I’ve always felt like the World Wide Technology Raceway would be a great destination to host the NTT INDYCAR SERIES season finale. While the series is going to Nashville next season, maybe Gateway can ironically end up crowning a champion this season after all.

There’s just two races left leaving here this weekend, which is why points are a big thing to watch in Sunday’s Bommarito Automotive Group 500 (3:30 p.m. ET, NBC, INDYCAR Radio Network).

Alex Palou has a chance to wrap up this championship if he leaves with an advantage of 109 points up or more. He’s 101 up on Scott Dixon and 105 on Josef Newgarden. Everyone else is 144 or more points back.

Palou has finished 5th, 5th, 1st, 4th, 1st, 1st, 1st, 2nd, 8th, 3rd, 3rd, 7th over the last 12 races. That’s going to be a tough driver to top despite having finishes of 11th, 8th, 7th, 20th and 9th and having never led a lap on this track. However, in Iowa, the Spaniard has finished 11th, 14th, 6th, 13th, 8th and 3rd respectively. Progressively getting better.

If he replicates Iowa to this weekend, then there’s a chance he’ll be close to a title. He’s had the second most points accumulated on ovals this season (141) and is he can just do that again, he’ll have the championship wrapped up.

Palou, seeking out his second career INDYCAR championship (2021), has remarkably stood on the podium at every single racetrack on the current series calendar aside from Gateway.

Gateway could be his next podium stop, as he’s already produced top-three finishes in two of the four oval races this year (Texas; Iowa Race 2). Palou’s average finishing position of 4.5 on ovals this season ranks second among all drivers (Newgarden: 1.0).

“We had a very strong race at Gateway last year and had three cars qualify in the top-six,” Palou said. “We expect to have a strong performance again this year. We have the opportunity to win the PeopleReady Force for Good $1 million dollar challenge.

“It will be tough, but getting the win would be amazing for The American Legion and would help save veteran lives. It would also be my first win on an oval and could perhaps clinch the championship, as well. We’re focused on continuing the form that we’ve had so far, as the No. 10 team has had two podiums on ovals this year with Texas and Iowa. I saw that this is the only track on the calendar where we haven’t had a podium, so this will be a good opportunity ahead of us.”

While he doesn’t like points racing, he may be in a position to do just that again on Sunday. It’s what he’s done the two races in general with holding on for a podium in Nashville with getting a lucky caution to keep him from having to pit for fuel. Then in Indy two weeks ago, he capitalized on Newgarden’s troublesome weekend to gain 26 points on his championship rival in a two race span.

“Today good championship day,” Palou told me after netting his 42nd career top 10 finish in just his 61st start at Indy. “Yeah, obviously, it’s great. I would have liked to have more obviously. But yeah, it’s good. I mean, the target was to try and do the best we can. We had plans for a little bit more, I would say without that last thing. But anyway, it was a good a good rate of return.”

54 points is a max race day. There’s 162 points available for the taking and he holds a 101-point gap. The math says that Palou just needs to maintain just as he did the last time out.

Can he?

Newgarden has won three straight races here and 4-for-4 on ovals this season. He’s clearly the favorite, but if Palou is back on the podium, he didn’t do enough damage.

Dixon has started 5th, 7th, 1st, 8th, 3rd, 6th, 8th and 6th respectively at WWTR and has even won (2020) but was also 15th, 2nd, 3rd, 20th, 5th, 19th and 8th in his other starts. He’s not led a lap in any of his last three races here. He’s 0-for-19 now at Iowa but has been solid too. He was sixth in both races last month.

However, a top six isn’t enough. He has to get another win. He does have 11 straight top six finishes on the season though too.

Dixon has finished in the top four in points in all but one season (2016) since 2006. Newgarden has 7 top four finishes in the last 8 years with his worst final standing being 5th in 2018. He’s finished runner-up in the last three years and four points behind Dixon for second again.

Palou is looking to become the fifth driver in the history of the sport to win multiple championships at 26-or-younger (Sebastien Bourdais; Sam Hornish Jr.; A.J. Foyt; Louis Meyer).