The NTT INDYCAR SERIES staged its 15th and 16th races of the season over the weekend, with Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward and Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin going to victory lane in the Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250s at Wisconsin State Fair Park.

The series’ first event at the Milwaukee Mile since 2015 saw Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou maintain his points lead in pursuit of a third season championship in four years, but it wasn’t easy or lacking in drama. Palou's car stopped running ahead of the green flag for Race 2, creating serious championship implications. At one point, Palou statistically had lost the series lead to Team Penske’s Will Power, who was leading the race.

But things seem to always go right for the Spaniard, and he will take a 33-point lead into the season finale Sept. 15 in the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix Presented by Gainbridge at Nashville Superspeedway because Power later had troubles of his own. That’s among the interesting tales from a wild two days of racing.

In this edition of Instant Recall, we review one of the most exciting weekends of the season.

· Here is a crazy stat, raising the question of why it’s been nine years since the series last raced at this historic venue: Over the 500 laps comprising the doubleheader, there were 1,430 passes for position. Race 1 had 667. Race 2 had 763.

· The series’ past three oval races, including the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway, have produced 2,106 on-track passes.

· The weekend’s big winner was Palou, who managed to salvage a lot of points in the second half of Sunday’s race. He finished 19th but only lost 10 points to Power, in part because the Ganassi team got his car rolling after starting 28 laps behind the pace and Power’s unfortunate spin on a restart that put him a lap down. Palou can secure the title at Nashville by scoring 22 points. Without bonus points factored in, that’s finishing ninth or better.

· Despite the disappointing 10th-place finish in Sunday’s race, Power still gained 20 points on Palou over the weekend. He realizes it’s still a longshot to claim his third series title, but at least he has a chance to do so at Nashville. His best chance is to score the maximum number of points (54).

· McLaughlin has cleaned up on the past four short oval races. With 500 laps in last month's Iowa Speedway doubleheader and these 500 laps, McLaughlin has led 423 laps, scored two wins, finished third and eighth, and climbed to third in the standings. With numbers like that, a pastry to the face (courtesy of Colton Herta in the photo above) seems acceptable.

· Santino Ferrucci’s two fourth-place finishes in Milwaukee all but assured him of being the first AJ Foyt Racing driver since Airton Dare in 2002 to finish in the top 10 in the standings. Ferrucci, who is 10th, only trails Arrow McLaren’s Alexander Rossi by 11 points for ninth place.

· O’Ward’s victory on Saturday gave him three wins in a season for the first time in his career. Twice prior he had two in the same year. He now has seven total.

· Rossi had one of his better weekends of the season, finishing seventh and sixth, respectively.

· By finishing second in Race 2, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon broke Mario Andretti’s record for most top-three finishes in a career. Dixon now has 142 such finishes in 401 races. That translates to a 35.4 percent finishing rate. That's amazing.

· Conor Daly certainly did himself a solid with a third-place finish in Race 1. It was part of a strong weekend at Juncos Hollinger Racing as Romain Grosjean finished ninth in Race 2. Daly’s podium finish was the first for the team.

· Other drivers who earned significant camera time over the weekend: Chip Ganassi Racing rookie Linus Lundqvist (19 laps led in Race 1), Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson (fifth in Race 2) and Herta, who finished third in Race 2 and led 52 laps in the two races for Andretti Global with Curb-Agajanian.