Finally, 2026 is over.
Five NTT IndyCar Series championships in six seasons at Chip Ganassi Racing and 25 race wins in that timespan are by all means great surface-level statistics for Alex Palou’s Reign of Terror, but there are many layers to this level of dominance that has spanned six seasons.
Palou joined Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) following the departure of Felix Rosenqvist and won on his CGR debut at Barber Motorsports Park, leading 56 of 90 laps. Over the next six seasons, it became clear that the first win at Barber was only a sign of things to come.
There have been 102 IndyCar races from Barber in 2021 through Laguna Seca in 2026. Let’s look a bit closer at just how dominant the No. 10 Honda has been through the years with Palou behind the wheel.
With 25 wins, Palou has a winning percentage of 24.509 percent in that time frame, basically one in four races. Let’s compare that to some other legendary careers.
A.J. Foyt won open wheel races from 1960-1981. Looking at those years alone, Foyt has 67 wins in 264 starts for a winning percentage of 25.378 percent. Mario Andretti won 52 races in 379 starts from 1965-1993 for a winning percentage of 13.72 percent.
Rick Mears? 29 wins in 182 races (no wins in 1992) for 15.934 percent.
Yeah, Alex Palou has been that guy. But let’s not look just at wins.
In the last six seasons, Palou has had 69 top five finishes and only 17 finishes between sixth and 10th. Think about that for a minute. How many other drivers throughout motorsports can make a similar claim that their finishes from second to fifth more than quadruple their finishes from sixth to 10th?
Let’s get even more ridiculous. Since joining CGR, Palou has only seven finishes of 20th or lower. What happened in those races? An engine failure at the second IMS road course race and a crash that wasn’t his fault at WWT Raceway were both in 2021.
In 2022, Palou had a gravel trap excursion at Road America after marginal contact with Marcus Ericsson damaged a toe link. Had Palou turned in just a small bit later, that contact doesn’t happen.
The following season, Palou never finished lower than eighth place. In fact, in that season Palou only had four races where he finished outside the top five. Pure domination.
In 2024, Palou spun and crashed at Iowa Speedway’s race one.
Last season, David Malukas hit Palou at Detroit, forcing Palou into the wall at Turn 1.
This season, contact with Rinus VeeKay at Phoenix in 2026 and several self-inflicted mistakes at Washington DC were the only things that kept Palou’s finishing position from being better than 20th.
For domination like this, that requires almost complete perfection. Between Palou in the drivers’ seat, Barry Wanser calling race strategy and race engineer Julian Robertson making the setups, they have optimized the current car with the aeroscreen to suit Palou’s style and dominate IndyCar racing.
It might not be until 2028 that the rest of the IndyCar field has a legitimate shot at beating Palou with the introduction of the new IR-28 car.
Oh wait.
Palou’s tested that car, too. Before anybody else on the field except Alexander Rossi.
Oh no.
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.
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