Despite looming IndyCar title battle, Alex Palou, Pato O'Ward focused on themselves at Portland

Indianapolis Star

a day ago

PORTLAND – Though talk around IndyCar's race weekend at Portland International Raceway revolves around the two remaining championship contenders, runaway points leader Alex Palou and Pato O'Ward insist their own focus remains inward.
It's almost a product of that sweet spot where Palou's title cushion lies – presently 121 points with three races remaining and a maximum of 162 points (or 54 per race weekend) – where Palou can hunt another victory to tack onto the eight he's amassed in 2025, and O'Ward has nothing left to do but aim for the best weekend possible and find out once the checkered flag falls if his title hopes remain viable heading to Milwaukee.
'It's been a phenomenal year, and I want to close it out super strong. We've got three races left, and anything can happen – it's racing, and weirder things have happened, so don't count us out yet. But I think it really depends on them screwing up, rather than us having a magnificent weekend,' O'Ward said Friday ahead of Practice No. 1 at Portland. 'Because even if we win here and win at Milwaukee and win at Nashville, (Palou) has got to not finish here and not finish at Milwaukee for us to have a shot at Nashville.'
What the Arrow McLaren driver is referencing is the 41 points – at most – that the two-time defending series champ needs over the final three races to secure his three-peat by the checkered flag at Nashville, if not before. And even if O'Ward were to pull off back-to-back perfect points weekends at Portland and The Mile, presuming Palou merely starts both events and finishes 25th or worse, Palou would still hold a 23-point edge going into the finale at Nashville Superspeedway.
But the initial task for O'Ward involves just surviving to see another weekend – a goal that only comes by out-scoring Palou by at least 14 points at a track where he's twice finished 4th but started 22nd and only climbed to 15th a year ago, compared to his championship challenger's pair of wins, one runner-up finish and in all four starts lining up on the starting grid 5th or better.
This weekend, the Arrow McLaren crew eyes a rebound after what O'Ward deemed 'the hardest road course (weekend) we've had as a team,' where no driver qualified better than 18th or finished inside the top-10. O'Ward himself lacked nearly six-tenths of a second to polesitter Santino Ferrucci, and it was that speed deficiency, no matter what the team otherwise did to the car, that had them operating off their backfoot all weekend.
O'Ward best compared Portland to a combination of the IMS road course, with its relatively flat profile and pair of fast straights, crossed with the uber-abrasive pavement of The Thermal Club – both races where the young Mexican driver finished runner-up at in 2025.
The winner in both, of course … Palou.
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'I'm happy with how our year has gone. We didn't have as much of a rocket of a start, but we've gotten better as the year has gone on, and we've pretty much been the best of the rest,' O'Ward said. 'As you see someone like Alex have his insane year, we quote-unquote are having a 'championship season', but just sadly the guy leading is having an unreal, unexpected championship year.'
And so wherever they find themselves qualifying, O'Ward said, his No. 5 crew will run its own race, and only if Palou suffers some sort of calamity will they discuss rolling the dice on some hyper-risky strategy to go for a win.
'It'll depend on where (Palou's) at, but really we just need to focus on us,' he said. 'We had a great month of July (with two wins and five top-5s in five races), and he still out-scored us. So at this point in time, I'm really just focused on securing 2nd-place.
'But if that means in doing so we keep cutting down (Palou's lead) and keep (title hopes) alive, then that's extra gravy on those mashed potatoes. It doesn't really depend on what we do. It depends on if he's lucky or not.'
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For Palou, the prospect of clinching this weekend at Portland – something he did two years ago when it was the second-to-last stop on the calendar – holds no bearing on how he and his No. 10 crew approach Sunday's race. Neither, the three-time champ said, has the team discussed making in-race decisions based upon what O'Ward does.
'I think we're in a position where we don't really need to do that. If you win the race, you don't even need to think about it,' he said. 'If you're 17th, and he's 14th, and (finishing just where you sit) means you can win (the title), then yeah, maybe we might talk about it, but it also depends on qualifying and where you start.
'Then, you'll have an idea whether you're fighting directly (against each other) like Laguna Seca (where Palou and O'Ward shared the front row), or you're separated and you can't see what your opponent is doing on strategy and stuff. Again, I think we're in a lucky position where we don't need to focus on that.'
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Palou acknowledges that title fights like 2021 and 2024, where even though his challengers faced fairly long odds, there was still something very much on the line at the season-finale, felt much different at the races where he ultimately clinched the Astor Cup, when compared to two years ago at Portland and the emotions he comes into this weekend feeling.
Title-clinching talks, as well as the prospect of holding onto the slim chances of taking a run at AJ Foyt and Al Unser Sr.'s all-time wins mark of 10 – which Palou could topple with wins in the last three races – have put no added weight on the shoulders of the 28-year-old Spaniard, who has said repeatedly that the spoils of 2025 have been more than he could've ever imagined. Eight wins, an Indy 500 victory and another oval win to boot – it's all gravy after winning just twice in 2024 and coming away with a title anyways.
'Things feel very special, obviously, because you know (this weekend) can be a very different one at the end, but at the same time, it's still early-on. It's not the last race of the season, where everything is ready and it's the last chance and you know either way that one driver is going to win (the title),' he said. 'Here it's, 'We have a chance,' and there's good odds that if we do the job we know we can do that we can try and win the championship this weekend, but as long as I win it this yar, I'll be happy.
'A championship finale like Nashville last year, where that's all the attention and everybody's looking at that, and you're only looking at that, you're only looking at that car to see what he does (to determine) what you do and how you can come out the best, it's not that. Now, I think we're in a very good position of just being able to focus on the race. If (clinching the title) happens, it's amazing, but if it doesn't, that's okay.'