture at Chip Ganassi Racing.

Bruce Martin:

So, as the engineer, you helped devise the setup that Alex drives in the race. During a race, you're on the timing stand and you helped devise the strategy that gets relayed to either Barry Wanser normally or the last couple of races, Mike O’Gara.

How does all of that work?

Julian Robertson:

So, setup wise, back at the shop, we're working pretty heavily with the simulation group and the development group. Kind of we have three engineering groups.

The racing group who travel mostly, the development group who stay at the shop mostly but still go to occasional events and tests. They're looking at stuff. Some of it's short term like two weeks, one month out. But a lot of it's three months, six months, nine months a year out. Then the simulation group.

So, we're working with a development group and the race group to kind of come up with things that make the car faster in terms of physical parts. We're working with a simulation group to simulate what we need to do to make the car go faster.

Then while we're at the shop, we'll be running simulations and then going through the driver in the loop simulator. We run on the Honda simulator in Brownsburg quite heavily and developing setups and all that for the upcoming events.

Then we roll into the event and kind of execute it. And then the whole process kind of keeps rolling.

Bruce Martin:

So, as far as the strategy on the timing stand from the engineer, to the strategist, to the driver, sometimes I always ask myself, “Well, why don't they have the engineer on the radio calling it?” But I know there's a reason why they don't do it that way.

Julian Robertson:

Yeah, there's a lot going on as an engineer trying to run the car and make sure it's in the optimum settings or whatever. So, it's a lot easier if the strategist just talks to the driver and worries about leaving pit lane, entering pit lane, all that kind of thing.

The engineer worries about what's going on the car, the engineer and the crew chief.

And then strategy for the race. We've done a lot of pre-event stuff looking at strategy and then particularly once you've run qualify and a little more about what the tires are doing, then there's a whole lot of sitting around in the truck throwing strategy back and forth before we finally commit.

And Alex is involved quite a lot in the strategy. He thinks strategically, he's very much part of deciding how we go racing.

Bruce Martin:

So, this year, Alex not only leads the series with five victories, he hasn't had a finish outside of the top eight for the entire year. When you get a combination of remarkable consistency plus the most wins in the season, that's an unbeatable combination for a championship.

Julian Robertson:

Yeah, that rarely happens. But yeah, when it does happen, it gets good for the championship.

Bruce Martin:

So, as far as Julian Robertson, this is your championship number what with Chip Ganassi?

Julian Robertson:

Well, I've been here the whole time for 15 IndyCar championships and also many sports car championships as well. There are times when we've been heavily involved in running the sports cars more in the DPI days.

But yeah, as a pure race engineer, I kind of race engineered early on, obviously Vasser ‘96 championship, Dixon 2003 championship, then I kind of became engineering manager or technical director or whatever you want to call it.

So, I stopped race engineering in ‘06 and then was mainly doing the engineering manager side of things and then started race engineering again in 2018. And the last couple with Alex.

So, four IndyCar championships that I was race engineering on obviously. And then-

Bruce Martin:

But then again when you were the technical director, we'll count those too. But Chip's motto is when one guy wins, the team wins.

Julian Robertson:

Yeah. We're all about, okay, one car wins the championship, but the group of people who work on the other cars, we're all a massive part of that. Like they're working on other cars as well.

And the thing as a whole, when we're back at the shop, there's a lot of key players in the team who have a large influence over the whole car group. So, it's definitely a team thing. Like we're all team think.

Bruce Martin:

So, with Alex coming back, multiyear deal, there's a lot of great things that the combination can achieve moving forward. And that's got to be an exciting prospect for somebody, even somebody that's been in this sport for 30 years, such as yourself.

Julian Robertson:

Yeah. And I hit 60 the other day as well, so.

Bruce Martin:

Who needs to retire? When things are going good, you keep at it.

Julian Robertson:

Yeah.

Bruce Martin:

But with all the prospects that can lie ahead, this guy's got the potential to be one of the all-time greats.

Julian Robertson:

Yeah. He's absolutely got the potential. There's no question. And he's shown it already. Like it's not like we need to find out about it. It's kind of here and going.

Bruce Martin:

And the amazing thing is the team already has an all-time great with Scott Dixon on it. So, to have an all-time great with a potential all-time great. That right there ensures success for Chip Ganassi Racing for many more seasons.

Julian Robertson:

That's Chip's goal to keep the team successful and bring in new talent and retain it.

Bruce Martin:

Well, Julian Robertson, you once again played a key role in another NTT IndyCar Series Championship season. Congratulations on Alex Palou's second championship. Good luck in the future and thank you for joining us today on Pit Pass Indy.

Julian Robertson:

Yeah, thanks very much.

[Music Playing]

Bruce Martin:

And that puts a checkered flag on this edition of Pit Pass Indy presented by Penske Truck Rental.

We want to thank our guests, Chip Ganassi Racing crew chief, Ricky Davis and race engineer, Julian Robertson for joining us on today's podcast.

Along with loyal listeners like you, our guests help make Pit Pass Indy presented by Penske Truck Rental, your path to victory lane in IndyCar.

And because of our guest and listeners, Pit Pass Indy is proud to be the winner of The Best Podcast by the National Motorsports Press Association.

For more IndyCar coverage, follow me at Twitter @Bruce Martin (one-word, uppercase B, uppercase M) _500.

This has been a production of Evergreen Podcasts. A special thanks to our production team. Executive producers are Brigid Coyne and Gerardo Orlando. Recordings and edits were done by me, Bruce Martin and final mixing was done by Dave Douglas. Learn more at evergreenpodcasts.com.

Until next time, be sure to keep it out of the wall.