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If this keeps up, FOX is going to want their money back. It’s no wonder that ratings for the last three NTT IndyCar Series races have been abysmal. If I’m not a die-hard IndyCar fan, it’s a tough sale to expect casual fans to tune in and subject themselves to another Alex Palou beatdown. Not only has the reigning IndyCar champion won the championship three out of the past four seasons, he has also won three of the first four races to start off the 2025 season. The only race he hasn’t won this season is Long Beach, where he finished second.

His only win that had much drama was at Thermal, where Palou started third, fell back a bit, but then passed Christian Lundgaard and Pato O’Ward in the final laps to win.

This past weekend at the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix, Palou made a mockery of the rest of the field. He won the pole, the race and led the most laps (81 out of 90) to max out in points (54). His margin of victory was more than 16 seconds over second-place Christian Lundgaard. Alex Palou now has a 60-point lead in the championship standings.

I have been closely following this sport for most of my life. I would be lying if I said I remember when AJ Foyt won 10 races in a 13-race season back in 1964. I was alive then, but I was five. I’m doing well to remember parts of the 500 that year.

In more recent history, Michael Andretti put together a similar stretch in 1991. He won eight of the 16 races on the schedule. The difference was, his run started at Milwaukee – after the Indianapolis 500. Prior to Milwaukee, the season featured 4 different winners in the first four races. Then Michael went on his tear, winning 8 of the last eleven races to win the championship. Still, That was nothing like this. Michael Andretti did not clinch the 1991 championship until the season-finale at Laguna Seca. Once Bobby Rahal fell out of contention, the crown was Michael’s.

Some will point to the fact that Paul Tracy and Sébastien Bourdais had similarly dominating seasons in winning their Champ Car titles. Statistically that’s true – but you also have to look at the overall talent level and the depth of their competition. I’m sure I’ll catch some flack over that statement.

I joked after Thermal that if this keeps up, IndyCar should hold the Championship Banquet at Siebkens Resort in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin – because Palou will probably clinch the championship at Road America in late June. That doesn’t sound so outlandish today.

It also doesn’t help that we are four races in, and the season has seen one caution flag so far – and that came in Lap One of the season-opener at St. Petersburg. It used to be that a caution-free race was an anomaly, not the norm. They said on yesterday’s broadcast that 1986 was the last time three races in a row were run without a caution. If this Saturday’s Sonsio Grand Prix has a clean start and everyone survives past Turn One at the start, it’s conceivable that it could run caution-free as well.

And if the sight of Alex Palou hoisting first-place trophies over his head have grown tiresome to you, get ready – he has won the last two road course races run in May at IMS.

This Palou juggernaut might be easier on ratings if he was just the slightest bit controversial. Jeff Gordon won a lot of NASCAR races in the late 90s and early 2000s, but there were a lot of Jeff Gordon haters out there so people would tune in to cheer for him to lose. The same thing happened in F1 when Lewis Hamilton was winning everything. So long as there were a lot of people that couldn’t stand him, the ratings survived.

But the worse thing you can say about Palou is that he smiles a lot, he’s too boring and he knows no other English adjective other than “amazing” (which he said no less than four times in victory lane on the TV broadcast).

Some say people like to watch greatness, like when the Patriots were in their heyday. You can’t compare the two. The NFL could trot out anything and people would watch it, and swear it’s great. They aren’t starving in the ratings like IndyCar has been this season. By Tuesday, we will know the ratings for Barber, but I suspect they won’t be a big improvement over the 600,000 or so that tuned in for Long Beach.

Had Palou suffered a mechanical breakdown yesterday in Lap One, would the overall race be any better? Actually, I think it would have been. Second-place was in doubt throughout the day, and there were other great battles on the track further back. But when the field sees Alex Palou run away and disappear in the early stages of the race, everyone else just seems like they’re running for best in class. Winning is what matters to the TV audience, not weekly domination by the same driver.

