Before moving on to the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear, consider the impact Alex Palou’s victory in the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge had on the NTT INDYCAR SERIES season standings.

The Chip Ganassi Racing driver who won the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval race from the sixth starting position grew his series lead to a staggering 112 points. The win was his fifth in six races this season, and he has won the past three races.

SEE: Detroit Event Details

At Monday night’s “500” awards ceremony, teammate Scott Dixon offered Palou a five-week family vacation beginning Thursday, with all expenses paid. As moderator Allen Bestwick joked, the Spaniard would still likely return with the points lead. That might be right.

Assuming Palou participates in each of the remaining 11 races and only scores a minimum number of points, he will finish with 361 points. That total would have ranked 11th last year. But of course, Palou has won races at five of the circuits left on the schedule, including two wins each at three of them, so he might have his third consecutive series championship and fourth in five years wrapped up in July.

Since the maximum a driver can score in an NTT INDYCAR SERIES weekend is 54 points, the Indy winner has more than a two-race lead. Arrow McLaren drivers Pato O’Ward and Christian Lundgaard are second and third in the standings, 112 and 125 points in arrears, respectively. Those drivers finished third and seventh, respectively, in the “500.”

Palou’s dominance is evident in virtually every category, and here’s another to digest: In leading the final 14 laps of the “500,” he pushed his season total to 163 laps led. Drivers in the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth spots in the standings have combined to lead 157 laps.

It will be interesting to see how Palou fares in Detroit after several days celebrating his first Indy win. The past three “500” winners have had an average finish of 14.3 in the Motor City, perhaps distracted or fatigued by the whirlwind of sponsor and media functions in the days between the two races. Last year, Palou finished 16th, leading only a single lap. However, he won the 2023 race there, the first held on the 10-turn, 1.645-mile downtown street circuit.

Dixon won last year’s Detroit race with Marcus Ericsson finishing second in his best result of the season with Andretti Global. Marcus Armstrong, then driving for Chip Ganassi Racing, finished third. Andretti Global’s Colton Herta won the NTT P1 Award but finished 19th, one lap off the pace.

This weekend’s action kicks off with the first practice Friday at 3 p.m. ET (FS2, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network). Saturday’s on-track activity shifts to FS1 for the second practice at 9 a.m. and qualifying for the NTT P1 Award at noon.

Sunday, the pre-race warmup is at 9:30 a.m. on FS1 with the 100-lap race at 12:30 p.m. on FOX.