The IndyCar championship decider didn’t quite end up as everyone had hoped it would, with Will Power falling laps behind the lead very early on.
The Aussie suffered from a seatbelt problem which forced him to stop for a while – sending him five laps behind the leaders at the Music City Grand Prix.
From there, Alex Palou was able to coast home to a third IndyCar drivers’ title in four seasons – the youngest man to ever achieve the feat.
The return to Nashville’s Superspeedway oval circuit ended anti-climatically, but the racing throughout was still exciting from lap one, right through 206.
IndyCar finale ‘not the way’ Alex Palou wanted to win crown
Colton Herta claimed his first win after a tricky spell towards the end of the race on strategy – finally ending his wait for top-step silverware.
Palou’s consistency across all tracks is what won him the title this season, with six other drivers having taken the same number or more wins than him.
Speaking to Motorsport.com after the race, he revealed that seeing Power forced to be a few laps wasn’t how he wanted things to go.
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“Everything was working right,” he said. “Up to 15th or 16th, something like that, which was already a good step. Then I saw the 12 going into pit lane. At first I was like, ‘Oh, what strategy are they going to pull off?’
“Unfortunately that’s not the way obviously you want your biggest competitor to go down on the season finale.
“At the same time that’s what happened to us two weeks ago, so… Yeah, it’s racing. It’s motorsport. That’s what makes this sport so hard.”
Palou breaks records for fun
Palou has just become the first man in over a decade of IndyCar action to win a back-to-back title since Dario Franchitti managed it in 2010 and 2011.
At this stage in his career, his name has already been thrown into the conversation of the sport’s greats at an incredibly young age.
It’s sort of akin to Max Verstappen’s unprecedented dominance in Formula 1, which has all happened at relatively early on in his career.
Palou might yet field calls from Formula 1 teams over the coming years, with his undoubted consistency a showing of how dependable and quick he can be.
First, he will want to sit back and enjoy securing another crown for Chip Ganassi Racing, with whom he returns next year to defend his silverware.