Halfway done. Another year is halfway done. Summer is here. It has been a scorcher across most of the United States. Some relief is on the way. Before we know it, we will be wishing for a little extra warmth.
For this moment, we are in the heart of the season. Every series is competing. Most are around halfway through. Some are just beyond that point. There is plenty of racing to keep as busy, but it will soon be dwindling as 2025 slowly comes to an end.
IndyCar Tidbits
We are beyond the halfway point in the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season. Nine races down, eight races to go, and this has been a stunning season to say the least. We are on the verge of July and only two drivers have won a race. For the better part of two decades, we knew an IndyCar season would not fully play out until the final rounds. This year, we have already come to terms with who will be champion.
We might not see a historic title fight in 2025, but the door is open for plenty of history, and records being matched that we have not seen in decades. The drama might not be a battle for the ages but it could be something most have never seen in the IndyCar series.
We will cover the history as the season moves on. There have been a few pieces of history and milestones that have already happened through the first half of the season. It will not surprise you that a certain driver was involved.
Fastest to 50 Career Top Ten Finishes
Regardless of what else is accomplished this season, 2025 will be remembered as the season of Álex Palou.
Through nine races, he has won six times. Palou has a 93-point lead in the championship. A third consecutive title is inevitable at this point. It would also be the fourth in his career, and it would make him the sixth member of that club. There is still time for it to go wrong, but there is no reason to believe after the first nine races it will flip upside down in the final eight races.
Championship aside, Palou is already joining special clubs. Moving away from victories for a second, though he has 17 now in his career, the same total as Danny Sullivan, Jimmy Murphy and Tony Kanaan, only one fewer than Ryan Hunter-Reay, and two behind Sam Hornish, Jr. and Jimmy Bryan, Palou hit a milestone at Road America that might not appear to be that significant.
With his victory in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, Palou reached 50 career top five finishes. It was his 90th start. Only 33 other drivers have hit the half-century mark in top five results. It isn't the most exclusive club, but it is not a long list either when you consider the century-plus history of American open-wheel racing's highest division.
Fifty-in-90 is a breathtaking batting average. Each race Palou has better than 50% odds he will finish in the top five. A great day is a high probability for the Catalan driver every time he gets into the race car.
Not many drivers could have had the same hit rate as Palou through 90 races. That begs the question, "What is the fastest a driver has reach 50 career top ten finishes?"
And I know what you might be thinking, but the answer is not Álex Palou, though he is up there.
Palou became one of six drivers to reach 50 top five finishes within his first 90 starts with his most recent victory.
The fastest?
The Split made some of these facts easy because it is Sébastien Bourdais. Bourdais reached 50 top five finishes in 71 career starts. That was at Circuit Zolder in Belgium on August 26, 2007. Bourdais would make three more starts in his Champ Car career before leaving after the 2007 season. In 74 starts over those first five seasons, he only had 15 results outside the top ten, eight of those were in his rookie season in 2003.
Many drivers benefitted in the record book thanks to The Split. Really every driver did. If there had been one series the entire time, no one has the same totals they currently have. That goes for Bourdais, Kanaan, Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti, Paul Tracy, Sam Hornish, Jr. and everyone else.
We cannot hold that against Bourdais. He is the fastest to 50 top five finishes. He broke Rick Mears' record to get there. Mears hit 50 in his 76th start. Then comes Mario Andretti, who hit 50 in his 81st start, A.J. Foyt's 50th was in his 85th start, and Dan Wheldon had 50 top five finishes in his first 88 starts. Then add Palou.
That's it. That's the list.
If you want to knock it up to 50 top five finishes within a driver's first 100 starts, you add Hornish, Jr. (92 starts) and Bobby Rahal (94 starts). That is still only eight members.
When it comes to drivers who began their career after reunification, Josef Newgarden is the only other one to have reached 50 career top five finishes, and it took Newgarden 143 starts to get there. If you want to chuck Simon Pagenaud in there, who only compete in one season during The Split, the final Champ Car season in 2007, it still took Pagenaud 115 starts to reach 50 top five finishes. That is just over an extra season and a third compared to Palou.
It is not easy to hit this milestone in such a quick period of time. Palou is magnificent.
Kirkwood Rules The Streets
Back in April, we touched up Kyle Kirkwood's street course trend. With his victory at Long Beach, he became the fourth driver in IndyCar history to have his first three career victories come in street races. At the start of June, Kirkwood made it four street course victories in his first four career victories when he was first in Detroit.
That made Kirkwood the third driver to do such a thing. Will Power was the first to do it as Power's first six victories were street races, though the temporary circuit at Edmonton City Centre Airport is included in that. Technically not city streets but recognized as a street course. Mike Conway was the other driver to achieve such an accomplishment. Conway's four career victories all came on street courses, and they were all proper street courses.
Unfortunately, Kirkwood's run at Power's accomplishment ended when Kirkwood won at Gateway, his first career oval victory, and fifth in his career. He has a place in the history book, but just not the largest section of peculiar facts in IndyCar history. I still think he has a few more street course victories in his over the remainder of his career.
