Central Plains FFA Chapter

08/30 19:49 CDT Palou wins his record-tying 4th consecutive IndyCar season championship Palou wins his record-tying 4th consecutive IndyCar season championship WEST ALLIS, Wis (AP) --- Alex Palou won his record-tying fourth consecutive IndyCar season championship with a 10th-place finish Sunday night in the resumption of a rain-delayed race at the Milwaukee Mile. The 29-year-old from Barcelona, Spain, added to yet another dominating year for himself and Chip Ganassi Racing. He has 607 points going into next weekend's IndyCar season finale at Laguna Seca in California, 100 points more than Christian Lundgaard in second. Palou set the stage for his championship-winning result by finishing fifth in Sunday's regularly scheduled race. "It was a very tough and long day for everyone," Palou said, "but it was cool. ... I think we did over 400 laps today and we're not used to that. We're used to doing only one race and that just didn't make it easy at all." Palou's four consecutive championships match the record set by Sebastien Bourdais from 2004-07. He also is the youngest driver in series history with five titles. He trails A.J. Foyt (seven) and Scott Dixon (six). It's also a record-setting 18th title won by a Ganassi driver, one more than Team Penske. In 17 races this season, Palou has six wins, 12 top-five finishes and 14 top-10 results. "It's tough to compare. Honestly, it's very tough," Palou said of his five season championships. "I feel like every single one (is) super special. This one, I feel like every year I'm able to enjoy more and more because I have the experience from the previous one and I don't know if it's going to happen again or not. So I keep on enjoying every single one more. So I would say this has been the most special so far." IndyCar completed 90 of the scheduled 250 laps at the 1.015-mile oval on Saturday before the race was postponed because of rain and wet track conditions. Palou was coming off a 2025 season in which he won eight races, including his first and only Indy 500 title. Most impressive has been his consistency. Over the past two seasons, he hasn't had back-to-back finishes outside the top 10 in 33 races. He was 20th in the Freedom 250 Grand Prix in Washington, D.C. last weekend, only the third time in two years he ended up 20th or worse. The championship caps a year that began with London's High Court ordering Palou to pay McLaren Racing more than $12 million in a breach of contract suit the team filed when the Spaniard backed out of two different deals with the racing team. Palou has instead stuck with Ganassi, the team he joined in 2021 after spending his rookie IndyCar season with Dale Coyle Racing. In May, Palou signed a multiyear contract extension with Ganassi to continue their relationship beyond the previous deal that ran through the end of 2027. "I mean they gave me the opportunity since 2021 to drive for them and to drive for a championship-winning team," Palou said, "and since then it's been just an incredible ride with everybody on the team, the sponsors. They keep on giving me all the tools necessary to fight for wins and championships and so on, so I owe everything to them." ___ See AP's full auto racing coverage here