For the first time all year, someone won a NTT IndyCar Series race other than championship leader Alex Palou and the man chasing him, Kyle Kirkwood.
Scott Dixon’s epic drive to hold Palou off and take his seventh win at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course enabled him to cut into the points lead by seven. That’s it. Seven.
Another weekend done, and a shot at hacking away at his burgeoning championship gap was lost. With Palou’s runner-up, only Dixon was able to gain any ground in the title fight, but he is 148 points back in fourth. Kirkwood used strategy to come home eighth, but he will not win this battle with that type of result. He wasn’t much of a factor, which can’t happen against historic competition like this.
Palou won his third pole of the year, and led the most laps, so had he chosen not to mow the green off turn 2, he’d likely have walked away from Mid-Ohio with maximum points.
Let’s hang on for a second, though.
A closer look at Dixon’s season and history shows that the Kiwi might make this an interesting finish to the season. He may not win it, but getting up to second is plausible. When he breaks into victory lane, it can come in spurts. Only three of his 23 seasons have ended with one race win, and in 2023 he reeled off three victories in the last four races.
His deficit is massive, but a string of wins, 50-plus point outings might get him up to second for a one-two Chip Ganassi Racing finish to the year. If he can make Palou sweat a little, sort of what he did at Mid-Ohio, then who knows what can happen.
Fifth-place finisher Pato O’Ward shaved six points off the gap between him and Kirkwood, with the best chance for him to throw a Hail Mary to gain ground being at Iowa Speedway’s doubleheaders next weekend (July 12-13).
While he didn’t defend his win at Mid-Ohio, he is a stud at the bull ring in the Iowan cornfields, with one win and two other runner-ups. A great performance there, say two podiums, then he is set up really well for the final two races at ovals which he can easily win — Milwaukee and Nashville (where he finished second last year).
Behind him in the standings is Christian Lundgaard in fifth, who faded in the summer stretch after maximizing opportunities on an early schedule of road and street courses that suited his skillset. Heading into the Indy 500, he was 98 points behind Palou, but he has since lost an additional 69 points, well out of the fight.
With only two permanent road courses and one street course versus three ovals left, the Dane might end up hovering in this position by season’s end if he doesn’t show progress. Ovals have not been his friends. But he and teammate O’Ward have been the top Chevrolet drivers on the track and in the standings. Whatever happens, they have clearly taken that crown from Team Penske.
From Dixon on back, the field is grasping at the dust trails Palou is leaving behind, but the top five is well within grasp. Lundgaard has only a four-point gap over Felix Rosenqvist, with a healthy 42-point spread to seventh place Colton Herta. If Herta wants to defend his runner-up in last year’s championship, he better get cracking, as he is 100 points behind teammate Kirkwood.
While Meyer Shank Racing continues holding strong with both cars in the top 10 in points for the first time in the young operation’s history, the heartbreak story is Scott McLaughlin. Last year, he earned his second straight third-place finish in the championship, and after getting breakthrough wins on ovals at Iowa and Milwaukee, he was thought to be the frontrunner for Penske this year. Much like the rest of the team, bad luck has robbed him of consistency, and he sits 11th, 108 points back of third. A lot has to change quickly for him to climb up.
Up front, though, it’s all Palou. It’s getting close to calling this season done for the championship if his rivals don’t challenge his consistency. They don’t need to win, but if they can’t beat him every weekend — hard to do when it seems all he does is win — then the epilogue for the 2025 season is almost written out.
Tom is an IndyCar writer at Frontstretch, joining in March 2023. Besides writing the IndyCar Previews and frequent editions of Inside IndyCar, he will hop on as a fill-in guest on the Open Wheel podcast The Pit Straight. A native Hoosier, he calls Fort Wayne home. Follow Tom on Twitter @TomBlackburn42.