Fifth place at Milwaukee has Palou on the cusp of a fifth title

Alex Palou started on pole today for the Snap-On 250 at the Milwaukee Mile and led multiple times before falling back to fifth at the finish. While it wasn’t enough to clinch his fifth IndyCar Series championship, he did extend the lead to a nearly insurmountable 97 points over Kyle Kirkwood, who finished sixth.

All Palou needs is to finish Race 1 later today – provided it isn’t spoiled again by rain – with the lead at 54 points, and there’s no way he can be overtaken by the Andretti Global driver. Barring an early crash and a victory by Kirkwood, Palou is hours away from being crowned.

“We were going for the win today and didn’t really have enough pace,” Palou said of his No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. “We kind of battled with the leaders there and I felt good at the beginning but kind of fell off at the end.

"Good opportunity tonight to get that championship. We know it’s going to be tough, but we’re going to try and fix the car a little bit and try and see if we can make it faster.”