IndyCar: Disrespectful Alex Palou narrative is coming back to bite

Following Saturday night's long-awaited IndyCar race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, which brought an end to the four-week summer break due to NBC's coverage of the Summer Olympics in Paris, France, Chip Ganassi Racing's Alex Palou extended his championship lead.

In an oval race, where he was supposedly poised to lose ground to his top challengers, he extended his points lead to more than a full race weekend's worth of points, outscoring each of the three drivers from second to fourth place in the standings heading into the season's final four races.

At some point, the narrative that the 27-year-old Spaniard is not a good oval driver needs to stop, because it's coming back to bite his rivals.

On that note, I can't think of a single driver actually competing in IndyCar who would dare disrespect Palou's talent on ovals; the idea that he is not a factor in such races is more of a media-driven narrative than anything else.

Alex Palou 'no slouch' on ovals

He finished in second place in the 2021 Indy 500 winner behind a four-time winner in Helio Castroneves, he took the pole position in 2023 with what was then an all-time record speed, and he was the driver to beat in both 2022 and 2023 before issues in the pits knocked him back to 30th and he rallied to ninth and fourth, respectively.

Until he wins an oval race, however, there is this ongoing narrative that he is not a top-tier oval driver. Dragging a fourth place finish out of a 10th place car after starting 16th at Gateway proved, yet again, that you cannot bank on Palou to lose points on tracks with exclusively left turns.

The series has visited three ovals this year. Palou finished in fifth place in the Indy 500, second at Iowa Speedway, and fourth at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. He was on pace for another podium at Iowa before a bad pit stop mired him back in the pack and he ultimately crashed.

He still sits in fifth place in the oval standings and is just seven points out of the top three. Without that crash, he is closer to first than he is third.

Palou has outscored the driver second in the championship, Andretti Global's Colton Herta, by 25 points in oval races. He has outscored Will Power, Team Penske's top driver in the standings, by 18.

And of the four drivers ahead of him in the oval standings, Team Penske's Josef Newgarden is the only driver he hasn't beaten in more than one of the four oval races this year. That list also includes Team Penske's Scott McLaughlin, Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon, and Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward.

As James Hinchcliffe said over the weekend, Palou may not have an oval win, but he is certainly "no slouch" on ovals, having now recorded 15 top 10 finishes in the 18 oval races that have been contested since the start of the 2021 season, tied for the series lead with O'Ward.

He has podium finishes at every oval he's raced at except Gateway, where he just placed fourth. That list includes a Texas Motor Speedway track that is no longer on the schedule, and it includes multiple podium finishes at Iowa.

It's almost like the fact that he is so dominant in road course races has led to the belief that he is not a contender in ovals, simply because he isn't as dominant.

Simon Pagenaud is the only other modern example of a driver who won an IndyCar championship before ever winning an oval race. Palou has already proven the doubters wrong by winning two, and he is the heavy favorite to win a third within a month.

Pagenaud ended up going on to win an Indy 500 and an IndyCar oval championship during his time in the series.

The 2024 season, which has more oval races on it than any IndyCar schedule since 2011, is set to wrap up with three straight oval races following this coming Sunday afternoon's race at the Portland International Raceway road course, where Palou is a two-time and reigning winner.

The Milwaukee Mile, which hasn't hosted a race since 2015, is scheduled to host a doubleheader, and Nashville Superspeedway, which hasn't hosted a race since 2008, is set to host the series' first oval season finale since 2014. Can Palou's championship challengers really count on big points swings in these races?