But I can whine and complain about this and so can everyone else, but what can we do about it? When the Patriots were going on their run, whenever other teams or fans would complain about it – the response was that it was their job to beat them, instead of complaining about their winning. Ultimately, it’s up to every other driver and team to step up their game and match Palou and the No. 10 team. Until someone matches what they are doing, they have no chance of beating them.

There were some good aspects of Sunday’s race, which I will touch on later. In the meantime, congratulations to Alex Palou and Chip Ganassi Racing. You are making a lot of competent people look awfully foolish.

TV Coverage: Slowly but surely, FOX is giving us the features in Qualifying that we always took for granted with NBC. We now have the green and red segment times to show how a driver’s lap is going in relation to either the pole or the bubble. I’m now pretty satisfied with the timing and scoring graphic to the left of the screen, but I still wish they would show us how long pit stops are lasting. This is a number that often times decides the outcome of a race. It’s pretty important to know how fast or slow q pit stop is. When Rinus VeeKay’s crewmember dropped the wheel nut on his last pit stop, I would’ve like to know how much extra time that cost him. A year ago, we would’ve known.

FOX continues to bring us great drone shots. They provide a unique look at the track and the cars as they battle for position. I also like the graphics they provide prior to the race and other weekend broadcasts that show the track, the preferred driving line, as well as acceleration and braking zones. The ghost car showing the difference between the two tire compounds was a little much. I didn’t get that much out of it.

It was great to see Georgia Henneberry back on the broadcast, after having a baby in the offseason. We had been led to believe she would not return until after the Indianapolis 500. Maybe she realized the two-day Open Test at Indianapolis was not as rough as she thought it would be. Her racing knowledge and on-screen likeability make her a natural for her role. I only hope it was her decision for her to come back early.

I also want to give a shout-out to Jack Harvey. I got into a discussion about him in the IMS Media Center during the Open Test. Let’s just say opinions were split. Some say he is wooden, hard to understand and has done nothing on-track to justify being on the air. I disagree.

Granted, you could tell he was stiff and nervous at the opener at St. Petersburg. Why wouldn’t he be? It was the first time he had done anything remotely similar to this. But at Thermal, you could see the humorous side to Harvey start to come through. He has improved dramatically after only four races. You can tell he has a funny, almost mischievous demeanor about him. If you heard his interview on Trackside last week, you heard some candid insight regarding the hybrid that we have not heard before. IndyCar probably didn’t care for what he said, but I found his frankness refreshing. He is obviously very intelligent when it comes to diagnosing the setup of a car.

As for his credentials, what is the difference in Harvey and Townsend Bell. Both were stars in Indy Lights Bell finished second once and won the championship once, while Harvey finished second twice. Neither of them ever won an IndyCar race, but Harvey tore up far less equipment in his career than Bell. The best thing for Harvey is that his experience is much more recent and relevant. Harvey last drove an IndyCar last month, and competed in an IndyCar race less than eight months ago. He will be competing in the Indianapolis 500 later this month. Bel;l hasn’t driven an IndyCar in nine years. The last time he competed in a non-Indianapolis IndyCar race was in 2011 at Kentucky.

I think Harvey is fully qualified to speak as an IndyCar expert, and he seems to have a good relationship with most of the paddock – thereby helping him to get more information to the fans. I think he will be just fine in his broadcasting role.

Same Old Problem: After such a relatively good season last year, many had high hopes for AJ Foyt Racing. With the technical alliance with Team Penske, and the resurgence of Santino Ferrucci and the addition of David Malukas, it seemed like they had definitely turned the corner heading into 2025.

That’s why races aren’t run on paper. Both drivers have gotten off to a slow start, and had another rough day on Sunday. Neither driver transferred out of Round One in qualifying, although Ferrucci barely missed the cutoff, when Alexander Rossi jumped his time as the clock had run out. Ferrucci had a decent day going on Sunday, but his crew short-filled him on his first stop. That messed up his entire race. He had to ultimately pit four times – one more stop than everyone else.

