IndyCar: Alex Palou championship could end 15-year drought

If Alex Palou hangs on to win the 2021 IndyCar championship, he could end a streak that began all the way back in 2006 by doing so.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou secured his first career victory in the 2021 IndyCar season opener at Barber Motorsports Park back in mid-April, allowing him to take the lead of the championship standings for the first time in his career.

Now 10 races into his first season as the driver of the #10 Honda, Palou has led the standings after six events, including the most recent two.

Palou has opened up a 39-point lead over Arrow McLaren SP’s Pato O’Ward, another driver who became a first-time winner this season and the only driver other than Palou who has won multiple races in 2021, with six races remaining on the schedule.

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Sitting in third place is Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon, whose deficit of 56 points to Palou cannot be made up in a single race. Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden sits 13 points behind Dixon in fourth.

The championship battle is far from settled, with these four drivers likely to battle it out over the next few races; no other driver is within 100 points of Palou. But given the lead that Palou has over the rest of this quartet, the following question needs to be asked: will they battle it out all the way to the season finale on the streets of Long Beach, California in late September?

Last year, Dixon had a whopping 117-point lead on Newgarden with six races remaining, but Newgarden was able to close the gap and take the battle all the way to the season finale on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida. He took 101 points out of that lead and fell just 16 points shy of what would have been his third title while Dixon hung on to win his sixth.

So 39 points is far from a safe lead for Palou. However, if he is able to extend that lead over the next few races, he could very well pull something off that IndyCar hasn’t seen since 2005.

Not since Dan Wheldon won the 2005 title has an IndyCar champion been crowned before the season finale. Wheldon technically had it locked up with two races to go, provided he simply showed up to the final two events on the calendar.

But all 15 of the championship battles that have been decided since then have come down to the wire.

Sure, IndyCar implemented double points season finales from 2014 to 2019, but even had double points not been used for those six races, the championships technically would not have been secured beforehand.

Each driver can score a maximum of 54 points (one for taking the pole position, one for leading at least one lap, two for leading the most laps, and 50 for winning) in a given race. Drivers who compete are guaranteed to score at least five points, meaning that a maximum of 49 points can be made up on any given competitor in any one race.

Can Palou become the first driver to be crowned champion before the final race of the year since Wheldon won the 2005 title? His quest is scheduled to continue next Sunday, August 8 in the inaugural Big Machine Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Street Circuit. This race is set to be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network beginning at 5:30 p.m. ET.