How IndyCar's newest champion is becoming even more formidable

Alex Palou showed all his IndyCar rivals how to win a championship last year, with three wins and five other podiums meaning he finished in the top three in half the races during 2021. The #10 Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda driver’s average finishing position across the 16-race championship was 7.3. Eliminate two DNFs, neither of which were his fault, and Palou’s average result was fifth.

Some people don’t study those types of stats, but it’s clear Palou’s rivals have, because they know that what he and Ganassi achieved last year was no fluke. In pre-season discussions, several drivers and race engineers declared that matching Palou's consistency was their target for the year ahead.

However, he has raised the bar again just four races into the 2022 season, with two seconds, a third and a seventh averaging as a finishing position of 3.5. His latest runner-up spot came last Sunday at Barber Motorsports Park, finishing within a second of victor Pato O’Ward, and while Team Penske won the first three races of the year it’s the reigning champion who has slipped into the lead of the points race.

“It’s not like there’s a big secret to that,” he tells Autosport a couple of days later. “It’s like everything else in racing, when you feel comfortable with the car and with the team, and you have a good mindset and a great team and a great crew, everything seems easier. There’s other times in racing when nothing works, and it seems hard. But at this time, we’re having fun and everything is working for us, and hopefully we can keep that going for a long time.”

Naturally, one of the keys to consistency is avoiding drastic errors, and aside from his shunt in qualifying for the Indy 500 last year and in practice at St. Petersburg this year,