The Swedes
Marcus Ericsson and Felix Rosenqvist both made history in June, and you probably didn't even notice it. To be fair, no one really mentioned it. I am not sure anyone else was keeping track.
We do know about the milestone both drivers reached. In the span of two races, they each made their 100th start. Ericsson hit the century mark at Long Beach. Rosenqvist followed at Barber Motorsports Park. That's not the history I am talking about. They each did something that you probably would not have guessed.
Entering this season, the most experienced Swede in IndyCar roster was Kenny Bräck. Bräck had made 104 starts from his first start on March 23, 1997 at Phoenix to his final start on May 29, 2005 in the 89th Indianapolis 500.
Ericsson became the most experienced Swede at Gateway. Rosenqvist moved ahead of Bräck into second at Road America.
It is a small thing, but it does capture a bit of IndyCar's place in the motorsports world in the 2020s. While we had Bräck, and Stefan Johansson was also a regular in the 1990s, there wasn't a Swedish pipeline of drivers to the United States. Sweden had a bit of a lull across the board in open-wheel racing until the arrival of Ericsson in GP2, which led to Formula One.
Bräck and Johnasson were the Swedes many IndyCar fans would have recognized, but then there was nearly a 15-year gap until another competed in the series. There is a cyclical nature to driver origins. For a while, Frenchman were common on the IndyCar grid. Now, there are none. We have seen fewer British drivers in recent years. I was stunned to find out Louis Foster's pole position at Road America was the first for a British driver in IndyCar since Dario Franchitti in 2013. Could it really have been that long? That feels like yesterday.
For basically the entire 1990s and 2000s, Brazilians were as common, if not more common than American drivers on the grid. In 2025, the only Brazilian to race in IndyCar was Hélio Castroneves at the Indianapolis 500. The most recent Brazilian to debut in IndyCar was Pietro Fittipaldi at Phoenix in 2018. Matheus Leist debuted the race prior to that at St. Petersburg.
At one point, it looked like Brazilians would also be frequent in IndyCar. Now, they are not here. We see two Danes on the grid, and prior to 2021, there had only been two Danes to ever compete in an IndyCar race. A Spaniard is leading the championship, but there have only been four Spaniards to ever start an IndyCar race. Scott Dixon was the only New Zealander for the longest time, and now we have three. Canadians have not been common on the grid and we have gone multiple seasons in recent years without a full-time Canadian driver. Mexican drivers had been lacking for over a decade before Patricio O'Ward came around. There is no full-time Japanese driver, and for almost 30 years Honda made sure it had a Japanese driver competing in the series. A decade ago, there were five Colombians in IndyCar. Now, there are none.
One hundred starts is quite a bit. You have made a presence in IndyCar if you have been around for 100 starts. There is no sign that Ericsson and Rosenqvist will be going anywhere anytime soon, but we must keep in mind that someday they will be gone, and so might be this Swedish contingent that has embraced IndyCar and also had a respectable following in their home country, something we do not see from other international countries.
Cherish it now because we do not know if it will continue.
No Repeat Finishes
An oldie, but a goodie.
Dating back a few seasons ago, I have noted which drivers have not had a repeat finish through certain points in a season.
Three seasons ago, Alexander Rossi became the first driver since Eddie Cheever in the 2001 Indy Racing League to not have a repeat finish over an entire season. Rossi went 17-for-17. The last two seasons have seen the longest streak without a repeat finish hit 13 races. Graham Rahal did it in 2023 and Felix Rosenqvist did it last year.
Where are we through nine races in the 2025?
Scott Dixon (Second, tenth, eighth, 12th, fifth, 20th, 11th, fourth, ninth)
David Malukas (13th, 18th, 17th, 16th, 23rd, second, 14th, 12th, seventh)
That's it! That's the list! Only two drivers remain. That isn't crazy. Through nine races last year, only three drivers had yet to have a repeat finish, and in that ninth race itself, four drivers had their first repeat finish occur.
In recent races, many drivers have had their first repeat finish.
Santino Ferrucci was fifth in Indianapolis and fifth two races later at Gateway. Josef Newgarden has finished 25th in the last two races. Marcus Ericsson was 13th in consecutive races over Detroit and Gateway. Even if you throw Jacob Abel in, who failed to qualify for the Indianapolis 500, Abel had his first repeat finish of the season at Road America, where was 23rd after previously finishing 23rd at St. Petersburg.
Who is more likely to have their streak go the longest?
Dixon has three of the top five spots covered, as well as six of the top ten. That is not a lot of room left for the remaining eight races. You expect Dixon to finish in the top ten regularly. He could win, but he could be second again. He could have a good day and finish third, or he could lose a spot in the final pit cycle and suddenly be fourth for the second time this season.
Malukas is a bit of a wild card. He has eight top ten finishing positions remaining. He could click off a few more of those, but over the final eight races he will likely have four or five finishes outside of the top ten. That is a pretty wide net. That could be on the verge of the top ten, or those could be dreadful days where he is never a factor. The problem is Malukas has six spots between 11th and 20th already covered.
I am leaning toward Malukas because he could practically finish 19th, eighth, sixth, 22nd, 15th, 11th, ninth and 25th over the final eight races and that would be 17 different positions in 17 races. He could do well on the ovals or he could overstep and a poor day would check off one of the final positions in the box score.
