INDIANAPOLIS — It seems like everyone wants to point out that Alex Palou’s points lead has blossomed to the depths that it was due to him not having any, “bad races.” I get that this past weekend in Nashville was a prime example of the good luck that he’s had. Same for Toronto with his front nose cone hanging on by a sticker. However, if you dig a bit deeper, you’d notice that he’s also had some bad luck too. It’s just that they’re responding to adversity better than others.

“It’s kind of out of our control,” Josef Newgarden said after a runner-up finish to Palou in Road America. “They’ve had a good run up to this point, right? They’ve not had a bad race. I think that’s to be expected.”

Newgarden then swept the weekend in Iowa. He echoed the similar sentiments.

“Alex (Palou) has had a great run. He’s really had no bad races,” Newgarden said after his Saturday win in Iowa. “I explained this in the past that, when you’re a great driver like Alex and he’s got a great team around him and you don’t have any bad races, that is what happens points-wise. You build up a cushion the way they have.

“I’ve just had to learn over the years that you can’t control these things. You really can’t. I focus on trying to be the best that we can be every weekend. This weekend’s no different. It’s just you’re dealing with that scenario that you brought up that everyone expects us to be really good here and win a couple of races. I know that.

“You can’t spin this any way. I’m not telling myself a story to make myself feel better tomorrow. There’s no doubt we have to win a lot of races, and Alex has to inevitably at some point hit bad luck. It’s just the way this whole thing goes.”

However, has Palou really escaped the bad luck bug or are they just out executing everyone?

“I would just like to have some of the luck he’s had. If he can rub some of that on me, that would be fantastic,” Scott McLaughlin joked.

“No, he’s doing a phenomenal job. He has the opportunity and he takes it. You can’t be angry about that or whatever. It’s just what it is. We’ve seen Dixon do it over the years. We have seen Josef have it, Will have it last year.

“When things are going right, you have to take control of it, and he’s done that. You can’t be upset about that. You have to work harder and be better. I really enjoy trying to be better, trying to make my team be better. He’s making us do that.

“Yeah, certainly a good thing. We always knew he was going to be strong after he got through all of the legal drama, whatever was going on last year. That must have been pretty hard on the head. We always knew he was going to be really strong.”

I mean lest we forget that he was hit by Rinus VeeKay on a Lap 94 pit stop? Palou was pinned against the inside wall at pit exit. He’d drop from a potential win to outside the top 20. In less than 100 laps, Palou went from the back of the field to finishing fourth.

That’s no small feat.

What about going from the top four in Long Beach, to being caught up in a crash and dropping back to 15th? What about his practice crash in Road America on qualifying morning? They had to rebuild his car for crying out loud. He’d go from a crash with little on track time to a win in a little over 24-hour span.

Wouldn’t those classify as a mishap?

What about just missing it in Toronto qualifying? What about qualifying 7th and 12th respectively at Iowa?

Why don’t we count those?

They’ve had their fair share of bad moments, it’s just mystified by his race craft.

Palou hasn’t finished worse than eighth in any of those instances. In Long Beach he’d finish fifth. At Indy he was fourth. In Road America he won. At Toronto he was runner-up while Iowa he was 8th and 3rd respectively. He’s just overcoming those mistakes and turning them still into strong results.

Granted, he’s had some luck too in improving those finishes by others making costly mistakes, but don’t you need to be in position to capitalize on others misfortunes?

He can’t help it Scott McLaughlin and Romain Grosjean crashed into one another in St. Pete. He can’t help that Pato O’Ward’s engine had a malfunction while he was leading. He can’t help it that a caution flew in Long Beach to force Newgarden on the wrong strategy or that O’Ward was overly aggressive on Scott Dixon. He can’t help that in Barber Newgarden had damage from contact on the first lap. He can’t help on the Indy road course that RLL missed the balance on race trim or O’Ward and Grosjean crashing in Detroit. Dixon and Power crashed in Road America practice leaving them with bad starting spots. O’Ward spun in qualifying in Mid-Ohio. Marcus Ericsson was overly aggressive on the opening lap and crashed at Mid-Ohio. Colton Herta was on the wrong pit call in Road America and had a speeding penalty in Mid-Ohio.

How can he help any of those instances?

All those mistakes and Palou being phenomenal in all facets, has handed him a ton of success over the last couple of months. 

He went with a different tire strategy early at Indy and Mid-Ohio. It paid off in his favor because of the TEAM doing their homework. He could have followed suit and went with what the others did, but they found a different strategy and took the chance.

It paid off.

“Yeah, obviously everyone needs to beat Palou, but I don’t think — that’s going to be a very tough challenge to beat him in a championship this year. He is so on point in every respect, in every respect,” said Will Power.

“He is not missing a thing, which is very difficult in this series to be extremely fast, which there are a lot of guys that are, but then being able to do all the disciplines as well plus the intricacies of fuel save, tire conservation, in-and-out laps, the qualifying.

“Just from a strategy standpoint as well, which I know it’s the first time he won a championship. That group on that car is very smart. Like, they’re putting it all together. Yeah, it’s an absolute team effort, but he is also nailing it.

“It’s bloody hard to have that all nailed, and he is doing it.”

Scott Dixon agreed. He’s has a front row seat to what Palou and his talented team around him are doing.

“Yeah, it does make it tough,” he said. “As Will commented, and it’s not just Alex, but Julian, the whole 10 car group are just doing a phenomenal job. Even with Barry as well.

“It’s never a single person. The effort is big I think on all the cars in Chip Ganassi right now, but they’re firing on all cylinders.

“The qualifying is solid, the race pace is solid, strategy is solid. It’s just a really good all-around package right now.

“It’s never always one thing, but having quick paces is something that is huge obviously with how tight the competition is now. Some others may have had some problems on pit road or just whatever it was. He has done a hell of a job to cover all bases.”

“Yeah, it’s going to be tough to beat.”

That’s why I caution that he has had issues, they’ve just been good enough to overcome them. Others are being forced to make mistakes and aren’t doing as good enough of a job to do what Palou and his 10 team have done.

That’s the difference. A little luck here and there doesn’t hurt, but he has had bad luck too.