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Indianapolis Star
7 hours ago
- Sport
- Indianapolis Star
How Alex Palou can clinch fourth IndyCar championship at Portland
It's official: Alex Palou's lone remaining 2025 IndyCar title challenger Pato O'Ward no longer has control of his longshot of all longshot title hopes still with three races remaining in the season. What does that mean? It means that no matter what O'Ward does, even if he were to pull off a max points weekend at Portland International Raceway next month, Palou could still end the Arrow McLaren driver's mathematical shot at what would be his first IndyCar title in his seven-year career by virtue of a runner-up finish and leading a lap. In stick-and-ball sports with teams battling for playoff spots, we'd say a team no longer has control of its own destiny. Although it's felt that way for the Chip Ganassi Racing driver's title challengers for two months or more, it's mathematically locked in now, after Palou snagged his eighth win of the season — becoming the first driver in the sport to do so since 2007 (Sebastien Bourdais) and the first outside the split (Al Unser Jr.). Palou's 2025 campaign is one of just 10 driver seasons in the various iterations of major American open-wheel racing dating back to 1946 to have reached eight wins — a feat only seven other drivers have reached (Mario Andretti did so three times with eight wins each in 1966 and 1967 and nine in 1969). He reached that milestone Sunday at Laguna Seca — a race he won from pole, the fourth time he's done so this season in five out-front starts, compared to a 1-8 record for the rest of the field — by thoroughly dominating the race at the central California track yet again, leading 84 of 95 laps and only briefly surrendering the lead to an off-sequence Nolan Siegel during a pit cycle. It was Palou's third win at the track over his last four starts, continuing his run of five starts at Laguna Seca without a finish off the podium. 'I think this was probably one of our best weekends ever,' Palou said. And even yet, after having eliminated 25 of the series' 27 full-season drivers from title contention with three rounds left and O'Ward 121 points adrift, Palou remained unwilling to put on the crown just yet. 'It's never over until it's over,' he said. 'I think I proved that at Mid-Ohio, and we've seen that in the past as well. 'It's not done until it's done. We still need to win it. We still need to keep our heads down and try to win some more races.' IndyCar TV ratings: Series maintains recent audience trend despite head-to-head Brickyard 400 battle Palou's correct; the No. 10 CGR crew led by strategist Barry Wanser, engineer Julian Robertson and crew chief Ricky Davis would've needed to leave Laguna Seca with a 162-point cushion to O'Ward in order to have this championship wrapped up with three races remaining — a feat made impossible by virtue of the combination of O'Ward's Toronto win a week ago and Palou's 12th-place finish that slashed 30 points off the championship leader's advantage down to 99. But Palou needs to be just 108 points up on O'Ward leaving Portland on Aug. 10 to lock the championship up, meaning the young Mexican driver needs to make up a minimum of 14 points to stay mathematically alive. The maximum points any driver can score in a non-Indy 500 event is 54 — including 50 for a win, a point each for winning pole and leading at least one lap and two points for leading the most laps of any driver. Those bonus points can trickle down to any other driver on the grid (with the caveat that only one driver can win pole and only one can lead the most laps in the race), so there aren't point totals a driver finishing in a certain spot would earn. But the base point awards for given finishing positions are as follows: 40 points for second; 35 for third; 32 for fourth; 30 points for fifth (and two fewer for each successive position down to 20 for 10th); 19 points for 11th (and one fewer for each successive position down to five for 25th); five points for each position below 25th. Points report: IndyCar 2025 drivers title, Rookie of the Year, Leaders Circle standings after Laguna Seca Without listing every single points possibility that would either keep O'Ward alive or allow Palou to clinch (keeping in mind O'Ward stays alive by making up at least 14 points and Palou can clinch at Portland by staying within 13 points of O'Ward), here are the nuggets of note that would allow Palou to secure Aug. 10 his fourth IndyCar title in five years: But there are additional ways in which Palou could leave Portland knowing he and the No. 10 crew need only take the green flag in the final two races of the season at the Milwaukee Mile and Nashville Superspeedway, earning a minimum of five points in both instances, to clinch the title. With Palou's 121-point cushion, he need score a minimum of 41 points over the final three races to guarantee himself the championship. O'Ward could finish with a run of three perfect 54-point weekends, and 41 additional points for Palou would still wrap things up. McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown: IndyCar must remain 'commercially viable' despite team's growth That 41-point target would amount to finishing 16th in the final three races (without any bonus points), for 42 points. None of the top 8 drivers in points have suffered a three-race stretch at any point this year where they've scored fewer than 41 points, and Palou has never had such a stretch in his five seasons with Ganassi. With that in mind, given Palou's lead and the knowledge that holding an 108-point lead after Portland would secure his fourth championship, he would only needs a 98-point cushion leaving the 15th race of the season to feel as if things are locked up given five points if he starts the final two races. Here's a sampling of how Palou could maintain a 98-point leaving Portland and needing to start the final two races for the championship: Best in class: Pato O'Ward targeting second-place IndyCar championship finish
Indianapolis Star
4 days ago
- Automotive
- Indianapolis Star
IndyCar's 2 championship contenders to start from front at Laguna Seca: 'I think it's great.'
