Milwaukee showed Palou's short oval mastery is complete

Alex Palou led 194 laps of 275 on the way to winning the second Iowa Speedway race, and 199 of 250 last weekend in a runner-up performance at Milwaukee.

Throw in the 14 laps he led at the Indianapolis 500 – not many, but definitely the ones that counted – while sealing the victory at ‘The Greatest Spectacle In Racing,’ and the most impressive aspect of the four-time IndyCar Series champion’s evolution is what he’s delivering on ovals. From the five oval races held this season, Palou has led one third of all laps – 32.6 percent, to be precise – which wasn’t part of anyone’s pre-season predictions for the Chip Ganassi Racing driver.

Palou’s run to the championship in 2024 exposed one remaining weakness for rivals to exploit, and that was on short ovals. Departing the Mid-Ohio road course in 2024, he arrived at the Iowa Speedway doubleheader with a 48-point lead and left with the margin cut to 35 points, having spun and crashed in the first race. He rallied to finish second to close the event, which foretold the future, but on average, it was a net loss in Iowa.

It was a similar routine at the Milwaukee doubleheader where, with electrical problems thrown in, his lead of 54 points was carved down to 33 by its conclusion.

Palou’s closest rivals knew short ovals were the perfect tracks to strike and take advantage of the shortcomings carried by the lifelong road racer, so that’s where he focused on making improvements.

As we’ve come to expect, it’s the single greatest area of Palou’s game that’s been elevated since the Spaniard won his third title last season. With all the laps led, and increasing his championship leads after Iowa in July and again after Milwaukee last weekend, the results are a testament to how far he’s progressed as a short-oval ace in a one-year span.

“Honestly, (his short oval development has been) a bit slower than I wanted or that I thought it would be, at least at the beginning, to try and have that confidence and get those qualifyings and trying to get through that traffic,” Palou said.

“I think honestly, this was the best (performance). Iowa was 50 percent there. This was much, much better, at least from my point of view.”

Where he lost 13 points after last year’s Iowa doubleheader, Palou gained 16 points on his closest challenger after the recent run at Iowa. The loss of 21 points following the Milwaukee doubleheader in 2024 was replaced with an increased championship lead of 15 points with Sunday’s second-place result at ‘The Mile.’

Next on his short-oval to-do list is making gains at Nashville Speedway, where Palou and the No. 10 Honda team qualified a disappointing 24th and finished an unremarkable 11th while sealing his third championship on their last visit.

“I'm feeling more confident,” he said. “ I'm excited for Nashville (this weekend) so we can see if we can do better. For sure I'm feeling much better. The car is really good. It's allowing me to do everything I need, and that's the most important thing.”

Palou’s led 411 oval laps this season, up from 103 last year. He’s led the 32.6 percent of all oval laps, up from 6.2 percent in 2024. Where will the final numbers fall after the Nashville finale on Sunday?