Alex Palou lifted his fifth IndyCar championship trophy at the season-ending Mission Foods Grand Prix of Monterey, closing another year as the series' leading driver.
The Spanish racer has been the benchmark of American open-wheel racing since his first title in 2021. Five Astor Cups place him in a small group of drivers with five or more championships in the discipline, alongside names that date back to the sport's front-engine era.
Consistency over flashes
Palou's seasons tend to follow the same shape. He avoids unforced errors, banks points on tracks that do not suit his car and then wins on the road courses where his smooth style pays off. Rivals have said the hardest part of racing him is that he rarely hands back positions. That approach has made him the driver the rest of the field measures itself against, and it has carried him to the title again in a year when the schedule mixed ovals, street circuits and permanent road courses.
McLaughlin ends a long wait
Scott McLaughlin won the race at Laguna Seca, snapping a 35-race winless run. The New Zealander moved to IndyCar from Australian Supercars, where he won three championships, and he took his first series victory in 2021. His drought had stretched across parts of three seasons, and the win came at a track where track position and tyre management decide the result.
Laguna Seca's Corkscrew, the blind left-right plunge through the hillside, remains one of the most demanding corners in the sport, and the race has a habit of turning on fuel strategy late in the run.
What the finale settled
The championship was the main prize on the line, and Palou's points cushion held. Teams now turn to the off-season, where driver contracts, engine programmes and the series' hybrid power rules will dominate the conversation. For Palou, the question that follows a fifth title is a simple one: how far the total can go.