Alex Palou’s remarkable 2025 season — featuring a win in the Indianapolis 500 and an almost certain fourth IndyCar Series title — could become even more historic if the driver of Chip Ganassi Racing’s No. 10 car continues his winning streak through the remainder of the championship.
With his most recent victory at Iowa Speedway on Sunday, Palou joined a prestigious group of drivers — including AJ Foyt, Alex Zanardi, Juan Pablo Montoya, Paul Tracy, Cristiano da Matta, and Sébastien Bourdais — all of whom scored seven wins in a single season.
The all-time record stands at 10 wins, first set by AJ Foyt in 1964 and later matched by Al Unser in 1970.
“It would have been a little bit closer without my excursion in Mid-Ohio,” Palou said when asked in Iowa about the possibility of joining Foyt and Unser’s exclusive club — a clear sign the mistake that cost him victory earlier this month is still on his mind.
While Palou emphasized that no win comes easy — even if it may look like it from the outside, given his seven wins in 12 rounds so far — he insisted that he remains focused on one race at a time and isn’t chasing any specific records.
“It’s not like it comes easy, as we saw at Ohio. I never look at the end result, honestly. Although it would be amazing to look back and be like, wow, we won 10. If it stops here and we look back and it’s like, we won seven, it’s going to be quite impressive.
“I’m going to work towards getting 10, obviously, but I’m not waking up and thinking about getting 10. I think it’s a pretty unrealistic goal, and it’s far — like, it’s three wins. It seems like it’s only three, but it’s very far.”
However, based on what Palou has already accomplished in 2025 — including five victories in the first six races, a maiden oval win at the iconic Indy 500, and another breakthrough on a short oval at Iowa — it doesn’t seem all that unrealistic that he could add three more wins over the next five races.
What lies ahead for Alex Palou in the 2025 IndyCar season?
Of the five remaining rounds — two of which will take place over the next two weekends, continuing a five-week stretch that began at Gateway — Palou boasts impressive stats at both Laguna Seca and Portland.
The Spaniard has finished on the podium in all four of his appearances at Laguna Seca, with two wins — the most recent in 2024 from pole — and has led 166 of 380 laps there. He also owns two victories at Portland, where he finished second last year.
It’s fair to consider Palou a top contender for both road courses, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see him walk away with at least one, if not both, victories — bringing him even closer to the magic number ten.
Palou has yet to win at the other three venues in this final stretch: Toronto — this weekend’s event — as well as Milwaukee and Nashville, which will close out the 2025 season.
That said, it would be unwise to count out a driver who has claimed first-time wins at three different circuits this year: the aforementioned Indianapolis 500 and Iowa, as well as the season opener in St. Petersburg.
Palou has raced three times on Toronto’s 1.786-mile street circuit, and while his results have been a bit quirky — never starting higher than 15th, yet finishing in the top six each time — he did grab a second place there in 2023. If he maintains the strong qualifying form he’s shown this season (his 3.75 average starting position is his best since joining IndyCar), he’ll likely be in contention for his first win outside the United States in the IndyCar Series.
As for Milwaukee Mile and Nashville Superspeedway, both returned to the calendar last year and didn’t yield standout results for Palou — his best finish being fifth in Race 1 at Milwaukee.
But the 2025 version of Alex Palou heads into Wisconsin and Tennessee with a completely different mindset and renewed confidence in his oval abilities, fresh off major victories at Indianapolis and Iowa.
Another key factor will be how the championship battle evolves. Palou currently holds a 129-point lead over Pato O’Ward, making it highly possible that he secures the title before the final round. If that happens, it’ll be interesting to see how that lack of pressure affects his performance in the remaining races — assuming he ever felt pressure at all this year. Without a title on the line, he could thrive even more — or perhaps, he could take his foot off the gas. Then again, that doesn’t really sound like something Alex Palou would do.
