Alex Palou isn't here to ride around and collect points. He never has been. And in 2025, IndyCar fans finally found that out in way they won't soon forget.
Palou is a driver who has rightfully been praised over the years, specifically since joining Chip Ganassi Racing in 2021, for his calm, cool, collected, calculated, consistent (and whatever other words I might be missing) approach.
He is one of the least mistake-prone drivers of all-time, and that has allowed him to pick up the pieces more often than not when he hasn't won.
But that's just it; he has won. A lot. Even before 2025.
In his first year behind the wheel of the No. 10 Honda in 2021, he won three times, which was tied for the most in a series long heralded for its unmatched parity. He also won the championship, and though the points battle technically went down to the season finale, it wasn't particularly close.
In 2023, Palou became the series' first five-win champion in seven years, and he became the first driver to clinch a title with a race remaining since Sebastien Bourdais was crowned Champ Car champion for the fourth year in a row in 2007.
Last year, Palou technically only had two points-paying wins, but he also won his heat race and dominated the Thermal Club exhibition. In terms of raw performance, we're counting it, meaning that nobody won more than he did in 2024. And he once again had a relatively comfortable lead heading into the season finale en route to clinching another title.
That's three championships in four years, all either leading the series in wins or being tied for the series lead in wins.
That brings us to his unmatched 2025 season.
You don't get to eight wins, most in the modern era and two shy of IndyCar's all-time record from a bygone era where parity was nothing like it is now, by "thinking championship" or "collecting points".
You don't become the first driver to clinch a championship with two races to go in 23 years with that kind of laid-back mentality.
And that's the statement that Palou delivered this past season, the statement over which there is no longer any debate.
"It's not that I changed my mindset or the way I drive," Palou told Beyond the Flag. "It's been more about the confidence I had between my car, myself, and also the amazing work that everybody at CGR has put in during the offseason to get us fast cars.
"That's basically why we've been so aggressive on track, or why it looks like the approach has been more aggressive than in the past."
Alex Palou shifts the narrative in 2025
There were questions about whether Palou would be willing to do what he needed to do if it came down to making a bold move to win the Indy 500.
Those questions were answered with 14 laps to go, when he made the move – impressively from fourth in line in a train of dirty air – to take the lead from Marcus Ericsson behind two lapped cars.
There were questions about whether he would be willing to fight for wins after clinching the championship with two races to go at Portland International Raceway.
An off-track excursion while battling for second with Christian Lundgaard answered that one. Of course, he was predictably criticized for it, but that's what happens when greatness gets nitpicked into oblivion; the goalposts are always moving.
And last but not least, there were questions about Palou's aggression on short ovals. That is, until his defense against Christian Rasmussen, on much newer tires following a well-time pit stop during the caution for rain showers, at the Milwaukee Mile. It was clear he wasn't willing to settle for second without a fight.
There's a reason he compares himself to a gorilla.
"In the past, it's not that I've been trying to collect points and that's it," the four-time champion continued. "I've been trying hard. But that was the best that we could have done.
"It's true that sometimes if we are, I don't know, like second, third, or fourth, I prefer a third place than a shunt to try to get second. So yeah, I think this season maybe we took a bit more risks because of the amount of points we collected at the beginning of the season. So it's been fun."
Part of Palou's aggression, or more so the fact that it was far more obvious in 2025 than it was in the past, was the fact that he and the No. 10 team were dialed in on qualifying day. With a series-high six poles during a year nobody else had more than two, he knew he had a car capable of fighting for wins just about every week.
"It's huge," he said of his uptick in qualifying form. "Whenever you start up front, you normally are able to run the faster strategy, the one that you don't have as much risk on yellows and stuff, and you have clean air, which gives you an advantage on pace and so on. So normally it's better to start up front and it's an easier race. It's been a huge factor to our performance for sure."
A driver who rides around collecting points would have effectively had the championship sewn up after the Indy 500 in May. Even with 11 of 17 races to go, "collecting points" would have been more than enough to secure it, as at that point, Palou's finishes were P1, P1, P2, P1, P1, and P1.
Sure; he eventually solidified the inevitable, and he went on to win his fourth title in five years by 196 points, meaning that he could have crashed out of four of the eight races he won and still been crowned champion.
But in doing so, he bucked a trend that nobody was ever supposed to. Several, in fact.
He became the first driver to win the Indy 500 and the championship in the same year since Dario Franchitti in 2010, and he became the first driver to do so without ever not leading the championship since Johnny Rutherford in 1980.
And after just three Indy 500 winners from 2011 to 2024 went on to win another race later in the season, Palou added three more. Quite frankly, it easily could've been more; he led the most laps in three races he didn't win during the second half of the season alone.
"It was tough in Detroit, honestly, because I was really tired," he said about the week after winning the Indy 500. "I didn't really have time to prepare and just felt like there was a lot around us and it was tougher to focus.
"But the rest of the races were just normal. It's been super fun. It's been super cool, and the thing I like the most is to wake up and think about how to just be a little bit better than our competitors, how to improve a little bit and all that sort of stuff. So yeah, honestly, it's been easy to stay motivated and keep on pushing to get more wins."
For as calm, cool, collected, calculated, consistent as Palou is, he is just as aggressive, just as hungry, and just as willing to put his race on the line if he believes he can truly contend for the win.
2025 proved it. And he's ready for more in 2026.
"I love the workouts," he said of his offseason approach. "I love the preparation a lot. I think we're very lucky in motorsport that we need big preparation, but we're not competing physically like other sports where then they need to rest for like two weeks to a month to try to recover physically.
"For us, you just need a couple days to recover physically from a race and then you can start pushing again. So I'm ready. I'm ready to start working again, push a little bit more than I did this past offseason and see if I can be a bit stronger next year."
The 2026 IndyCar season is scheduled to get underway on Sunday, March 1 on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida, where Palou won to open up the 2025 campaign. He hasn't not led the championship standings since Saturday, June 22, 2024.