Scott Dixon has almost already put the championship during this 2020 NTT IndyCar Series season out of reach. The five-time series champion currently holds a 49 point advantage over Simon Pagenaud heading into the Month of August where we will race three times over the course of the month.

Dixon, who’s never really all that good at Iowa, admitted on Saturday night that his No. 9 Honda still lacked the pace to realistically contend either of the two races run at the Iowa Speedway over the course of 24 hours. That’s why for him to finish second and fifth respectively is frankly eye opening.

Dixon, lucked out from a caution on Friday night to come home runner-up. He was just lurking all night on Saturday to earn his 170th career top five finish. That’s why his points lead went from 54 to 49 this weekend as he now has a top five in all but one race run in 2020 with four top two results.

Pagenaud lucked into that caution too on Friday night to win the race outright too. He was fourth on Saturday. He’s second in the standings and wants everyone to fear them. He started last in both races and still comes away with top fives.

“It’s satisfaction from a preparation stand point,” Pagenaud said. “We just showed everyone in the paddock that you have to count on us no matter what happens. That’s the mark of a championship team. That’s what you want to do. That’s what you want every weekend. You want everyone to feel you. I’m pretty sure they feared us today.”

Fear is what happened. His teammate Will Power noticed. He had a fast car on Friday but a fluke pit stop problem where his left front tire wasn’t fully secured caused him to crash not too long after. He had an uneventful night on Saturday to come home runner-up.

Even with that, Dixon and Pagenaud were on his mind still.

“Looking forward to trying to have a good rest of the season,” Power said after scoring his first Iowa podium in his last five tries. “I don’t know what I have to do to have normal races like Dixon and Pagenaud. Even if those guys qualify last, they still wind up at the front. Maybe I just try less and be a much worse driver and I think I’ll be way better.”

Graham Rahal was third on Saturday night which was a big improvement from being slowest in practice on Friday. He feels like they’re showing enough pace to be a problem for others for this year’s championship too.

“We’re a contender this year,” Rahal said. “I think a lot of people have seen us improve. We’ve come a long way.”

These drivers’ confidence is what has Dixon already talking points. For a guy that proclaims that he doesn’t pay all that much attention to stats and awards, he sure knows where the points are at right now.

“Not yet,” Newgarden said if Dixon is starting to be out of reach. “Fortunately not yet. Look, these days I think you have to accept that this is racing, right? There are years where I’ve had tremendous fortunes over other people when they’ve had misfortunes. I think right now you’re seeing that Scott has the lucky end of the stick.

“It’s hard to predict when that’s going to happen. You never know when you’re going to get things going your way or they’re not going to go your way. You got to really work to stay on track.

“When you’re in a situation like we’ve been in where things are not going our way, you just have to keep with the same process, keep doing the same things. It’s inevitable that it’s going to turn around. You’re eventually going to get out of this odd cycle where things are not coming your way.

“I think a lot of it is not down to decision making that we’re doing. I think we’re putting ourselves in as good of a position as we can. We’re just for whatever reason missing it here or there. That’s when you start talking about luck. I hate to use the word ‘luck’ but it is part of racing.

“Dixon has had a great start. I think we’ve given him a lot of layups already. A couple of his wins were complete layups from us. He is smart, so he is going to take them.

“Hopefully we can get a couple on the back end. If they hand us some layup, we’re going to try to put it in the basket, no problem, as well.”

After all, he has to. Just look at what’s coming up.

Mid-Ohio has been great for Dixon in the past. He’s won six times there, including just last year. Pagenaud, has nine top 10’s in 10 Mid-Ohio tries including five podiums. Power, has five straight front row starting spots there including seven of the last eight years. He also has four straight top four finishes and seven top sixes in his last seven tries. Rahal, has six straight top 10’s there too including a win in 2015.

This group is looking forward to the next race on the schedule in three weeks.

“Big race for me,” Rahal said. “I love going home. We’ve had great success. I think we found some great stuff the last time we raced on road courses. I expect our team to be extremely good.”

Then, it’s to the Indy 500 to where Power and Pagenaud have won the last two years. From there, it’s to Gateway where Pagenaud has three top fives in as many tries. Power, won the race in 2018 and Rahal has a top 10 in 2018 too.