Alex Palou Still in Command, Pato O'Ward Hot as Laguna Seca Awaits

Fox Sports

a day ago

INDYCAR
One of the business months in NTT INDYCAR SERIES history comes to a close this weekend with the annual visit to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
The series will have raced each weekend of the month, and Sunday's Java House Grand Prix of Monterey will be the fifth race. That means just under 30 percent of the season has been contested this month.
This will be 28th time the sport has staged a race in picturesque hills of Monterey. Historically, Team Penske has been the most successful organization on this 11-turn, 2.238-mile circuit, but Chip Ganassi Racing's Alex Palou won last year's race with Andretti Global's Colton Herta and Arrow McLaren's Alexander Rossi joining him on the podium.
Practice begins at 5 p.m. ET Friday (FS2, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network). Saturday's action airs live on FS1, with the weekend's second practice at 11:30 a.m. ET and qualifying for the NTT P1 Award at 2:30 p.m. ET.
Sunday's 95-lap race will air live on FOX at 3 p.m. ET.
A look at the storylines:
Palou's Lead is Still Strong
O'Ward sliced 30 points off Palou's series lead in last weekend's Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto with a combination of his victory and Palou's 12th-place finish. By any measure, that was a significant gain, but Palou is still in command of the championship standings with four races remaining.
In fact, Palou can virtually clinch his third consecutive series title and fourth in five years by scoring the maximum number of points this weekend coupled with a low finish by O'Ward. Winning the pole and leading the most race laps in victory will put the driver of the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda in such a position that he will receive the Astor Challenge Cup at season's end by only competing in the final three races (Aug. 10 at Portland International Raceway, Aug. 24 at The Milwaukee Mile and Aug. 31 at Nashville Superspeedway).
It can be argued that Laguna Seca is Palou's best track on the schedule. He has raced there four times and finished second, first, third and first, all with Chip Ganassi's team. Palou won the race in 2022 by more than 30 seconds, one of the sport's most convincing victories in a decade.
Palou also has won two races in Portland, so yes, he should still like his title chances.
O'Ward Hottest Driver of Late
The driver of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet has won two of the past three races and has the best chance to catch Palou for the title. (There are only two other drivers mathematically eligible to win the championship: Andretti Global's Kyle Kirkwood is 173 points out of the lead, Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon trails by 174.)
O'Ward will need at least three more races to go as well for him as Toronto did, and that's a big ask. Still, he has won multiple races for the second consecutive season and the fourth time in five years, and he is on pace to finish a career-best second in the standings.
Laguna Seca hasn't been the best track for O'Ward. Yes, he has finished in the top 10 in each of his four starts, but his best result is a fifth in 2021 and his average finish is 7.5. It will take significantly more than that to put pressure on Palou.
O'Ward, Herta in a Race for No. 10
Not since boyhood friends Helio Castroneves and Tony Kanaan arrived in North America in November 1995 have two drivers in this country had their careers more intricately linked than O'Ward and Herta.
It's uncertain when O'Ward and Herta first shared the same racetrack, but it likely was in karting in 2010. Both reached INDY NXT by Firestone in 2017, with Herta finishing third in the championship driving for Andretti Steinbrenner Racing while O'Ward only got four races with Team Pelfrey. They stayed in the series another year, becoming teammates at Andretti Autosport. They finished 1-2 in the standings with O'Ward taking the title.
In September of 2018, the Steinbrenner-backed drivers were introduced at Yankee Stadium as the new drivers of Harding Racing, and they made their series debuts in the final race of the 2018 season at Sonoma Raceway. O'Ward finished ninth, Herta 20th. They were to race as teammates the next year, but Mike Harding's team only had sponsorship for Herta. O'Ward joined the Carlin team.
Fast forward to now, and this statistic is crazy: O'Ward and Herta each have nine career NTT INDYCAR SERIES victories. Their race to a 10th series win is on.
The Rookie of the Year Battle
Guess what other statistical category is tied: The 2025 Rookie of the Year battle.
That's right: PREMA Racing's Robert Shwartzman and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's Louis Foster have exactly the same number of points as the season heads to its final four races. Each has 159 points.
Currently, Shwartzman has the tiebreaker based on the best race finish to date: He finished ninth in the second race of the Synk INDYCAR Race Weekend doubleheader, the Farm to Finish 275 at Iowa Speedway. Foster has a pair of 11th-place finishes this season.
There are eight drivers in this 27-car field who have earned top-rookie honors: Dixon (2001), Will Power (2006), Alexander Rossi (2016), Felix Rosenqvist (2019), Rinus VeeKay (2020), Scott McLaughlin (2021), Christian Lundgaard (2022) and Marcus Armstrong (2023).
FOX broadcaster James Hinchcliffe was a Rookie of the Year winner in 2011. Bobby Rahal, a co-owner of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, won the award in 1982 and Arrow McLaren team principal Tony Kanaan did so in 1998.
Hybrid in Use for First Time at Laguna Seca
INDYCAR's hybrid technology, which was introduced a year ago this month, will be in action for the first time at this track. Last year, this race was in June.
The hybrid assist along with the long-used Push to Pass system gives drivers an additional 120-plus horsepower to utilize. More horsepower changes the car's handling.
Based on projected fuel mileage and tire efficiency, this is expected to be a three-stop race with some teams possibly making four stops given the short amount of time lost on pit road.
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