Palou and Ganassi receive Baby Borgs from BorgWarner

BorgWarner has presented team owner Chip Ganassi and Alex Palou with 20-inch miniature versions of the iconic Borg-Warner Trophy to mark their success in the 109th running of the Indianapolis 500.

The ceremony, held at Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Ariz., halfway through the two-day Unser IndyCar Open Test, saw Palou claim his first of what are affectionately known as “Baby Borgs” and Ganassi his seventh. The trophy features Palou’s name, team name, average speed and sculpted sterling silver likeness.

“Presenting the Baby Borg trophies is one of our favorite traditions at BorgWarner, and we are honored to celebrate Alex and Chip for their remarkable achievement at the 2025 Indianapolis 500,” said Michelle Collins, BorgWarner’s global director marketing and public relations. “The Borg‑Warner Trophy has long stood as a symbol of excellence in motorsports, and it’s a privilege to be part of the iconic legacy of the Indy 500 and to continue a tradition that recognizes the passion, skill and innovation that drive this sport forward.”

Palou’s sterling silver bas-relief likeness, crafted by William Behrends who has created all the images on the Borg-Warner Trophy since 1990, was revealed at a ceremony at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last November.  Palou’s is the 112th face on the full-size silver Borg-Warner Trophy which measures over 5 feet, 4.75 inches tall, weighs more than 110 lbs, and carries the sculpted face of every victor since 1911 and of former Speedway owner Tony Hulman. The trophy was commissioned in 1936, the Baby Borg was first created in 1988 and the Championship Team Owner’s Trophy established 10 years later.

Palou, who has led at least one lap at Indy each year since joining Ganassi in 2021, took until lap 187 to hit the front in last May’s race, making a decisive pass at Turn 1 on Marcus Ericsson – ironically, Chip Ganassi Racing’s last Indy winner in 2022.

By season’s end, Palou had claimed eight wins and his fourth IndyCar championship, marking the first time since 2010 that the Indy 500 and the series title were claimed by the same driver. Appropriately, on that occasion, too, it was by a Ganassi ace, namely, Dario Franchitti, who remains (so far) CGR’s only two-time Indy winner.

“You have days like today that keep reminding you about one amazing day last May!” Palou told RACER. “We’ve done it, we’ve won both Indy and the IndyCar title in the same year and we feel like we need to do it again, and know how much work that takes.

“We know we’re capable of doing it but we also know that everyone else is pushing more and more and getting closer and closer to us. I’m just as excited to get started to try and do the double.

“Indy is still a crazy event because everything needs to go right in the one race. You can’t say, ‘Oh, I made a mistake,’ or, ‘Oh, I was slow on that restart,’ and then still expect to win, because everyone is so close. There needs to be perfect execution from the team and the driver. That’s why it’s so tough: there are a thousand little things that have to be in place to make that win happen. And for the No. 10 DHL team, it happened!

“I haven’t been to the Museum yet to see the Borg-Warner Trophy in place and with my face, but I can’t wait to have this Baby Borg at home and to wake up and see it and think back to how cool it was that day in May 2025.”

Chip Ganassi’s Speedway glories have been delivered by Emerson Fittipaldi (when Chip was co-owner of Patrick Racing in 1989), Juan Pablo Montoya (2000), Scott Dixon (’08), Franchitti (’10 and ’12), Ericsson (’22) and now Palou. He told RACER that each was unforgettable, but he’s still not sure he can catch Team Penske’s tally of 20 Indy 500 wins, despite Ganassi having a stronger championship hit-rate since CGR was formed in 1990.

“I’ve been in this business a long time now, and nothing beats the feeling of winning the Indianapolis 500,” said Ganassi. “When I tied Roger Penske in terms of championships, it seemed like a long hard road to get there, and Indy 500s might be a little harder to catch him on but we’ll give it a try!”

Looking back to Palou’s victory, where he had to defend his lead while also trailing in the wake of two squabbling but reasonably quick backmarkers, Ganassi said he saw parallels with the 2021 race, when his driver lost out in traffic to Meyer Shank Racing’s Helio Castroneves.

“It’s an interesting sequence of events there, where he passed Marcus with 13 laps to go,” he said. “That pass was just one piece of a puzzle, because you wonder if those guys in front are going to help tow him away from the guys behind, or are they going to be a hindrance and slow him up, or are they by some other means try and involve themselves in the finish of The Greatest Spectacle in Racing! We didn’t know, so we were all biting our fingernails.

“As it is, he ended up winning it the same way he lost it in ’21 to Helio, when Helio passed him in traffic and then got a tow from another car. I guess what goes around comes around.”

Ganassi admitted that defending IndyCar’s double triumph leaves his team members with metaphorical targets on their backs. He said:

“Sure, people get tired of us winning races – we never do; it’s fine with us! – but after a season like we had, sure, it’s hard to top that. But we’ve been working hard to try and stay one step ahead of the others who we know won’t have been standing flat-footed in the off-season.

“Neither were we. So trying to match that success is the challenge, that’s what makes it fun. And I’d rather be in my position than anyone else’s, I can tell you that.”