Entering the 2022 IndyCar season finale at Laguna Seca, reigning series champion Alex Palou remained winless and had already been mathematically eliminated from championship contention.
It was a disappointing year for Palou after coming seemingly out of nowhere to win the 2021 title in his first year behind the wheel of the No. 10 Honda with Chip Ganassi Racing, and that extended far beyond the race track.
Palou, under contract with Ganassi, signed with McLaren, clearly aiming to pursue a career in Formula 1 in the car alongside Lando Norris, the car which ultimately went to Oscar Piastri after Daniel Ricciardo was released from his contract a year early.
2022 was a year of contract drama for Alex Palou
Both Ganassi and McLaren announced, on the same day that summer, that they had signed the Spaniard for 2023. Palou intended to leave Ganassi for McLaren, and he made that clear with a statement of his own. Lawsuits ensued.
There were doubts, at that point, that Palou would ever drive in another race for Ganassi. The bridges may have been too badly burnt. But although he and the boss were not exactly on the best of terms at a time when he was actively trying to join forces with archrival Zak Brown, he finished out the season.
And after a quiet year on the race track, despite a dramatic year away from it, he did it in resounding fashion, driving from 11th to first to secure the victory by 30.3812 seconds, which was (and still is) the largest race-winning margin since the modern sanctioning body was formed in 1994 under the name Indy Racing League and competition began in 1996.
Since then, he hasn't slowed down.
He truly returned to his winning ways in 2023, becoming the series' first five-win champion since 2016. He finished no lower than eighth all year, and he became the first driver to clinch the championship with a race to go since Sebastian Bourdais won the 2007 Champ Car championship.
Though more contract drama ensued toward the mid-to-late stages of 2023, by which point he had actually signed a legitimate contract with McLaren but wanted out of it with Formula 1 no longer on the table, he had already effectively wrapped up the championship, thanks to a three-race post-Indy 500 win streak.
He has since gone on to add two more championships, including a 2025 title which became the first clinched with two races left since Cristiano da Matta won the 2002 CART title with three races to go. Palou's third straight title included a modern era record eight wins, with an Indy 500 triumph among them.
Being able to put the distractions behind him was one of the things he took away from a "not proud" moment three years ago, and he continues to use that to his advantage
The three straight championships since then speak to his ability to focus after a clearly suboptimal 2022 campaign.
"Oh yeah, big – although I'm not proud about everything that happened in 2022, 2023," Palou admitted to Beyond the Flag. "I think that played a huge role in where I am today, especially mentally, being able to block everything that’s around myself and just focus on the real work I have, which is just to go fast in a race car and try it win races.
"Although I'm not proud, I think it's been helping me a lot."
Palou has collected 15 victories since the start of the 2023 season. In addition to going three-for-three in series championships, he has gone three-for-three in road and street course championships, and he claimed his first career oval championship in 2025, making him the first driver to sweep all three titles since IndyCar began tracking points for individual disciplines in 2010.
And he's still improving.
"I think it goes through stages, like when you're a kid and you're just doing it for fun, and then suddenly you put in some work, and you see some results," he explained. "You think that's a click, but then you find that there are always clicks. So you go through stages.
"I had a couple of those during my IndyCar career where I'm like, ‘Oh yeah, now I got it dialed in, and I know already what I need to do or how this is going to work.’ I think the important thing is that you constantly keep on improving a little bit, keep on working on different places and different areas to try to just keep the machine working and keep being a little bit better."
After winning the 2025 championship by a whopping 196 points, Palou is still pushing to improve, and he's as locked in as he's ever been as he aims to do it. Can he make it four in a row and five in six years in 2026?
The streets of St. Petersburg, where Palou won to open up the 2025 season, are scheduled to open up the 2026 campaign on Sunday, March 1, with live coverage set to once again be provided by Fox.