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Alex Palou’s attention is firmly on this weekend’s Freedom 250, although he knows that if everything goes his way and he wins the one-off DC street race, it could also bring him his next championship.

Palou claimed his seventh pole position of the season on Saturday afternoon after producing a blistering lap in his lone Fast Six run on a clear track.

The strategists for the Fast Six runners chose when their drivers would head out based on their qualifying times in the Fast 12. Bryan Herta opted to send Kyle Kirkwood out first, Scott McLaughlin’s strategist threw in a surprise by sending his driver third rather than second to take advantage of warmer tyres, and Barry Wanser placed Palou second in the order.

Palou’s lap of 56.899 was six-tenths quicker than Kirkwood, who is both his nearest challenger in the championship and his biggest threat on street circuits. The pair will line up on the front row, with Palou chasing his seventh win and Kirkwood aiming for his second. Kirkwood’s only victory of the season came at Arlington, the first of three new street courses introduced this year.

The DC circuit is already drawing comparisons with the new Detroit Street Circuit, which has just completed its fourth year. Palou was both the inaugural winner there and the most recent one.

“It’s going to be chaotic, because it’s a street course, it’s new, it’s 250 miles,” Palou said in his post-qualifying press conference.

After seeing the reaction from fans to last weekend’s unexpectedly shortened weekend at the new Markham street circuit, Palou understands that a lot of people are drawn to that kind of chaos.

“It seems the more chaos we have, the more people love it, like last weekend. So we’re going to bring some more chaos. Hopefully I’m not involved in it, and hopefully I can make it a bit boring.”

When asked whether his focus this weekend was on wrapping up the championship four races early, Palou said his bigger priority was winning the race itself. He explained that the team wants this trophy and wants to be remembered as the only winners of what is expected to be a one-off event in IndyCar history.

Palou heads into the fourth-from-last race of the season holding a 133-point advantage over second place in the standings, a far bigger cushion than he has had in any of his four championship-winning years. That margin allows him to approach the weekend without the pressure of having to race conservatively.

“I think the best thing is that we have this huge opportunity with the status of the championship to just focus on the race,” Palou said. “Try and make history, as it’s going to be the first ever and last ever Freedom 250. So it’s going to be awesome. The trophy looks incredible, and we want to win that. I feel like if we can do one, probably it’s going to maybe take care of the other one. You never know. But yeah, I’m really thinking about the race more than the championship.”

The race will be the longest street circuit event IndyCar has ever attempted, with drivers expected to make four pit stops during the 147-lap, 250-mile feature. The winner will need either a flawless drive or plenty of luck; only time will tell.