Alex Palou secures 4th IndyCar title in final 5 seasons

Alex Palou wrapped up his fourth IndyCar championship within the final 5 seasons on Sunday at Portland International Raceway when title contender Pato O’Ward misplaced energy early within the race.

O’Ward began from the pole and was the one driver mathematically eligible to beat Palou for the championship. Palou went into Sunday with a comfy 121-point lead over O’Ward within the standings and as long as he left Portland up by 108 factors, he’d clinch the championship within the first race of a 3 consecutive weekends to shut the season.

The Astor Cup turned his simply 22 laps into the race on the Portland street course when O’Ward had an digital challenge on his Arrow McLaren Chevrolet and needed to make an unplanned pit cease. He returned to the monitor down 9 laps from the leaders.

Palou completed third, O’Ward completed twenty fifth and Palou has the title cemented with two races remaining within the IndyCar season and an insurmountable 151-point lead.

Palou was feisty within the closing portion of the race and raced unnecessarily aggressive at instances — even driving off beam with 4 laps remaining and drag-racing Christian Lundgaard for place.

“We’re here to win. That’s why we’re here. We’ve said it many times. When we come here, although we have that big goal of winning the championship, our priority is always to win races and win every single weekend,” insisted Palou. “Even though could have been OK to stay third, we wanted to win.”

Palou has gained all 4 of his championships for Chip Ganassi Racing and ran away with this one, his third consecutive, by storming out of the gate with a win within the first two races of the yr to set the tempo for Ganassi to win its seventeenth IndyCar title in 30 years. The 17 championships tie Penske Racing.

Twelve of Ganassi’s IndyCar titles have come within the final 17 years, beginning with Scott Dixon’s sensible 2008 season wherein he put collectively a run just like the one Palou had this yr. Dixon in 2008 gained six races, together with the Indianapolis 500, six poles and the primary of his six championships.

Ganassi has many instances earlier than dressed-down drivers for placing themselves in pointless positions, however this time had no qualms with Palou racing laborious for a race win reasonably than sitting again and coasting to to the title.

“It depends on the situation, the driver. Like Alex said, we go into this race with that 10 car team, every race, we want to win the race, OK? That’s how we got to this point,” stated Ganassi. “We didn’t change anything today. You can’t play God.”

But Ganassi admitted Palou did trigger a quick scare along with his dedication to race laborious within the closing laps.

“When he was fighting for second or third, I was fine with it,” stated Ganassi. “I got to say my heart skipped a beat when he went off there, but other than that I was all for it.”

Only A.J. Foyt (seven) and Dixon (six) have extra championships than Palou, who broke by means of this season by successful on ovals to lastly present he is the entire bundle. That was clear years in the past, and he’s embroiled in a $30 million breach of contract civil go well with with Arrow McLaren for not honoring a deal to affix that workforce.

He’s as a substitute stayed loyal to Ganassi and this yr, Palou gained 5 of the primary six races, together with the Indianapolis 500 that had eluded him in 5 earlier tries. That win on the Brickyard cemented the Spaniard’s path to a different championship and he is been untouchable since.

Palou went into Portland with a series-high eight wins, 5 poles, 11 top-five finishes in 14 races, 563 laps led and a 1.2 common end. He padded these quantity on Sunday.

Palou joined Dario Franchitti, Sebastien Bourdais and Ted Horn as the one drivers in sequence historical past to win three consecutive titles. But, with two extra races this season, Palou has an opportunity to tie the IndyCar document for victories in a season set at 10 by Foyt in 1964 and Al Unser in 1970.

He misplaced his likelihood to interrupt essentially the most wins in a season document Sunday when Will Power gained at Portland. It was the primary victory of the season for the Penske fleet, which has been in a stoop all yr and didn’t get its first win till the fifteenth of 17 races.