Favorites and Sleepers: World Wide Technology Raceway
Team Penske driver Josef Newgarden and Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing have combined to win the last six NTT INDYCAR SERIES races at World Wide Technology Raceway.
Alex Palou (No. 10 Ridgeline Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) and Kyle Kirkwood (No. 27 Siemens Honda) have managed to win all seven races this season but have one oval victory between them, Palou's in the 109th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge. Kirkwood's best finish in three World Wide Technology Raceway starts is 15th in 2023. Palou has one top-five finish in six starts on the 1.25-mile oval just east of St. Louis.
Who emerges on top in Sunday evening's Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline?
Victory lane at the 1.25-mile oval is reserved for the best. The list of 11 NTT INDYCAR SERIES winners is filled with legends like Paul Tracy, Alex Zanardi, Michael Andretti, Juan Pablo Montoya, Al Unser Jr., Gil de Ferran, Helio Castroneves, Will Power and Takuma Sato joining Newgarden and Dixon as victors.
Will someone new join the winners' fraternity in Sunday's 260-lap race airing at 8 p.m. ET on FOX, the FOX Sports app and the INDYCAR Radio Network?
Favorites
Josef Newgarden (No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet)
Newgarden has five wins in nine World Wide Technology Raceway starts. He also has led an astounding 599 laps. At a similar track at Iowa Speedway, Newgarden has tallied six victories in 16 starts. Newgarden won both NTT P1 Awards on another short oval at Milwaukee Mile last season and finished third in the 2024 season finale at Nashville Superspeedway with the same aerodynamic package.
Scott McLaughlin (No. 3 DEX Imaging Team Penske Chevrolet)
Between short ovals Iowa Speedway, Milwaukee Mile, Nashville Superspeedway and WWTR, McLaughlin has two victories and 11 top-five finishes in 13 starts. That includes results of fourth, third, fifth, and second, respectively, on the 1.25-mile St. Louis-area track and 2024 wins at Iowa and Milwaukee.
Pato O'Ward (No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet)
With 28 career oval starts, O'Ward has three wins, eight runner-up finishes and 20 top-five results. He finished 26th last year at WWTR, but before that, his worst finish among his previous five World Wide Technology Raceway starts was fourth. Half of his six WWTR finishes resulted in a runner-up.
Scott Dixon (No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda)
Dixon snookered the field in 2023, making it to the finish line in at least one less pit stop than everyone else, scoring his second World Wide Technology Raceway victory. He lapped all but two cars that day, netting his third top-five finish in his last five starts around the 1.25-mile oval. He finished 11th last year but has nine top-six oval finishes in his last 13 attempts.
Will Power (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet)
Power has one career victory each at Iowa Speedway, Milwaukee Mile and World Wide Technology Raceway. Power also has four top-10 finishes in his last five WWTR starts, including two third-place finishes in the last four tries. He led a race-high 117 laps in last year's race before being collected in a late crash.
Sleepers
David Malukas (No. 4 Clarience Technologies Chevrolet)
World Wide Technology Raceway is arguably Malukas' best track. He finished runner-up in 2022, third in 2023 and despite crashing with Power late in last year's race, he was in contention for the win after qualifying second and leading 11 laps. Malukas finished second in this year's '500.'
Santino Ferrucci (No. 14 Bommarito Automotive Group Chevrolet)
Ferrucci has two top-10 finishes in five World Wide Technology Raceway starts and has completed 1,165 of 1,168 possible laps. Ferrucci showed strength on ovals last season with five top-eight finishes in seven starts. He finished fifth in this year's Indianapolis 500 and enters this weekend after finishing second in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear on June 1.
Colton Herta (No. 26 Gainbridge Honda)
Herta has six top-11 finishes in seven World Wide Technology Raceway starts. His best race was in 2021, when he led over 100 laps before a driveshaft failed while leading, relegating him to an 18th-place result. Herta finished sixth and fifth, respectively, in the last two years. Herta also won the season finale in 2024 on the Nashville oval.
Marcus Ericsson (No. 28 Fresh Connect Central Honda)
Ericsson qualified seventh last year, but a mechanical failure left him with an early exit and a 24th-place finish. Prior, Ericsson had four top-10 finishes in his previous five starts with a career-best WWTR finish of fifth in 2020.
Conor Daly (No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet)
Daly finished 13th with the team last year at WWTR but placed third at a similar-length oval in Milwaukee. In eight WWTR starts, he has four top-10 finishes, with a best result of fifth for AJ Foyt Racing in 2017.
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