We'll save the dramatics this week. Freshly crowned INDYCAR champion and now four-time title winner Alex Palou is No. 1 in the rankings now and for the foreseeable future.

Bellingham, Wash. friends Ken Adelstein and Matt Benoit have attended each race since IndyCar added Portland to the schedule in 2018. As they sat in the shade of their SUV behind grandstand K, they talked about how they “follow it all year long,” Adelstein said, of IndyCar.

Will Power may have won the battle in Sunday's IndyCar series race at Portland International Raceway, but Alex Palou unmistakably captured the war.