While Alex Palou wrapped up the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series championship in the antepenultimate race of the season, something that hadn't happened since the 2002 CART campaign, the unofficial oval championship came down to the wire in the season finale at Nashville Superspeedway.
Palou was able to hold off Pato O'Ward, a two-time oval champion himself, to win the oval crown for the first time in his career, making him the first driver to win both the oval championship and the road and street course championship in the same season since IndyCar started keeping track of individual discipline points in 2010.
No, the A.J. Foyt Oval Trophy and the Mario Andretti Road Course Trophy no longer exist, but the individual discipline points still do.
And with Palou now owning a 133-point lead in the overall championship standings with four races left on the calendar, to go along with a 94-point lead in the road and street course races with two of those races remaining on the schedule, the oval championship battle once again appears to be the most interesting battle to watch as the season nears its end.
Can Alex Palou repeat as IndyCar oval champion?
David Malukas leads a Team Penske 1-2-3 as things stand, but his lead is far from safe, especially since he's never actually won an IndyCar race. Two-time oval champion Josef Newgarden, winner of two of the four oval races contested so far this year, is five points behind in second, and Scott McLaughlin, the 2024 oval champion, is 25 points behind in third.
Indy 500 winner Felix Rosenqvist is fourth, 27 points behind, and O'Ward is fifth, 34 points behind. Then there is Palou, 42 points behind in sixth.
Palou's worst three results of the year have come on ovals: a DNF at Phoenix Raceway after an early crash, a 17th place finish after running out of fuel just before a pit stop at Gateway, and a seventh place finish in the Indy 500 after not pitting on what turned out to be the winning strategy under caution on lap 130.
But his third career oval win at Nashville Superspeedway just under a month ago vaulted him right back up into the mix.
The only two oval races remaining on this year's calendar are the two scheduled to take place at the Milwaukee Mile later this month, and Palou was dominant at Milwaukee in 2025. He finished runner-up after a pole position start and objectively would have won the race comfortably if not for a late drizzle leading to a tire strategy shakeup and a subsequent surge from Christian Rasmussen.
Overcoming a 42-point deficit is no easy task, especially since McLaughlin and O'Ward are former Milwaukee winners, Malukas has averaged 38 points per oval race despite not yet winning, and Newgarden is still widely considered IndyCar's oval ace.
But hopefully it's an interesting fight throughout the doubleheader at the four-turn, 1.0-mile (1.609-kilometer) West Allis, Wisconsin oval in under two weeks, because the other title battles aren't particularly close. Both races are set to be shown live on Fox on Saturday, August 29 and Sunday, August 30.
First, however, IndyCar is set for its inaugural (and possibly only) Freedom 250 Grand Prix on the streets of Washington, D.C. this Sunday, August 23, with live coverage set to be provided by Fox starting at 12:00 p.m. ET. Start a free trial of FuboTV and catch all of the action from the nation's capital!
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