Alex Palou captured his fifth pole of the 2025 IndyCar season, extending his championship lead over Pato O'Ward to 100 points. O'Ward will make a career-best start at the track Sunday on the outside of the front row, setting up an intriguing title battle. Like he did in Sunday's race on the streets of Toronto, Pato O'Ward and his No. 5 Arrow McLaren crew executed Saturday in qualifying for Sunday's race at Laguna Seca in what's become do-or-die territory for the driver and team who might need a miracle to be able to seriously challenge for an IndyCar championship come next month's season-finale at Nashville Superspeedway. But unlike Sunday at Toronto, Alex Palou and Chip Ganassi Racing shined, too. The final two realistic title contenders will start Sunday's 95-lap race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca sharing the front row, with Palou extending his championship lead over O'Ward back to triple digits from 99 to 100 with the single bonus point awarded for taking his fifth IndyCar pole of 2025 at the track he won from pole at a year ago. In four career starts at the central California track, O'Ward had recorded a pair of Fast Six appearances, a career-best start at the track of fifth and had started no worse than ninth, but the 26-year-old Mexican driver had finished no better than fifth either — ultimately a solid but not overly impressive resume. In contrast, Palou has started all over the front half of the field in his four career starts — fourth, 11th, fifth and first — but he's never finished off the podium, with a pair of wins coming in 2022 and '24 to go with a runner-up in 2021 and third in 2023. And so as O'Ward and his team knew entering last weekend's Toronto street race, not only do they need to turn the tables on past results — something they did both on strategy smarts and raw speed in Toronto — but they also likely need Palou and his No. 10 crew to stumble, too, in order to make up valuable points to give themselves a reasonable chance with three races to go to challenge the two-time defending champs for the Astor Cup. With Palou's comfortable margin in Saturday's Fast Six — 0.2867 seconds back to O'Ward in second — it's clear more needs to be found overnight by the No. 5 crew. Qualifying results: IndyCar Java House Grand Prix at Monterey qualifying, starting lineup, time 'It's my best start here, so I'll take that,' O'Ward said participating in just his second Fast Six session of 2025, the other leading to pole at The Thermal Club in March. 'Alex just did a really strong lap. My qualifying was a bit more scrappy, especially from (Round 2 to Round 3). I found four-tenths, but I needed two more to be closer. 'It just makes it that much harder whenever the (driver) you're trying to beat is having as good of days or better. But it just makes us push even harder, and I think it's going to be a great opposition and view going into Turn 2.' Palou made a point to note that after starting last year's Laguna Seca race on pole, he lost the lead by Turn 2, but he'd ultimately ride strategy and speed back to the front to lead 48 of 95 laps and a cushion at the checkered flag of nearly 2 seconds. McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown: IndyCar must remain 'commercially viable' despite team's growth The championship leader said he's looking forward to Sunday's battle with his lone serious title contender with whom he'll share the front row. 'I always think that it's better to have your closest competitor close. You want to be on kind of the same strategy, and you want to know — I think when you have somebody starting like 17th, it might look good on paper today, but then suddenly they do a crazy strategy and they cycle to the front, and you have, like, no chance to fight for it on track,' Palou said. 'I think it's great. I think it's good. It's for sure making it more challenging and more interesting for everybody. Honestly, I like it.' 'It's just so random and bizarre': Elsewhere throughout the front of the field, two-time Laguna Seca race winner Colton Herta will start on the inside of the second row in third with a trio of Team Penske, or Penske-affiliated, drivers trailing him in Josef Newgarden (fourth), Will Power (fifth) and David Malukas (sixth). O'Ward's teammate Christian Lundgaard will start seventh, followed by the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing duo of Graham Rahal (eighth) and Louis Foster (ninth), with Meyer Shank Racing's Marcus Armstrong (10th) rounding out the top 10. Other notables from qualifying include Felix Rosenqvist in 12th, Scott McLaughlin in 13th, Marcus Ericsson in 15th, Kyle Kirkwood in 18th and Scott Dixon in 20th.
