Today’s question: Two-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion and current points leader Alex Palou is winless on ovals in his career. What other driver is overdue for their first win on a circle track?
Curt Cavin: It’s difficult to believe Colton Herta hasn’t won an oval race in this series in 28 opportunities since going full time in 2019. He has often qualified well, winning the pole for last month’s first race at Iowa Speedway and earning the second starting position for the 2021 Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge. But strong race results on ovals have been few and far between – he has had only three top-five finishes. However, he led 86 laps at Iowa last month, and World Wide Technology Raceway has been one of his better tracks. He finished fourth and sixth in the two races in 2020, and he qualified in the second spot last year and led 13 laps before finishing sixth. In 2021, his car was on rails, leading 101 of the first 183 laps before a driveshaft broke. Thus, if an oval win is to come, perhaps this is the weekend.
Eric Smith: I’ll take David Malukas and wouldn’t put it past the Meyer Shank Racing driver to be victorious in Saturday’s Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline. For starters, he enters this weekend with momentum. In the most recent NTT INDYCAR SERIES race this season, Malukas earned his 10th career top-10 finish on July 21 in Toronto. Also, half of his top-10 finishes occurred on ovals, including the last two years at World Wide Technology Raceway. Malukas finished runner-up as a rookie in 2022 and was third last August. He also swept the pair of INDY NXT by Firestone races at WWTR in 2021 and placed third in 2019, giving him five consecutive top-three finishes on the 1.25-mile track. In addition to a fourth-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway in 2023, all of Malukas’ top-five finishes happened on ovals. If a win doesn’t occur Saturday, the doubleheader at Milwaukee Mile (Aug. 31-Sept. 1) could serve as another opportunity. Malukas turned the seventh-fastest speed in the June 11 test, his first time in an MSR car.
Paul Kelly: There have been few drivers better at the grandest oval of them all – Indianapolis Motor Speedway – in the last six years than Santino Ferrucci of AJ Foyt Racing. He has finished in the top 10 in all six career starts in “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” since 2019, with a best of third in 2023. Plus, all five of his career top-five finishes have come on circle tracks – Indianapolis twice, Texas, Pocono and World Wide Technology Raceway, site of the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline this Saturday night. With that track record, it’s hard to believe he hasn’t captured an NTT INDYCAR SERIES victory on an oval. While the Foyt team hasn’t entered Victory Lane since 2013 at Long Beach with Takuma Sato, there’s legitimate reason to believe Ferrucci has a chance to return Super Tex’s fabled No. 14 to glory at WWTR, Milwaukee or Nashville to close the season. No team is better on ovals right now than Team Penske, and guess with which team Foyt has a technical alliance, especially for the all-important damper technology that can turn an ill-handling setup into a rocket ship on ovals? Yep, Penske. With smart strategy, good driving and a dollop of luck, Santino’s time to crack ovals could be now.