American Legion to be primary sponsor for CGR's No. 10 IndyCar

The American Legion will increase its involvement with Chip Ganassi Racing and become the primary sponsor of the No. 10 Honda driven by 2021 NTT IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou.

The expanded relationship which began in 2021 is designed to serve three initiatives, starting with the ongoing promotion of the American Legion’s “Be The One” campaign, which debuted last season as a call to reduce suicides by past and present members of the American military.

“Supporting our nation’s veterans is of immense importance to our organization and we are humbled to continue supporting The American Legion’s mission in ending veteran suicide,” said Chip Ganassi. “We will do absolutely everything we can to help veterans get the support they need while raising public awareness of the ‘Be The One’ platform.”

Along with the American Legion’s full-season presence on Palou’s car, its branding will also appear on the HMD Motorsports Indy NXT car driven by CGR development driver Kyffin Simpson and the No. 8 Honda driven by 2022 Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericsson as part of the second major initiative -- to raise donations for the non-profit organization.

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“We have received an overwhelming amount of support from fans, active-duty military members and veterans as a result of this partnership and we’re pleased to see it grow,” said American Legion CMO Dean Kessel. “Thanks to the continuous collaboration with the team’s other partners, and the promotion of the ‘Be The One’ initiative, we are discovering more ways to engage with the military community than ever before. We want all veterans to know that it’s OK to ask for help.”

The third component of the partnership is a new charity fundraising program implemented by CGR to benefit the American Legion with its "10 Days of #VetsGiving with The American Legion" campaign. Through https://givebutter.com/c/VetsGiving/auction, auction items -- including the opportunity to take Scott Dixon to school and a day of karting with Palou -- are open for bidding starting today, and new offerings will be added for the next 10 days.

“It was amazing in 2021 when I did a few races with the American Legion car, meeting some veterans, and in 2022 we did more races together and had a lot more activations during the year,” Palou told RACER. “We’ve been trying to raise money with them while we race, and having them for the whole season, to help the veterans and do more raising of money for them is really cool. We want it to help a lot.”