At Mid‑Ohio Alex Palou seemed invincible. With some leading from pole position and dominating 85 of the 90 laps, the Spaniard appeared like he was going to score his seventh victory of the year. He drove with a large lead almost all the way during the 203-mile race and despite track temperatures so high (approximately 47 1961de celsius) the asphalt was melting. However, a rare error altering everything happened with only five circuits left.

The way he led speaks volumes about his speed and calmness. He made a three-second cushion ahead of Christian Lundgaard and Colton Herta on the used Firestone reds. With an ideal pit strategy, changing to hard compounds twice in an attempt to conserve tires, Palou had a clear lead by the time Lundgaard and Herta caught up with him, and Scott Dixon followed in third. To be strong on paper and pure dominance, however, does not make you immune to pressure.

By the time Palou got out of his final stop, he had enough fuel to cruise home. But this was preceded by two late warnings which mixed tactics and jammed positions. Nor did the Spaniard lose through any dishonesty in his arrangement or vehicle, why, he just mounted a wheel on the earth. That error accumulated, provided Dixon with invaluable tenths of a second and gave the experienced driver the opportunity to see a gap and strike when his opponent was the most vulnerable.

Scott Dixon, who has claimed success in Mid-Ohio before, took his chance. The Ganassi veteran was playing defense to save fuel earlier, his two-stop was the same, but it is all time. It was on the very next turn when he saw his teammate turn into the pits with five laps to go and Dixon struck in his mistake. It was old Dixon trick–cool, making use of chance–and he led off in a measure.

The consequences were ruthless to Palou. It was a foolish thing, he acknowledged, heavily. In a few seconds, the transition was ruthless; go from the dominant to pursuit. The last laps of the race saw him hunting Dixon down but he was only able to develop the gap into a few tenths. Second was an appalling substitution.

Nevertheless, the championship backdrop cushions the impacts. Palou will leave Mid-Ohio at the top of the points standings-marginally widening it. Palou expands the gap to Kyle Kirkwood and Pato O Ward who came in P8 and P5, respectively, to 113‑ and 125‑point, respectively. In the course of a fight to win his fourth IndyCar title, that stumble was nothing more than a slip-up.

Others did lose out as Palou and Dixon stole the stage. Josef Newgarden was a victim of early contact; he got entangled with Graham Rahal at the first chicane and both drove into the wall. The day of Will Power was followed by a fire after experiencing a problem with his car and it became undriveable because of the exhaust issues. Two forced exits under yellow flags that messed the pit cycles and possibly contributed to the rhythm of Palou.

On the good side of the Ganassi team: the 1-2 is momentum. Ninth win at Mid-Ohio reaffirms that Dixon is a master of the 13 turn roller coaster, and that Ganassi is god of permanent road courses. In the meantime, Christian Lundgaard who qualified second behind Palou, demonstrated pace but still could not pose a threat at the end of the race because of the lack of end-game strategy.

With Mid-Ohio curtains down, IndyCar is going forward, yet the story is the same. Almost flawless but again, human, Palou; ever opportunistic, Dixon; unbowed Ganassi. Palou was human in a clinical drive. The championship pressure is still there and this weekend is a true wakeup call to some and an inspiration by others: perfection prevails, but greatness, like Dixon shows, it will take over when something is not.

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