Fox Sports
4 days ago
- Sport
- Fox Sports
Alex Palou, Pato O'Ward To Start 1, 2 At Laguna Seca Amid Championship Battle
MONTEREY, Calif. — Pato O'Ward couldn't be too upset with his front row starting spot for Sunday's INDYCAR race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. But if he looks at the driver who is on the pole, it isn't the one he would want to see. Or is it? Championship leader Alex Palou won the pole — his fifth in the 14 races this year — and earned the point that goes with it. "Now it's 100," O'Ward lamented Saturday afternoon. "It just makes it that much harder whenever the one that you're trying to beat is having as good of days or better." That 100 is the gap in the standings between Palou and second-place O'Ward. The two will start side-by-side at the front of the field for the 95-lap race Sunday (3 p.m. Eastern, FOX). Palou has dominated the season with seven victories, while O'Ward is coming off his second win of the season last week at Toronto. "You'd much rather be next to each other than not. Usually, if you're next to him, it means that you've been qualifying well because he seems to be the master this year at that, and we seem to be a little bit more of a stranger to the Fast Six [final round]," Palou said. "Our Fast Six record this year is pretty good. We've only got two and we've got a pole and a second." O'Ward knows he has an uphill climb. The Arrow McLaren driver cut 30 points off Palou's lead last week by winning at Toronto. Palou finished 12th, as his choice in tire strategy didn't produce results, with more cautions than the team had predicted. For Palou, he said having O'Ward right next to him actually helps when trying to race for the title. With four races remaining, O'Ward is the only driver who has a marginally reasonable shot to challenge Palou for the championship. "We're obviously the only two that can win the championship now," O'Ward said. "And I'm the one that's chasing down pretty hard." The maximum points a driver can earn in a weekend is 54. Palou can't clinch on Sunday but could put himself in a position to clinch at the next race in two weeks at Portland International Raceway. "It's better to have your closest competitor close," Palou said. "You want to be on the same kind of strategy. When you have somebody starting, like 17th, it might look good on paper. But then suddenly, they do a crazy strategy and they cycle to the front and you have no chance to fight for it on track." The Ganassi driver, who has won three titles in the last four years — including back-to-back championships in 2023 and 2024 — obviously likes his chances to fight for it on the track. His pole-winning speed was 0.2867 seconds faster than O'Ward in the final round. "It was not very close," O'Ward said. "We've definitely seen closer ones before. But it's my best start here, so I'll take that." O'Ward said he didn't have much for Palou in that final run. The drivers will see if they will be neck-and-neck on Sunday. "It's for sure making it more challenging and more interesting for everybody," Palou said. "I like it. Honestly, I like it." 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. recommended Item 1 of 1 Get more from the NTT INDYCAR SERIES Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more in this topic
Fox Sports
5 days ago
- Automotive
- Fox Sports
Pato O'Ward Still Fast, Leads First Practice at Laguna Seca
INDYCAR Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward is still on the gas in pursuit of his first NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship. The winner of two of the past three races delivered a strong first step toward winning at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca by turning the fastest lap of the first day of practice (1 minute, 9.20269 of a second on the 11-turn, 2.248-mile circuit). SEE: Practice Results O'Ward, who earlier this month won an oval race at Iowa Speedway and the street race in Toronto, will try to add a road course victory to his hot streak in Sunday's Java House Grand Prix of Monterey (3 p.m. ET, FOX, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network). O'Ward enters the weekend with a 99-point deficit to three-time series champion Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing. Realistically, O'Ward still has a significant points hill to climb, but he vowed to keep charging as long as he remains mathematically eligible for his first career series title. 