Chip Ganassi Racing's Alex Palou took the lead of the IndyCar championship standings with his win at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca back in June, and while he did not win any of the nine races that were contested after that, he never looked back, and his consistency allowed him to extend his points lead en route to winning title number three since 2021.
The 27-year-old Spaniard is the series' first back-to-back champion since Dario Franchitti won three titles in a row from 2009 to 2011, also behind the wheel of the No. 10 Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing.
Ironically, Franchitti's streak was ended by Ryan Hunter-Reay, who drove the DHL-sponsored No. 28 Honda, in 2012. Palou's primary sponsor for 2024 was DHL for the first time after the logistics giant made the move to Chip Ganassi's team following the 2023 season, ending a 13-year relationship with Michael Andretti's organization.
The company, whose bright yellow and red color scheme aligns perfectly with that of the Spanish national flag, had not been to victory lane since 2018 before Palou brought them back at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in May.
After a 2024 season which saw seven different multi-race winners, the most since 2019 and tied for the most in series history, what does the 2025 season have in store?
Here are five bold predictions.
Alex Palou three-peats
This isn't a bold prediction because it's Alex Palou; it's bold because a three-peat has only happened three times in American open-wheel racing history. Ted Horn won three titles in a row from 1946 to 1948, Sebastien Bourdais won four in a row from 2004 to 2007, and Dario Franchitti won three in a row from 2009 to 2011.
A Palou three-peat would give him four titles in five years, and at the age of 28, he would be able to say that only A.J. Foyt and Scott Dixon have won more titles.
Considering the fact that his three titles have come in four years as Dixon's teammate and he was the only driver between Dixon and a record-tying seventh championship in 2023, he might very well have already entered the "GOAT" chat with his back-to-back titles.
Though his 2024 margin of victory was a lot smaller than his 2023 margin of victory and he won just two races compared to five (and he actually would have lost out to Scott McLaughlin on a tiebreaker had it not been for Team Penske's push-to-pass scandal), that discrepancy just goes to show how much of an advantage he has at the moment.
The 2025 schedule could also play to his strengths even further. He dominated at Thermal Club, which is now set to host a points race as opposed to an exhibition race, and this race is set to replace one of the two races at the Milwaukee Mile, where he lost significant ground in the standings late in the 2024 season (albeit through no fault of his own).
Chip Ganassi Racing's reduction from five to three cars and new technical alliance with a resurgent Meyer Shank Racing team also shouldn't hurt.
A.J. Foyt Enterprises wins Indy 500
A.J. Foyt Enterprises placed third in the 2023 Indy 500 with Santino Ferrucci before forming a technical alliance with Team Penske, one which ultimately played more to Team Penske's strengths at Indy in 2024. Ferrucci still managed to finish in eighth, and he finished in ninth in the championship standings, the best for a Foyt driver since 2002.
Now the team have signed David Malukas, a two-time oval podium finisher, as well for 2025. Malukas' rookie stats with Dale Coyne Racing in 2022 featured a podium finish, two other top 10 finishes, an average finish of 14th place, and a championship finish of 16th. Alex Palou's stats as a rookie with the same team in 2020 were the exact same, and he has since won three of four championships.
And believe it or not, Ferrucci actually finished three positions ahead of Palou in the championship standings when the two were teammates in 2020.
This is an incredibly stout two-car lineup, and the Indy 500 has been the organization's strongest race over the last two years. What an epic day it would be if Foyt ends up celebrating on Memorial Day Sunday in eight months.
It's also worth mentioning that only Penske teammates Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin led more laps than Foyt's Sting Ray Robb in the 2024 race. Newgarden won from the front row and McLaughlin started on pole.
Scott Dixon retires
Scott Dixon's 2024 season was tied for his worst since 2005, and though a sixth place finish in points is nothing to sneeze at, Dixon just really didn't feel like Dixon for much of the year.
Sure, he won two races on fuel mileage (would it even be an IndyCar season if he didn't?) on the streets of Long Beach and Detroit, but he really wasn't much of a factor the rest of the year. He finished behind drivers from four different teams in the championship standings.
Coming off of a season during which he finished runner-up behind teammate Alex Palou in the standings with his lone finish outside of the top seven being a DNF, he finished outside of the top seven on seven occasions in 2024. Even if you don't include the hybrid issue at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course or him being taken out on the opening lap at Portland International Raceway, that's still five relatively un-Dixon-like results.
For what it's worth (which, to be frank, isn't much), there is no driver currently listed for the No. 9 Honda for the 2025 season on its Wikipedia page. Though there has been nothing to suggest that Dixon won't be back in 2025, the 2026 season could be another story.
Dixon said in 2022 that he felt he had another five years in him, and the 2025 season would be year number four of that stretch. He is set to turn 45 years old in July.
