In one of the craziest days in recent memory for IndyCar, there was some normalcy when Alex Palou took the checkered flag for The Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix.
Palou would beat Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward by 10.1854 seconds after taking the red, alternate tire on his last pit stop on lap 49. Chasing down O’Ward and with more grip, Palou cut down the nine second gap with ease and rode off into the California sunset, gapping O’Ward and his No.5 Arrow Chevrolet by 10.1854 seconds.
“We love this feeling obviously. I think everybody does,” Palou said. “We never take anything for granted, at least they don’t, anybody in the team. They just keep on working and giving me better cars and all the tools that I need to try and win and fight for the races. It’s been incredible, an incredible weekend with lots of speed and perfect execution on pit stops and strategy.”
Palou would pilot his No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda to a second-straight victory on the season, leading only 13 laps, his 13th career NTT IndyCar Series victory. Palou also took victory in last year’s $1 Million Challenge exhibition race in 2024. Palou becomes the first driver to win the first two races of the season since Scott Dixon in 2020.
Drivers would continue to fight tire strategy, juggling the options of when to either get off the alternate tire or onto the alternate tire. The consensus strategy became a three-stop race and Palou would execute that strategy, which ultimately win him the race. The Spainiard started the race on reds, then go onto blacks on his first stop on lap 16, then the eventual switch to red tires again on lap 49.
O’Ward was the dominant driver on the day, leading 51 laps out of a possible 65, after starting on pole. The race ran caution free as well, a first since the second Harvest GP at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course in Oct. 2020.
In additon, O’Ward’s teammate, Christian Lundgaard, would finish third, completing a double podium for McLaren, after the two drivers shared the front row to start the race. To round out the top five was Andretti Global’s Colton Herta in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda and Felix Rosenqvist in the No. 60 SiriusXM Meyer Shank Racing Honda.
“It’s all very good points day for the team today. Obviously we were the car that had everything to lose because we were starting on pole,” O’Ward said after a hard fought finish. “It kind of sucks to lose it there in the end. Yeah, we need to keep pushing. We obviously weren’t perfect. There is obviously something that we could have done better in order to give it more of a proper fight to the 10 car.
Other notable, good runs came from Team Penske’s Will Power, who guided his No.12 Verizon Chevrolet from 21st to sixth. MSR had both of their cars in the top 10 with Marucs Armstrong starting seventh and finishing seventh in the No. 66 SiriusXM Honda.
While there was action across the board during the race, fans missed out on a sizeable chunk of the race after production issues shut down the FOX broadcast, international feeds and even IndyCar Radio. FOX would then bolt over to NASCAR coverage from Homestead-Miami to give the viewers some sort of racing action.
IndyCar on FOX would issue a statement, stating a “production truck electrical issue”.
Expectations are already high for the IndyCar on FOX partnership and this issue, in only the second race of the parternship, is not a good look. This issue got IndyCar up into the top ten on X (formerly Twitter) and fan outrage was loud. This sort of issue happened in 2019 at St.Pete when NBC had the television contract, with a similar reaction from the fans. This issue will be something to keep an eye on as a root cause of the issue is yet to be fully determined.
Palou will take a 39 point lead over O’Ward into the next race on the streets of Long Beach, California for the 50th Long Beach Grand Prix on April 13.