Today’s question: Alex Palou has won the last two NTT INDYCAR SERIES races this season, increasing his 2026 total to six. How many races will the four-time series champion win this season?

Curt Cavin: I’d say Palou (photo, top) can win as many as he cares to, if you can follow this logic. He enters this weekend’s Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Markham with a 110-point lead, which is more than can be erased in two events. Remember, there’s only five races left in the season, so he’s a heavy, heavy favorite to secure a fourth consecutive series title. He and Kyle Kirkwood will be the co-favorites for these new street races in Markham and Washington, D.C., and I think Palou will win one of them. He will be the prohibitive favorite at the season-ending race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, where he has won three of the past four races, so by my count he should finish with at least eight wins. The key will be how badly does he want to hang it out to win one of the oval races in Milwaukee. I say he snags one of them, which will get him a career-high nine for the season. But eight is more realistic.

Eric Smith: I’m predicting a second consecutive eight-win season for Alex Palou. He has won three of the four street races this season, including the last two, which leads me to believe he’ll capture one of the two inaugural street races at Markham or Washington, D.C. I’ll take Kyle Kirkwood to win the other. I believe Palou clinches the championship at Milwaukee, but I don’t necessarily think he wins either race there. I expect Team Penske to win at least one of the doubleheader races, if not both. Palou’s focus will be on wrapping up the championship and a pair of top-five finishes should be enough to do that. Then it’s to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Palou has never finished worse than third in five starts on the California road course, where he owns a 1.6 average finish. I think he wins the season finale to reach eight victories.

A.J. Foyt

Arni Sribhen: I was talking with a few people after Sunday’s race in Portland and decided that if Alex Palou is going to win everything, then he should go ahead and win the rest of the races this season, so that’s what I want to happen. If it occurs, it would give Palou 11 wins, which would be the most in INDYCAR SERIES history and he’d match A.J. Foyt’s record of seven straight wins in 1964 (photo, above). He’s won two of the previous four debut races, so the street races at Markham and Washington, D.C., won’t be an issue and Palou’s personal playground is WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. The only question would be the doubleheader sweep in Milwaukee. But I have faith. So give me the domination and the history.

Mario Andretti

Paul Kelly: Eight wins for a second straight year for Palou, falling two short of tying the record of 10 set by A.J. Foyt in 1964 and Al Unser in 1970. Here’s my calculus. Palou will win one of the new street races over the next two weekends, in Markham and Washington, D.C. Let’s just say he wins Markham this weekend to give him three wins on the trot since mid-July and seven overall. Palou will enter the Milwaukee Mile weekend able to clinch his fifth overall and record-tying fourth straight series championship, so I think he and strategist Barry Wanser will play it safe and bring the car home in the top five in both races, enough to seal the title without a victory. That leaves WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, which is Palou’s playground with three wins in the last four years. The Spaniard will win at Laguna – the only question is by how much. That gives him eight wins for the year, joining Mario Andretti (photo, above) as the only driver in INDYCAR SERIES history to win eight or more races in consecutive seasons (1966, 67).