Alex Palou of Spain captured his third IndyCar Series championship after finishing 11th on Sunday in the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix in Nashville, Tenn.
Colton Herta won Sunday’s race after he passed Mexico’s Pato O’Ward on Lap 202 with four laps left to capture his first victory on an oval track. Josef Newgarden, the two-time Indy 500 champion, finished third, Kyle Kirkwood was fourth and New Zealand’s Scott McLaughlin rounded out the top five.
Palou all but sealed the title just 13 laps into the race because his closest competitor, Will Power of Australia, had trouble early in the race with a disconnected seat belt and finished 24th.
Palou, who also secured the title in 2021 and 2023, is the 13th driver to win at least three IndyCar championships and the seventh to do so in a four-year span. The last driver to reel off three championships in four years was Dario Franchitti, who won three in a row from 2009 to 2011.
At 27 years, 5 months, 14 days, Palou became the second-youngest driver to win three IndyCar titles, trailing only Sam Hornish Jr., who won his third title in 2006 at 27 years, 2 months, 8 days.
Herta, who won his second race this season and eighth in his career, finished second in the season-ending IndyCar standings. McLaughlin took third, Power fell to fourth and O’Ward was fifth.
–Field Level Media
