Alex Palou rules out 'safe' approach in clinching IndyCar championship at Portland

The 2025 IndyCar championship leader, Alex Palou, is in no mood to play it 'safe' at the upcoming Round 14 of the season. He has declared that he is going to give his all in the attempt to keep his dominant run going and potentially win the championship in Portland.

The ongoing campaign is 13 rounds down, and Alex Palou is currently leading the drivers' standings with 590 points. In the process of doing so, he has even secured eight sublime Grand Prix wins, five pole positions, 11 top-fives, and 12 top-ten finishes. Moreover, his most recent victory came last week during the Java House Grand Prix of Monterey.

With Round 14, the Bitnile.com Grand Prix of Portland slated to take place next month on August 10th, Palou has asserted that he is not going to hold back. In an interaction with Motorsport, he said:

"Honestly, I think the best way to win the championship is by winning the race in Portland. If we start looking at others, we might get ourselves into trouble. Instead of playing it safe, we’d probably end up doing the opposite and give them more of a chance to come at us. So I think what we need to do is perform at our best. Obviously, we haven’t spoken with the team yet—we need to see where we start, and that makes a big difference. But I believe the best and safest option is to try to win the race and the championship."

Alex Palou is currently leading the 2025 IndyCar championship by a margin of 121 points over second-placed Pato O'Ward (Arrow McLaren racing driver). Palou's Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon is in P3.

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Alex Palou urges Chip Ganassi Racing to 'keep its head down'

While Alex Palou wants to win the upcoming Grand Prix in Portland, he wants himself and his Chip Ganassi Racing team to keep working hard until the end of the season and win as many races as possible.

Last year, Palou was only able to secure two Grand Prix wins on his way to the IndyCar Championship. However, in the ongoing campaign, he has already put on board eight (as mentioned earlier), and could add at least three more by the end of the final race, Round 17.

In line with this, he has further added the following (via Motorsport):

"Honestly, I wouldn’t trade our points for anybody. I wouldn’t trade our position. I wouldn’t ask for anything more—or anything less. But yeah, it’s not done until it’s done. We still need to win it. We still need to keep our heads down and try to win more races."

Alex Palou is a three-time IndyCar Champion and is on his way to adding a fourth title. Considering everything that has been discussed, all eyes will be on him in his #10 Chip Ganassi racing car during next month's race in Portland.