By Austin Lawton, Staff Writer
New year, same Alex Palou.
The reigning two-time series champion picked up his 12th career NTT IndyCar Series win on Sunday, winning the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg to capture his first ever victory on the Florida street course.
The Spaniard won from eighth on the grid and led 26 laps en route to the win, having to navigate tire strategy, Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon and Team Penske driver Josef Newgarden as the race neared its end. Dixon and Newgarden would go on to round out the podium finishers, with Newgarden’s teammate Scott McLaughlin finishing fourth and Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood rounding out the top five.
Sunday’s race marks the first 1-2 finish for CGR since the July 2023 race at Mid Ohio.
“What an amazing job by everyone here at Chip Ganassi Racing,” Palou said in Victory Lane. “They gave me everything I needed this weekend to win. Our strategy changed a lot during that first yellow but so glad we got the No. 10 to Victory Lane. It’s been 138 days since Nashville. I’ve been dreaming about this every single night.”
Tire strategy was the major storyline going into today’s race and it ultimately played a pivotal role in its outcome. Most drivers opted for a three-stop strategy due to the alternate, green-walled, soft tire wearing out very quickly. IndyCar rules state that drivers must use both compounds on road/street courses. and that drivers need to run the alternate green tires for a minimum of two laps.
Palou, Dixon and Newgarden were among the drivers to start on the alternate tire but quickly got rid of them after the only caution of the race on Lap 1.
Newgarden’s teammate, Scott McLaughlin, started on pole and led a race-high 40 laps after starting on the black primary tire, but would get caught in traffic towards the end of the race, allowing the eventual podium finishers to fight it out for the win.
Palou was able to execute the undercut and overtake Dixon to cycle into the race lead on Lap 75. Newgarden would then overtake Dixon on the track to put his No. 2 Chevy into second on the same lap. Once he got clean air, Palou managed to put a 5.75 second gap to Dixon with 25 laps to go.
Palou’s final 25 laps didn’t come easy, however, as Palou would be slowed down significantly by Sting Ray Robb on Lap 87. Robb, now driving for Juncos Hollinger Racing, was running 21st when Palou caught him. Robb, not wanting to go down a lap, battled Palou until the gap that Palou had amassed to Newgarden shrunk to sixth-tenths of a second.
Robb would eventually let the leaders by on Lap 95, giving them five laps to fight for the win and Palou would pull away to and almost two second advantage ahead of Newgarden starting the final lap. Dixon would eventually pass Newgarden for second position, as Newgarden started to run out of fuel coming to the checkered flag.
“I think we had some miscues in the race today for sure. Just a couple fueling-wise,” Newgarden said. “The team did a stellar job. It starts with the foundation of a fast car and we certainly had that all weekend, and it definitely felt like it was intact in the race.”
Extraordinarily, Dixon’s drive to second came without any radio communications. With no radio, Dixon, who has yet to win on the streets of St. Petersburg, was unable to communicate with his strategists on when to pit, so Dixon relied on the fuel light on the steering wheel to determine when to pit.
“It was kind of tough just to see what we were doing, mileage-wise,” Dixon said. “ I knew it was going to be a lot tighter, once the first caution happened. [The radio] kind of worked on the warm-up laps and for the first 10 laps and that was about it. It ultimately cost us the race, I think, with not coming in when I should have.”
Dixon and co. will have plenty of time to determine what went wrong and ensure it doesn’t happen again moving forward, as they along with IndyCar fans have to wait three weeks before heading back to the track for the next race.
Then, the series will head to Thermal, Calif. on March 23 for The Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix, which will be broadcasted on FOX.