MADISON, Ill — Until proven otherwise, Josef Newgarden is the king of ovals. They should just rename this place in the process Josef Newgarden Speedway. The Tennessee native has dominated here at the World Wide Technology Raceway to the tune of four wins in seven tries including three in-a-row. He’s also led 484 laps in the process too. The question now is, can anyone stop his reign?

No one was quicker than him during Saturday’s NTT INDYCAR SERIES practice session. He was the only driver in the 180 mph barrier too. On Sunday, he was P2 in qualifying but was promoted to the pole after Scott McLaughlin’s grid penalty.

“Yeah, it was a good start, I guess,” Newgarden said on Saturday night. “I wasn’t super, super comfy, but I can’t complain. I was just happy we get a session in, right? I think earlier today it looked like we weren’t going to run at all, looking at the weather. Thankfully we got a little break. We were able to get some preparation, at least a feeling of what the car is doing. Even the High-Line stuff was certainly useful.

“Going to try to put that to use tonight and make sure we come up with a good game plan tomorrow. Like I said, I don’t think we’re exactly where we need to be. I think we have information to make it better on the PPG car. I think Team Chevy is going to be exactly where we want to be tomorrow.”

Newgarden is THE short oval king. He’s won 6 races at Iowa, 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.

Also, 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, who can stop him? Can he do enough on Sunday to keep Alex Palou from clinching?

“I feel like if we were in a fencing match, he’s like on the other side of the room. I’m very far from striking distance,” he says.

“But we are in the fight. It is possible. You never know in INDYCAR. Things change very quickly in this championship.

“I think for us, just got to do the best job we can. That’s always our focus when we go into a weekend. We’re trying to maximize every individual weekend by itself.

“The chips are going to fall where they fall. I think we’ve got a great opportunity here to put a good race together, then we’ll come out of here, assess, see what we can do on the last two events.”