Wanser finally celebrates Palou title in Portland

Barry Wanser was thousands of miles away from Portland International Raceway when his driver Alex Palou sealed the 2023 IndyCar Series championship. A recent cancer diagnosis had moved to the top of his priority list, and he was receiving radiation treatments and chemotherapy instead of being on the No. 10 Honda entry’s timing stand.

Those treatments were a success, and he’s been cancer-free for the last two years. He was also able to celebrate Palou’s most recent title victory last year in Nashville, and with the Chip Ganassi Racing team on an epic run in 2025 where Palou and teammate Scott Dixon have accounted for nine victories from 15 races with eight belonging to the No. 10 car, Wanser finally got to celebrate in Portland as his driver was crowned for the fourth time since arriving at CGR in 2021.

“It's special,” Wanser told RACER. “I know I was here in spirit, and they had the Barry heads, of course. I still get pictures, new pictures, of people with them so we're still having a lot of fun with it. But to be here to wrap it up with two races to go is amazing. Great performance by the team, obviously, great job in the pits, great engineering, and just amazing driving by Alex. It's absolutely awesome.”

For the second time in three years, Palou captured the championship prior to the season finale, and in Portland, early electrical issues for Pato O’Ward – the only driver capable of challenging him for the title – removed all pressure from the No. 10 team to keep pushing until the checkered flag.

But that’s where a new version of Palou stepped forward and kept his foot buried in the throttle. There was no need to go for the win or take risks fighting for second place, but that’s precisely what Palou did in the closing stages of the race. He’d settle for third and heads into the last two races with nothing to prove.

“We decided we're racing,” Wanser added. “We're gonna continue to race. You saw even during the yellow where O'Ward came in, we didn't say follow the leader. We stayed out. We're running our own race, and that's what we did. So that's what we did all year, and that’s what we’ll continue to do to close out the year. There’s two more races we could win and we want to see how many we can get before it’s over this year.”