Alex Palou heads to World Wide Technology Raceway this weekend with a commanding grip on the NTT IndyCar Series title race, and history firmly in his sights.
The Chip Ganassi Racing star arrives at the Gateway oval near St Louis 62 points clear at the top of the standings, chasing a fifth IndyCar championship and a fourth title in succession. The Bommarito Automotive Group 500, the ninth round of the season and the third of six ovals on the 2026 calendar, runs under the lights on Sunday night.
Palou's latest win came on the streets of Detroit, where he survived a chaotic, caution-strewn race to claim his fourth victory of 2026 and move into the top 20 on IndyCar's all-time wins list. As ever, he credited the strategy of his Ganassi crew rather than heroics behind the wheel.
"It just feels incredible," Palou said after the Detroit win. "Honestly, it was a tough one, very tough one. But the team did an incredible job once again with the strategy."
He was even more effusive about the call that vaulted him forward late in the race. "I have an amazing group around me that whenever I struggle with the car, they can fix it for me," he said. "The team alone, they put me from fourth to first, and that was just with a strategy call."
It is also a happy hunting ground for one of Palou's chief rivals. Kyle Kirkwood returns as the defending Bommarito 500 winner, having scored his maiden oval victory at the track, and Andretti Global will fancy their chances of halting the Spaniard's relentless march.
David Malukas, a strong oval runner, looms as another threat among the title contenders hoping to claw back ground before the championship swings to back-to-back road courses, beginning at Road America.
For Palou, the maths are simple: keep delivering results like Detroit and the title becomes a formality. But ovals breed unpredictability, and a single mistake at Gateway can erase a comfortable points buffer in a heartbeat. The chasing pack will be desperate to make Sunday night the moment the momentum finally shifts.
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