Alex Palou (centre) clinched the 2025 IndyCar title with two races remaining, winning eight races this season. Also pictured on the podium from race two at Iowa Speedway are Kiwi Scott Dixon (left) and Marcus Armstrong. Photo / Getty Images
Alex Palou (centre) clinched the 2025 IndyCar title with two races remaining, winning eight races this season. Also pictured on the podium from race two at Iowa Speedway are Kiwi Scott Dixon (left) and Marcus Armstrong. Photo / Getty Images
IndyCar racer Alex Palou may have clinched the 2025 IndyCar title with two races to go, but there’s still a lot to play for this weekend at the last round of the championship at the Nashville Superspeedway.
Chief among the protagonists is New Zealander Scott Dixon, who sits third headinginto the race, and he and his Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) team want to ensure the Kiwi finish third for the season.
Palou was a force of nature this year, winning eight races so far to have an unassailable lead in the championship on 670 points, followed by Pato O’Ward (505). Dixon is third (433), closely followed by Christian Lundgaard (426) and Kyle Kirkwood (405). Fellow Kiwis in the field Marcus Armstrong (352) and Scott McLaughlin (320) sit seventh and 10th respectively on the point’s table.
Scott Dixon is targeting a top-three finish in the Nashville IndyCar race. Photo / Michael Allio, Icon Sportswire
“I’ve never seen a guy work so quietly and diligently at his craft as this guy [Palou],” said Chip Ganassi.
“I said at the beginning of the year that we’re just scratching the surface of his talent. I still think he’s got more in his gas tank for this season, and he’s got more in his tank for coming seasons.
“You saw his desire in what he spoke about prior to the Indianapolis 500, going into that race, what the goals were, what the goals were when we left that place. Even though we had the win, he didn’t lose sight of the big picture, for the championship.
“I couldn’t be more pleased. I obviously want to thank Alex, everybody that works for us. I want to thank everybody that ever had a hand on any of those other 16 championships. A lot of people aren’t here or aren’t with us anymore. They had fingerprints on these titles. Couldn’t be happier.”
Dixon kept his 21-season long unbroken record of at least one win every year and will extend his consecutive start all time record to 356 races this weekend. Of the current drivers, he has the most starts (seven) at Nashville and last won there in 2022.
Scott Dixon has raced in IndyCar at Nashville seven times and last won there in 2022. Photo / Photosport
Ganassi has be at pains to acknowledge the help Dixon has provided in Palou’s rise to the top of the series. It is well known Dixon is a team player and he and Palou often sit down together and talk about car set-up and race strategy.
It’s one of those driver relationships all team owners aspire to have, where drivers learn from each other, race hard and treat each other with respect. Ganassi only has two rules when it comes to his top two drivers. Rule one is don’t crash into each other, and rule two is don’t forget rule number one.
“Alex had a mega start to the year and executed supremely, and they’ve [Palou’s crew] done a really good job, so all credit to them,” said Dixon.
Palou has joined teammate Dixon and Dario Franchitti (three championships with CGR) as the only Chip Ganassi Racing drivers to win four or more championships. CGR drivers now account for half of all drivers to achieve the feat.
Since IndyCar and Cart merged in 2008, CGR has been the dominant team, winning 12 titles to Penske’s five and Andretti Global’s one.
“When you have a group of people like we do, and you plug in the right driver at the right time with the right engine, the right tyres, the right chassis and the right engineering, this is the result [championship] of that,” said Ganassi.
