INDIANAPOLIS — The NTT INDYCAR SERIES season is quickly approaching an end. Saturday’s Gallagher Grand Prix (2 p.m. ET, USA, INDYCAR Radio Network) is the fourth to last race. Alex Palou leads Josef Newgarden by 84 points entering. Neither is on the pole though as Graham Rahal will lead the 27 car field to green on Saturday afternoon.

• Palou’s Points Lead – Alex Palou made mention leading up to Nashville that he was hopeful to grow his 80 point lead over the next two races. He knows that Gateway was looming and Newgarden not only has won the last three races there, but is a perfect 4-for-4 on ovals this season. So, with a potential to lose out on points that race weekend, why not grow it bigger leading in? That’s what he’s done by gaining four points in Nashville. Now, he comes to this track as the winner in May and starts 8th on Saturday. Newgarden rolls off 19th. Also, Scott Dixon (16th), Scott McLaughlin (11th) and Marcus Ericsson (18th) all start from far behind too.
• Winless Droughts – Graham Rahal hasn’t won in the last 104 starts. He’s on the pole. Alexander Rossi (17 races) hasn’t won since this race last year. He starts 3rd. Pato O’Ward (18 races) hasn’t won since Iowa a little over a year ago. He rolls off 4th. They both finished on the podium here in May. Their teammate, Felix Rosenqvist (54 races), was P5 in May too. Colton Herta (25 races) hasn’t won since his GMR Grand Prix win of a year ago either. Rinus VeeKay (40 races) last won in the 2021 GMR Grand Prix. Scott Dixon (16 races) and Will Power (23 races) have historical win streaks going but are shut out this season. Dixon was 6th in May and hasn’t won since last year’s Nashville race. Dixon also has the record of most consecutive seasons with at least one trip to victory lane at 18. He’s won every year since 2005. Power is next best at 16 with a win every season since 2007. Can one of them break a drought on Sunday?
• Penske Reign – They’ve not won the spring race here since 2019. However, they dominated the two Harvest Grand Prix’s in 2020 with Josef Newgarden leading 34 of 85 laps in his win during the first doubleheader race of the race weekend. A day later, Will Power led all 75 laps in victory. In Aug. 2021, Power led 56 of 85 laps in another win. Last year, they went 3-4-5. Remarkably, they’ll only start P11-P17-P19 though on Saturday.
• Can RLL Capitalize – For the first time since 2018, RLL locked out the front row. Now, can they deliver? They had 3 of the top 8 starting spots in May but failed to even get a podium. They had only 1 top 5 that day too. They went 1-3-12 in practice and 1-2-8 in qualifying on Friday.
• McLaren – After having all 3 cars in the top 5 in May, they have all 3 starting in the top 10 on Saturday. It’s reminiscent of May when they started 2-5-10 and finished 2-3-5. They’ll roll off 3-4-10 this time after being 2-4-8 in practice.