With double points on offer, the IndyCar race weekend at Iowa Speedway was a crucial event in the championship battle. While Kyle Kirkwood scored just 18 points compared to Alex Palou’s 85, Palou now holds a 129-point lead in the championship! This came despite overtaking being more feasible than last year, though still significantly less than in previous years. What else stood out? Let’s break down the weekend by the numbers!

408 – Since a section of the Iowa Speedway was repaved for NASCAR, overtaking has remained difficult for IndyCar drivers on this track. There were 179 on-track passes for position recorded in Saturday’s race and 229 on Sunday, totaling 408. That’s a big increase from the 195 across both races in 2024, but still a far cry from 2023’s total of 698.

304 – Of the 550 total laps across the two races, Josef Newgarden led an impressive 304! Extra painful, of course, that he missed out on the win—finishing second and tenth.

275 – Neither race at Iowa Speedway saw drivers ease off at the end; in both, the fastest lap of the race was set on the very last lap! In Saturday’s race, winner Pato O'Ward clocked the fastest lap at 18.0170 seconds / 178.631 mph average, while on Sunday David Malukas was just slightly quicker with 17.8838 seconds / 179.962 mph average.

129 – With a fourth-place finish and a win, Alex Palou now leads the championship by 129 points. If he keeps this up, he could clinch the title in Portland — the third-to-last race. Should he grow the lead to 162 points, he might even seal the championship at Laguna Seca in just over a week.

105 – The pace car was busy during the IndyCar races in Iowa — called into action five times in each race. On Saturday, it led the field for 47 laps; on Sunday, 58 laps — for a total of 105 out of 550 laps!

100 – Pato O'Ward claimed victory in Saturday’s Iowa race in what was his 100th IndyCar start. Remarkably, the Mexican also won his 50th IndyCar start — also at Iowa Speedway!

23 – Looking at both races, Scott McLaughlin gained the most positions in Saturday’s race: after crashing in qualifying, he started 27th and last and fought his way to finish fourth — a gain of 23 positions. In Sunday’s race, that honor went to Christian Rasmussen, who gained 16 spots.

18 – Alex Palou’s win in Sunday’s Iowa race marked his 18th career IndyCar victory. That ties him for 25th on the all-time IndyCar wins list, alongside Ryan Hunter-Reay.

18 – Kyle Kirkwood had a disastrous race weekend in Iowa. He crashed during the high-line practice, missed the only regular practice session, crashed due to a flat tire in Saturday’s race and finished 18th in Sunday’s race. He scored just 18 points in total — causing the main rival of Alex Palou in the championship to drop from second to fourth in the standings.

8 – Pato O'Ward’s win in Saturday’s Iowa race was the eighth victory of his IndyCar career. This moves him into a tie for 46th on the all-time IndyCar wins list, alongside drivers like Alexander Rossi, Ryan Briscoe and Bruno Junqueira.

7 – Across both races, only six different drivers led at least one lap: Josef Newgarden (304 laps), Alex Palou (198), Pato O'Ward (33), Kyle Kirkwood (9), Will Power (3), and Marcus Armstrong (3).

4 – After being defeated by Honda in eleven straight races, Chevrolet finally took a win in Saturday’s IndyCar race. The entire top 4 even consisted of Chevrolets. Chevrolet also appeared stronger heading into Sunday’s race, but it became clear the engine used more fuel, forcing most Chevy drivers to make an extra pit stop before the final caution came out. As a result, Sunday ended with three Honda drivers on the podium once again!

3 – Despite plenty of on-track action in Iowa, race control handed out only three penalties: Christian Lundgaard (Saturday) and Robert Shwartzman (Sunday) were both ordered to drop to the back of the field for speeding in the pits, while Callum Ilott received a drive-through penalty on Sunday for jumping out of line early during a restart.

3 – Andretti Global has some evaluating to do after the race weekend: across both races in Iowa, all three of their drivers crashed out once due to a flat right front tire. Interestingly, only this team suffered this tire issue — pointing to a likely setup flaw in their cars.

2 – It was a strong weekend for two of the three rookies in the field, who achieved their best career IndyCar finishes in Sunday’s race: Robert Shwartzman finished ninth and Jacob Abel eleventh.

2 – Callum Ilott had the worst weekend of anyone in the field: he failed to finish either race, both times due to self-inflicted crashes.

2 – As a driver on a short oval, the last thing you want is a caution right after your pit stop while your rivals haven’t stopped yet, as that puts you a lap down. This didn’t happen to Josef Newgarden during the Sunday race once — but twice! He fought his way back to the front both times, but each time was shuffled far back due to the poorly timed cautions. He ultimately finished tenth.

1 – After claiming his first oval win earlier this year at the Indy 500, Alex Palou earned both pole position and victory in Sunday’s Iowa race — his first ever on a short oval.

1 – Due to a qualifying mistake by Rinus VeeKay, Jacob Abel outqualified his teammate for the first time this season on speed ahead of Sunday’s race. In the race, VeeKay was consistently faster, but a decision to stay out on worn tires during the final caution caused the Dutchman to fall back. In the final lap, Abel passed VeeKay for 11th place — his first finish ahead of his teammate.

0.708 – Saturday’s race was decided during the penultimate series of pit stops — the only stops made under green. Pato O'Ward was running second behind Josef Newgarden, pitted one lap later and rejoined the track ahead of the American. Where did he make up that time? Looking at laps 233 to 235 — covering each driver’s in-lap, out-lap and a full lap — O'Ward was 0.708 seconds faster overall. Zooming in, his time in pit lane (from pit entry to pit exit) was 1.05 seconds quicker, while Newgarden was three-tenths quicker on the out-lap.

0.235 – In Saturday’s Iowa race, the gap between winner Pato O'Ward and second-place Josef Newgarden was just 0.2350 seconds. That’s the smallest margin between P1 and P2 at the finish since the 2023 Indianapolis 500, when Josef Newgarden beat Marcus Ericsson by just 0.0970 seconds.