Power Rankings: No Surprise Here, Alex Palou Remains No. 1
Following a dominant victory in Sunday's Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix powered by AmFirst, Chip Ganassi Racing driver Alex Palou continues to solidify his position atop the NTT INDYCAR SERIES Power Rankings.
The top 10 drivers entering Saturday's Sonsio Grand Prix airing at 4:30 p.m. ET on FOX, the FOX Sports app and the INDYCAR Radio Network, remain unchanged for a second consecutive race, but there was still plenty of movement with several drivers either rising or falling.
There was also a change in the best driver, not named Alex Palou category.
This list reflects the top 10 drivers entering Saturday's 85-lap race on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
↓10. Scott Dixon (No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda; Last Rank: 9)
Dixon has dropped since his runner-up finish in the March 2 season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding. Still, he has finishes of 10th, eighth and 12th, including a rally Sunday at Barber Motorsports Park coming from 26th at the start to gain 14 spots, the biggest improvement in the field.
9. Alexander Rossi (No. 20 ECR Java House Chevrolet; Last Rank: 10)
Rossi earned his best finish in four starts with Ed Carpenter Racing during Sunday's race, finishing eighth. He did so from the 15th starting position. Rossi has three top-10 finishes in four starts with ECR, with a worst finish of 15th in the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.
8. Pato O'Ward (No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet; Last Rank: 8)
O'Ward's natural road course pace continued with a sixth-place finish at Barber Motorsports Park. In The Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix, he started on pole and led 51 of 65 laps in a second-place effort. However, he has struggled some on the street circuits, finishing 11th in St. Petersburg and was 13th in Long Beach.
7. Felix Rosenqvist (No. 60 SiriusXM Honda; Last Rank: 4)
Rosenqvist endured his worst weekend of the season at Barber, qualifying 14th and finishing 13th. That ended a streak of three consecutive top-10 starting spots and race finishes.
6. Colton Herta (No. 26 Gainbridge Honda; Last Rank: 5)
Herta has two front-row starting positions in four races; he started third in Barber. Unfortunately, those strong Saturdays have not converted into strong Sundays. A slow pit stop in St. Petersburg relegated him to a 16th-place finish. In Long Beach and Barber, Herta faded in the race, finishing seventh in each. Between those races, Herta started fourth and finished fourth at The Thermal Club.
5. Kyle Kirkwood (No. 27 PreFab Honda; Last Rank: 2)
Kirkwood finished outside the top 10 for the first time this season at Barber. However, he rallied from 18th to finish 11th. After a strong Long Beach race weekend where he earned NTT P1 Award honors and led 46 of 90 laps en route to the victory, his start to the 2025 season has been strong. He finished fifth in St. Petersburg and eighth at The Thermal Club.
↑4. Scott McLaughlin (No. 3 Good Ranches Team Penske Chevrolet; Last Rank: 7)
McLaughlin's two-year winning streak at Barber ended, but he still started second and finished third. The Team Penske driver has three top-six finishes in four races this season with the outlier being when he qualified 25th and finished 27th in a tough day at The Thermal Club. He began 2025 with an NTT P1 Award and fourth-place finish after leading a race-high 40 of 100 laps in St. Petersburg and started and finished sixth on April 13 at Long Beach.
↑3. Will Power (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet; Last Rank: 6)
Power earned his third consecutive top-six finish by coming home fifth at Barber. Previously, he climbed from 13th to finish fifth at Long Beach and charged from 21st to finish sixth at The Thermal Club. He has been the top-finishing Team Penske driver in two of the last three races.
2. Christian Lundgaard (No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet; Last Rank: 3)
Most seasons, Lundgaard, who has three consecutive podium finishes and a fourth-place average through four races, would likely be the top driver in these Power Rankings. However, Palou has been that much better. Still, Lundgaard has been second best as we approach a track that he has never started worse than eighth in six tries and has finished second, fourth, fourth and third, respectively his last four tries.