'We need to keep winning races because that guy (Palou) wins races, and he has won a lot more races than we have this year,' O'Ward said. Palou has won seven of the first 13 races this season. O'Ward has won two. Palou was fourth on the Day 1 charts, trailing two-time event winner Colton Herta of Andretti Global w/ Curb-Agajanian and Marcus Armstrong of Meyer Shank Racing w/ Curb-Agajanian. Herta and Armstrong posted nearly identical times -- 1:09.3173 and 1:09.3174 – with Palou at 1:09.3679. Statistically, this has been Palou's best track, with four consecutive top-three finishes, including race wins in 2022 and 2024. The driver of the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda is bidding for his third consecutive series championship and fourth title in five years. O'Ward is one of four drivers mathematically still eligible to win the Astor Challenge Cup, although Andretti Global's Kyle Kirkwood (minus-173 points) and Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon (minus-174) are hanging on by a thread. The four title hopefuls are the only four drivers to have won a race this season. Herta is the only two-time Laguna Seca race winner in this 27-car field. He won in 2019 and 2021. Dixon won the 2023 race. Palou won last year's race from the pole, something Herta did twice. Friday's practice saw several drivers push the track limits too far, and it began with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's Devlin DeFrancesco bouncing through the gravel at the exit of Turn 4 and hitting the barrier. The impact of the No. 30 Mi-Jack Honda with the left side, the same side that Ed Carpenter Racing's Alexander Rossi hit in Turn 6 with the No. 20 ECR Java House Chevrolet. 'We just lost it out of (Turn 4),' DeFrancesco said. 'The grip's super low, and I think the track is slipping away quite quickly. There are some patches that are quite grippy, so conditions change quite a bit. Conditions are tricky.' Herta noted that Northern California's wind and dust leads to the asphalt getting 'chewed up and beat up' – thus the low grip for the racing tires. Dixon spun the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda exiting Turn 5, and rookie Jacob Abel did likewise in Turn 3 in the No. 51 Abel Construction Honda of Dale Coyne Racing. Later, Rinus VeeKay and his No. 18 askROI Honda of Dale Coyne Racing spun off Turn 11 with Ed Carpenter Racing's Christian Rasmussen nearly doing the same thing trailing him in the No. 21 Liquid Science Chevrolet. 'We're trying to find the limit out here,' Rasmussen said with a smile. The last of the incidents saw Team Penske's Josef Newgarden lock his rear tires approaching the famous Corkscrew – that's Turn 8 – and his No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet slid off the track and got stuck in the gravel. The weekend's second practice will be held at 11:30 a.m. ET Saturday followed by NTT P1 Award qualifying at 2:30 p.m. ET. Both sessions will air live on FS1, the FOX Sports app and the INDYCAR Radio Network. Sunday's action begins with the warmup practice at noon ET on FS2, the FOX Sports app and the INDYCAR Radio Network. recommended Item 1 of 1
Fox Sports
6 days ago
- Automotive
- Fox Sports
Alex Palou Still in Command, Pato O'Ward Hot as Laguna Seca Awaits
INDYCAR One of the business months in NTT INDYCAR SERIES history comes to a close this weekend with the annual visit to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. The series will have raced each weekend of the month, and Sunday's Java House Grand Prix of Monterey will be the fifth race. That means just under 30 percent of the season has been contested this month. This will be 28th time the sport has staged a race in picturesque hills of Monterey. Historically, Team Penske has been the most successful organization on this 11-turn, 2.238-mile circuit, but Chip Ganassi Racing's Alex Palou won last year's race with Andretti Global's Colton Herta and Arrow McLaren's Alexander Rossi joining him on the podium. Practice begins at 5 p.m. ET Friday (FS2, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network). Saturday's action airs live on FS1, with the weekend's second practice at 11:30 a.m. ET and qualifying for the NTT P1 Award at 2:30 p.m. ET. Sunday's 95-lap race will air live on FOX at 3 p.m. ET. A look at the storylines: Palou's Lead is Still Strong O'Ward sliced 30 points off Palou's series lead in last weekend's Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto with a combination of his victory and Palou's 12th-place finish. By any measure, that was a significant gain, but Palou is still in command of the championship standings with four races remaining. In fact, Palou can virtually clinch his third consecutive series title and fourth in five years by scoring the maximum number