Alex Palou Pads Championship Lead With Iowa Win: ‘It’s Magical’

NEWTON, Iowa — Alex Palou could skip the next two races and still have at least a 21-point lead over the next closest driver with three races remaining.

Palou has no plans to skip a race. But with a 129-point lead on Pato O’Ward with five races remaining, he can race knowing it would take a total collapse for him to lose the championship.

The thing is, Palou, following his win Sunday at Iowa Speedway, said they have raced that way all year, that they have raced that way in most of his championship seasons in 2021, 2023 and 2024.

“Honestly, that’s how we’ve been racing since Race 1 in St. Pete,” Palou said. “We started racing not thinking about the points because it was the first race of the season. And I raced hard today, as hard as I could, risking everything because I wanted to get the win and I wanted to fight hard.

“I don’t think we’ve ever raced for points. The only places I remember was probably Nashville last year and Long Beach in 2021, where you know that if you finish in [a certain] position, you can be the champion.”

The contenders just know they are racing against greatness. 

O’Ward finished fifth on Sunday in the second race of the Iowa doubleheader, a day after he won the first race of the weekend. That would, on most weekends, cut into the championship lead.

But Palou built on Saturday’s fifth-place finish and rode to a victory on Sunday. With a pole and the number of laps he led, he actually earned four more points over the weekend than O’Ward.

“He’s got to not finish for two races, and we’ve got to be on the podium — or even winning — and maybe we’ll catch a whiff [of him],” O’Ward said. “The longer this championship goes on, the more you see it not happening.”

Kyle Kirkwood had entered the weekend 113 points behind, but he left fourth in the standings, 180 points back. Scott Dixon, with a second-place finish Sunday, moved to third but sits 173 points behind.

“They’re firing really well and just doing a better job than everybody else,” Dixon said.

The current car also seems to fit into Palou’s wheelhouse.

“Alex, if you look at driving style, he has a very smooth driving style, actually quite similar to Dario [Franchitti],” said Dixon, a six-time series champion and Chip Ganassi Racing teammate to Palou. “Whereas with all that weight at the back in the hybrid, it’s quite difficult for me.

“It’s not something that feels natural, and I just agitate the car a lot with my aggressive kind of style.”

Things certainly fell Palou’s way Sunday. 

Josef Newgarden seemed to have the most speed but on his last green-flag pit stop, the caution came out for a wrecking Callum Ilott. That left Palou in the lead (Palou had not yet pitted) and needing to hold off David Malukas, Dixon and Marcus Armstrong.

But Palou was also able to work his way through traffic. After the race on Saturday, his team opted to focus on speed and not fuel mileage. They turned Palou loose and let him race everyone straight up.

“I was passing so many cars I felt like I was Lightning McQueen or something,” Palou said. “It’s the first time that I’m not getting overtaken every single lap on a short oval. It was very fun.

“There was a lot of traffic, which was good. It was fun getting to see different people struggling in different areas. Then you would get to another car and he would be running the line that you liked, and then you would struggle for five, 10 laps.”

It is hard to wipe the smile off Palou’s face these days. Even as he was worried Friday during a tornado warning, he tried to smile as his wife and their baby daughter took shelter in the media center with many INDYCAR team members.

The team members probably figured that if Palou is somewhere, it’s safe. He has, after all, been mostly the definition of invincible these days.

“Being here [in the media center] seeing so many people actually makes it feel safer. And seeing like 90 percent of the paddock [being outside] taking pictures and videos, at least it makes it seem like you’re not being irresponsible,” Palou said about the adventure earlier in the weekend.

Leave it to Palou to be responsible. 

He has pretty much taken care of business all year. And he’s now eyeing a lofty goal of 10 wins this year, if he wins three of the final five events.

“I’m going to work toward getting 10, obviously, but I’m not waking up and thinking about getting 10,” Palou said. “I think it’s a pretty realistic goal, and it’s far — it’s three wins.

“It seems like it’s ‘only’ three, but it’s very far. That’s the amount of wins I got in 2023, and that’s one more win than I got in 2024.”

But he already has seven this year.

“Honestly, it’s crazy,” Palou said. “It’s been an amazing season. When I say I don’t really have words, it’s tough to describe. It’s magical.”

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.