Petit looks to be Palou’s parting shot in IMSA for the foreseeable future

Ahead of his last race for Acura Meyer Shank Racing, reigning five-time NTT IndyCar Series champion Álex Palou said it’s doubtful he’ll be back to race in IMSA next year, even in the major endurance races.

This Saturday’s Motul Petit Le Mans will be Palou’s last start in the No. 93 Acura ARX-06 as the manufacturer and team are due to pause their participation in IMSA, while Palou noted that a combination of this and calendar clashes between IndyCar and sports cars limit his opportunities in the latter.

“It’s a bit tough because there’s a lot of races that collide with IndyCar,” Palou said. “I don’t know how we continue to do that to ourselves in IndyCar; hopefully we can avoid it in the future, please.

“I think Sebring, Le Mans, the big races – It kind of puts us in a bad position because you cannot go to a team and be like, ‘Oh, I can only do this race and that’s it.’”

It will be a poignant Petit Le Mans for everyone at MSR Acura, including Palou. Jake Galstad/IMSA

Next year, the IndyCar Grand Prix of Arlington is due to clash with the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, to go along with a clash between the 24 Hours of Le Mans and IndyCar’s Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway.

Palou is also set to miss next year’s Rolex 24 At Daytona to welcome the birth of his second child.

“I have a baby coming the first weekend of February, so I cannot do Daytona – even if I had the best ride in the world," he said. “And just for that weekend, I cannot risk that. So I don’t think I’ll be doing IMSA next year.”

That said, Palou isn’t shutting the door on sports car racing completely. Next week he’ll race in the final SRO Indianapolis 8 Hour Race for Mercedes-AMG Team Lone Star Racing, and if there’s races that don’t conflict with his schedule in 2027, he’d be on board.

“I will try again,” he said, “I’m doing SRO next weekend, and as long as it permits, I’ll try and do more cool races next year as well. Whether it’s GT3 or whatever, I love to race. As long as it doesn’t conflict, obviously, and it doesn’t really make me travel too much during my season. I’ll jump in on any race car.”

This does not include teaming with Max Verstappen to race in the GT World Challenge Europe final round round in Portimão, as was rumored several weeks ago. But Palou is open to the possibility of forming a dream team with the four-time Formula 1 world champion in the future, should the right opportunity come up.

“I’m not racing with him this year, so I don’t know where everybody got the info and stuff,” Palou said of the matter. “It would be exciting, I think! Hopefully we will try and do it any other time, but it won’t be this year.”