Alex Palou named 2025 IndyCar world champion after Pato O'Ward finishes last in Portland

Alex Palou has been named the 2025 IndyCar champion at the Grand Prix of Portland and has stopped Pato O’Ward from stalling his eventual win to Milwaukee in two weeks time.

Leading the race in the early stages of the Portland race, O’Ward faced a engine issue that saw him drop down the field after making a pit stop under Caution.

Trundling down the pitlane, the engine problem means that Palou could have retired from Portland and still won the title.

O'Ward did eventually rejoin the race but was 10 laps down from the lead car.

In the fight for the lead with laps to go, Palou tried a bold move around the outside of Christian Lundgaard for second in the closing laps but was pushed off the track by the Dane.

He returned to track three seconds off the lead and had to settle for third at Portland.

Palou has now won four IndyCar championships making him the fifth most accoladed driver in the series.

Palou celebrated with donuts at the first corner and with the team once out of the car.

"It's unbelievable. I couldn't be happier right now", Palou celebrated. "This has been an amazing season, an amazing 5 years with CGR. 

"I have no words to describe how grateful I am to everybody at CGR, especially Chip, our partners and all our fans. 

"All our fans have been supporting us throughout the season... and to everybody that is new, welcome to the ride. This has been an amazing year and cannot wait for more.

Both Mario Andretti and Sebastian Bourdais also have four titles while only Scott Dixon on six titles and A.J Foyt on seven are left before him.

Although O’Ward was still in with an outside chance, the story around the championship all weekend had revolved around the fact Palou had a firm grip on the Astor Cup already.

After qualifying, O’Ward admitted that Palou had “won it already” which was matched by the Spaniard’s own sentiment earlier in the weekend when he shared “Everybody here is saying we’ve already won.”

Palou is the first driver to win both the IndyCar championship and the Indy 500 in the same year since Dario Franchitti in 2010.

This ends the longest gap in the history of the series between a driver winning both the championship and the Indy 500 in a season.

Asked what made the difference for palou this year, he explained: "My team. The car has been unbelievable. 

"Also today, it was a shame that we couldn't really end it with another win. I gave everything that I had [and] I tried everything to try and overtake Luangard, but I couldn't make it."

Palou started fifth after he got his race weekend off to a rocky start when he locked up in Fast Six into Turn 12 and went nose first into the barrier.

Lucky to have no damage, Palou’s best lap time was deleted for impeding which meant he qualified sixth and four places behind O’Ward.

Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard who set the fastest lap in qualifying was given a six-place grid penalty for an unapproved engine change which promoted Palou to fifth in the race.

Palou is still chasing to equal the all time win record within a season held by A.J Foyt.

In 1964, A.J Foyt won 10 of the possible 13 races and has remained unbeaten ever since.