Palou wins for the fifth time and enters the IndyCar historic podium

Last year it was P4lou and this year it is PaloV . Álex Palou continues collecting titles in IndyCar and today he was crowned champion of America for the fifth time . He did so with a tenth-place finish in the second race of the Milwaukee GP , more than enough to already secure his fifth Astor Cup (which he will receive next week at Laguna Seca).

A title that serves to mark one or another historic milestone in IndyCar . For example: Palou equals the best streak in history, four consecutive championships , which until now had only been achieved by the Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais (years 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007). A record he will be able to surpass next year.

Neither Bourdais... nor anyone else has done what Palou sealed today: winning five titles in a six-year period , the years he has spent representing Chip Ganassi Racing . Nor has anyone won five titles in their first seven seasons in the ever-competitive IndyCar.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly: with his fifth title, Palou climbs onto the historic podium of IndyCar champions . Only the legendary AJ Foyt , with seven triumphs, and his teammate Scott Dixon , with six, are still ahead of him. But none of them could boast five crowns at 29 years old , as is the case with the Spaniard. Where is his limit? Possibly not even he himself knows...

With the title in his sights

After the fifth-place finish achieved on Sunday afternoon in the first race , Palou practically only had to make it to the end of the second , already in the early hours of Monday in Spain, for the fifth championship ring to fall into his hands. Finishing among the top 20 was enough.

A second race that, let's remember, began 24 hours ago , but the rain and nightfall in Milwaukee forced it to be stopped after 90 laps had been completed... and with Álex Palou in 14th , behind Kirkwood (7th) and Lundgaard (5th). And so, in that very same situation, it resumed tonight.

Logically, the pressure on Palou was not the same as it was last night, when he needed to win to clinch the championship. Today he only needed to survive... and that is what he set out to do from the moment the green flag waved.

On the restart, he "got out of the way" to avoid any pile-up that could ruin everything. Even so, he put on a good display because he climbed up to 9th . And in that position he reached lap 126 , halfway through the race and the moment when the race could already end if it rained again ... something that had been threatening from the start.

The Spaniard raced with the calculator , as shown by the fact that at the first opportunity he had he moved into the main strategy to stay in the sequence of the frontrunners. He did nothing unusual and simply kept himself in those intermediate positions: 9th, 10th, 11th throughout the race... until the finish line. Until glory.

' IndyCar 2026 Pato O"Ward (McLaren) David Malukas (Penske) Rinus VeeKay (Juncos) Scott McLaughlin (Penske) Christian Rasmussen (Carpenter) Christian Lundgaard (McLaren) Josef Newgarden (Penske) Marcus Ericsson (Andretti) Marcus Armstrong (Meyer Shank) Álex Palou (Ganassi)'

'Double for O"Ward... on the same day'

Up front, three drivers were "stuck together" above everyone else: David Malukas , who nailed it with the alternate strategy that started with Palou last night... but blew it on the final restart , where he gave away what would have been his first IndyCar win. The beneficiary was Pato O"Ward, who completed a brilliant double in Milwaukee, with two wins on the same day. A brilliant VeeKay completed the podium, getting the better of Scott McLaughlin in the closing laps.

The battle between Lundgaard and Kirkwood for second place overall was also quite entertaining. They were separated by 12 points before the start of the second race and, although Kirkwood fought hard, he was hindered by an untimely yellow that closed the pits just as he was about to come in and forced him to make a wasted pass-through that dropped him to 15th place in the end. Meanwhile, the Dane secured a 6th-place finish that gives him second place with one race remaining.

With his championship already secured, the 2026 IndyCar season will come to a close next week at Laguna Seca , Palou’s favorite track (where he has always finished on the podium) and where he will look to celebrate his incredible season with an eighth victory (which would match his personal record from 2025), the best possible result before raising his fifth Astor Cup to the sky .