Alex Palou inches closer to fourth straight IndyCar championship with Nashville win

One day after Spain won the World Cup Final, Barcelona native Alex Palou inched closer to a championship of his own. 

The four-time IndyCar champion broke a winless drought of three races — his longest of the 2026 season, in case you needed another reminder of how good his campaign has been — Monday in a postponed Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway, scoring his fifth win of 2026, his 24th career win and his third on an oval. 

Palou also extended his points lead and holds an 83-point advantage over second-place David Malukas with six races remaining in the season. 

Nashville win huge in Palou's chase for the championship

A well-timed yellow during a cycle of green flag pit stops just after the race's halfway point allowed Palou to cycle to the lead, which he held onto for the rest of the race, including the final run with Josef Newgarden hunting him down on Firestone's soft tire while Palou was on the more durable but slower hard tire.

"We wanted to finish on the primaries," said Barry Wanser, Palou's strategist. "That was the goal and it worked out. But generally we were all nervous about the restart. The Honda horsepower came through."

"Incredible honestly," Palou said. "I'm so happy. I knew we had the great car. It's one of those tracks that we've been struggling in the past. I know last year we were second, but we kind of got very lucky with a yellow there."

While he's been the favorite since the outset of the season and has a comfortable edge in the standings, Palou is not dismissing the title hunt as over. 

"I know it's going to be a tough fight till the end," Palou said. "But yeah, we're ready for it. I think we've done obviously the best we could this weekend. I'm very happy we got a win here at a place that probably we didn't expect coming into it."

The IndyCar series will take two weeks off before returning at Portland International Raceway on Aug. 9. Palou is a two-time winner at Portland and most recently won at the Oregon road course in 2023, where he clinched his second title. 

If Palou can close out the championship this season, he'd do so for the fifth time in his career and for a fourth straight season. 

Quotes provided by IndyCar Media.