↔1. Alex Palou (No. 10 HRC Chip Ganassi Racing Honda; Last Rank: 1)
Palou earned his third win in four races to begin the 2025 season. His worst result is second at Long Beach. Oh, and he has won the past two Sonsio Grand Prix events at IMS. The Spaniard who led 81 of 90 laps at Barber has been atop the Power Rankings for more than a year. He remains there this week as well.
recommended
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indianapolis Star
2 hours ago
- Indianapolis Star
IndyCar Series 2025 drivers championship, Rookie of the Year, Leaders Circle standings after Iowa
The 2025 IndyCar Series season is busy and Alex Palou has won seven races, most notably the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Kyle Kirkwood has won three, and Scott Dixon and Pato O'Ward one each. Here's where the drivers and teams stand in the season-long points, Rookie of the Year and Leaders Circle races. Complete results: IndyCar Farm to Finish 275 at Iowa Speedway (Through 12 of 17 races) Foster rattled off a pair of 14th-place finishes this weekend at Iowa Speedway, while Shwartzman registered a career-best ninth place finish Sunday to go with 20th on Saturday. After crashing out in last place (27th) Saturday, Abel recovered for his best IndyCar finish to date Sunday in 11th. IndyCar's Leaders Circle program pays eligible teams just over $1 million the following season in guarantees. To qualify for one of the 22 spots, the entry must be associated with one of IndyCar's 25 charters — teams are allowed to have a maximum of three. Only Prema Racing's two cars remain unchartered. The 25 chartered cars are then ranked by entrant points and, at the end of this season, the top 22 eligible entries will be paid $1.2 million or more by Penske Entertainment throughout the 2026 season. Here are the cars around the bubble after IndyCar's Iowa doubleheader weekend: 19. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing No. 15, 169 points 20. Andretti Global No. 28, 164 points 21. Arrow McLaren No. 6, 156 points 22. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing No. 45, 150 points ------------------------------------------------------------- 23. Juncos Hollinger Racing No. 77, 120 points 24. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing No. 30, 115 points
Fox News
9 hours ago
- Fox News
Alex Palou Pads Championship Lead With Iowa Win: 'It's Magical'
NEWTON, Iowa — Alex Palou could skip the next two races and still have at least a 21-point lead over the next closest driver with three races remaining. Palou has no plans to skip a race. But with a 129-point lead on Pato O'Ward with five races remaining, he can race knowing it would take a total collapse for him to lose the championship. The thing is, Palou, following his win Sunday at Iowa Speedway, said they have raced that way all year, that they have raced that way in most of his championship seasons in 2021, 2023 and 2024. "Honestly, that's how we've been racing since Race 1 in St. Pete," Palou said. "We started racing not thinking about the points because it was the first race of the season. And I raced hard today, as hard as I could, risking everything because I wanted to get the win and I wanted to fight hard. "I don't think we've ever raced for points. The only places I remember was probably Nashville last year and Long Beach in 2021, where you know that if you finish in [a certain] position, you can be the champion." The contenders just know they are racing against greatness. O'Ward finished fifth on Sunday in the second race of the Iowa doubleheader, a day after he won the first race of the weekend. That would, on most weekends, cut into the championship lead. But Palou built on Saturday's fifth-place finish and rode to a victory on Sunday. With a pole and the number of laps he led, he actually earned four more points over the weekend than O'Ward. "He's got to not finish for two races, and we've got to be on the podium — or even winning — and maybe we'll catch a whiff [of him]," O'Ward said. "The longer this championship goes on, the more you see it not happening." Kyle Kirkwood had entered the weekend 113 points behind, but he left fourth in the standings, 180 points back. Scott Dixon, with a second-place finish Sunday, moved to third but sits 173 points behind. "They're firing really well and just doing a better job than everybody else," Dixon said. The current car also seems to fit into Palou's wheelhouse. "Alex, if you look at driving style, he has a very smooth driving style, actually quite similar to Dario [Franchitti]," said Dixon, a six-time series