While most of the IndyCar fanbase was concentrated on Josef Newgarden's bid to become the first driver to win three consecutive Indy 500s in the buildup to May's 109th running of the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing", another driver entered the 2025 season attempting to pull off his own three-peat.
Alex Palou did, in fact, become the first driver to win three years in a row at one track since Will Power's Sao Paulo streak from 2010 to 2012 when he won at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in mid-May.
But he has had his eyes on bigger game than that race, and that has been clear since the drop of the green flag in St. Petersburg.
Palou, who won his first championship the same year he secured his first career win in 2021, has never not won a championship in a season that has seen him enter any race having already won the same year; his lone 2022 win, which was a 30-second win at Laguna Seca, came in the season finale.
He became the first driver since 2005 to clinch a championship before the finale in 2023, and he did it with a five-win campaign. Then in 2024, despite winning only twice, he used his unmatched consistency to become the first back-to-back champion since Dario Franchitti, also the driver of Chip Ganassi Racing's No. 10 Honda, won three straight from 2009 to 2011.
Two weeks after his Indy road course win, already his fourth of the season, he became the driver to snap Newgarden's streak, winning the Indy 500 for the first time to start the year with five wins and a runner-up finish in the first six races, making him the runaway championship favorite, even only just beyond the season's one-third mark.
Alex Palou's top championship challenger is already eliminated
Now 12 races in, Palou has seven wins, a modern era record for a full season, and a 129-point championship lead over Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward with five races (and 270 total points) remaining on the table. Assuming Palou simply shows up to those five races, that 270 number drops to 245.
He is so far ahead that most sportsbooks aren't even offering IndyCar championship odds anymore, even though we have just reached mid-July.
In fact, the preseason favorite to challenge Palou and prevent him from becoming the first driver to pull off a three-peat since Franchitti has already been mathematically eliminated from championship contention.
Heading into the year, Team Penske's Scott McLaughlin was listed as the favorite to detail Palou's three-peat bid (+340 at FanDuel Sportsbook).
McLaughlin led Team Penske (and Chevrolet) with back-to-back finishes of third place in the championship standings in both 2023 and 2024, and believe it or not, if not for the team's infamous push-to-pass scandal last year, he would have won the title on a tiebreaker over Palou, as he tied for the series lead with three wins, one more than Palou's two.
But through 12 races, he is winless and has scored just 234 points. Palou has scored 281 more points (not 281 points, 281 more points) and officially eliminated McLaughlin with his win at Iowa Speedway, the same place McLaughlin got his first oval win and placed third in last year's doubleheader.
To put it into even more perspective, McLaughlin was eliminated on the same weekend as rookie Jacob Abel, the driver who sits last in the championship standings among the 27 full-time drivers without a single top 10 finish.
The preseason second favorite to challenge Palou, McLaughlin teammate Josef Newgarden, is also eliminated, sitting 14th and 308 points out of the lead after a disappointing Iowa weekend.
There are still six drivers who can mathematically derail Palou's three-peat bid, but all he really needs to do is avoid disaster from this point forward. Only two of those drivers entered the year among the top six drivers most likely to beat him: teammate Scott Dixon and O'Ward. Dixon sits third in the standings, 173 points behind.
Race 13 on the 2025 IndyCar schedule is the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto, a race Palou has not won in three previous attempts. The race is set to be broadcast live on Fox from the streets of Exhibition Place beginning at 12:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, July 20. Start a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss any of the action!