Alex Palou wrapped up his fourth IndyCar Series championship in five seasons Sunday at Oregon's Portland International Raceway when title contender Pato O'Ward lost power early in the race.
O'Ward started from the pole position and was the only driver still mathematically eligible to beat Palou for the championship. Palou went into the day with a cozy 121-point lead over O'Ward in the season standings, and so long as he left Portland up by 108 points, he would clinch the championship in the first of three races to close the American open-wheel circuit's 17-race schedule for the 2025 season.
The Astor Cup became Palou's -- again -- just 22 laps into the race on Portland's permanent road course when O'Ward had an electronic malfunction on his Arrow McLaren Chevrolet and had to make an unplanned pit stop. He returned to the track down nine laps from the leaders.
Palou finished third in his Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, O'Ward finished 25th, and the 28-year-old Spaniard had another title cemented -- with two races to spare, thanks to his insurmountable 151-point lead.
Palou was feisty in the closing portion of the race and competed unnecessarily aggressively at times, even driving off course with four laps remaining and drag-racing Arrow McLaren's Christian Lundgaard for position.
"We're here to win. That's why we're here," insisted Palou. "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. Even though it could have been OK to stay third, we wanted to win."
Palou has won all four of his championships for Ganassi and ran away with this one, his third consecutive, by storming out of the gate with victories in the first two races to set the pace for his 67-year-old team owner to win his 17th IndyCar title in 30 years. The 17 championships tie Penske Racing, which is owned by motorsports titan Roger Penske, whose holdings includes not only his three-car IndyCar team but Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the series itself.
Twelve of Ganassi's IndyCar titles have come in the past 17 years, starting with Scott Dixon's brilliant 2008 season in which he put together a run similar to the one Palou had this year. Dixon won six races in 2008, including the Indianapolis 500, six poles and the first of his six championships.
Ganassi has many times before dressed down drivers for putting themselves in unnecessary positions, but this time he had no qualms with Palou pushing hard for a race win rather than sitting back and coasting to the season title.
"It depends on the situation, the driver. Like Alex said, we go into this race with that (No.) 10 car team, every race, we want to win the race, OK? That's how we got to this point," Ganassi said. "We didn't change anything today. You can't play God."
Ganassi admitted, though, that Palou caused a brief scare with his determination to race hard in the final laps.
"When he was fighting for second or third, I was fine with it," Ganassi said. "I've got to say my heart skipped a beat when he went off (track) there, but other than that, I was all for it."
The only drivers with more IndyCar titles than Palou are A.J. Foyt (seven) and Dixon, and the Spanish star broke through this season by finally winning on ovals to fully prove he's the complete package. That probably was clear to most IndyCar followers years ago.
He remains embroiled in a $30 million breach of contract civil suit with Arrow McLaren for not honoring a deal to join that team but has instead stayed loyal to Ganassi. This year, Palou won five of the first six races, including the Indianapolis 500, the crowning victory that had eluded him in five previous tries. That win at the Brickyard on Memorial Day weekend cemented his path to another title, and he has been untouchable since.
Palou went into Portland with a series-high eight wins, five poles, 11 top-five finishes in 14 races, 563 laps led and an average place finish of 1.2. He padded most of those numbers Sunday.
He joined Sebastien Bourdais, Dario Franchitti and Ted Horn as the only drivers in series history to win three consecutive titles, and he still has a chance to tie the IndyCar record for single-season victories, set at 10 by Foyt in 1964 and matched by Al Unser in 1970.
However, Palou lost his chance to break that record when Will Power won Sunday at Portland. It was the first victory of the season for the Penske fleet, which has been in an uncharacteristic slump all year.
Lundgaard held off Palou to finish second, while Graham Rahal was fourth and Alexander Rossi placed fifth. Callum Ilott, Scott McLaughlin, Marcus Armstrong, Felix Rosenqvist and Colton Herta completed the top 10.