Alex Palou tops qualifying for the Freedom 250 in Washington, his 7th IndyCar pole of the season

WASHINGTON (AP) — Alex Palou is closing in on a fifth IndyCar championship — he could even clinch it this weekend in the nation's capital.

So far he's shown no signs of slowing down.

Palou won his seventh pole of the season Saturday, topping qualifying for Sunday's Freedom 250 Grand Prix. The 29-year-old from Barcelona leads the standings by 133 points with four races remaining. If that lead reaches 163 at the end of Sunday's race, he'd clinch the series title.

“I’m really thinking about the race more than the championship,” he said. “Obviously getting both at the same time would be incredible.”

Kyle Kirkwood had the fastest qualifying lap of 56.7729 seconds, but that was in the first round. Once qualifying was cut down to the final group of six, Palou’s time of 56.8993 beat Kirkwood by over a half-second.

Already with titles in 2021, 2023, 2024 and 2025, Palou has been dominant this year as well. He has six victories — nobody else has more than two. Nobody else has more than two poles, either.

If there's any consolation for the rest of the field, only two of Palou's half-dozen victories this season have come from the pole — and Sunday's 147-lap, 250-mile race offers plenty of time for drivers to make up ground.

“It’s going to be chaotic. It’s a street course. It’s new. It’s 250 miles. There’s huge bumps. Huge, huge. It’s going to be tough. It’s going to be chaos,” Palou said. “People seem to love it. It seems like the more chaos we have, people just love it.

“We’re going to bring some more chaos. Hopefully I’m not involved. Hopefully I can make it a bit boring.”

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