Short track racing, NTT IndyCar Series style, is back.
The best racing product the sport has to offer hits World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway on Sunday (June 7) for the Bommarito Automotive Group 500, a showdown in primetime. Coming off two straight entertaining races — the Indianapolis 500 and Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix — teams put on the short track wings for 260 laps under the lights.
The last two IndyCar races at the 1.25-mile track earned top billing as the best of the year each time, and the expectation is that will continue this weekend – if the weather holds. Current forecasts show some rain coming, so the question will be how much track time and running the teams will get before green. And will they end up going the whole distance?
Last Year
Kyle Kirkwood notched a surprise first-time oval win in the 2025 Bommarito 500. Leading only eight laps, he was able to stay on the lead lap when other cars pitted for fuel during the last 50 laps. Up until that point, the real contenders were David Malukas and Josef Newgarden, with Scott Dixon coming on later in the second half.
Newgarden experienced a terrible flip on the front straightaway, but luckily was unharmed. Later, Malukas seemed like he was going to win AJ Foyt Enterprises’ first race since 2013, but he hit the wall, creating the final yellow that benefited Kirkwood.
Short Track Racing is Entertainment Nirvana
As with other short track races, the on-track product at Gateway last year was just as phenomenal as it’s been since the hybrid made its way into the IndyCar package. While some, like Dixon and Alexander Rossi, have voiced their disdain for it since its debut, the racing at tracks like Gateway, Milwaukee and Phoenix is up there as the best on the planet. That’s remarkable because in this high-downforce era, overtaking generally is a big challenge.
Conor Daly and Pato O’Ward put on a show in a battle for the lead in 2025, exemplifying the type of racing expected there now.
Phoenix continued the trend started in 2024, and with Milwaukee in August, this is where fans get their fix for the legacy side-by-side racing IndyCar promotes.
Newgarden Limping In
Newgarden gutted out an inspiring, tough drive at Detroit, coming home a respectable 10th after dealing with the foot injury sustained at Indianapolis. Trying to mitigate pain while bumping along the concrete streets of Motown wouldn’t be something a doctor recommends, but a drive around Gateway might be. The smoother oval will hopefully be less strenuous for him if he has a clean run.
Unfortunately, he’s ended two of the last three races at Gateway on the DNF list, including a spectacular flip while leading last year. Even in 2024, he spun but recovered to win. Take out those poor finishes and he is perfect since the second doubleheader race in 2020, going four for four in the win column. He will be the favorite, as he is at any oval these days, but just having a clean race and preventing further injury would be as good as winning.
Breakthrough for Malukas
Malukas’s road to Team Penske might have been helped by his career showing on the 1.25-mile in his home state. His rookie run in 2022 with Dale Coyne Racing was a shocker when he finished second, sandwiched between future teammates Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin. The next year he finished third, and then in 2024 as a fill-in at Meyer Shank Racing, was in contention for the victory when tight quarters racing with Will Power ended with him in the wall. With Foyt last year, Malukas led a career-best 67 laps but brushed the wall when trying to fight to get back on the lead lap during green flag stops, finishing 14th.
In his first season with Penske, he’s already notched three podium finishes, the same number he collected from 2022 to 2025, with two of them this year on ovals — third at Phoenix in March and the heartbreaking result at Indianapolis. A poor Detroit weekend dropped him one spot to third in the championship, but if there is one track that he can break through with a win, it’s Gateway.
Palou’s Achilles Heel
How incredible is it to identify a racetrack in which a driver has four top 10s, including a fourth, as his worst. That’s the case with Alex Palou, the perennial championship contender that is en route to his fourth in a row if things continue as they have for, oh, the last five years. Prior to a string of top 10s, Palou had a best of 12th in his first three attempts at Gateway. Results like that are what fed the narrative that ovals were his weak point.
Well, that isn’t the case anymore. Palou won his first oval race last year, the Indy 500, and then followed that up with another at Iowa Race 2. He would have racked up a third victory too, but Christian Rasmussen beat him with fresher tires at Milwaukee.
So is Gateway really a stumbling block for the Spaniard and his No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing team? Not really. It’s not even a hill to climb for the four-time champion; it’s really just a slight rise. More than likely, he will be a contender all night long and make this entire section pointless.
Rasmussen Needs Milwaukee Sequel
The last time IndyCar ran a short oval, Rasmussen was well on his way to notching his second-in-a-row win on that type of track. At Phoenix, he had the best car, able to run the high line consistently even as his tires faded, and work traffic like rush hour on I-465. Contact with Power that later led to him running high a second time and contacting the wall ruined his day, but his consistency on this type of track makes him a factor.
He had two podiums and two other top 10s on IndyCar’s short ovals in 2025, including his first career win at Milwaukee. Gateway needs to be a similar result, because time is ticking on his season. While a title is out of the question, the team needs good finishes to dig themselves out of a championship hole that has them outside the Leaders Circle, which ensures over $1 million to the top 22 teams at the end of the year. Currently 23rd in the owner standings, he is six points behind Foyt’s No. 4 entry driven by rookie Caio Collet. His Ed Carpenter Racing team has never ended a year missing out on the Leader’s Circle, so Gateway is a must-turnaround stop for Rasmussen.
What Else?
Oval contender Pato O’Ward has had an interesting 2026. When finishing in the top five, he has three fourth-place finishes and three fifth-place finishes. His other two finishes are 17th and 18th. He’s stellar at Gateway, with four runner-ups and might break this weird streak of fourths and fifths with a win.
The Iceman is struggling this year. Dixon only has one podium, and led only 46 laps, 44 of them on ovals. Sitting 11th in the standings, is IndyCar’s modern-era legend in a rut, or finally slowing down? Doubtful he’s lost a step, because he still has four other top 10s. Just needs more top fives to get rolling.
Graham Rahal has three thirds on road and street courses this year, but his ninth at Phoenix was his first top 10 on a short oval since 2024. Does he continue his recent positive run of results?
Indy 500 champion Felix Rosenqvist has four top 10s at Gateway, but no top fives. With his first week to relax after winning the Greatest Spectacle in Racing, he has the most momentum on the grid and his team has run well there in the past.
Frontstretch Predictions.
I think it’s Malukas’ first win this weekend. Penske teammate Newgarden will challenge him, though. O’Ward isn’t a slouch here and his consistent top-five showings continue. But it’s all Malukas.
- Malukas
- Newgarden
- O’Ward
The Bommarito Automotive Group 500 gets underway under the lights on Sunday (June 7) at 9 p.m. ET on FOX.
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.
Thanks for choosing to comment on this article. A name and email address are required to post a comment. The email address is not publicly visible or shared. Please keep in mind that comments are moderated according to our comment policy.