Alex Palou challenges for ‘greatest of all time’ title with third IndyCar championship

A loose seatbelt ended Will Power’s shot at a third IndyCar title, leaving Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou to cruise to a victory — and into greatness.

The Spanish racer has been the center of ample drama in the IndyCar world, but his on-track results don’t lie. Despite still not having taken a single oval victory, Palou has raced his way into a dominance that deserves to be appreciated, despite the malaise lingering over the IndyCar series this season.

Alex Palou takes his third IndyCar title at Nashville Superspeedway

Coming into the 2024 IndyCar season finale, a 33-point deficit separated championship leader Alex Palou from his closest and only legitimate challenger Will Power. It would take disaster for the notoriously reliable Spaniard to fail to take a title.

And disaster instead came for Power. The Team Penske driver pitted early in the race after reporting a loose seatbelt. By the time his No. 12 crew was able to solve the issue, the Australian driver returned to the track five laps behind the race leader — and over 190 laps still remained on the clock.

Palou made waves in 2020 when he debuted in the IndyCar Series with Dale Coyne Racing. Though he didn’t quite make “Rookie of the Year” status (that honor instead went to Rinus Veekay), Palou was fighting an uphill battle: DCR is easily a backmarker. That Palou took a podium that first year signaled he was a force to be reckoned with.

Chip Ganassi — the team owner notorious for claiming he loves winners — saw the potential. For Palou’s sophomore year in IndyCar, he took over the No. 10 CGR machine. In his first race with the team, he took victory.

Born in Barcelona, Spain, Palou’s racing background was firmly rooted in European open-wheel racing despite coming from humble beginnings. Palou’s karting career kicked off thanks to his father’s role as a mechanic, and he later debuted in the Euroformula Open Championship with Campos in 2014, bookending the season with victories and coming third in the championship.

The next year, 2015, saw Palou graduate to GP3. Though he earned a win in his first year, he struggled to come to grips with the series and instead headed off to Japan for its regional Formula 3 championship. Three victories earned him third in the championship — as well as a handful of races in Formula 2 at the end of the year.

2018 saw Palou graduate to international Formula 3, taking seven podiums, before heading back to Japan for Super GT and Super Formula.

He had an ulterior motive: Palou was making friends with the good folks at Honda in hopes of his name being raised in conversation within the IndyCar paddock.

All the while, Palou was dedicating himself to succeeding. He trained like an Olympian and hunted for funding — and his efforts paid off in IndyCar with Team Goh and DCR.

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“I made sure in the interviews with everybody I was speaking to that I was super happy, the happiest man on Earth, but I would be even happier if I was in IndyCar,” Palou told the series website back in 2021.

“If you ask Team Goh or Honda in Japan, they’re going to tell you that from the first time … I was like, ‘Man, I want to go to IndyCar.’”

That first season with Chip Ganassi was fruitful. Palou took three victories and needed to finish 12th or better in the season finale to win the championship. His fourth place was more than enough to do the job.

The following year, 2022, started well but ended with a fifth place overall in the championship standings thanks to Team Penske’s dominance — and perhaps in part due to complex contract negotiations.

See, Chip Ganassi announced that July that it had re-signed Palou for 2023 — but Palou denied he’d agreed to that and instead announced that he was heading off to McLaren. CGR filed a civil lawsuit against Palou; the settlement was that the Spaniard would remain with the team in 2023.

In 2023, Palou admitted to Zak Brown that he didn’t intend to race with McLaren, that he’d race with CGR for as long as he could. McLaren responded by suing Palou for almost $23 million.

A rocky road, but Palou more than made up for it in 2023 by securing the title in the penultimate round of the championship — the first time a driver had won the championship before the season finale since Sebastien Bourdais earned the 2007 Champ Car title.

And here we are today.

Even without Will Power’s seatbelt mishap, Palou was well positioned for a title nevertheless. That all comes down to the Spaniard’s primary skill: his consistency.

The points system in IndyCar rewards drivers for competing in the race; all drivers earn at least five points for starting and event, with the points total increasing as drivers place 24th or better.

Even in his worst finish of the year, Palou still earned more than that base total. His 23rd place in Iowa’s first race was still good enough for seven points.

Palou took two victories on the season, with a third in the $1 million exhibition race at Thermal Club. He took second-place finishes at Iowa, Portland, and Mid-Ohio. He rounded out the Long Beach podium. He took four fourth places and three fifths.

Much has been made this year about the fact that Alex Palou has never won an oval race — but that hasn’t impacted any of his three championships. He hasn’t needed a win at an oval, not when he’s so dominant everywhere else, and certainly not when he’s capable of bringing home a clean car at the notoriously crash-heavy oval events.

Pair a slew of good oval results with a few wins, some podiums, and competent points-paying finishes just about everywhere else, and you’ve got the perfect recipe for a championship.

In just his fifth season in IndyCar, Palou has amassed an impressive 13.75% win percentage. The only drivers who have usurped him are drivers with far more experience: Scott Dixon (15.7% after 22 years), Will Power (13.95% after 17 years), and Josef Newgarden (14.48% after 13 years).

Alex Palou doesn’t need an oval win to take a championship, and he doesn’t need an oval win to enter the conversation about whether he should qualify for one of the greatest IndyCar drivers of all time.

Alex Palou is one of the greatest IndyCar drivers of all time, and that fact is only going to make his first oval victory all the sweeter.

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