IndyCar: Only a perfect season can derail Alex Palou

Alex Palou may have fallen short in the 2022 IndyCar season opener, but he proved that it’s going to take an incredible effort to defeat him this year.

After winning the 2021 IndyCar championship in somewhat comfortable fashion in his first season as the driver of the #10 Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing, Alex Palou’s rank among the favorites to win the 2022 title was somewhat inexplicable.

There’s no doubt that it is tough to repeat as the champion in the most competitive racing series in the world. But Palou was listed on WynnBET down in fourth at +700 (bet $100 to win $700), behind Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta (+425), Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden (+450), and Arrow McLaren SP’s Pato O’Ward (+650).

Palou didn’t open up the 2022 season with a victory like he did last year, and the last three series champions have opened up their championship-winning seasons with victories.

However, his second place finish on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida solidified that it is going to take nothing shy of a perfect season to knock him off.

Coming into the race weekend, Chip Ganassi Racing, as a whole, were absolutely nowhere. They were clearly missing something, having been well off the pace in the opening practice session, and things weren’t looking good.

Among their four drivers, Marcus Ericsson was quickest in 15th place; Palou ranked 17th, which is where he finished last year’s race at the 14-turn, 1.8-mile (2.897-kilometer) temporary street circuit on the streets of St. Petersburg. And let’s not forget the fact that Chip Ganassi Racing hadn’t won at the track since Dario Franchitti took the checkered flag in 2011.

Even after they turned things around, they still didn’t appear to have what it would take to knock off Team Penske or Andretti Autosport. Plus, this track had been Palou’s worst in the 2021 season, so he was never really deemed much of a threat.

Aside from his two DNFs, both of which came due to issues out of his control, it was the only  track at which he failed to finish inside the top seven en route to winning last year’s title.

Yet by the end of the weekend, the reigning champion crossed the finish line just 0.509 behind race winner Scott McLaughlin and his #3 Team Penske Chevrolet.

The rest of the field had a chance to put Palou in an early hole and make his path to the 2022 championship very difficult, given his struggles in St. Petersburg last year.

Instead, after just one race, one which initially figured to prove challenging for the 24-year-old Spaniard straight from the get-go, he now finds himself as the championship favorite at +325. And that’s a scary sight for the first of the field.

Palou’s only other finish outside of the top seven last year came in a street race on Belle Isle, when he finished in 15th place. But this race was the first race of a doubleheader, and in race number two, he finished on the podium.

Interestingly enough, even if all three of Palou’s wins last year had been runner-up finishes, he still would have won the championship, a true testament to his consistency.

And he appears to be just getting better and better.

Unless somebody can turn in what is effectively a perfect season, an unlikely scenario given how deep and talented this year’s field is, Palou is still the driver to beat.

The next race on the 2022 IndyCar schedule is the XPEL 375, which is scheduled to take place at Texas Motor Speedway this Sunday, March 20. This race is set to be broadcast live on NBC beginning at 12:30 p.m. ET. Palou finished in fourth and seventh place in the two races at the four-turn, 1.44-mile (2.317-kilometer) oval in Fort Worth, Texas last year.