INDYCAR Championship Format Works Just Fine, Despite Alex Palou’s Dominance

The INDYCAR championship will quite possibly be decided this weekend at Portland International Raceway, even though there are still two races remaining on the schedule.

Alex Palou enters with a 121-point lead on Pato O’Ward. He just needs to leave 108 points ahead and he can celebrate the title. If he’s 103 points ahead, all he’ll have to do is start Milwaukee. If he’s 98 points ahead, he’d most likely clinch at Milwaukee. But no matter what, he’d clinch in the finale at Nashville.

As NASCAR fans debate their playoff system, there has been little debate on the INDYCAR side. When the mention of playoffs comes up, drivers quickly shake their heads when it comes to this idea.

There’s a good reason for NASCAR’s playoffs. And there’s good reason for a full-season championship in INDYCAR.

The first is the length of the season. At 36 points races, the NASCAR calendar currently has more than twice the events of the 17-race INDYCAR schedule.

With a 17-race schedule, it would seem that the championship has a better chance of coming down to the last race. It did for 17 consecutive seasons, until Palou clinched in 2023 with one race remaining. Last year, Palou didn’t clinch until the finale.

So that’s 18 of the last 19 years (and likely to be 18 of the last 20 years) that the INDYCAR title came down to the finale. Not every season has been a 17-race schedule. But there’s been enough consistency so that people shouldn’t have the expectation that the championship will wrap up early.

Palou is having one of those magical seasons of rare domination. 

After 14 races last year, Palou earned 484 points. This year he has 590. That would put him just 15 points better than the current 469 of O’Ward.

Plus, open-wheel racing fans are used to seeing drivers wrap up the championship early. It has happened in various series, such as Formula 1. 

That isn’t to say playoffs are bad. 

The National Hot Road Association has started a playoff format in recent years, much like NASCAR’s original Chase format, where the “postseason” doesn’t eliminate anyone but is just a mini-season where points are reset prior to the beginning of the final series of events.

The most important thing is for a racing series to find what resonates with its fan base and works within its system. 

INDYCAR could use a couple of more ovals but with a series that includes seven permanent road courses, six ovals (three more than one mile in length; three of one mile or shorter) and four street courses, that seems like a decent variety to determine the champion.

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.