Madison, ILL. – When you think of one team that has been dominate on oval tracks in the past decade in the NTT IndyCar Series, all eyes shift to Team Penske.
Team Penske as a whole has won 26 (55.3%) of the oval races on the NTT IndyCar Series schedule since 2017. The majority of those oval victories have been won by Nashville, TN native Josef Newgarden and the No. 2 team.
Since 2017, Newgarden has obliterated the field winning 36% of the oval races with the most coming at WWT Raceway (five). More recently, Newgarden has had some closer competition in the mirror coming from the other side of the Team Penske garage.
Insert Newgarden’s teammate, Scott McLaughlin. The 32-year-old New Zealand/American has been on a little roll himself at the 1.25-mile egg-shaped oval in Madison, IL, by claiming two NTT P1 awards in four races and led a race-high 67 laps in route to a runner-up finish in last year’s race.
“Yeah, really excited to get back there,” said McLaughlin. “Obviously it’s a track that I’ve love and I’ve always gone pretty well at. I go into a place there with a lot of confidence. The way that the season’s going for me right now, I need a bit of a rebound here, just get going. The last two events have been pretty tough.”
The 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season has been one for the record books for No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing driver Alex Palou. The Spaniard is dominating in all faucets and checked off one more milestone three weeks ago when he won his first oval in the 109th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Given the complete domination from the No. 10 Ganassi team and Team Penske’s impressive oval record over the course of the last seven years, the trio of Penske drivers have not won a race since the Portland Grand Prix last season. McLaughlin and the “Thirsty three’s” are looking to change that this weekend.
“Palou is on a hot streak, for sure,” McLaughlin said. “He’s got the momentum. Momentum is a real thing. The series is elite right now from a competitive standpoint. Every year it just gets harder and harder and harder, especially with the more we run with this car.”
“I think we’ve had the pace to win races. Like I said before, we haven’t put it together. We got a pole. Been qualifying pretty well. I think we’ve been in most of the Fast Sixes this year but a couple. We’re right there, it’s just a matter of putting it together.”
The Bommarito 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline will air at 8:00 p.m. ET on FOX, IndyCar Radio Network and IndyCar Nation SiriusXM Radio channel 218.
The Trackside Report 
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