Alex Palou has been the best NTT IndyCar Series driver of the past few seasons. Two championships in the previous three years, locking up the 2023 title before the final race weekend of the year and 30 finishes of eighth or better in the last 32 races.
There’s simply no debating it, and Palou currently has a 54-point lead with three races to go in the 2024 campaign. Many would say that this championship battle is over, and they may well be right.
Going against Palou is that he’s getting ready to race at two tracks he’s never been to: the Milwaukee Mile and Nashville Superspeedway. If Palou gets out of Milwaukee with at least a 49-point lead, then the Spaniard will only need to start the final race of the year to clinch his third IndyCar crown in four seasons.
But sometimes, late in the season, a good, promising, championship-winning campaign can go wrong almost as fast as it begins.
For those familiar with the Secret Base YouTube channel, one might recognize this as a new unofficial episode of Collapse: how Will Power went from three wins and two seconds to losing the 2010 IndyCar title in four races.
Power filled in for Helio Castroneves at Team Penske in 2009, scoring second at Long Beach shortly after Castroneves’ acquittal in a tax evasion trial. Power won that year at Edmonton in dominating fashion before his season ended at Sonoma in a bad practice accident when the Australian hit Nelson Philipe, who spun and stalled his car after cresting a hill.
In 2010, Power started the year off with a pair of wins, a fourth at Barber Motorsports Park and a third at Long Beach. Ovals, however, were another story as Power finished 12th and 14th at Kansas and Texas, respectively.
Following a midseason run of three wins at Watkins Glen, Toronto and Sonoma with a pair of runner-up finishes at Edmonton and Mid-Ohio, there were now four races left and Power had a 59-point lead on Dario Franchitti.
The final four races were on ovals, and Power wasn’t yet the oval racer he would develop into several years later. Franchitti won at Chicagoland while Power finished one lap down in 16th place.
Franchitti finished fifth at Kentucky with Power three spots behind. The pair finished second and third at the following race at Motegi with Franchitti ahead of Power, leaving one race left in the championship.
The points gap with one race to go? 12 points. The final venue? Homestead Miami Speedway for a 200-lap, 300-mile race.
Power ran fourth on lap 135 when he hit the wall in turns 3 and 4 while following Ryan Hunter-Reay. The No. 12 machine brushed the wall in several places which was enough to damage the car’s suspension.
The Penske crew worked feverishly to repair the right-rear suspension and sent their driver back out to turn a few more laps. However, there was more damage to the right-front suspension that would have required the team to take the seat out of the car to fix it.
Power’s race and his title chances were over and he was credited with a 25th-place finish. Now needing only a 10th-place finish, Franchitti finished eighth, winning his third IndyCar championship by five points.
“The championship’s won over 17 races, not only one,” Power told Versus’ Robbie Floyd.
Now in 2024, we look at a similar situation. Palou has led the championship since his June win at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. He’s finished in the top five in every race this season except for a 16th at Detroit and 23rd at the first Iowa race after crashing.
On paper? It sounds nearly impossible to catch Palou. But sometimes crazy things happen in racing. We’ll all find out soon enough.
Christopher DeHarde has covered IndyCar racing and the Road to Indy for various outlets since 2014. In addition to open wheel racing, DeHarde has also covered IMSA and various short track racing events around Indiana. Originally from New Orleans, DeHarde moved to the Indianapolis area in 2017 to further pursue a career as a motorsports writer.