The Java House Grand Prix of Monterey at Laguna Seca was a true IndyCar masterclass from Alex Palou. The championship leader took pole position, the win, set the fastest lap, and led every lap but eleven. If he loses fewer than fourteen points to Pato O’Ward in Portland, the 2025 IndyCar title will already be his! What else stood out during the race weekend at Laguna Seca? We break down the race weekend by the numbers!

191 - Because race control waited so long to call a caution, Rinus VeeKay lost a whopping 3 minutes and 11 seconds (191 seconds) after being hit by Kyle Kirkwood before he could rejoin the race!

113 - There were 113 on-track passes for position during the race. That’s a lot fewer than last year, when there were 537.

19 - Alex Palou’s win at Laguna Seca marks his 19th career IndyCar victory. That moves him into a tie for 23rd place on the all-time wins list, alongside Sam Hornish Jr. and Jimmy Bryan.

18 - Callum Ilott earned the award for most positions gained on Sunday. The Brit started 24th and finished sixth — a gain of 18 places!

17 - Louis Foster was the highest-finishing rookie in 17th place. He likely won’t be satisfied with that result, though, as he started the race in ninth. Still, this is a common trend for the rookie. One positive: he now leads the Rookie of the Year standings by four points over Robert Shwartzman.

13 - With his win at Laguna Seca, Alex Palou now leads the championship by 121 points over Pato O'Ward. O'Ward is the only driver who still has a theoretical shot at the title. To stay in contention after Portland, O'Ward must outscore Palou by at least 14 points. If Palou’s lead is 108 points or more after Portland, he is automatically champion.

12 - It was a disastrous weekend for Dale Coyne Racing: Jacob Abel went off track after ten laps with what appeared to be brake issues and retired, while Rinus VeeKay was hit by Kyle Kirkwood and finished 24th, three laps down. Combined, the two drivers scored only 12 points — just two more than the absolute minimum you can score with two cars.

11 - The eleven laps Nolan Siegel led at Laguna Seca were his first laps led this season. Last year, the young American led a few IndyCar laps (eight) for the first time at WWT Raceway.

9 - Alex Palou was dominant in every aspect at Laguna Seca. Along with pole and the win, he also set the fastest lap: 1:10.7851. Remarkably, he did this in just the ninth lap during his only stint on a fresh set of red tires.

8 - This was Palou’s eighth win of the season. That still gives him a shot at tying or beating the single-season record of 10 wins, held by AJ Foyt (1964) and Al Unser (1970).

6 - After a very difficult first half of the season, Callum Ilott is starting to find his speed. That wasn’t apparent in qualifying, but in the race he made an early stop after twelve laps and finished sixth thanks to an alternative strategy! Not only is this his best result of the season, it’s also the best-ever IndyCar finish for Prema!

6 - Team Penske finally showed strong qualifying pace on a permanent road course: Josef Newgarden and Will Power qualified fourth and fifth. The race didn’t go as hoped, though: Newgarden dropped from fourth to eleventh, and Power from fifth to seventh. Only Scott McLaughlin gained positions, climbing from 13th to 10th. In total, the three Penskes lost six positions.

6 - Marcus Ericsson’s nightmare season continued at Laguna Seca. For the sixth time this season, the Swede finished outside the top 20. He seemed headed for 13th when a skid plate broke and got stuck under the car, sending him off track and into a spin. He ultimately finished 25th and now sits 20th in the championship.

5 - This was Alex Palou’s fifth win this season on a permanent road course — out of just six such races run so far. Not a bad sign ahead of Portland, the final road course on the calendar.

4 - Laguna Seca is a strong track for Chip Ganassi Racing. Of course, the team is famously remembered for its 1996 win, when Alex Zanardi made his famous “The Move” on Bryan Herta in the Corkscrew on the final lap. The team has now won the last four IndyCar races at Laguna Seca — three with Alex Palou and one with Scott Dixon.

3 - Christian Rasmussen finished ninth at Laguna Seca — his third top-ten finish in four races! He’s now outperforming teammate Alexander Rossi, who was brought in as the team leader and overshadowed Rasmussen earlier in the season, but now trails him by 25 championship points.

3 - The winning pit strategy was clearly a three-stop strategy — the entire top twelve only pitted three times. The highest finisher with a four-stop strategy was David Malukas in 13th.

2 - Race control had a quiet day at Laguna Seca: only two penalties were issued, both to the same driver. Kyle Kirkwood received a stop-and-go penalty for the incident with Rinus VeeKay and later had to drop two positions for improperly merging under caution.

2 - The race at Laguna Seca saw only two different leaders: Alex Palou (84 laps) and Nolan Siegel (11 laps).

2 - Contrary to expectations, the red, softer compound was the preferred tire during the race at Laguna Seca. Only two drivers ran multiple stints on the black, harder tire: Robert Shwartzman and Felix Rosenqvist. Though in both cases, their shortest stints on the blacks lasted no more than two laps, so calling them full stints is debatable.

1 - With Siegel having now led his first laps of the season, there is only one driver left who hasn’t led a single lap: Jacob Abel.

0.6166 - With the fastest race lap, Alex Palou stood head and shoulders above the rest. His 1:10.7851 was 0.6166 seconds faster than the next best lap, set by Felix Rosenqvist.