“I like it”: Alex Palou gives his honest take on Pato O’Ward competition 

The 2025 IndyCar championship was considered by many to be mundane with Alex Palou having a dominant lead at the top, but Pato O'Ward is seemingly mounting a late championship charge. While the Mexican's recent form might be intimidating, the reigning champion is not scared of his rival for the title, as he revealed that he likes the challenge of fighting for the drivers' crown.

Palou began the 2025 season with a win at the season opener in St. Petersburg. Moreover, this set the precedent for the races to come, as the Spaniard won four of the next five races, including the elusive Indy 500.

He then mustered a massive 129-point lead after his race win at the second race in Iowa. But the pursuit for the title is not over for the CGR driver, as Arrow McLaren's O'Ward made a 30-point dent in the following race.

Though this gap edged back to 99 points after the qualifying for the race at Laguna Seca, Palou revealed how having the thrill of fighting for the title with Pato O'Ward made it more enticing.

"It's better to have your closest competitor close. You want to be on the same kind of strategy. When you have somebody starting, like 17th, it might look good on paper. But then suddenly, they do a crazy strategy and they cycle to the front and you have no chance to fight for it on track... It's for sure making it more challenging and more interesting for everybody. I like it. Honestly, I like it," Palou said in the post-qualifying press conference.

Palou and O'Ward have started the IndyCar Monterey Grand Prix on the front row.

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Alex Palou earns praise from Pato O'Ward for his qualifying excellence

Alex Palou won the NTT P1 award for the NTT INDYCAR Series Java House Grand Prix of Monterey - Source: Getty

A myriad of drivers have taken pole position in the 2025 season, but no driver has performed the way that Alex Palou has. Only he and Colton Herta have secured multiple NTT P1 awards this season, a trend that continued at Laguna Seca.

The triple champion clinched the front seat for the 95-lap race with a massive 0.287-second advantage. Despite being dejected from his front row start, Pato O'Ward shared how it was an improvement for him to qualify alongside Palou for the race, as he said in the post-qualifying press conference:

"Much rather be next to each other than not, so usually if you're next to him, it means that you've been qualifying well because he seems to be the master this year at that, and we seem to be a little bit more of a stranger to the Fast Six."

Meanwhile, if Alex Palou wins the race at Laguna Seca, he will add a minimum of 51 points (including a single bonus point for leading a lap) to his already impressive aggregate of 536 points.