Another IndyCar race, another Alex Palou victory, and Sunday's race at Barber Motorsports Park marked the three-time and two-time reigning series champion's most dominant win of the year by far.
On the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida, a strong late pit stop, coupled with radio issues for Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon and pit stop issues for Andretti Global's Colton Herta, put Palou in position to score the win, and he capitalized.
Then at Thermal Club, he had to overcome a 12-second deficit to Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward, and he was able to make the late pass for the win after O'Ward had dominated the race.
But at Barber, Palou was lights-out, unchallenged from pole position in a 90-lap race around the 17-turn, 2.38-mile (3.83-kilometer) natural terrain road course in Birmingham, Alabama. His championship lead is already more than the point total of a race win, and he extended it with a win of over 16 seconds in yet another caution-free IndyCar race.
Palou has now won more races since IndyCar's most recent caution flag than he won all of last year, when he still managed to win his third championship, and that brings us to another interesting, and sort of unbelievable, fact from last year that makes Palou's dominance in 2025 even scarier.
Somehow, some way, the rest of the NTT IndyCar Series grid kept Palou from winning a single hybrid era race in 2024.
Palou only won two points-paying races in 2024, and the latter came in late June at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. IndyCar introduced the new hybrid system ahead of the following race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, and Palou didn't win again the rest of the year.
Nine races were contested with the hybrid to wrap up the 2024 campaign, and Palou, who did manage to win the championship thanks to another season of excellent consistency and simply taking what was on offer each weekend, ranked third in the standings from that point forward.
The two drivers he finished behind both won two of those nine races. Palou only had three podium finishes, a tally he has already exceeded following the continuation of the hybrid era in 2025.
How on Earth did the rest of the 27-car field succeed in keeping the No. 10 Honda out of victory lane for so long?
So far, the only driver to finish ahead of Palou at any point this season is Andretti Global's Kyle Kirkwood, who held him off on the streets of Long Beach, California. But while second is Palou's worst result of the year, Kirkwood doesn't have another podium finish, and yet he's still third in the standings.
Sandwiched in between the two is Arrow McLaren's Christian Lundgaard, who, even with three straight podium finishes himself, has yet to beat Palou since joining his new team.
So again, how did Palou go 0-for-9 to start the hybrid era last year?
Perhaps that 0-for-9 gave everybody else hope that Palou's reign, which consists of the first run of consecutive IndyCar championships since Dario Franchitti won three in a row from 2009 to 2011, would be coming to an end. Perhaps the hybrid era would be the great equalizer.
All Palou has done is turned that back around on them and solidified himself as even tougher to beat.
And let's not forget that the series is now set to head to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, where Palou hasn't not won in May since a wet race in 2022.
The Sonsio Grand Prix is set to be broadcast live on Fox from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course beginning at 4:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, May 10. Start a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss any of the action from the "Racing Capital of the World"!