Long-time IndyCar sponsor’s gamble pays off, ending 12-year drought

DHL joined Andretti Autosport back in 2011 and served as the primary sponsor of the No. 28 car for 13 years. Ryan Hunter-Reay drove the car from 2011 to 2021 before Romain Grosjean drove it in 2022 and 2023.

But after the 2023 season, it had been more than five years since the global logistics giant visited victory lane as a primary sponsor. It hadn't happened since Hunter-Reay, who won a championship with DHL in 2012 and an Indy 500 with the brand in 2014, won at Sonoma Raceway to conclude the 2018 season.

A change of scenery was desired for the organization, and they found a new home at Chip Ganassi Racing in what was easily the biggest sponsorship news of last offseason. Their bright yellow and red color scheme was the perfect fit for reigning series champion Alex Palou, whose native Spanish flag is colored similarly.

Not that anybody had really doubted that it would happen, but it did not take long for DHL's six-year IndyCar win drought to end.

Palou drove the No. 10 Honda to victory lane at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course for the second year in a row back in May. He went on to win again at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, a win that shot him to the top of the championship standings.

Despite not winning any of the season's remaining nine races, he never looked back, and he actually ended up building on his championship lead by the time the end of the 2024 season rolled around.

Heading into the season finale at Nashville Superspeedway, the championship battle had come down to Palou and Team Penske's Will Power.

It was somewhat of a "blast from the past", given the fact that Power had battled Chip Ganassi Racing's Dario Franchitti in the No. 10 car in the season finales back in 2010 and 2011 and Hunter-Reay in the DHL car in the season finale back in 2012.

Like he was in 2010, 2011, and 2012, Power ended up on the short end of the stick again in 2024, this time to a No. 10 DHL machine.

Unlike in those three years, Power entered the season finale as the hunter rather than the hunted. But just like those three years, an early issue knocked him out of contention, with his seat belt becoming loose just a handful of laps into the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix.

Palou, who had followed IndyCar long before joining the series with Dale Coyne Racing w/Team Goh back in 2020, remembers some of those championship battles his rival had back in the early 2010s, and he appreciated the opportunity to have one of his own, especially given the similarities.

“Yeah, I did," Palou said when asked if he had watched the American open-wheel racing series prior to his arrival. "I don't remember the year, it was probably 2006, 2007, 2008, that's around when I started maybe watching a little bit of IndyCar at home.

"Then obviously when I grew up and I was a driver in single seaters, I would watch a lot more. But that was like a couple of years ago. It wasn't that far off. But yeah, I was watching when Dario was there, when Scott and CGR had the Target cars, and they were already winning races. Scott had won, I would say, three championships around that time when I started following, or maybe two.

"So yeah, it's pretty cool.”