Alex Palou takes IndyCar title in style, calling his shot to win Portland: 'It's been an amazing year'

PORTLAND, Oregon – When it comes to style points, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou is a master of the moment.

He clinched the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series Championship as a true racer – by winning the race.

It was an exclamation point to an outstanding season.

POINTS, RESULTS FROM PORTLAND: Full statistical package after Race 16 of the season

“Absolutely,” Palou told NBC Sports. “I thought we had an amazing midseason. I wanted to continue the form and show what we were capable and the amazing year we were having. I really didn’t think it would be easy, and it wasn’t easy, it was super hard.

“I’m super happy to finish at Portland and clinch the championship with a win.

“We can do some more stuff at Laguna Seca next week.”

The popular Spaniard entered Sunday’s Bitnile.com Grand Prix of Portland with a 74-point lead over Scott Dixon and could have played it safe by sticking to Dixon’s gearbox and staying out of trouble. The maximum points available in each IndyCar Series race is 54 so the numbers were already in Palou’s favor.

Forget about racing for points or playing it safe. Palou displayed the ultimate racer’s mentality by going for the win.

In fact, that’s what he told his boss, Chip Ganassi, just before the race.

“Just before the race I said to Alex, ‘Hey, let's go wrap this thing up today,’” Chip Ganassi recalled after he claimed his 15^th IndyCar Series National Championship. “He said, ‘For sure. We're going to wrap it up with a win.’

“I said, ‘Oh, OK.' “That was pretty big, I thought.”

Palou backed up his promise to the boss with his series-high fifth victory of the season. He entered the race tied with Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden with four wins apiece, all of Newgarden’s on an oval including the 107^th Indianapolis 500 on May 28.

It was important to Palou to get the most wins in the season to go along with his championship.

“It’s super hard to get wins in IndyCar,” Palou said. “I can’t believe we got five wins this year. It’s amazing. I know we have been really consistent throughout the year, but I didn’t want to win a championship through consistency like I did in 2021. I wanted to show we were capable of winning races – not 1 or 2, but five and that is a phenomenal number.”

Palou used an unbeatable combination of wins and consistency. He leads the series with five wins, but his worst finishes of the year are a pair of eighth-place finishes – one in the season-opener at St. Petersburg and one in the first race of the Hy-Vee IndyCar Race Weekend at Iowa Speedway in July.

Through 16 races, Palou's worst finish is eighth twice (the season opener at St. Petersburg and the first race at Iowa).

In fact, Chip Ganassi Racing has had three cars finish in the top 10 of every race this season.

“It’s hard to get one car in the top 10, but to get three is just crazy,” Palou said. “It’s hard to have a season like that. I cannot thank the team enough. Whenever we were not in a position to finish top 10 on pace, they were able to give it to me on pit stops and strategy.

“It’s been an amazing year and I hope we can continue that form next year.”

Palou may be the coolest driver in the series. He doesn’t get rattled and always appears in control.

But he admitted that his six-time IndyCar Series champion teammate Scott Dixon was an impressive threat, even if he was 74 points out.

“It was scary,” Palou admitted. “It’s scary because you know he is never going to lift. He told everybody that. He is the best IndyCar driver we have seen so it is amazing to share this with him.”

Palou’s championship charge began with a victory in the GMR Grand Prix of Indianapolis on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on May 13. The next weekend, he won the pole for the 107^thIndy 500. He was a main contender for the victory, but just past the midway point of the race, Rinus VeeKay ran into him as the two cars exited pit lane.

Palou returned to the race as the last car on the lead lap but was able to scratch and claw and fight his way back to a fourth-place finish.

The next week, he won the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix on the streets of Detroit. After that, he won again at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.

But wait, there’s more:

On July 2, Palou drove to his third straight IndyCar victory, his fourth in a five-race stretch, in the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio and had a commanding lead in the championship.

“It was really important, and it was really good because it gave us the boost, gave us the confidence and gave us a lot of points we were able to maintain throughout the season until now,” Palou said. “It’s insane we were able to get those four wins in five races.”

Even when he didn’t win, Palou finished on the podium.

From that point forward, he was never under serious assault in the battle for the IndyCar title.

That set up Sunday’s championship clincher with a victory that became a day to remember for Palou. He announced that his wife, Esther, is expecting the couple’s first child in November.

“It’s coming really quick,” Palou said. “I’ll try to catch up on sleep before that, I’ll do my best.”

And team owner Chip Ganassi confirmed after the race that Palou will be back with Chip Ganassi Racing in 2024 and beyond.

With his future confirmed by Ganassi, Palou said he is ready to begin his 2024 season by trying out some new things in next Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at Laguna Seca Raceway. Palou is already the defending winner, driving to a 30-second margin of victory in last year’s race.

The picturesque road course has been repaved since then, and that will dramatically change the grip level. But with nothing to lose, the 2023 IndyCar champion and his team can experiment on some new ideas for 2024.

“We have a test day, and we will start preparing our 2024 season testing with some crazy stuff that we have in mind and get the most of it,” Palou said. “It will be very beneficial to get ahead of the work in store for us.”

On Sunday in Portland, it wasn’t exactly Babe Ruth’s called shot, but Palou was able to call his victory in the championship clincher.

Palou told Ganassi he was going to go out and win the race.

That’s exactly what he did.

“Honestly I knew we had a really, really fast car, especially after warmup,” Palou explained. “I knew throughout all weekend, but especially after warmup I felt really, really good.

“Then Chip, before the race we did a meeting, and he was very aggressive on telling us that we had to win. So I was, like, ‘All right, let's win then.’

“So before jumping into the car he was with me. He said, ‘All right, let's have a good and a clean race, just manage your position.’

“I was, like, ‘No, Chip, you told us to win, so I'll go ahead, and I think we can win it.’

“It was honestly one of those races where I knew we had everything we needed to win the race, that we had something else that could separate us from our competitors. It was true, and we were able to maximize it.”

Palou started fifth and led 69 laps in the 110-lap race. Once he was in the lead, he was able to master the moment as a champion.

“There was a lot of fuel and tire management,” Palou recalled. “There was quite a lot of tire management. We struggled a lot on the (alternate tires). We were in a bit of a weird scenario there because Scott Dixon was going to pass us, and we had to pit a bit earlier than we thought.

“Everything worked perfectly, and we were able to win it and bring it home.”

Follow Bruce Martin on Twitter at @BruceMartin_500