After Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward got plenty of IndyCar fans' hopes up when he trimmed Alex Palou's IndyCar championship lead from 129 to 99 points with his win on the streets of Toronto, Palou all but ended O'Ward's championship chances for 2025 with a resounding victory at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, bringing his lead back to 121 points with just three of 17 races remaining on the schedule.
The Chip Ganassi Racing driver has already clinched the wins tiebreaker over O'Ward, having won a modern era record eight times in 14 races; O'Ward has won twice. So he only needs to be 108 points ahead of the 26-year-old Mexican driver after this weekend's race at Portland International Raceway, where he has won twice in four attempts.
Assuming he simply competes at the Milwaukee Mile and Nashville Superspeedway to conclude the 2025 season, he really only needs to be 98 markers ahead of the driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet after this weekend, meaning he can afford to have his lead cut by 23 this weekend and still be fine.
But the 28-year-old Spaniard is aiming to do a lot more than just compete at Milwaukee and Nashville, whether he clinches a third consecutive title – and fourth in five years – this weekend in Oregon or not.
Alex Palou can become IndyCar's new oval king
Entering the 2025 season, one of the major talking points was how IndyCar's three-time and two-time reigning series champion had still never won on an oval. Sitting at 0-for-27 in oval races, despite having won 11 road and street course races in four years, he was the only driver in IndyCar history to win more than one championship without having secured at least one oval win first.
He was also one of only two drivers to have become champion for the first time having won on a road or street course but never on an oval, joining Simon Pagenaud in 2016.
And of course, we all know what Pagenaud did at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May 2019.
Palou similarly silenced those doubters once and for all by winning May's 109th running of the Indy 500. It was the breakthrough win that allowed many to finally start to rank him among the sport's all-time greats.
He has since added another oval win in the second race of July's doubleheader at Iowa Speedway, one he earned by starting from pole and leading nearly 200 of 275 laps, and has officially established himself as a clear contender on tracks with exclusively left turns.
While the IndyCar road and street course championship and the IndyCar oval championship don't get nearly as much attention as they once did, back when the Mario Andretti Road Course Trophy and A.J. Foyt Oval Trophy were actually awarded to the respective champions, finishing on top of the standings for those individual disciplines is still a big deal.
And Palou trails O'Ward by just one point in the oval standings with two oval races remaining on the 2025 schedule.
IndyCar oval battle heats up between Alex Palou, Pato O'Ward
"Yeah, I saw that the other day," Palou told Beyond the Flag in a Monday media availability. "I think somebody from the team told me and I was like, wow, that's pretty cool.
"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, and I would be like, oh my goodness, that's crazy, that's like two races."
O'Ward's oval results this year include a third place finish in the Indy 500, a second at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, and both a win and a fifth at Iowa. Palou's non-wins on ovals this year include an eighth at Gateway and a fifth in the first race of the Iowa doubleheader.
"It feels amazing, and I feel more comfortable," Palou 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."
Palou finished in fifth place in the first race of last year's Milwaukee doubleheader and was on for a podium before a late caution in a race ultimately won by O'Ward.
In the second race, a pre-race mechanical issue left him mired several dozen laps down. He was able to pick up a few points simply by getting back into the race as others dropped out, finishing 19th. Among those to drop out was O'Ward, also with a mechanical issue.
"In Nashville we were not super competitive," he continued. "I look forward to that. We will also test at Nashville before the race there."
Last year at Nashville, he finished in 11th place, though he did so after starting in the back following a pre-race grid penalty. Additionally, he had effectively sealed the championship when Will Power suffered an early seatbelt issue, so there wasn't much needed to take any chances. O'Ward placed second behind Andretti Global's Colton Herta.
"I'm excited to just have a day of testing there and see how we can just improve a little bit, or how I can feel a little bit more comfortable, like in Iowa," Palou said. "I think Iowa has been helping us a lot when we've been able to go there and test with other people as well and just get more laps.
"Hopefully we get to do the same, and we can hopefully be on top of the oval standings."
All three remaining races on the 2025 IndyCar schedule are set to be shown live on Fox. The BitNile.com Grand Prix of Portland is set to be shown live from Portland beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, August 10, the Snap-On Milwaukee 250 is set to be shown live from Milwaukee beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, August 24, and the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix is set to be shown live from Nashville beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, August 31. Start a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss any of the action!