Will Power’s record 71 IndyCar poles set the qualifying benchmark, while Foyt, Andretti, Palou and Newgarden offer different measures of greatness.
Will Power holds one of IndyCar’s strongest claims to all-time supremacy with 71 pole positions. He surpassed Mario Andretti in 2022 to claim outright a record that tracks speed through different cars, formats and competitive eras.
That total makes for a more precise historical case than any broad driver ranking. Power has turned his qualifying pace into 45 victories, while A. J. Foyt remains the championship’s career leader with 67. The 22-win difference explains how the greatest qualifier and greatest race winner can be two different drivers.
Power pulled clear of Andretti
Andretti recorded 52 victories in his career. The first came at Indianapolis Raceway Park on July 25, 1965, and his pole record stood until Power went ahead in 2022.
Power’s 71 poles warrant recognition as a distinct form of dominance. Pole totals measure outright qualifying performance more directly than championships, which rely on race execution throughout a full season.
His 45 wins also show that the speed carried into Sundays.
Foyt still leads the wins debate
Foyt’s 67 victories remain the all-time standard. He scored his first at DuQuoin on September 5, 1960, five years before Andretti earned his breakthrough win.
Power therefore sits 22 wins behind Foyt and seven behind Andretti. A ranking based solely on victories produces a different order than one built around qualifying results.
Comparisons across eras need context. IndyCar’s statistical lineage includes AAA, USAC, CART, Champ Car, IRL and the current INDYCAR era, and the historical record stretches back to 1946. Cars and calendars changed considerably, but the official archive counts those championships as one continuous statistical history.
Palou has the modern title case
Alex Palou’s record offers a different measure of greatness. His listed career figures through early September 2026 are 116 starts, 25 wins, 20 poles and 2,402 laps led.
Palou has also collected 69 top-five finishes and 88 top-10 results.
Those numbers translate to top-five and top-10 rates of approximately 59 percent and 76 percent, respectively. They reflect sustained execution across race weekends rather than a career shaped chiefly by pole accumulation.
The supplied record credits Palou with five championships and names 2021, 2023, 2024 and 2025 as title seasons, but that internal discrepancy blocks a clean year-by-year account of the fifth crown. Victory in the 109th Indianapolis 500 gives him another major credential.
Newgarden provides another comparison
Josef Newgarden has 34 victories, two championships and two Indianapolis 500 wins. He is 11 career victories behind Power, but his two Indianapolis 500 triumphs put him one ahead of Palou’s total of one.
Newgarden’s case strengthens if the Indianapolis 500 carries greater weight. Power has more overall wins and holds the pole record. Newgarden, meanwhile, can point to two victories at Indianapolis in his major-race case.
One record and one specific crown
No individual statistic decides an all-time ranking. Foyt tops the victory list with 67, Palou has the strongest current title profile in the supplied figures, while Newgarden pairs 34 wins with two Indianapolis 500 victories.
Power’s place in qualifying history is clearer.
The next driver to reach 72 poles will claim the record outright. Until that happens, Power is IndyCar’s statistical benchmark for qualifying speed.
