You have to go back more than a decade to find the last time the A.J. Foyt Oval Trophy and the Mario Andretti Road Course Trophy were actually awarded to the respective winners of the IndyCar oval standings and the IndyCar road and street course standings.
Nowadays, it's almost like you have to do the math yourself to find out who ranks where in each of these sub-championship battles over the course of a season.
And the oval championship battle is probably the most exciting thing about IndyCar right now, yet barely anybody has mentioned it.
Alex Palou, Pato O'Ward tied before Milwaukee
Of course, when Alex Palou started his career 0-for-27 on ovals, that's all anybody could talk about. It wasn't the three championships or the 15 race wins; it was the fact that he had never been victorious on a track with exclusively left turns.
It was the talking point that reporters not only brought up ahead of every oval race but eagerly brought up whenever given an opening.
Considering the fact that he has since won the Indy 500 and backed that up with a short oval win at Iowa Speedway, where Chip Ganassi Racing hadn't won since 2010, the whole "Palou can't win on ovals nonsense" was finally laid to rest.
So of course, now that the laziest party line in the history of motorsport is buried, nobody is talking about the oval championship.
We know how the goalposts are moved when it comes to justifying a modern talent in any sport as one of the all-time greats, and things get nitpicked into oblivion to make a case against whoever that may be, so we're not all that surprised.
The fact is that even though Palou has already locked up his fourth series title, and third in a row, the oval championship battle is extremely competitive, with Palou and Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward tied at 168 points each heading into Sunday's race at the Milwaukee Mile.
Can Alex Palou become IndyCar's new oval king?
O'Ward won the oval championship in 2021 and 2022, but Palou has never won it. However, history may be on his side. O'Ward had never won an oval race entering 2021, and Team Penske's Scott McLaughlin had never won an oval race entering 2024, when he won the oval title.
"Normally in the past we would see that those stats, the road course and street course and the oval, and we would have a huge gap on the oval, like 60, 70 points," Palou told Beyond the Flag. "And I would be like, oh my goodness, that's crazy, that's like two races."
Palou's two non-wins in ovals this year include an eighth place finish at Gateway and a fifth place finish in the first Iowa race, giving him an average finish of 3.75 at tracks he's not supposed to be good at.
"It feels amazing, and I feel more comfortable," he said of his oval success. "Obviously in Iowa I felt a little more comfortable and we were able to get a win and get a pole there. I'm excited for Milwaukee, although last year wasn't amazing for us. We had that issue in race two."
Last year at Milwaukee, O'Ward won the first race ahead of Palou in fifth, though Palou would have been a podium contender if not for a late caution. In race two, he was bitten by a pre-race mechanical issue and entered the race several dozen laps down. He finished 19th, while O'Ward himself was knocked out with a mechanical issue.
"In Nashville we were not super competitive," Palou admitted.
But he didn't need to be. When Will Power's seatbelt came undone early on in last year's season finale, Palou effectively clinched the championship. He still moved from 24th to 11th. O'Ward finished in second.
Palou is set to start Sunday's race at Milwaukee on pole, with O'Ward right behind him in third place. A.J. Foyt Enterprises' David Malukas, who is a distant third in oval points, is set to start alongside Palou on the front row.
Races at Milwaukee and Nashville to conclude the 2025 IndyCar season are scheduled to take place on Sunday, August 24 and Sunday, August 31, respectively. Both are set to be shown live on Fox beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET. Start a free trial of FuboTV today!