Within the closing laps of the 2025 Portland Grand Prix, Spaniard Álex Palou earned his fourth title in dramatic vogue whereas pushing, maybe too far, for the race victory. It was races like this one which present precisely how Palou has earned his 4 titles in 5 seasons with Chip Ganassi Racing, with relentless drive and unimaginable expertise. As soon as his solely remaining title rival, McLaren’s Patricio O’Ward, dropped a number of laps down with engine troubles, the world might have forgiven Palou for merely trundling round and securing his championship factors rating with a considerably conservative prime ten end.
A DIVE BY PALOU! ?@lundgaardoff fights again and will get again to P2. pic.twitter.com/Q5OiYBOmun
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) August 10, 2025
The DHL driver does not play that recreation, nevertheless, and he was flat out till the end. A exhausting scrabble battle between himself and Christian Lundgaard ended with the yellow and purple machine taking evasive motion deep into the grass and leaping a brief grime berm to get again on observe. Palou was inside a second of race chief Will Energy, and he wasn’t going to go down and not using a combat. This was by no means going to finish with a mid-tier technique battle and a coast to the end line. Palou wished that race win, and if one thing had gone barely otherwise in the best way the highest three caught site visitors, or if a warning had been thrown, he may nicely have had it. He had more energizing tires, he was lapping quicker than the sector within the closing minutes, and he had the need.
The distinction between an excellent driver and a four-time champion is to know when you possibly can and might’t take dangers, and push for the win anyway.
Hey Palou
Except for a middling efficiency on the Toronto spherical final month, and getting shunted from behind on the streets of Detroit, Palou has had a virtually flawless season in 2025. He kicked off the run with 5 wins and a second-place end from the primary six rounds of the season, together with his first win on an oval, Might’s Indianapolis 500. In some other sequence that will have been just about recreation over already, however the IndyCar grid is filled with immense expertise and tight racing, so there was at all times an opportunity that another person would mount a factors battle within the again half of the season to problem Palou. Grabbing three extra victories and two extra podiums from rounds seven via 15 pushed him nicely past catchable, and gave the world a way of simply who they have been coping with. This younger driver, nonetheless simply 28 years outdated, has earned his fourth title in American open wheel racing, and he is obtained a minimum of one other decade of profitable within the sport earlier than he’ll be thought-about retirement age. Hell, the man who gained the race for Crew Penske, Will Energy, is 44 years outdated himself.
Solely three different drivers have secured 4 titles in American open wheel racing historical past, possibly you’ve got heard of them: Mario Andretti, Dario Franchitti, and Sébastien Bourdais. And solely two drivers have eclipsed that quantity, as Scott Dixon has six titles and AJ Foyt has seven. With an enormous grid of spectacular worldwide expertise, Palou’s quartet is well as spectacular as any of the opposite huge winners, if no more so. With each driver in IndyCar working the identical Dallara chassis and no clear engine specs benefit between Honda and Chevrolet, there’s little or no to elucidate Palou’s success, however he is taken to this sport como un pato a agua.
