For Alex Palou, the pressure is off. This is the first time in a while that he’s not had to race with any pressure surrounding him. Back as a rookie in 2020, he had the pressure to perform since he didn’t know where he’d land next. In 2021 he had the pressure of a championship throughout the entire season. Last year, he had the pressure of not only trying to win a championship, but to try to find victory lane as well as his future again.

This season, he had the pressure in the first 16 races of a 2nd championship in 3 years. He was feeling it last Sunday in Portland.

He was being chased by teammate Scott Dixon. The gap between them was 74 points. So long as it was 54 or more, the title was Palou’s. He could wrap the title up early for the first time since 2007.

But that also brought pressure too. Dixon had won two straight races and cut nearly 30 points off Palou’s lead in that span.

“Yeah, I mean, I always say that he’s my obviously biggest fear,” Palou said of teammate Scott Dixon. “I think he’s one of the best INDYCAR drivers, if not the best, that we ever had.

“Not only that, but he also has the best team around, which is the same as I have. So it’s tough because we couldn’t really hide anything or we couldn’t really — I mean, like in the 10 car we couldn’t really have an advantage on him because we were sharing everything. He knew what was going on.

“So obviously he pushed a lot the last couple of weeks, couple of months.”

Palou had a conversation with boss Chip Ganassi before the race for which Ganassi said the plan was simple – wrap up the title. Palou doubled down. He said he’d win the race too.

“Just before the race I said to Alex, I said, Hey, let’s go wrap this thing up today,” Ganassi admitted.

“He said, For sure. He said, We’re going to wrap it up with a win.

“I said, Oh, okay.

“So that was pretty big, I thought.”

Palou never left any doubt but said he had the confidence in not only his ability, but his cars too.

“Honestly I knew we had a really, really fast car, especially after warmup,” Palou said of calling his shot. “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.

“So we didn’t really go on safe mode of just staying with the 9 because we thought we could win the race today, and we did. So happy that everything worked out.”

Now, with a title in hand, what more do you want him to do in Sunday’s season finale at Laguna Seca?

“We have one race left that we won there last year, so feeling pretty confident,” Palou said. “And obviously, yeah, clinching the championship makes you feel a little bit more relaxed obviously.”

Palou did win last year. He won by over a half of a minute in leading 67 laps. He was also runner-up in 2021. That’s an average finish of 1.5 there. On natural road courses in 2023, Palou has finished 5th, 1st, 1st, 1st, 7th and 1st. Road America was repaved and he won there in June.

Since Monterey last year, Palou has finished in the top 8 in literally every single race (17 races). His average finish is an astounding 3.58.

Also, since 1990, only five drivers (Franchitti: 2007; Bourdais: 2006; Kanaan: 2004; Hornish Jr.: 2001; Zanardi: 1998) have ever finished the season with an average finishing position below 4.0, and no one has accomplished the feat since the series reunified in 2008.

He has 6 wins, one runner-up finish, three 3rd place runs gives him 10 podiums (58.8%). He’s had 13 top five finishes (76.4%). He’s been untouchable.

The season finale will be Palou’s 50th career start with Chip Ganassi Racing. Through 49 races with the team, he has earned nine wins and 23 podiums (46.9% of starts). 

Is there a risk of letting your eye off the ball early when he has all this momentum? I mean wouldn’t it be best to carry it over to 2024?