Short oval racing returns to the NTT IndyCar Series on Sunday night, and it arrives with the championship picture already tilted firmly in one direction. The Bommarito Automotive Group 500 runs under the lights at World Wide Technology Raceway near St. Louis on June 7, a 260 lap sprint around the 1.25 mile oval that starts at 8 p.m. CT (9 p.m. ET) live on FOX. It is the 10th running of the race and the first oval test since the Indianapolis 500 set the tone for Alex Palou’s dominant season.
Palou heads to Madison, Illinois, holding a 62 point lead in the standings after his fourth win of the year at the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix. Right behind him sits Kyle Kirkwood, the defending winner of this event and the man who ended a long run of dominance here by Josef Newgarden and Scott Dixon. With rain in the forecast and a track that consistently produces the best racing on the schedule, the night carries real intrigue beyond the points table.
A Short Oval That Delivers
World Wide Technology Raceway sits just outside St. Louis in the Metro East city of Madison, and its 1.25 mile shape gives drivers two distinct personalities to manage. Turns 1 and 2 carry characteristics similar to New Hampshire Motor Speedway, while Turns 3 and 4 resemble Phoenix Raceway. That mix rewards a car that can rotate in the tight corners while still carrying speed off the longer end, and it forces engineers to compromise on a setup that works in both halves of the lap.
Since the hybrid power unit entered the IndyCar package, the racing at the short ovals has reached a level that even skeptics struggle to argue with. Gateway, Milwaukee and Phoenix have produced the kind of side by side, multi groove battles that the series builds its identity around, and that is remarkable in a high downforce era where passing is usually hard to come by. The 2025 fight for the lead between Conor Daly and Pato O’Ward became one of the signature moments of the season, the type of wheel to wheel running fans now expect here. The last two IndyCar races at the track earned top billing as the best race of the year on each occasion, and the expectation is more of the same.
Kirkwood Defends a Loaded Field
Kirkwood’s 2025 victory was a genuine surprise. He led only eight laps all night, but he stayed on the lead lap while contenders cycled through fuel stops over the final 50 laps, then inherited the lead when a late caution flipped the strategy in his favor. The race had belonged to David Malukas and Newgarden for long stretches. Newgarden suffered a frightening flip on the front straightaway but climbed out unharmed, and Malukas looked set to deliver AJ Foyt Enterprises its first win since 2013 before contact with the wall triggered the very yellow that handed Kirkwood the trophy. The Andretti Global driver held off O’Ward by just over half a second to claim his first career oval win.
Newgarden remains the man to beat on raw pace at this circuit. Take away two DNFs in the last three years here, including last year’s crash while leading, and he has won four straight at the track since the second doubleheader race in 2020. He is gutting through a foot injury sustained at Indianapolis, having finished a respectable 10th on the rough streets of Detroit, and the smoother oval surface should be kinder to him physically. Malukas, meanwhile, has a long history of running well at his home state track. He finished second as a rookie in 2022, third in 2023, and led a career best 67 laps last year before brushing the wall. Now in his first season with Team Penske, he already has three podiums and sits third in the standings, making Gateway one of his strongest chances to break through for a maiden victory.
O’Ward is another perennial threat here, with four runner up finishes to his name. His 2026 has been a study in near misses, with three fourth place results and three fifths among his finishes, and a short oval that suits him could be the place he finally converts consistency into a win.
Palou’s So-Called Weakness
For years the narrative held that ovals were Alex Palou’s one soft spot. His first three visits to Gateway produced a best result of 12th, and that fed the idea that the road and street course master could be vulnerable on the high banked tracks. That story no longer holds. Palou broke through for his first oval win at the 2025 Indianapolis 500, then backed it up with victory at Iowa, and he came within a set of fresher tires of beating Christian Rasmussen at Milwaukee.
At Gateway specifically, Palou now owns four straight top 10 finishes, including a fourth place, which is the kind of record most drivers would happily call a strength. The four time champion is on course for a fourth title in five years, and the only real question on Sunday is whether anyone can stop him from adding to a points cushion that is already commanding. The smart money says he runs near the front all night.
Championship Picture
The standings entering the weekend show just how far clear Palou has pulled. He holds a 62 point advantage over Kirkwood after eight races. David Malukas sits third, 79 points back of the lead, after a quiet Detroit weekend dropped him a spot. Christian Lundgaard is fourth, roughly 101 points adrift, with O’Ward a further six points behind in fifth. With Palou winning four of the first eight rounds, every rival is now racing as much for second in the championship as for the title itself, barring a dramatic swing in fortune.
For drivers further down the order, Gateway carries financial stakes too. Rasmussen, a short oval winner at Milwaukee last year, sits 23rd in the owner standings and needs a strong run to climb back inside the Leaders Circle, the top 22 entries that secure over $1 million at season’s end. A repeat of his short oval form would go a long way toward steadying Ed Carpenter Racing’s season.
What to Watch on Sunday
Weather is the first variable. Current forecasts show rain in the area, which raises the question of how much practice running teams will get before the green flag and whether the race can go the full distance. Beyond that, watch how the field manages fuel windows, since the late race strategy gamble is exactly what handed Kirkwood the win a year ago. Tire fall off on the high line will be the other story, as drivers like Rasmussen have shown that working the top of the track can be the fastest way through traffic late in a run.
The Bommarito Automotive Group 500 goes green under the lights on Sunday, June 7, at 9 p.m. ET on FOX. After Gateway, the series stays on its summer rhythm with more oval and road course action to come, and every round from here is a chance for the chasing pack to chip into Palou’s lead before it becomes mathematically out of reach.
The supporting cast adds further layers. Scott Dixon, IndyCar’s modern era benchmark, is enduring a rare lean spell with just one podium and a single top result on ovals so far, and at 11th in the standings he needs a track he has historically owned to spark his summer. Graham Rahal arrives with momentum from three third place finishes on road and street courses and a recent ninth at Phoenix that snapped a drought of short oval top 10s dating back to 2024. Reigning Indianapolis 500 winner Felix Rosenqvist may be the form pick of the rest, carrying the confidence of the biggest win of his career and a record of four top 10s at Gateway. Any of them could crash the party between Penske, Ganassi and Arrow McLaren if the strategy and cautions fall the right way.
Sources:
- https://frontstretch.com/2026/06/05/2026-indycar-gateway-500-preview/
- https://www.indycar.com/Schedule/2026/WWTR
- https://www.motorsport.com/indycar/news/complete-indycar-championship-standings-after-2026-detroit-gp/10825842/
- https://wwtraceway.com/kirkwood-rallies-late-to-win-bommarito-automotive-group-500-ntt-indycar-series-race/
