Instant Recall: Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix presented by OnlyBulls

In boxing, a referee could consider a standing eight count to end a fight like this. We might not be to that point with this NTT INDYCAR SERIES season, but Alex Palou is drawing close.

One more race like Monday’s Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix presented by OnlyBulls at Nashville Superspeedway and the Spaniard can all but deliver the knockout blow to his competition. That scenario exists because there is increasingly very little competition left for Palou.

When the series reconvenes Aug. 9 for the BITNILE.COM Grand Prix at Portland, Palou will carry an 83-point lead over Team Penske’s David Malukas. Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood sits 87 points back, and they are the only drivers with 100 points of the reigning series champion. With 49 points the most a driver can gain on a participating opponent in a single race weekend, Palou effectively holds a two-race cushion with six races remaining.

Here’s another reason why Palou is in the driver’s seat: Two of his 24 career victories have come on Portland’s 12-turn, 1.964-mile road course, and three more wins, including the past two, have occurred at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, site of the season-ending race Sept. 6.

Even the biggest remaining wildcard – the Aug. 29-30 doubleheader at Milwaukee Mile – offers reason for confidence. Palou won the pole for last year’s single race and finished second in the feature and he has a pair of top-five finishes in three races there. The other two events left on the schedule – street races in Markham, Ontario (Aug. 16) and Washington, D.C. (Aug. 23) – are new events, so no one has a historical advantage.

Of course, Palou has shown strong at recent first-time events as well. He won when the INDYCAR SERIES switched to Detroit’s downtown street circuit in 2023, and he finished second to Kirkwood this year at the new track in Arlington, Texas. Where isn’t he good at? He also rarely makes mistakes and his Chip Ganassi Racing crew is usually on the right side of the strategy, as they were Monday when they had him pit just three-tenths of a second ahead of the race’s second caution flag, which closed the pits.

Palou chewed up the field in Nashville by leading the final 97 of 225 laps and he is chewing up the record books. Eight wins in 17 races last year and five in 12 races this year give him a two-year win rate of 44.8 percent. INDYCAR’s point structure is weighted toward top-five finishers, and Palou has finished in the top five of 23 of the past 29 races, a rate of 79.3 percent.

So, catch him if you can.

Another season championship would draw Palou even with Sebastien Bourdais for the all-time record and it would be his fifth series title in six years. The only two drivers who would have more season crowns would be A.J. Foyt (seven) and Scott Dixon (six). Foyt’s best run was five titles in eight years; Dixon collected five in 16 years.

Remember, Palou is still only 29 years old, turning so on April 1.

Palou’s 24 career race wins are tied with the totals of Ted Horn and Bobby Rahal in 18th place in the sport’s history. Gordon Johncock is next on the list with 25 wins. Given that Palou will be heavily favored at Portland and Laguna Seca, seven wins this season is not out of the question. Don’t rule out eight either.

There’s that “eight” again. Remember, it’s the count boxing referees can use to signal the end of a bout. It could soon be in play here, too, as Palou works toward yet another knockout.