champion and Chip Ganassi Racing teammate to Palou. "Whereas with all that weight at the back in the hybrid, it's quite difficult for me. "It's not something that feels natural, and I just agitate the car a lot with my aggressive kind of style." Things certainly fell Palou's way Sunday. Josef Newgarden seemed to have the most speed but on his last green-flag pit stop, the caution came out for a wrecking Callum Ilott. That left Palou in the lead (Palou had not yet pitted) and needing to hold off David Malukas, Dixon and Marcus Armstrong. But Palou was also able to work his way through traffic. After the race on Saturday, his team opted to focus on speed and not fuel mileage. They turned Palou loose and let him race everyone straight up. "I was passing so many cars I felt like I was Lightning McQueen or something," Palou said. "It's the first time that I'm not getting overtaken every single lap on a short oval. It was very fun. "There was a lot of traffic, which was good. It was fun getting to see different people struggling in different areas. Then you would get to another car and he would be running the line that you liked, and then you would struggle for five, 10 laps." It is hard to wipe the smile off Palou's face these days. Even as he was worried Friday during a tornado warning, he tried to smile as his wife and their baby daughter took shelter in the media center with many INDYCAR team members. The team members probably figured that if Palou is somewhere, it's safe. He has, after all, been mostly the definition of invincible these days. "Being here [in the media center] seeing so many people actually makes it feel safer. And seeing like 90 percent of the paddock [being outside] taking pictures and videos, at least it makes it seem like you're not being irresponsible," Palou said about the adventure earlier in the weekend. Leave it to Palou to be responsible. He has pretty much taken care of business all year. And he's now eyeing a lofty goal of 10 wins this year, if he wins three of the final five events. "I'm going to work toward getting 10, obviously, but I'm not waking up and thinking about getting 10," Palou said. "I think it's a pretty realistic goal, and it's far — it's three wins. "It seems like it's 'only' three, but it's very far. That's the amount of wins I got in 2023, and that's one more win than I got in 2024." But he already has seven this year. "Honestly, it's crazy," Palou said. "It's been an amazing season. When I say I don't really have words, it's tough to describe. It's magical." Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
USA Today
12 hours ago
- USA Today
IndyCar Series 2025 drivers championship, Rookie of the Year, Leaders Circle standings after Iowa
The 2025 IndyCar Series season is busy and Alex Palou has won seven races, most notably the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Kyle Kirkwood has won three, and Scott Dixon and Pato O'Ward one each. Here's where the drivers and teams stand in the season-long points, Rookie of the Year and Leaders Circle races. Complete results: IndyCar Farm to Finish 275 at Iowa Speedway IndyCar Series championship points 2025 (Through 12 of 17 races) IndyCar Series rookie points Foster rattled off a pair of 14th-place finishes this weekend at Iowa Speedway, while Shwartzman registered a career-best ninth place finish Sunday to go with 20th on Saturday. After crashing out in last place (27th) Saturday, Abel recovered for his best IndyCar finish to date Sunday in 11th. IndyCar Series Leaders Circle standings 2025 IndyCar's Leaders Circle program pays eligible teams just over $1 million the following season in guarantees. To qualify for one of the 22 spots, the entry must be associated with one of IndyCar's 25 charters — teams are allowed to have a maximum of three. Only Prema Racing's two cars remain unchartered. The 25 chartered cars are then ranked by entrant points and, at the end of this season, the top 22 eligible entries will be paid $1.2 million or more by Penske Entertainment throughout the 2026 season. Here are the cars around the bubble after IndyCar's Iowa doubleheader weekend: 19. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing No. 15, 169 points 20. Andretti Global No. 28, 164 points 21. Arrow McLaren No. 6, 156 points 22. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing No. 45, 150 points ------------------------------------------------------------- 23. Juncos Hollinger Racing No. 77, 120 points 24. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing No. 30, 115 points 25. Dale Coyne Racing No. 51, 88 points
