Chip Ganassi Racing and Alex Palou, in particular, are dominating the NTT IndyCar Series, and the Spaniard could be on the verge of a record-breaking campaign.
The team has given Palou the platform to set the benchmark in one of the most competitive single-seater championships, and he has won eight of the 14 races so far.
He has built a reputation for being incredibly consistent across a range of tracks, and the three-time champion finally got his first oval win at this year’s Indy 500. If the championship leader wins all three remaining races, he would break the record for the most wins in a campaign with 11.
Palou is becoming one of the most complete drivers on the IndyCar grid as the three-time champion finally took his first win on an oval this year at the Indy 500. The reigning champion still wants to push for victories despite the title now firmly within his grasp. Team owner Chip Ganassi explained that perfecting strategy is at the forefront of their minds after a miscue in Toronto.
He told FOX Sports: “We talk about it every week. We’ve got people still breathing down our neck, and we want to remember how we got here. And that was racing the way we know how to race: Go for the wins.”
Despite the lost points in Toronto that ended up being an underwhelming 12th-place finish in Canada, Ganassi is delighted with Palou as a fourth consecutive title gets ever closer.
Ganassi added: “We’re really, really, really pleased and excited and happy to be watching and being a part of history. It’s not like we’re lucking into these things,” Ganassi said. “He’s dominating. Today [at Laguna Seca], it looked like the red tyre, the soft tyre, was the preferred tire and he was on the hard tire running away from the field.
“The entire field was on the red softs, and he was running away from them on the hard tyre.”
Palou can join a very exclusive club with a title win this year
Palou has been peerless this season, and if he were to win his fourth championship, he would become just the sixth driver to win four titles in the series.
A. J. Foyt leads the way with seven successes, while one of Palou’s teammates, Scott Dixon, has taken six IndyCar crowns in his illustrious career.
It would be a significant moment for Palou to win the title, which would be his fourth championship in five years while adapting to a range of new tracks and styles of racing.
His nearest title challenger, Pato O’Ward, is now 121 points behind Palou with three rounds left and needs some luck to intervene to take the championship fight to the last rounds in Nashville.
Image credit: Penske Entertainment: Josh Hernandez