Chip Ganassi Racing's driver contracts aren't generally publicized (unless they end up being brought up in lawsuits or something...), but if Dixon feels it's time to hang up his helmet, it's hard to imagine he won't be able to do so.
A second Indy 500 win is certainly still in play after he was on pace to win the 2024 race (on superior fuel mileage, of course) before a late caution and placed third after several other contenders, including eventual winner Josef Newgarden, were brought back into the mix.
But if he doesn't win the 2025 championship, it would mark the first time he has gone five years in a row without securing a title. Could an Indy 500-only deal be in store for him in the near future?
McLaren fire at least one driver
I hate to be "that guy", but is this even bold at this point? This is a team that have made more driver changes in the last 15 months than Team Penske have in the last 15 years, and yet they want to be viewed as a legitimate championship contender.
Even with Pato O'Ward winning three races, tied for the most in the series in 2024, they are not yet on that level. Colton Herta's runner-up finish in the championship for Andretti Global made it relatively clear that Arrow McLaren are actually fourth in the pecking order at the moment.
When Alexander Rossi left Andretti for McLaren in 2023, he noted that he felt McLaren was one of three teams (the other two being Chip Ganassi Racing and Team Penske) capable of winning a championship. During his two-year run with the team, he ended up placing ninth and 10th in points without a win. From 2020 to 2022 with Andretti, he placed ninth or 10th every year and scored one win.
The problem is that McLaren haven't demonstrated a ton of patience with anybody not named O'Ward (who, to be fair, hit the ground running straight from when he joined the team in 2020), and while CEO Zak Brown may want to blame Alex Palou's change of heart for their ongoing game of musical chairs, the problem goes a lot deeper than that.
They dropped David Malukas before he ever competed in a race for the team, and then they dropped the driver whom they had confirmed as his full-time replacement, Theo Pourchaire, just two races after making that announcement.
By the time they had actually replaced Malukas with Nolan Siegel, Malukas was back with a new team following his injury – contending for race wins and poles, no less.
Siegel struggled mightily, recording just a single top 10 finish in 10 races behind the wheel of the No. 6 Chevrolet in 2024. If he doesn't improve in year number two, is there any reason to believe McLaren won't do to him what they have done to a number of others?
Let's not forget about Christian Lundgaard, who is set to replace Rossi. While McLaren is undoubtedly a step up from a Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team that has pretty much turned into a backmarker, and Lundgaard outdrove his equipment from the time he joined them full-time in 2022, Rossi's McLaren tenure demonstrated that a team and manufacturer swap doesn't always mean the grass is greener.
Should Lundgaard struggle, which I admittedly don't expect, the No. 7 Chevrolet could become a lot warmer than anticipated as well.
Tony Kanaan unretires, contends for Indy 500 win
Given what happened at Indianapolis Motor Speedway back in May, with rain forcing Kyle Larson to choose between the Indy 500 at NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Arrow McLaren and Hendrick Motorsports were proactive this time around.
It has been confirmed that 2013 Indy 500 winner Tony Kanaan, who currently serves as McLaren's sporting director, is officially Larson's backup driver for the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing" in 2025, and unlike in 2024, he is set to take part in a veteran refresher test so that he is cleared to compete if he should be called upon.
Kanaan's 2023 Indy 500 was his fourth Indy 500 since his initial "Last Lap Tour", and after "retiring" following the race, many joked that he would eventually find his way back for a 23rd Indy 500 start.
If rain delays the 2025 Indy 500, he may get that chance, with Rick Hendrick having made clear that the Coca-Cola 600 is Larson's priority in 2025, thus preventing another totally unnecessary NASCAR playoff waiver fiasco.
I know that rain hasn't significantly impacted two Indy 500s in a row for nearly a half a century, but each Indy 500 is an independent event. In other words, we no longer need two in a row to make it two in a row.
Weather in Speedway, Indiana is completely unpredictable in late May. We have had races take place uninterrupted despite a 100% chance of rain before – multiple times within the last decade, in fact. Meteorologist or not, nobody really knows anything.
What we do know is that, should the disappointment of Larson once again coming up short of a full Memorial Day Double attempt become a reality, the fan-favorite Kanaan returning for one more shot in the Indy 500 (and at the age of 50, no less) would be a great consolation prize for IndyCar fans.
Kanaan finished the race in third place in 2022, so there's no reason to believe he wouldn't be a contender with a McLaren team that are always strong at the "Racing Capital of the World" if he does indeed get the chance to get back behind the wheel.
The 2025 IndyCar season is scheduled to get underway on Sunday, March 2 on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida, and the 109th running of the Indy 500, race number six on the 17-race schedule, is scheduled to take place on Sunday, May 25. The Big Machine Music City Grand Prix is set to wrap up the season at Nashville Superspeedway on Sunday, August 31. All races on the calendar are set to be shown live on Fox.