Alex Palou has never been "bad", per se, on oval tracks. But when he entered the 2025 IndyCar season 0-for-27 in oval races, as the only driver in series history to win not only a second but a third championship without ever winning on an oval, there were questions about whether or not he could go from good to great at tracks with exclusively left turns.
Critics will have to think of something else to ask.
Palou earned his first career oval win in the 109th running of the Indy 500, and he added his first short oval win later in the year at Iowa Speedway from pole. He also took pole at the Milwaukee Mile and led the most laps before an unfortunate rain shower resulted in a caution and a gamble not to take tires, one which didn't pan out. He still finished second.
And with a runner-up finish at Nashville Superspeedway to conclude the season, he secured his first career oval championship.
Since IndyCar began tracking points for different disciplines (ovals vs. road and street courses) in 2010, no driver had ever won the oval title, the road and street course title, and the overall title in the same year until Palou this year.
Alex Palou becomes IndyCar's oval king
While Palou wrapped up the road and street course championship and the overall championship with multiple races remaining, the oval battle came down to the wire. Unfortunately, there wasn't really a big deal made about it like there was back when IndyCar officially awarded the A.J. Foyt Oval Trophy and the Mario Andretti Road Course Trophy to the respective champions.
"I think that would be fun," Palou told Beyond the Flag when asked about bringing back those awards. "Yeah, I think it would be fun. And honestly, although we don't really celebrate it or we don't keep track of it as much, IndyCar still keeps track of it, and you can see on the classification the amount of points you've scored on road and street courses and the amount of points you've scored on ovals.
"So for me it was amazing to get my first oval championship. And normally I've been sixth, seventh, fifth, but never up there. I think we went to Milwaukee tied on points or almost the same as Pato. It was a big target of ours to get that oval championship, even though it doesn't get celebrated as much as before. But yeah, I think it would be something that we could bring back for sure."
Considering how many fans labeled this year's overall championship "predictable", perhaps the individual discipline championship battles should receive a greater emphasis from the series and Fox Sports in the coming years.
With an average finish of 3.17 in six oval races, the 28-year-old Spaniard won the oval title by 44 points over Pato O'Ward. The oval battle was poised to be tight until O'Ward's late tire failure at Nashville Superspeedway on Sunday not only knocked him out of the lead but out of the race entirely.
On the flip side, Palou won the road and street course title by 125 points over Christian Lundgaard, and the overall title by 196 points over O'Ward.
Ironically, Palou is the third straight first-time oval champion who entered his oval championship-winning season with zero career oval wins.
O'Ward won it in 2021 and 2022 after entering 2021 with no oval wins, and Scott McLaughlin won it in 2024 after entering the year with no oval wins. 2023's champion, Josef Newgarden, had already won an oval title in 2016.
As big as the Indy 500 win was for him and the No. 10 team, the Iowa win was the one that was perhaps at least somewhat surprising. Chip Ganassi Racing hadn't won at the short track since 2009 with Dario Franchitti. Even Scott Dixon still hasn't won there, and factoring in doubleheaders, Palou's win ended a 17-race drought for the team at the 7/8-mile venue.
"It was a place that we struggled a lot before," Palou admitted. "Even this year we were struggling a little bit but got kind of a bit lucky with that yellow."
Of course, Palou did lead the most laps (by far) from pole, so it's not as if he backed into a win because of the caution. And quite frankly, a similarly timed yellow actually probably cost him a win there in 2024, when he matched his best career oval finish (at the time) with a runner-up finish.
"We were still like top three, top four, but to get that win, we had a huge help with that yellow," he said. "So yeah, it's a place that for some reason we struggle more than in other places. We knew we had a little bit more work to do, but it was a very special one. It was my first short oval win. It was the second oval win of the season and my career. So it felt super special to be fast in qualifying and then also to be able to win that race."
Where Palou wasn't particularly strong in 2024 was at the Milwaukee Mile and Nashville Superspeedway. He was actually slated for a podium in last year's first Milwaukee race before a late yellow, but a mechanical issue in the second race knocked him out of contention before it even started. At Nashville, he finished a pedestrian (or, by his standards, an incredibly low) 11th.
This year, he wrapped up the season with runner-up finishes at both. He took pole at Milwaukee and led the most laps and was in the battle for the win at Nashville.
"Huge," he said about his success at what had been two of his 'worst' tracks entering the year.
"Honestly, it's been one of the best things that has happened to us this year. I mean, winning at Road America, Indy road course, it's been huge, but those were places that we normally tend to have really strong cars and that I tend to have a good feeling with the car.
"But not knowing what we were going to be able to do at Milwaukee and Nashville, especially compared to last year when we struggled a lot, and then trying different stuff this year in driving and setup and getting a pole at Milwaukee, then finishing second, and then another top five start at Nashville and finishing second again was super good, especially because we did it by just racing.
"It was not yellows or anything like that. So it was fun. It was fun, and that gives us a ton of confidence for next year."
It's confidence he may need to build on heading into 2026. While he was relatively unchallenged for this year's title, next year's schedule does not feature the Thermal Club road course, where he won the 2024 exhibition and put on an exceptional comeback drive to win in 2025, and it is unlikely to feature the Iowa doubleheader.
He's not worried about it.
"I think we can improve at many places," Palou said. "Obviously I think that this year we've been able to execute perfectly at those eight tracks. Normally that doesn't happen. Normally, it's more like Milwaukee, where you're really strong, you're on pole, you're leading, and then there's one yellow that gives the win to another driver, and he earns it, like [Christian] Rasmussen did. He earned that win.
"But normally it's really tough to execute perfectly all weekend. This year we've been lucky enough to do it not five or six or seven, but eight times. We know it's going to be tough to repeat, but we know that we still have places to improve. We still have lots of room to improve, as does everybody else. So yeah, we're going to push hard to try to keep up the form the next upcoming seasons."
And now what was once considered one of his weaknesses has turned into one of his strengths, evidenced by not only his fourth series championship, but his first oval championship.
"Winning in Iowa, getting my pole in Milwaukee, just trying to fight for the win in Milwaukee and Nashville – those are moments that I've never experienced before and I discovered this year, and it helped me get a lot more confident."
The streets of St. Petersburg, Florida, where Palou won to open up the 2025 season, are scheduled to get the 2026 season underway on Sunday, March 1. Fox is set to provide live coverage.