of points this weekend coupled with a low finish by O'Ward. Winning the pole and leading the most race laps in victory will put the driver of the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda in such a position that he will receive the Astor Challenge Cup at season's end by only competing in the final three races (Aug. 10 at Portland International Raceway, Aug. 24 at The Milwaukee Mile and Aug. 31 at Nashville Superspeedway). It can be argued that Laguna Seca is Palou's best track on the schedule. He has raced there four times and finished second, first, third and first, all with Chip Ganassi's team. Palou won the race in 2022 by more than 30 seconds, one of the sport's most convincing victories in a decade. Palou also has won two races in Portland, so yes, he should still like his title chances. O'Ward Hottest Driver of Late The driver of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet has won two of the past three races and has the best chance to catch Palou for the title. (There are only two other drivers mathematically eligible to win the championship: Andretti Global's Kyle Kirkwood is 173 points out of the lead, Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon trails by 174.) O'Ward will need at least three more races to go as well for him as Toronto did, and that's a big ask. Still, he has won multiple races for the second consecutive season and the fourth time in five years, and he is on pace to finish a career-best second in the standings. Laguna Seca hasn't been the best track for O'Ward. Yes, he has finished in the top 10 in each of his four starts, but his best result is a fifth in 2021 and his average finish is 7.5. It will take significantly more than that to put pressure on Palou. O'Ward, Herta in a Race for No. 10 Not since boyhood friends Helio Castroneves and Tony Kanaan arrived in North America in November 1995 have two drivers in this country had their careers more intricately linked than O'Ward and Herta. It's uncertain when O'Ward and Herta first shared the same racetrack, but it likely was in karting in 2010. Both reached INDY NXT by Firestone in 2017, with Herta finishing third in the championship driving for Andretti Steinbrenner Racing while O'Ward only got four races with Team Pelfrey. They stayed in the series another year, becoming teammates at Andretti Autosport. They finished 1-2 in the standings with O'Ward taking the title. In September of 2018, the Steinbrenner-backed drivers were introduced at Yankee Stadium as the new drivers of Harding Racing, and they made their series debuts in the final race of the 2018 season at Sonoma Raceway. O'Ward finished ninth, Herta 20th. They were to race as teammates the next year, but Mike Harding's team only had sponsorship for Herta. O'Ward joined the Carlin team. Fast forward to now, and this statistic is crazy: O'Ward and Herta each have nine career NTT INDYCAR SERIES victories. Their race to a 10th series win is on. The Rookie of the Year Battle Guess what other statistical category is tied: The 2025 Rookie of the Year battle. That's right: PREMA Racing's Robert Shwartzman and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's Louis Foster have exactly the same number of points as the season heads to its final four races. Each has 159 points. Currently, Shwartzman has the tiebreaker based on the best race finish to date: He finished ninth in the second race of the Synk INDYCAR Race Weekend doubleheader, the Farm to Finish 275 at Iowa Speedway. Foster has a pair of 11th-place finishes this season. There are eight drivers in this 27-car field who have earned top-rookie honors: Dixon (2001), Will Power (2006), Alexander Rossi (2016), Felix Rosenqvist (2019), Rinus VeeKay (2020), Scott McLaughlin (2021), Christian Lundgaard (2022) and Marcus Armstrong (2023). FOX broadcaster James Hinchcliffe was a Rookie of the Year winner in 2011. Bobby Rahal, a co-owner of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, won the award in 1982 and Arrow McLaren team principal Tony Kanaan did so in 1998. Hybrid in Use for First Time at Laguna Seca INDYCAR's hybrid technology, which was introduced a year ago this month, will be in action for the first time at this track. Last year, this race was in June. The hybrid assist along with the long-used Push to Pass system gives drivers an additional 120-plus horsepower to utilize. More horsepower changes the car's handling. Based on projected fuel mileage and tire efficiency, this is expected to be a three-stop race with some teams possibly making four stops given the short amount of time lost on pit road. recommended Item 1 of 1
