INDYCAR Power Rankings: Look Out, Here Comes Josef Newgarden

Alex Palou continues to win, and he remains No. 1 in these power rankings. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver now has five wins this season, with the fifth coming Monday at Nashville Superspeedway. The driver who made a big jump this week? It’s the driver who physically and quite literally can’t even jump right now because of a badly bruised knee. That’s David Malukas. He went from the 12th row to third at Nashville. Here are my rankings going into a two-week break in the INDYCAR schedule: Dropped out: Will Power (Last Week: 8) On the verge: Will Power, Nolan Siegel, Kyffin Simpson. VeeKay looked like he was on the verge of earning his fourth top 10 in the last six races before the cautions and pit sequence cost him track position. He ended up 12th at Nashville, which was still a solid day. Ericsson finished sixth for this third top 10 in the last five races. To see him at one point challenge for the lead had to be a thrill for his fans. Rosenqvist had a surprisingly average qualifying result, as he started 17th on the grid. To go from there to finishing fifth was enough to make him feel good about his day. McLaughlin finished fourth at Nashville for his fourth top five of the season and his third in the last six races. He’d like to challenge for the lead more, but at least he can see the leaders. O’Ward was extremely frustrated after qualifying as he started 12th at Nashville. He was able to scrap for a seventh-place finish. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the momentum he was hoping for coming off the Mid-Ohio win. Kirkwood won the pole at Nashville and appeared to be a favorite for the race before losing his track position on the yellows and pit sequence. A 10th was a disappointing result considering his high hopes coming in. Lundgaard had an awful weekend with a grid penalty for being on his fifth engine, and he started 24th. He finished 16th and maybe no one is looking more forward to Portland in a few weeks than Lundgaard. Newgarden finished a frustrating second as he felt it was track position race at the end. He started second and finished second. To echo his words, “it is what it is.” Malukas was perilously close to not even racing this weekend after a hard crash Saturday in practice. He went from the back of the field all the way to third. It was a great race on a tough weekend. Palou is now a five-time winner this season. And he very well could be a five-time series champion in less than two months.