Alex Palou has been untouchable this season. Over 12 races, he’s not finished worse than eighth. In fact, he’s done that twice. In the other 10 events, he’s finished in the top 5 including 7 of which on the podium.

Even on days that you think it won’t go well, he still finds a way back up front.

In Indy, he was running in the top two or three before Rinus VeeKay pinned him against the inside wall after losing control of his car exiting pit road near the midway point of the race. He’d rebound from outside the top 20 to finish fourth.

In Toronto, he’d only qualify 15th. In Iowa, he’d start 7th and 12th respectively. In those races, he’d finish 2nd, 8th, 3rd.

He passed cars and was helped by a caution in Toronto. In Iowa he got help by 2 fortunate cautions to allow him to get his lap back on a waive around while running 13th in Race 2 of that weekend, then went off strategy after the second caution to get new tires to allow him to get from 13th to 8th to 5th. Then with the final caution, he went for broke in going from 5th to 3rd.

Just when you think that the door is open, he quickly slams it back shut.

Josef Newgarden chopped 46 points off the deficit in Iowa but Palou still holds an 80 point lead heading into Sunday’s Big Machine Music City Grand Prix (12 p.m. ET, NBC, INDYCAR Radio Network).

“I mean, it’s hard not to give kudos to Alex (Palou),” Newgarden said after his Iowa sweep. “I think he just did a great job. Clearly we seem to have the upper hand this weekend, and he had a great day today. You know, he maximized what he could, and I think that speaks to what he brings to his program. He maximizes his results. He minimized a loss today. You know, it could have be more, and he just made sure it wasn’t.

“He is a tremendous competitor. Did a great job. I wish we gained more, but I’m not going to be dissatisfied with where we brought it to.”

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.

“I expected Josef to win because, the last races that he finished on an oval, not including Indy 500 this year, yeah, but the past, he has won,” said Palou in Iowa.

“So we were counting on that, and it was up to us to try and minimize the damage. So, yeah, 100% didn’t expect to be on the podium today. Yeah, I’m happy to be here.”

Iowa just continued 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.

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.

He’s just hopeful to score as many points over the next two weeks in order to not have to worry as much about Gateway for which Newgarden you know will be the favorite.

Newgarden is THE short oval king. He’s won 6 races here, 4-for-7 at World Wide Technology Raceway and also has a 2018 win at Phoenix as well. That’s 11 of his 29 wins (37.9%) on short ovals.

In fact, each of his last 6 race wins have come on ovals as has 8 of his last 10 wins (80%) in general. 14 of his 29 wins (48.2%) were on ovals.

Newgarden’s led 111 or more laps in 9 of his last 11 Iowa starts including six wins, a pair of runner-ups, a fourth, fifth and sixth place result in the last 12 tries.

So good luck topping him there, especially when Palou has finished 15th, 12th, 20th and 9th on the 1.25-mile St. Louis area track.

“I hope that before getting to Gateway, it’s not as bad as Iowa in the past, but it’s not been great,” said Palou. “I think I feel a bit more comfortable there, and also we have a bit more performance from the car.

“I need to do the work in Nashville and Indy Road Course before getting there. If we cannot because it’s part of the sport in INDYCAR, and then we’ll have to figure out.

“I’m glad we have those points in the bag, but I’m not comfortable, honestly. I will be comfortable if we won the championship already. We know in INDYCAR with the big swing you can make in only one weekend just by winning and having a bad race, yeah, you can never give up.”

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.