2025 Indy 500 winner Alex Palou unveiled his likeness on the Borg-Warner trophy in a special ceremony on Wednesday, November 19. The Spaniard, who also won his fourth IndyCar championship this year after an utterly dominant season, had himself and his Indy 500 victory immortalized with a sterling silver sculpture of his face on the prestigious 5-foot-4 trophy. The ceremony took place at The Above Event Center at Commission Row in downtown Indianapolis. Also present at the ceremony were his wife, Esther Palou, and his boss, Chip Ganassi, an IndyCar legend whose team, Chip Ganassi Racing, earned its sixth Indy 500 victory through Alex Palou on May 25 this year. In an interview with WTHR after the unveiling, the 28-year-old was asked about his initial reaction to the surreal moment. “Crazy!” replied Palou. “It’s been better than any dreams I had as a kid, and this is the first day that I see my face in the trophy, which is probably one of the coolest days ever as a racing driver that wins the Indy 500. I think he did a tremendous job, Will (Behrends, sculptor), the sculpture. Looks very similar to my face, and it captures that emotion, that smile that I had that day. So, it’s cool to know that my face is going to be in this trophy forever.” Alex Palou qualified in sixth place for the 109th Indy 500 this year. Chip Ganassi Racing didn’t have the fastest car at the 2. 5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but the No. 10 Honda driver put his sublime racecraft and raw pace to work. With 14 laps to go in the 200-lap race, he overtook race leader and 2022 Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson for the lead. Thereon, he defended well and didn’t let Ericsson retake the lead to earn an emotional first victory at the Indy 500. Palou became the first Spaniard to win the Greatest Spectacle of Racing, and it was also the first oval victory of his career, and will probably remain one of his greatest. Alex Palou showers praise on the sculptor for the Borg-Warner Trophy Alex Palou spoke highly about Will Behrends, the American sculptor who has been creating the face sculptures of Indy 500 winners on the prestigious Borg-Warner Trophy since 1990. Behrends’ work includes taking a 360-degree view of the winner’s face from the day after the race. In September, Palou, who won eight of 17 races this year, visited Behrends’ studio in North Carolina to see and reveal the full-size clay model of his face that would be used as a reference to create the 3D likeness on the Borg-Warner Trophy. The four-time IndyCar champion shed light on the renowned sculptor’s work, saying: “Just think that he had to do the job before I was there, with just all the pictures and everything, all the content that he asked for us. He got it dialed in pretty quick. And then spent a couple of days at his studio just getting those details, that smile, that hair, just that last final touches. And then to see it here, it’s incredible. An amazing art, an amazing talent that he has, and a lot of work behind all these little faces,” Palou added. Alex Palou became the 76th winner of the Indy 500 this year and the 112th face added to the Borg-Warner Trophy. Below his likeness on the trophy is engraved the year of his victory and his average speed in the race.
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“Better than any dreams I had as a kid”: Indy 500 winner Alex Palou emotional after unveiling face on Borg-Warner Trophy
