Alex Palou came into this weekend’s Iowa doubleheader just hoping to keep his points lead at a reasonable base. He was 117 points clear of Scott Dixon coming into Iowa and 126 ahead of Josef Newgarden.

After two races, just one driver gained on him – Newgarden.

The gap from first to second is 80 for which it may say Palou lost 37 points on second and even more on Newgarden, he’ll consider this a massive win.

54 is max points in a race. Palou can skip Nashville and still have at least a 26 point lead over the final 4 events.

That’s why this was a massive weekend for him to keep a 1 race gap on the field. He started 8th and finished 7th, one lap down on Saturday and despite rolling off 12th on Sunday, he gained nine spots to finish third.

It was an impressive display that was a championship winning drive aided by two cautions. If the first one doesn’t fly, it’s hard telling to where he’d end up. If the second one doesn’t fly, he doesn’t end up on the podium either.

“Yeah, we knew it was going to be a tough weekend,” said Palou. “We thought it was going to be maybe a little bit less tough after we tested here, but honestly yesterday we had a lot of pace. Not like Penske pace, but like second series pace, and that was great.

“We just didn’t really have that final lap that you need to finish fourth, fifth, and we finished eighth.

“Yeah, today was the opposite. Today we had no pace. I was struggling to overtake. I was struggling to keep the tires under the deck, and the team just put me in the position that we are now. So, yeah, it was all up to the team today.”

Palou was passed by Newgarden on Lap 58 to put him a lap down early. He’d battle back to get his lap back only to be put back down a lap 20 laps later. He was 12th at the time. Then came the caution on Lap 86 for Agustin Canapino getting out of the racing line in Turn 2. Palou was among a handful of cars to take the wave around and get his lap back.

It didn’t do much still as he rode in that stint mostly in 13th. He’d pit on Lap 145 for the third time of the race. Luckily, he gained 5 spots on that pit sequence to be scored in 8th afterwards.

That’s about where he was going to finish before another caution coming out on Lap 158 for Sting Ray Robb’s tire. Palou was one of five drivers to gamble to pit for new tires again. He’d restart 12th.

However, he’d quickly gain back up to 8th, then 7th, then…6th. He was coming. He pit for the final time on Lap 196. He was knocking on the door of a top five. He’d get into fifth. Then came the final caution with 10 to go.

Palou went from 5th to 3rd on the restart to score his 7th podium of the season and 22nd of his career. It continues his dominance as he’s not finished worse than 8th in his last 13 races. He’s finished 1st, 4th, 1st, 1st, 1st, 2nd, 8th, 3rd since the Month of May.

 “Yeah, that was cool,” Palou said on the final restart. “I knew that we were the last car on the lead lap, so I could risk it a little bit more. If I had an issue with something, I was not going to lose a position.

“So went on the outside. Had a good restart. Went on the outside of McLaughlin, and I think Rosenqvist was battling with Power and just to the narrow, and I got to the inside of him into three. So, yeah, it was a pretty good restart.”

Good luck catching him now. Even on days that he’s qualified 15th, 7th, 12th in the last 3 races, he’s finished on the podium in 2 of the 3 tries.

“Yeah, I’m looking forward,” said Palou. “As I said, it was a place and a weekend that I was not looking forward to even before starting the season because it’s a place I struggle personally to place.

“As a team we know we need to find a little bit more, which we did. Yeah, I was still struggling a lot.

“Super happy with the podium today and with the P8 yesterday. I’m looking forward to the next couple of races, which we know that we have a good car, and I have a lot of confidence that I can extract kind of the same from what we have.”

Next up is Nashville to where he finished 3rd at last season. On street courses in 2023, he’s finished 8th (St. Pete), 5th (Long Beach), 1st (Detroit) and 2nd (Toronto). Then it’s back to Indy on the road course to where he won by nearly 20 seconds the last time out.

2 of the final 3 races are in Portland and Laguna Seca to where he won Portland in 2021 and won Laguna Seca by a half-minute last season.

So even if World Wide Technology Raceway is a rough weekend, he has enough of an advantage to overcome it too.