King Alex

 There remain two races to run in the 2025 IndyCar season, but Alex Palou -- a man in a perpetual hurry -- operates by his own calendar. And according to his own by-God agenda.

Which is to say, King Alex effectively rung down the curtain on 2025 out in Portland, Ore., yesterday, finishing third to clinch his third straight IndyCar title and fourth in the last five years.

Which is also to say, yes, that was him taking a brief sidetrip into the gravel in a hub-to-hub drag race with Christian Lundgaard with four laps to go, trying to steal a second-place finish he didn't need.

Racers gonna race, in other words. And in IndyCar, Alex Palou is the one untouchable racer right now.

This latest podium was his 12th top-five finish in 15 races, to go with eight wins. Only Al Unser Sr. and A.J. Foyt (10 each) have ever won more in a season, and the last time it happened was more than half a century ago. With two races left, Palou could still make it a three-way tie if he goes back-to-back to finish the campaign.

Will he give it a go? Of course he'll give it a go. Racers gonna race, remember?

Yesterday he knew the title was his again 22 laps in, when Pato O'Ward -- the only driver within striking distance of him, and the Portland polesitter -- lost power and had to be pushed to his pit. By the time O'Ward's crew got his McLaren working again, he was nine laps down, and whatever hope he had of keeping alive even a faint pursuit of Palou was gone.

And yet ...

And yet there was Palou, doing a little off-tracking that made team owner Chip Ganassi's heart skip a beat or two.

Not that he was going to give his ace grief about it. 

"Like Alex said, we go into this race with that 10 car team ... every race, we want to win the race, OK? That's how we got to this point," Ganassi said, with the next thing to a shrug in his voice.

Racers gonna race. So King Alex didn't lift, and Lundgaard didn't lift, and a mere flicker ahead of them, Will Power didn't lift, either, and took the checkers. It was the first win of the year for Team Penske, which has had a perfectly awful year and (according to the track chatter) is about to dump the man who saved Roger Penske from his first winless season in 26 years.

Sunday was his 44th IndyCar or Champ Car win in 20 full seasons, all but three of them with Penske. He's been the best of the team's stable this season, sitting sixth in the points.

All of which will make it damned interesting when Team Penske either doesn't re-sign him, or he jumps to another team in anticipation of same.

Meanwhile ...

Meanwhile, here is Alex Palou, who won four of the first five races of the season -- including the Indianapolis 500, the last prize that had eluded him -- to essentially kill the suspense by the end of May. Only three other drivers in history have three-peated in IndyCar: Dario Franchitti, Sebastien Bourdais and, way back in the mists of time, Ted Horn.

All of them must move over now to make room for Palou -- who's still only 28 years old, and so presumably has several more IndyCar championships in his future provided Formula 1 doesn't steal him away.

Until, or if, that happens, it's King Alex's world. And everyone else is just livin' in it.