Palou's Indy victory ends 17 year wait for Ganassi crew members' second triumph

Ricky Davis, Brian Welling, and Gilbert Swafford (pictured above) got to share the joy of winning the 2008 Indianapolis 500 as teammates on Scott Dixon’s Chip Ganassi Racing entry, but getting a second taste of the sport’s greatest triumph was beginning to feel unrealistic.

“That’s exactly what I thought,” Davis told RACER. “You know, I tried for so many years, and we got that one.”

Seventeen years later, the trio made their return to victory lane at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as integral parts of Alex Palou’s No. 10 Honda program. For Davis, whose career as a racecar driver, mechanic, and crew chief has produced plenty of championships, the sense of relief on his face Monday morning, after posing with Palou and his crew on the Speedway’s yard of bricks, spoke to how much adding a win 2025 meant to the peerless car chief.

“You hear, ‘Oh, once you get the first one, more will follow easily,” he said. “Well, it hasn't for me, and I've walked out here 17 times with my tail between my legs. And you're defeated. But you never give up. You can't give up. And I refuse to give up. And I wish I was with the driver we have now and the crew I have now when I was a little bit younger so I had a bunch more wins here. But I'm not giving up now. I want to get one more. I want to get two more, and then maybe I can think about not doing it, but it depends on how physically fit I am, right?

“This sport is something else, man. You get into it and it started as a childhood dream for me (to become a professional driver), and didn't go the direction I wanted, but it's in a better direction because of what I've been able to achieve. And I haven't done it by myself. I've had a lot of good people behind me. I work for a great organization. They believed in me, they gave me an opportunity, and I was wanted to prove every day, every year, that opportunity was worth their worth their risk.”

Davis, Welling, and Swafford were all part of Scott Dixon's winning crew in 2008. Jamie Squire/Getty Images

Davis came out of the Southwest as he and his family competed in short track racing, and by chance his relationship with fellow mechanic Swafford – another longstanding Ganassi employee – have roots that extend back more than four decades.

“With Gilbert, I knew him in the 80s when I was racing at Manzanita in Phoenix, and we worked together at Vince Granatelli’s (IndyCar team),” Davis added. “And I was able to get him convinced to come out to Pennsylvania when I was at Derrick Walker’s team, and we split our paths when we both left there, and now he's back with me. I describe him as your favorite pool table in your favorite bar. It's dead flat, but the pockets are real tight, and it's hard to get anything past him. That's that guy, right?

“It's hard to get anything past that guy, and it's been a hell of a ride. And (No. 10 assistant engineer) Brian Welling is one of the smartest people I ever met, and he's very common sense, and he understands, right? And he's very calm. That's the whole key to it. You do this job without the emotion in it, right? It's been great, and I hope we continue for many years.”

Having worked with many of the legends who’ve won championships and Indy 500s for Chip Ganassi Racing, Davis continues to marvel at what Palou is achieving in the No. 10 car. With three IndyCar titles in four years, five wins from six races so far this season, and a victory at the biggest race of all, the 28-year-old is performing at a level established by the likes of Alex Zanardi, Juan Montoya, Dario Franchitti, and teammate Scott Dixon.

“I never thought I would see it,” he said. “I never thought I'd be a part of it. But the guy has everything required. Nowadays, it's way different. You know, like when Montoya was going up, you had to be a bit of an animal with the car. You had to make the car do what you wanted it. And he was fiery, and he pushed the car, and he pushed everybody. Where with what Alex's driving today, it's all common sense, don't get upset. It's all gonna work out. We have what we have. If we can go to first, we'll go to first. If we run third, we run third. He's just calm, and every day is the best day of his life.

“Honestly, I think the guy could be a psychiatrist, because with him, everything is gonna be okay. Don't worry about it, we're okay. And he asks everybody every morning, ‘Hey guys, everything good? How's the car? Is it okay? It's all gonna be okay.’ He just brings everybody to a level, keeps everyone level, but up. When he walks into the shop, every day is the best day of his life.”