As a child, Alex Palou appeared as much as seven-time System 1 champion Michael Schumacher.
However within the thoughts of a younger Palou, there was no racing hero larger than his father, Ramon — who wasn’t a driver, however a mechanic and a instructor for his son.
“Once I was a child, I assumed he was the perfect driver on the planet as a result of he was in a position to educate me so properly,” Palou stated.
That educating paid off. On the age of 28, the Barcelona native is a three-time IndyCar champion, an Indianapolis 500 winner and has the chance to clinch his fourth IndyCar title on Sunday at Portland Worldwide Raceway ought to he find yourself main Pato O’Ward by 108 factors or extra at race’s finish.
Palou enters Portland with a 121-point lead over O’Ward, however he isn’t placing the championship combat to relaxation till it is fully over.
“After all, everyone right here is saying we have already received,” Palou stated. “However though now we have loads of factors, we nonetheless must win it. If someone else is mathematically alive, it is nonetheless alive, so we do not need anyone to be mathematically alive for the factors.”
Palou’s eight victories this season are two shy of the document for a single season. With three races left within the 2025 marketing campaign, there’s an opportunity Palou can tie or break the document set by AJ Foyt in 1964 and Al Unser in 1970 — however that is not one thing that is on Palou’s thoughts as he seeks to clinch his third consecutive championship.
“I can’t actually comprehend every part that is taking place, not solely this 12 months, but when I look again at ever since I began in IndyCar, my dream was simply to be an expert race automotive driver, and I by no means considered data or something like that,” Palou stated. “It isn’t that I am not acutely aware about what is going on on. It is simply that I can’t actually imagine it, and I am simply driving the wave and having fun with each single second of it and having enjoyable.”
Palou might not be capable to comprehend his dominance, but it surely’s very actual to everybody within the paddock. That is very true because the circuit turns its consideration to Portland, a observe he is received at twice and the venue he clinched the championship at in 2023.
“Each time I have been there, I’ve simply felt actually comfy,” Palou stated. “I’ve felt just like the automotive has been responding the way in which I wanted and likewise the way in which it flows. It simply actually matches my model, I suppose. It is actually slender, and though it is a highway course, it simply bites you want a avenue course. As quickly as you go off, until it is Flip 1, you usually find yourself within the wall.
“It is a kind of tracks that you might want to drive it 99%. You can not drive it 100% on a regular basis as a result of in any other case you go off fairly simply, and I feel clearly having good automobiles there helps.”
Ought to Palou earn his third Portland win and his ninth of the season, he’d assuredly clinch the championship and additional bolster a racing resume that already presents him as a legend.
For the child that grew up watching Schumacher dominate System 1, that is an unimaginable feeling — as is figuring out that, for a brand new technology of followers, Palou is their Schumacher.
“Yeah, that is loopy. That sounds loopy. But when I will help a younger child be a bit extra motivated to enter motorsport … That will make my day — not my day. It could make my life.”