For years, we would see a Foyt driver do a great job working his way through traffic and get great track position in the process – only to see it all undone by a botched pit stop by the crew, Sometimes that would play out two to three times in a race. Many of those crew members were no longer there, but it seems those things keep happening.

It can happen to the best. We saw a Ganassi crewmember make a mistake on Sunday. Andretti drivers have been plagued by a couple of botched stops this year. But it seems to have been a much more common theme with the Foyt team, no matter who they send over the wall. Until they clean up their pit stops, it doesn’t matter who is engineering the cars, driving the cars or sharing information with the team. No one can continually overcome botched pit stops.

I guess it Happens: Not only did a Ganassi crewmember make a mistake, but another team made a mistake that may have cost a driver a podium finish. Dale Coyne Racing seems to have found new life with Rinus VeeKay in the cockpit. He had a strong qualifying run and started fifth. It was all Scott McLaughlin could do to hold him off at the end in a spirited battle for third-place.

But on his last pit stop, the right-front tire changer dropped the wheel nut and lost sight of it. He finally grabbed another off of his belt, but seconds and places on the track had been lost in that short time period. VeeKay did a masterful job all weekend, along with the team. It’s just a shame that one little bobble is enough to knock a driver off of the podium.

How is it Pronounced? Since he came to the series in 2020, I always heard that Alex Palou pronounced his name Puh-LOH – you know, like Hello, Palou!

But three times on the broadcasts this weekend, I head his name pronounced Puh-LOO – first by Will Power, then by Michael Shank and then by his own teammate Scott Dixon. I can’t swear to it, but I think Ive even heard his race strategist Barry Wanser pronounce it Puh-LOO.

Are people purposely mispronouncing it, the way they did by pronouncing the “H” in Helio? I’m always dumfounded when people mispronounce a name, no matter how many times they hear it correctly.

Nice Livery: Speaking of Palou and how he is single-handedly destroying IndyCar ratings – he did have a very good-looking livery this weekend. Since I detest change, I still prefer the old HPD (Honda Performance Development) to the recently changed HRC (Honda Racing Corporation). Be that as it may, I really liked the new HRC liveried car that dominated the field this weekend. It was a very sharp-looking car that stood out, in more ways that one.

Pass of the Day: If you watched the race, you know this is an easy one. Christian Lundgaard schooled Scott McLaughlin with an outside pass as the two entered the main straightaway to begin Lap 43. Will Buxton termed it a gorgeous move. I’m not sure those are the words I would have chosen, but it was still very impressive, nonetheless.

Drive of the Day: Kyle Kirkwood and Graham Rahal both overcame poor qualifying efforts to salvage decent results. Kirkwood started eighteenth and finished eleventh. Rahal rolled off twenty-first and was in fourteenth-place when the checkered flag flew.

But the best job of salvaging a bad start was by Scott Dixon. Of course, his weekend was crushed when I picked him to win. He ran off in qualifying, but he was having a bad run regardless. Dixon started one spot from dead last – in twenty-sixth position. He moved up without the benefit of timely cautions, since the race ran green the entire way. After such a horrible start, he was still able to finish twelfth, thereby earning the Oilpressure.com Drive of the Day. I’m sure that eases his sting.

All in All: The Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix was something of a snooze fest. There were some different tire strategies, but no one even attempted a two-stop race, which I found a little surprising. Had Alex Palou not been entered or had gone out early, the interest level may have been changed. But that’s not what happened.

The reality is that Alex Palou issued another beatdown on the whole field. Until someone can figure out how to catch Palou and actually beat him, it will be a long season.

George Phillips

Don’t Forget:  I will have a new post up here tomorrow, and every day in May thorough Race Weekend. FYI…the Trivia Contest will run this Wednesday May 7. – GP

This entry was posted on May 5, 2025 at 4:04 am and is filed under Indianapolis 500, IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.