Rain held off today, and we got some great oval racing. Veekay... continued the pace in Race 1 - Take Two. Pit stops kept sending him back a little and he'd work his way back up. In the end, Dixon, of all people, was slowing down McLaughlin, and Veekay boldly made a move and took 3rd place. It is funny how arbitrary distinctions matter so much. Fourth is very good, but third is on the podium and incredible. Race 1, Veekay started in 24th, finished in 3rd. JHR has some soul searching to do. They have up'd the game with the car, and now that they are fighting for podiums, they need to level up the pit crew performance. That was the reason Veekay did less well and finished 7th in Race 2.
O'Ward won both races (7th driver to win two races on same day, first since some Mears character in 1981), after apparently hitting the reset button on the car setup. Malukas was better positioned to win Race 1, but a power issue on the restart dogged him and that was that. DC turned out to be good, but today was what "awesome" actually looks like, and I'm not saying that because Veekay finished 3rd and 7th. There is a reason Milwaukee is still around, while other ovals have come and gone.
Palou played the 'don't DNF' card as his car "struggled", but it did enough to stay in front of Kirkwood who really failed to perform in Race 1. From the start he sank. Palou is only the second driver to win 4 titles in a row, the other being Bourdais, and to be fair Indycar wasn't quite as competitive in those days. Only Foyt has put up results like Palou has. Andretti is an asterisk because he went to F1, so Andretti's numbers would likely be better had he stayed in USAC. Palou is looking to be a multi-generational talent. It'd be great to see him in F1, but F1 is so political, we aren't even allowed to talk about at this web board except in The Pit.

And the guy is super-chill, very friendly, always smiling. I remember see him after the Mid-Ohio race two years ago, when he goofed up and finished second. Smiles to the fans in Paddock.