Its not a question of if Alex Palou will win his fourth IndyCar championship this season, only a matter of when.
His first opportunity at clinching a third consecutive title and fourth in five years comes Sunday at Portland International Raceway, Round 15 of the 17-race schedule.
A run of utter dominance not seen since Scott Dixon in 2006 has put Palou in need of leaving Portland with a 108-point lead over Pato OWard, the only driver still mathematically eligible to beat him for the title. Palou is a comfortable 121 points ahead of OWard headed into the race.
Even so, Palou is adamant a fourth Astor Cup does not yet belong to him.
Everybody here is saying weve already won, Palou said. Although we have a lot of points, we still need to win it. If somebody else is mathematically alive, its still alive, so we dont want anybody to be mathematically alive for the points.
Whatever you say, Alex.
OWard is already resigned that it will take a total collapse from Palou over the final three races of the season for him to have even an outside chance at snatching the championship away from the most dominant driver of the last five years.
Although no one besides Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Dixon has had a season so strong in nearly two decades, Palou has easily surpassed all of his peers previous domination.
It started with back-to-back wins to start the IndyCar season remember, Josef Newgarden bristled when asked what it would take to dethrone Palou with a curt, Its Round 1, dude. Lets see how it goes.
Well, heres how it went: Palou won five of the first six races, which included the Indianapolis 500 that had eluded him in five previous tries. That win at the Brickyard cemented his path to another championship and hes been untouchable since.
Palou goes into Portland with a series-high eight wins, five poles, 11 top-five finishes in 14 races, 563 laps led and a 1.2 average finish.
Dixon, a six-time IndyCar champion considered the best driver of his generation and one of open-wheels all-time greats, has only one win this season and no answer as to why he cant keep pace with teammate Palou.
I dont know sometimes you just have years like that and it just flows and its not even a confidence thing, Dixon said.
So now Palou controls his own fate and it starts at the Portland track where he has two wins and finished second last season. If OWard wins Sunday and picks up the maximum points, Palou would still win the championship by finishing second and leading a single lap. Palou can clinch the title by finishing fourth or better, maybe even eighth depending on various factors involving OWard and bonus points.
So history basically awaits starting this weekend, when Palou will attempt to join Dario Franchitti, Sebastien Bourdais and Ted Horn as the only drivers in series history to win three consecutive titles. But, the more impressive mark is that Palou, with two wins in the final three races, can tie the IndyCar record for victories in a season set at 10 by A.J. Foyt in 1964 and Al Unser in 1970.
A sweep of the rest of the schedule would make him IndyCars winningest driver in a season. Ironically, Palou entered the season with 11 career wins and can now double that mark in 2025.
I cannot really comprehend everything thats happening, not only this year, but if I look back at ever since I started in IndyCar, my dream was just to be a professional race car driver, and I never thought about records or anything like that, Palou said. I never thought that I would be around those names, and I think obviously this season in particular has been a little bit crazy.
I almost matched the wins that I had in three years, or in four years actually. Its amazing to be there, he continued. I owe everything to my team and everybody that is behind me, like my personal team and my racing team. Its not that Im not conscious about whats going on. Its just that I cannot really believe it, and Im just riding the wave and enjoying every single second of it and having fun.
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AP auto racing:
亚历克斯·帕卢（Alex Palou）能否在本赛季赢得他的第四个印地赛车冠军已无悬念，唯一的问题在于何时夺冠。
本周日，他将在波特兰国际赛道迎来冲击三连冠暨五年内第四冠的首个机会，这是本赛季17场比赛中的第15轮赛事。
帕卢（Palou）以自2006年斯科特·迪克森（Scott Dixon）以来未见的绝对统治力，在离开波特兰时需保持对帕托·奥沃德（Pato O'Ward）108分的领先优势——后者是仅存理论上可能击败他夺冠的车手。而进入本场比赛前，帕卢已以121分的优势遥遥领先奥沃德。
尽管如此，帕卢坚称第四座阿斯特杯尚未属于他。
帕卢表示：“这里每个人都说我们已经赢了。虽然我们积分领先，但仍需确保最终胜利。只要其他人在数学上还有夺冠可能，比赛就尚未结束——我们不想让任何人保留这种理论上的积分反超机会。”
随你怎么说，亚历克斯。
奥沃德已经认命，除非帕卢在本赛季最后三场比赛中彻底崩盘，否则他几乎不可能从这位过去五年最具统治力的车手手中夺走冠军头衔。
尽管近二十年来，除了奇普·加纳西车队队友迪克森外，无人能取得如此辉煌的赛季表现，但帕卢早已轻松超越同辈车手此前的统治级表现。
印地赛车赛季伊始便迎来连场胜利——还记得吗？当被问及需要什么才能击败帕卢时，约瑟夫·纽加登不耐烦地回呛道：“这才第一轮呢，老兄。走着瞧吧。”
事情是这样的：帕卢（Palou）在前六场比赛中赢得了五场胜利，其中包括他此前五次尝试均未能夺冠的印第安纳波利斯500大赛。这场在"砖厂"赛道的胜利为他铺平了再夺冠军的道路，自此以后他便所向披靡。
帕卢（Palou）以系列赛最高的八场胜利、五次杆位、14场比赛11次前五名完赛、领跑563圈以及1.2的平均完赛成绩进军波特兰站。
六届印地赛车冠军得主迪克森（Dixon）被公认为同代最优秀的车手，也是开轮式赛车史上的传奇人物之一。然而本赛季他仅收获一场胜利，且无法解释为何始终跟不上队友帕洛（Palou）的节奏。
“我也说不清……有时候你总会遇到这样的年头，一切都顺其自然，甚至与信心无关，”迪克森说道。
如今帕卢（Palou）的命运掌握在自己手中，波特兰赛道将是他征程的起点——他在这里曾两度夺冠，并在上个赛季获得亚军。即便奥沃德（O'Ward）在周日的比赛中获胜并取得满分，帕卢只需获得第二名并领先至少一圈，仍可锁定总冠军头衔。根据奥沃德的表现及奖励积分等变量，帕卢甚至可能在获得第四名或更好名次时提前夺冠，极端情况下第八名也可能满足条件。
历史性时刻即将在本周末拉开序幕——帕洛将尝试加入达里奥·弗兰基蒂、塞巴斯蒂安·布尔代和泰德·霍恩的行列，成为该系列赛事历史上仅有的三位实现三连冠的车手。但更令人瞩目的是，若帕洛能在最后三场比赛中赢得两场胜利，便能追平印第赛车单赛季10胜的纪录，该纪录由A.J.福伊特于1964年和阿尔·昂瑟于1970年共同保持。
若能在本赛季剩余赛程中横扫对手，他将成为印地赛车史上单赛季夺冠次数最多的车手。颇具讽刺意味的是，帕洛（Palou）在本赛季初仅拥有11场职业胜利，而到2025年这一数字或将翻倍。
帕卢（Palou）表示："我确实无法完全理解正在发生的一切，不仅是今年，回顾我参加印地赛车以来的经历，我的梦想只是成为一名职业赛车手，从未想过打破纪录之类的事情。" "我从未想过自己会与那些名字（指传奇车手）相提并论，显然这个赛季尤其有些疯狂。"
“我几乎追平了过去三年——确切地说是四年——所取得的胜利。能站在这个位置太不可思议了，”他继续说道，“这一切都要归功于我的团队和所有支持我的人，包括我的个人团队和赛车团队。并非我对现状毫无察觉，只是实在难以置信。我现在就是顺势而为，享受每一秒钟的快乐。”
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