The last time we didn't have a driver open a season with at least ten different finishing positions was in 2019 when Marcus Ericsson opened with nine different. Every season since reunification has seen at least one driver open with at least nine different finishing positions.
Caution Finishes
You might not have realized something at the end of the Indianapolis 500. Álex Palou came off of turn four and within the final few hundred yards of the finish line, lights flashed, Nolan Siegel was in the turn two wall, and the caution flag was waving. You probably did see that, but you probably did not realize what that caution also ended.
The race was effectively over at that point. Marcus Ericsson wasn't going to make a run on Palou and beat him in a drag race to the yard of bricks, but this year's Indianapolis 500 was the first race to end under caution since Texas 2023, over two years prior. IndyCar had gone 37 consecutive races with a green flag finish prior to this year's Indianapolis 500.
Since reunification, that was the most consecutive races without a finish under caution. Prior to that, the longest streak was 23 races, beginning with the first Mid-Ohio race in 2020 and going through the 2022 Texas race.
There have been 294 races since reunification. Of those 294 races, 35 have finished under caution. That is 11.904%. Eight of those races have been weather-related, whether it be the race being called under red flag conditions or the race finishing under caution while reaching a time limit. Twelve of those 35 races had the caution come out on the final lap of the race.
That doesn't seem so bad.
Earliest Title Deciders
It is early to think about the championship, but it is on all of our minds. Álex Palou will be the 2025 IndyCar champion. When will he be the 2025 IndyCar champion? We are all expecting for the second time in three seasons the title to be clinched early. This is something we are not used to after having 16 consecutive years with at least one championship going to the finale unclaimed. The question becomes, "How early could Palou clinch?"
Up 93 points with eight races remaining, Palou is 16 points away from passing the threshold needed to clinch the title with two races to spare. On average, Palou's championship lead over second has increased by 10.375 after each race. At that rate, Palou would still only clinch the championship with two races in hand. With three races to go, Palou's lead would be around 145 points. With 54 points on the table for each race, 162 points would still be out there. However, Palou would be in a position where he would not need much to clinch the championship.
For some of you, this is the end of the world. How will anyone watch IndyCar if the championship is decided with two races to go?
Well, we had nearly two decades of championships going to the wire and all those title fights didn't really bring the masses to the racetrack or in front of their television screens to see the drama. I think IndyCar will be fine either way. This will just be one of those seasons that stand out, and it has been a long time since a championship was clinched with multiple races remaining.
The last time was the 2002 CART season. Cristiano da Matta claimed the title with three races remaining.
That is pretty early, but it is not the earliest.
Since 1946, a total of 44 out of 93 seasons have seen the championship clinched with races to spare. In 23 of those season, the championship was sealed with multiple races remaining. On six occasions has the championship been clinched with at last four races remaining, but the earliest a championship has been clinched was with five races in hand, and that happened in consecutive seasons.
In 1969, Mario Andretti clinched the championship with his victory at Trenton on September 21, 1969. There were five races after that, and Andretti would win two of them.
The following season, Al Unser clinched the championship with his victory at DuQuoin on September 7, 1970. DuQuoin was the first in a five-race winning streak for Unser, and that winning streak was snapped when he was second in the season finale at Phoenix behind Swede Savage.
The other seasons where the title was over with at least four races remaining were Jimmy Bryan in 1954, A.J. Foyt in 1964, A.J. Foyt in 1975 and Alex Zanardi in 1998.
Álex Palou has some work to do if he wants the title decided that early. Clinching with three races in hand seems like a stretch, but clinching with two looks pretty practical with eight races left\t.
July Preview
The first NASCAR race of the month will be the Chicago street course, and considering this will likely be the final edition of the race, I think it deserves to be recognized for being a respectable track while also being a significant achievement.
NASCAR shut down Grant Park, right in the heart of the city. It didn't run around some parking lot on the outskirts of the city. It took a significant area and put on a race, and the track is pretty good. It is a bit of a shame that in two years we have not seen a completely dry race that was allowed to reach the scheduled distance. It is also a shame that this is a part of NASCAR's plan to be a limited time only with some of these events.
I don't know how practical Chicago's Grant Park could be as a permanent NASCAR Cup Series venue, but it would not be a bad thing if NASCAR made a commitment that one of these street race events will stick around for years to go. There is a chance Chicago's exit will see the return of Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois, but that is an hour outside the city.
San Diego appears to be the next destination for NASCAR's street race, though that still must be confirmed. Street races do not have a long shelf life to begin with, but if NASCAR has one that works, it should not be afraid to stick it out and make it own. If it keeps jumping around, it will run the risk running out of cities sooner rather than later.
Let's hope Grant Park gets a deserving send out, one full of sun.
Other Events of Note in July:
NASCAR will conclude its in-season tournament with races at Sonoma, Dover and the Brickyard 400.
Formula One has two historic venues, Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps.
Formula E ends its season with a pair of doubleheaders at familiar venues, Berlin and London.
MotoGP has a round in Germany and the Czech Republic, and then it is on summer break for a month.
