Gatreway provides opportunity for Scott McLaughlin to spoil Alex Palou's IndyCar dominance

Sunday's NTT IndyCar Series race at Gateway may be exactly the medicine Team Penske and Scott McLaughlin need at this juncture of the 2025 season. 

In a year that has seen only two drivers win the first seven races, with Alex Palou winning five races and Kyle Kirkwood winning twice on street circuits, the series' eighth race will take place at the unique 1.25-mile oval on Sunday evening. It's a primetime event that McLaughlin and Team Penske hope will lead to a much-needed victory. 

The good news for McLaughlin and his organization? Team Penske has the track figured out. Josef Newgarden has won two of the last three races at the facility, while Penske's NASCAR Cup Series operation has also taken two of the last three. McLaughlin himself has never finished worse than fifth in four starts at Gateway, and he's the defending pole winner and runner-up finisher. 

Long story short, there are plenty of reasons for McLaughlin to be optimistic going into Sunday's Bommarito Automotive Group 500 (8 p.m. ET, Fox). 

"For me personally, I feel our cars have just been really strong there in the past," McLaughlin said in a virtual news conference on Wednesday. "I tested there in 2021, and we learned a few things there. That sort of carried our momentum through the whole time." 

McLaughlin knows prior success at the track won't necessarily translate to this weekend, especially with Palou's newfound aptitude for oval racing. 

"You can't rest on your laurels in IndyCar," McLaughlin said. "Things will change. I feel confident going there, as a team we feel confident, just a matter of putting it all together." 

Gateway's unique, Darlington-esque design forces drivers and teams to meticulously adjust setups in a way they wouldn't at other tracks. But even though the track presents two completely different sets of corners, McLaughlin says there is a balance that can be struck in regards to handling. 

"There's a happy medium, but I definitely think you need to think about both ends and how you get through there," McLaughlin said. "That's why I enjoy this track so much, just that challenge of trying to hustle a car that may not really suit one end, but knowing there's a lot of time in another. It's a fun little layout, I really do enjoy it." 

McLaughlin's enjoyment of the track would certainly increase if he were able to find his way to victory lane and become the third winner of the 2025 IndyCar season. 

All quotations obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.