Alex Palou went the entire month of June without an IndyCar race victory, and all anybody could talk about was how this year's championship was much, much closer than 2025's, when he won eight of 17 races and won the title by 196 points (four whole race victories) over Pato O'Ward in second.
Seeing as how his win drought (three races) was indeed his longest since 2024, when he still won his third championship, perhaps there was at least some merit to that discussion.
But now?
It's certainly not over with six races (in a 29-day span) remaining on the 2026 schedule, beginning with next weekend's annual visit to Portland International Raceway, but there's a reason DraftKings Sportsbook has Palou listed at -1800 to win the NTT IndyCar Series championship following his fifth win of the season.
Ovals, which were supposed to be some of Palou's weakest tracks, have become a strength since his 2025 Indy 500 win, and after his victory in the rain-delayed race at Nashville Superspeedway nearly two weeks ago, he has more victories this season than the next four drivers in the championship standings combined.
More importantly, the driver in second has never won an IndyCar race in his five seasons in the series.
David Malukas, who is 83 points behind the driver of the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, has been ultra-consistent in his first season behind the wheel of the No. 12 Chevrolet for Team Penske. But when you're up against Palou, consistency only matters if you're consistently elite and consistently winning.
Malukas hasn't hit that level yet.
Malukas has five podium finishes, tied for second in the series. His worst finish is 18th, also tied for second-best. He's finished lower than eighth just once in the past 11 events, best among all drivers. His three runner-up finishes are tops in the series. And he's one of two drivers whose average finish slots in just behind Palou's (5.83) in the 6s at 6.25.
All great stats.
But you're not going to sixth-place your way to an IndyCar championship on consistency alone when the guy you're up against is consistently rewriting the record books, even during what some still want you to believe has been a "down" year.
You sure aren't going to do it without winning a single race.
Make no mistake about it; Malukas has the potential to win. We've all seen it, and we've seen it at a variety of venues, not just at the short ovals where he excelled in past seasons in lesser equipment.
But simply getting his first win isn't going to cut it either. Just ask Kyle Kirkwood, who leads the series in top 10 finishes with 11 and also boasts an average finish of sixth. Before Malukas' drive from last to third at Nashville, Kirkwood had been the driver many pegged as Palou's top challenger.
But Kirkwood hasn't won a race since March, and his win drought is now tied for his longest since he went the entire 2024 season without climbing to the top step of the podium.
His top 10 record is stellar, but considering just two of his seven most recent starts have produced top five results, it's not hard to see why he's 87 points out of the lead, distantly trailing a driver whose limited bad days still tend to produce P5 results.
Again, consistency is great. Kirkwood is third for a reason.
But that's just it; ironically, yes, he's third ... for a reason.
The upcoming schedule also favors Palou.
Palou is a two-time winner at Portland, and while Kirkwood has been dubbed the "king of the streets", it's Palou who has won three of the four street races this year, which could play to his advantage in the new street races in Markham and Washington, D.C.
Palou also dominated at the Milwaukee Mile, which is scheduled to host two races, in 2025, before falling to Christian Rasmussen due to a sprinkle that lasted about a split-second, just long enough to shake up the tire strategy because of the ensuing yellow.
And then there is Laguna Seca, where Palou has won three times in five starts and never placed lower than third.
The IndyCar season is set to resume, following its current 20-day hiatus, with the first of six races in a stretch of 29 days to conclude the 2026 campaign at Portland on Sunday, August 9. All six of those races are set to be broadcast live on Fox, so begin a free trial of FuboTV and catch all of the action!
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