NEWTON, IA – Simon Pagenaud sent a message last weekend in Toronto. While most counted him and the other 20 NTT IndyCar Series drivers out of this year’s championship, the Team Penske driver showed us for a second time that of the year alone that not putting him in the title contending category was foolish.

Pagenaud, was fastest in practice last Friday and Saturday on the Canadian street course. He backed that up with winning the pole for last Sunday’s race. Last Sunday, he’d win that said race.

The Frenchman made up 22 points on his teammate Josef Newgarden as he went from 61 points behind to 39. Now, as he heads into Saturday’s Iowa 300 (7 p.m. ET/NBCSN/INDYCAR Radio Network) Pagenaud continued his hot streak.

He was second quickest in practice on Friday morning from the Iowa Speedway. He backed that up with earning the pole for Saturday evening’s race, his third of the season and 12th of his Indy Car career.

Another message sent.

See, Pagenaud has won two races in 2019, both came via a pole position. Both were close in the end but overall, pure domination. He led 116 of 200 laps in the Indianapolis 500. He also led 80 of 85 laps in the Honda Indy Toronto.

Furthermore, the last five poles for Pagenaud has resulted in four trips to victory lane. Overall, six of his 13 Indy Car victories have come from a starting position of – first. All six of those have come since 2016 too.

The problem for Pagenaud is, out of the 11 trips the series has made to the Newton area short track, none of the previous pole winners have won the actual race itself. Also, only twice has a driver on the front row even gone on to win the race.

In the NTT IndyCar Series these days though, track position has been so key. See, the cars are more than capable of passing, it’s just that the drivers piloting those cars are as good as ever. So, qualifying sessions in turn are as important, if not more important than ever too.

Takuma Sato led 74 of 90 laps from the pole in Barber back in April. A week later, Alexander Rossi led 80 of 85 laps in Long Beach. In May, Pageanud led led 116 of 200 laps in the Indy 500 and then last week he led 80 of the 85 laps in Toronto.

So, while pole winners have struggled here in the past, I don’t necessarily think it will be the case for Pagenaud this weekend.