Alex Palou claims third straight IndyCar title as history beckons

Alex Palou wrote his name into the history books at the Portland International Raceway this weekend, completing an historic three-peat of IndyCar titles.

The Spanish driver has now won the championship four times in the last five seasons, and sits behind only Scott Dixon (6) and AJ Foyt (7) on the list of titles collected.

Palou only needed to finish ahead of Pato O'Ward (or, even, not too far behind him) to put his name back on the Astor Cup, something which became a near certainty when the Mexican star suffered an electrical issue which dropped him several laps down on the pack.

Even so, O'Ward having a healthy car would almost certainly have changed very little. Palou recovered from being 20 seconds down on the race leaders more than halfway through the race (on the same strategy) to battling Will Power and Christian Lundgaard for the lead with 20 laps still remaining.

The pair – with Power coming out on used tires and Lundgaard shorter on fuel than his on-track rivals – spent the dying stages holding off the much faster Chip Ganassi car, with the ageless Australian taking a brilliant rearguard win to deny the two fast finishers behind him.

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Palou writes his name in IndyCar history

The defending champion came into the weekend 121 points ahead of nearest challenger O'Ward with just 162 points left on the table for the rest of the season, with races at the Milwaukee and Nashville ovals coming up to round out the year.

While there's no longer a title to race for, Palou is still in with a shot of equalling Al Unser and Foyt's single-season record of ten wins with two races to go. Any rivals hoping for him to take his foot off the gas will be sorely disappointed.

Palou is the first driver since Dario Franchitti in 2011 to three-peat in the series, joining the Brit in a select group of just six drivers to rack up four titles.

At just 28 years old, he's showing no signs of slowing down. In fact, some rivals fear he's barely reaching his peak, having failed to win on an oval in his three prior championship seasons – before winning the Indy 500 this year, as well as one of the double-header races at Iowa.

READ MORE: Alex Palou cements IndyCar legacy with stunning Indianapolis victory

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