Alex Palou is a five-time IndyCar champion. He settled that argument at Milwaukee on Sunday, a 10th-place finish in a rain-delayed Race 1 doing exactly what it needed to do: enough points to put the title beyond reach with one round still to go.
The Milwaukee Mile double-header was a complicated weekend to close a championship on. Race 2, the Snap-On 250, actually finished first, ahead of Race 1, after a red flag stretched into a 25-hour delay. Palou started Race 2 from pole, his eighth of the season, and came home fifth, the best Honda result of that race. Teammate and Honda stablemate Kyle Kirkwood was right behind him in sixth, having carved through 18 positions from 24th at the start. When Race 1, the Snap-On Makers and Fixers 250, finally concluded Sunday night, Marcus Ericsson and Marcus Armstrong finished eighth and ninth for Honda, with Palou 10th. That 10th was the number that mattered.
Four championships in a row. Five total. Palou now sits third on the all-time IndyCar title list, behind only Scott Dixon, his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, with six, and AJ Foyt with seven. He is also the youngest driver to reach five titles, claiming that distinction before his 30th birthday. The company he is in on that all-time list is not accidental. Chip Ganassi Racing has built the most reliable championship operation in the series, and Palou has driven it with a consistency that made this fourth consecutive crown feel, at least from the outside, almost inevitable.
Honda’s half of the story is nearly as significant. The manufacturers’ title is Honda’s eighth in the NTT IndyCar Series and 12th across all American open-wheel competition. Previous IndyCar titles came in 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2005, a four-year run from 2018 through 2021, and 2025. Wrapping up both championships with a race remaining is the kind of margin that reflects a season-long performance gap, not a last-round scramble.
Milwaukee was not a showcase performance for Honda, as Kelvin Fu, Vice President of HRC US, acknowledged directly. Most of the Honda grid was scattered through the midfield and lower in both races. Will Power, running an Andretti Global Honda entry, was a non-finisher in Race 1 due to contact. Dennis Hauger, a rookie, also retired from contact in Race 1. The results from both races point to a weekend where track position was difficult to hold and the championship math, rather than outright pace, was the story.
That math now points toward one remaining subplot. The 2026 rookie of the year battle has Honda drivers Dennis Hauger and Mick Schumacher sitting first and second, respectively, heading into the finale at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on September 4 through 6. The Mission Grand Prix of Monterey will settle that question and close out a season in which Honda secured everything else that was available to win.
Palou will arrive at Laguna Seca as a five-time champion chasing a clean sweep. Dixon, Foyt and their place on that all-time list are now visible from here.
Source: Honda. Images courtesy of Honda.
