How IndyCar's Alex Palou became the most dominant driver of 2025

USA Today

2 days ago

The IndyCar Series takes on one of the most legendary tracks in the world this weekend with the Java House Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
It's an unforgiving track with little margin for error around the 2.2-mile lap. It features one of the most challenging turns in the racing world, commonly known as "The Corkscrew", a blind left-right combination that drops 59 feet in elevation in a second.
"It's very old style. It doesn't allow you to have mistakes," Chip Ganassi Racing driver Alex Palou said after securing pole position in qualifying. "It rewards you a lot when you can be right there on the limit ... as soon as you go off, you can crash quite easily."
Palou will start the race from pole position for the second year in a row. That's how much of the season has been for a driver on the brink of history entering the final four races of the IndyCar season.
Here's how the Spaniard become the most dominant driver in the world in 2025.
Palou vaults to the top
Palou began racing after seeing a go-kart track on the walk to school with his father as a 6-year-old in Barcelona. Within five years, he'd won multiple national titles in karting and transitioned to open-wheel racing series across the world.
His results in the likes of Formula 2, Formula 3 and Japanese Formula 3 earned him an IndyCar test in 2019. Dale Coyne Racing signed him for the following season after the test.
Strong drives during his rookie season - notably a podium finish in his third-ever IndyCar race - caught the eye of Chip Ganassi, head of one of the best teams in series history.
Chip Ganassi Racing signed Palou for the 2021 season and it paid off immediately.
He won the IndyCar Series title in his first season with Chip Ganassi Racing, becoming the first Spanish driver to do so. A tumultuous 2022 campaign gave way to a methodical championship win in 2023.
Last year was an improvement again with 14 top-five finishes in 18 races behind an incredible attention to detail.
'He's in pretty rarefied air right now,' Ganassi said after Palou won the 2024 title in Nashville. 'His name has to be among and certainly in the conversation of the great drivers. He's certainly in the conversation of the greatest.'
That title made Palou the 13th driver ever to win three American open-wheel racing championships. His Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, Scott Dixon, is the only other active driver to do so with his six championships.
"Having [Dixon], probably one of the best if not the best IndyCar driver that we've ever had, being able to see so much that's been teaching me so much about everything," Palou said. "How to work, how to stay focused, how to never give up, just push it and always be able to adapt."
He has adapted and evolved into even more of a force in 2025.
Palou's dominant 2025 campaign
IndyCar is known as a "spec series," meaning all teams buy their cars from the same manufacturer (Dallara) and have two choices for an engine supplier: Chevrolet and Honda. Both offer the same total power.
There's no advantage from a top designer or dominant engine supplier seen in Formula 1. It's down to the drivers and teams to set up their cars and consistently perform, something Palou relishes.
"The love of the sport pushes me," Palou said. "Obviously I want to win more and get more championship wins and race wins, whatever, but for me it's coming every single weekend, working with my engineers trying to figure what's the best to do with the car. How we can we improve it, how I can improve myself and push a little bit more?"
IndyCar challenges its drivers by racing on road courses (such as Laguna Seca), street courses and ovals. Each format puts different demands on the drivers: the small margin of error on road courses, tight quarters of street races and high-speed challenges of ovals.
Palou established himself as a consistent contender on road and street courses early on but there were still questions about his acumen on ovals. He won four of the first five races in 2025 ahead of the biggest race in the series: the Indy 500.
He started sixth but took the checkered flag in first place.
"It's the only win that can change your life," Palou said. "Your face is going to be on the trophy forever. Even if IndyCar ends in 10 years, that trophy's going to have my face forever.
"Or even if it goes for 1,000 more years, my amazing face and my amazing nose is going to be there forever, right?" he added with a smile.
Through 14 races, Palou has seven wins. That's one less than his total from his last two seasons combined.
There's a chance he could surpass the record for wins in a single season with 10, currently held by icons A.J. Foyt (in 1964) and Al Unser Sr. (in 1970). Sweeping the final four races would give him 11.
Palou could get one step closer to that record on Sunday. Laguna Seca is by far his best track on the calendar; he never has finished lower than third and won from pole position last season.
Can anyone catch Palou?
The 2025 IndyCar grid features four multiple-time champions, Palou included, but he's been far ahead of the rest of the field.
Dixon, a six-time champion who holds the record for most IndyCar wins (59), offered Palou a "gift" after the Spaniard won the Indy 500.
"I've also got a surprise for Alex," Dixon joked at the Indy 500 awards ceremony. "I've bought yourself, your wife, all your family a summer vacation. Starts this Thursday, it's for five weeks. I hope you really enjoy it, it's all included, whatever you need."
With a five-week break, he could have still led the standings. Mathematically, Palou could win the 2025 title this weekend. With a win and most laps led plus Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward finishing 25th or lower, Palou would win his fourth championship in five years.
O'Ward has been on a hot streak lately with two wins in the last three races, separated by a Palou win at Iowa Speedway, and starts second on the grid for this weekend's race.
O'Ward has the best chance to catch Palou before the final checkered flag flies at the Nashville Superspeedway on Aug. 31. It's still an uphill battle as Palou holds an 100-point lead in the championship entering race day from Laguna Seca.
"Maybe now it doesn't feel as special as probably in 10, 15 years whenever I look back and see that it's opening minds of some people in Europe and especially Spain," Palou said.
"People knowing that it's not only possible to come to the U.S. and IndyCar and have fun and have a career, but also to win and fight for championships and Indy 500s. Hopefully that inspires one, two, 10 drivers in Spain and they see that there's a future for them here."
How to watch the Java House Grand Prix of Monterey
It'll be Palou vs. O'Ward into Turn 1 at Laguna Seca with championship implications. Here's how to catch the action:
Stream the Java House Grand Prix of Monterey on Sling