IndyCar: 3 hot takes (and 3 not-so-hot takes) after Gateway chaos

IndyCar's return to action after the four-week break due to NBC's coverage of the Summer Olympics in Paris, France was well worth the wait.

Saturday night's race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway was one of the series' most entertaining short oval races in years, and its drama and many storylines could very well carry over into the final four races on the 17-race 2024 schedule.

There was a lot more to take away from Saturday's 260-lap race around the four-turn, 1.25-mile (2.012-kilometer) Madison, Illinois oval than there was from an average IndyCar race, but let's not overreact to everything.

Here are three hot takes, along with three not-so-hot takes, from this past weekend.

Hot take: The championship is wide open

The Kansas City Chiefs repeated as Super Bowl champions, which hadn't happened since 2005. The UConn Huskies repeated as NCAA men's basketball champions, which hadn't happened since 2007. Josef Newgarden repeated as Indy 500 champion, which hadn't happened since 2002.

And despite IndyCar being viewed as the most competitive racing series in the world, Alex Palou appears to be well on his way to repeating as IndyCar champion, something that hasn't happened since Dario Franchitti won three titles in a row from 2009 to 2011 – also behind the wheel of the No. 10 Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing.

Colton Herta moved up to second place in the championship standings on Saturday night, placing the Andretti Global driver ahead of all three Team Penske drivers, but Palou was scored ahead of him at Gateway to open up a 59-point lead, which is more than can be made up in an individual race.

Yes, I know that there are three oval races remaining on the calendar, and all four drivers right behind Herta are all within 40 points of him and have had great success at such venues. But we'll get more into that later.

Never say never, but it's going to take a massive effort from someone and an extremely poor run of results for Palou for anybody to challenge the reigning series champion.

If Palou wins a third championship in four years as Scott Dixon's teammate, especially if he can do what hadn't been done since 2005 before last year and once again wrap it up before the season finale, he needs to be in the conversation as a top 10 driver of all-time.

Not-so-hot take: McLaren made a huge mistake

David Malukas is in position where he is set to join a team with a Team Penske affiliation next year, with his move to A.J. Foyt Enterprises possibly setting up an eventual move to Team Penske as Will Power's replacement when he retires.

McLaren can talk all they want about how they needed "stability" in what was supposed to be Malukas' car this year amid the uncertainty surrounding his wrist injury return timetable. But then they dropped its new full-time driver two races later.

There is no reason they could not keep Malukas around until he got healthy, and his success in just a handful of races with Meyer Shank Racing has proven just how huge of a mistake they made by letting him walk.

The 19-year-old Nolan Siegel proved he can run at the front as well, leading laps for the first time in his career on Saturday night after an exhilarating battle with Scott Dixon en route to a career-high seventh place finish despite a pit road speeding penalty, but losing Malukas and what he brings to the table is probably going to hurt.

Hot take: Will Power is washed up

Will Power had the car to beat on Saturday night, and after things didn't go his way, he reverted to peak 2011 Will Power form.

He supposedly threw a temper tantrum by "screaming" at David Malukas after literally wrecking Malukas out of the race by chopping across him in turn one, and he also appeared to tell NBC Sports reporter Dillon Welch to "F off".

He also properly commemorated the 13-year anniversary weekend of the infamous Loudon race by flipping off his own teammate in the pits, blaming Josef Newgarden for his restart crash when the data showed that the driver of the No. 2 Chevrolet did not actually do anything against the rules.

But bad races happen. There's a reason Power is still the top Team Penske driver in the championship standings, even after his teammates, who have combined to win three of the four oval races so far this year, finished 1-2, and he's still tied for the series lead in race wins this year after a winless season a year ago.

Not-so-hot take: Team Penske are unbeatable on ovals

Josef Newgarden literally spun out, and from the moment that happened, at no point did he run lower than fourth place the rest of the race, a race that saw only five lead lap finishers. Oh, and he won, leading a 1-2 Team Penske finish over Scott McLaughlin after beating McLaughlin out of the pits when the two were the only two on the lead lap.

What does that say about everybody else? Even if he had made slight contact with the wall, he probably would have finished on the podium.

Team Penske are four for four on ovals this year, and while Newgarden entered Iowa Speedway as a six-time winner at the track, the two-time reigning Indy 500 winner was ironically the only Team Penske driver who did not win at the track during this year's doubleheader last month. When it isn't one, it's another.

While Saturday's IndyCar oval race was as chaotic as any non-Indy 500 since last year's Texas Motor Speedway thriller (which was also won by Newgarden), the result itself was as predictable as a Formula 1 race result during Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes heyday.

The last two oval races not won by a Team Penske driver happened at Iowa in 2022, when Newgarden was well on his way to victory before a fluke shock failure, and Gateway in 2023, when Scott Dixon managed to save more fuel than I personally use in an average month.

That's what it takes to beat Team Penske on ovals.

Hot take: Alex Palou isn't good on ovals

I can't believe some people still buy this narrative. Alex Palou drug a fourth place finish out of a 10th place car on Saturday night and managed to extend his points lead, outscoring each of the other three drivers in the top four in the championship standings.

Just because he is a tier above the rest on road courses and isn't as dominant on ovals doesn't make him a slouch on tracks with exclusively left turns.

Until he actually wins an oval race, there are people who are going to act like he isn't a top-tier oval driver. Yet of the four drivers ahead of him in the oval standings, he has beaten everybody but Josef Newgarden at least twice in four oval races this year. His only non-top five finish in an oval race this year is a DNF at Iowa.

Let's not forget that Scott McLaughlin only won his first oval race last month, yet nobody ever doubted his oval prowess. In fact, he is the one who said that he didn't consider himself a proper IndyCar driver before winning on an oval. Now he is the oval championship leader.

Not-so-hot take: IndyCar officiating needs an overhaul

This is no longer an opinion; it's a fact. I understand that "Penske favoritism" is the go-to line when it comes to criticizing the officials online, but even if they are trying to consistently favor Team Penske at this point, they're doing a terrible job at it.

Consistency is only the officials' strong suit when it comes to being inconsistent. Colton Herta's post-race penalty was officially listed as "Blocking - Yield One Position", when he literally lost the very position he was blocking to protect. It would have made more sense just to write "dangerous driving" and offer no explanation whatsoever.

Yet Will Power got no penalty for slicing across the front of David Malukas and sending the driver who very well could have been on his way to his first win into the wall. Ironically, because he wasn't penalized, Power was taken out on the ensuing restart.

We've already talked a ton about IndyCar's selective timing when it comes to throwing caution flags, a level of incompetence that has not only resulted in totally manipulated race results on multiple occasions but also Santino Ferrucci being left on his lid in Toronto a few weeks ago.

And before we go down that rabbit hole, no, it's not just Penske, even though those instances are the ones that generate the most attention (as they probably should after the push-to-pass scandal in St. Petersburg, which is not going away). But in general, race control needs to start properly applying the rulebook.

IndyCar is set to be back in action this Sunday afternoon with the BitNile.com Grand Prix of Portland. USA Network is set to provide live coverage from Portland International Raceway beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET. Start a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss any of the action!