Alex Palou has secured this year’s NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship, giving the driver of the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda three consecutive season titles – four overall – and earning team owner Chip Ganassi his 17th owner’s crown.
But the fun is far from over. Two races remain, both on oval tracks.
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First up is Sunday’s Snap-on Milwaukee Mile 250 at the Milwaukee Mile. Palou will seek his first race win on the historic 1-mile oval at Wisconsin State Fair Park, and nearly every other driver in the 27-car field has a box left to check.
- Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward (No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet) will try to lock up a career-best second-place standing in the season rankings.
- Christian Lundgaard (No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet) is hoping to give Arrow McLaren two drivers in the top three in the points.
- Lundgaard is one of many drivers trying to win a series oval race for the first time.
- Like Lundgaard, many other drivers are looking to end the year on a winning note.
Between this race and the season-ending Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix Presented by Willscot set for Sunday, Aug. 31 at Nashville Superspeedway, there is much to achieve.
Tight Rookie of the Year Battle
Drivers only get one chance at winning the series’ coveted first-year award, and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Louis Foster (No. 45 Droplight Honda) and PREMA Racing’s Robert Shwartzman (No. 83 PREMA Racing Chevrolet) are making the most of their opportunities.
Foster leads the surprising pole winner of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge by six points heading to the final two races. Their duel is on pace to finish as the most evenly contested rookie race of the past decade. In 2019, Felix Rosenqvist edged Colton Herta by five points. In 2022, Lundgaard beat David Malukas by 18 points.
Shwartzman has produced the better season on oval tracks. In addition to being the fastest qualifier at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, he finished ninth in the second race at Iowa Speedway and came home 10th at World Wide Technology Raceway. Foster’s best oval finish is 12th at Indy.
Dixon Has More History at Stake
Scott Dixon (photo, above), the driver of the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, is one of four drivers in this field with a race win in Milwaukee – he won the 2009 race – and he has three race wins at Nashville Superspeedway. Dixon’s next win pushes his career total to 60, joining A.J. Foyt (67) as the only series drivers in that category.
Dixon enters the final two races third in the point standings. Trailing him by 13 points is Lundgaard. Dixon is aiming for a record 15th top-three points finish in his 25th season. Milwaukee and Nashville are two of his better tracks. He finished 10th and second in last year’s Milwaukee doubleheader; he has the most wins by any series driver at Nashville – three.
Team Penske’s Will Power (2014), O’Ward (Race 1 last year) and Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin (Race 2 last year) are the other former Milwaukee race winners in this field.
All Eyes on Power, Team Penske
The future of Power (photo, above), a two-time series champion who is in the final year of his contract with Team Penske, remains one of the more interesting items to be determined.
Power, the driver of the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, first joined Roger Penske’s organization as a short-term stand-in for Helio Castroneves during the Brazilian’s 2009 tax case. Power finished sixth in the season-opening race in St. Petersburg, then won the pole and finished second at Long Beach as Castroneves returned. Power was given four more races with the team that season, and he finished in the top 10 of each of them, highlighted by a win from the pole in Edmonton.
Power has stacked considerable success along the way. His win at the season’s most-recent race, at Portland International Raceway, pushed his career total to 45, which ranks fourth behind Foyt (67), Dixon (59) and Mario Andretti (52). The pole Power won in June at World Wide Technology Raceway extended his series record to 71.
Milwaukee has been kind to Power. In addition to his win in 2014, he has finished second (last year in Race 1), third (2013), fourth (2011) and 10th (last year in Race 2) among seven series starts.
Herta Looking for No. 1 and No. 10
Colton Herta (photo, above) of Andretti Global w/Curb-Agajanian (No. 26 Gainbridge Honda) is one of three series drivers who won races last year but remain winless this year. The others are McLaughlin (No. 3 Sonsio Vehicle Protection Chevrolet) and fellow Team Penske driver Josef Newgarden (No. 2 Snap-on Team Penske Chevrolet).
In Milwaukee last year, Herta, McLaughlin and Power were the only drivers to lead both races. Herta’s combined total was 52 laps led, and he finished third in Race 2.
Herta will be the defending champion of the Nashville event. Last year’s win gave him nine wins for his career. O’Ward also has nine. Only 46 drivers in history have reached double figures, most recently Palou, who has upped his total to 19 with eight wins this season.
Palou’s Chance at History
With another season title in hand, Chip Ganassi Racing driver Palou (photo, above) can still tie Foyt’s record of 10 race wins in a season, a mark set in 1964 and matched by Al Unser in 1970. Andretti won nine races in 1969. Palou has eight so far this season.
Milwaukee wasn’t Palou’s best track a year ago. He finished fifth and 19th, qualifying only as high as 10th. He did not lead a lap in either race. In Nashville, he finished 11th after starting 24th.
One overlooked aspect of Palou’s incredible season is that he became the second-winningest driver in Chip Ganassi Racing history. Obviously, Dixon leads with 58 wins for the organization, but Palou now has 19. This season, he has passed Alex Zanardi (15), Dario Franchitti (13) and Juan Pablo Montoya (11). This weekend, Palou has a chance to become the first Indy winner to win Milwaukee in the same year since Montoya in 2000. Prior to Montoya, it was Al Unser Jr. in 1994 with Team Penske.
This weekend’s event begins with the first practice at 11 a.m. ET Saturday (FS1, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network). Qualifying for the NTT P1 Award is later that day at 2 p.m. ET, available on the same outlets.