Starting from 3rd place Car 10 Alex Palou D/H/F won the Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix non-points race. 2nd Place Car 5 Pato O’Ward D/C/F, started from pole. 3rd Place Car 7 Lundgaard, Christian D/C/F, started from 2nd place.
4th Place Car 26 Colton Herta D/H/F, started from 4th place followed by 5th place Car 60 Felix Rosenqvist D/H/F, started from 9th place. 6th Place Car 12 Will Power D/C/F, started from 21st place followed by 7th place Car 66 Marcus Armstrong D/H/F, started from 7th place. 8th Place Car 27 Kyle Kirkwood D/H/F, started from 8th place followed by 9th place Car 20 Alexander Rossi D/C/F, started from 6th place. Lastly in the Top 10 was Car 9 Scott Dixon D/H/F, in 10th place, started from 11th place. Canadian Car 30 Devlin DeFrancesco finished in 20th place.
The race had 0 Cautions.
The race had 6 Lead Changes among 3 drivers. Leader Summary: Car 5 O’Ward, Pato 51, Car 10 Palou, Alex 13, Car 20 Rossi, Alexander 1. Lead Change Summary: 1 5 O’Ward, Pato, 18 20 Rossi, Alexander, 19 5 O’Ward, Pato, 33 10 Palou, Alex, 36 5 O’Ward, Pato, 56 10 Palou, Alex.
NTT INDYCAR SERIES STATEMENT:
Palou Stays Perfect with Late Chase for Thermal Victory
THERMAL, Calif. (Sunday, March 23, 2025) – Perfect Palou, yet again.
Alex Palou once again made the impossible possible, completing a late dash from a nine-second deficit to pass pole sitter Pato O’Ward and drive away to win The Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix on Sunday, staying perfect in two NTT INDYCAR SERIES races this season.
Palou earned his 13th career victory in the No. 10 DHL Honda Chip Ganassi Racing car, beating O’Ward’s No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet to the finish by 10.1854 seconds. Christian Lundgaard finished third in the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet as the team captured two of the three podium positions for the first time since May 2023.
“What an amazing weekend,” said Palou, who started third. “We had a really fast car since practice, and everybody at Chip Ganassi Racing on the 10 car executed perfectly. We knew it was aggressive to start with the used reds (alternate tires), and we knew that we were looking toward the end of the race with that 10 car, and we did it.”
Two events into the 17-race season, Palou leads second-place O’Ward by 39 points in the championship standings.
“It’s tough seeing this guy beat us all every single event,” Lundgaard said. “We’ve got to find a way to stop him.”
Colton Herta finished fourth in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda fielded by Andretti Global, while Felix Rosenqvist rounded out the top five in the No. 60 SiriusXM Honda of Meyer Shank Racing.
Palou rallied from a nine-second deficit with 15 laps remaining in the 65-lap race, the first caution-free NTT INDYCAR SERIES event since October 2020. He selected the more grippy, faster Firestone Firehawk alternate compound tires during his last pit stop at the end of Lap 49. O’Ward made his final stop at the end of Lap 50, taking Firestone Firehawk primary compound tires.
Three-time and two-time reigning series champion Palou passed O’Ward for good on Lap 56, diving under his rival entering Turn 7 on the abrasive 17-turn, 3.067-mile natural terrain road course. Palou’s superior tire grip allowed him to rocket away from the field. His lead blossomed to three seconds on Lap 58, mushrooming to six seconds by Lap 61.
The winning move was set up by the Chip Ganassi Racing team’s decision to take alternate tires on Palou’s last stop. That helped him pass Lundgaard for second place on Lap 50 – one lap after Palou’s final stop – after a spirited joust over multiple corners.
Then Palou set sail for O’Ward and reeled him in with astonishing pace, pulling to within 4.9 seconds by Lap 52 and 1.3 seconds by Lap 53 as O’Ward coped with slower traffic and less grip from his tires.
“We took a gamble; it didn’t work out for us,” O’Ward said. “We had used our new reds (alternate tires) at the start because we didn’t really quite know what the deg (tire degradation) was going to be like. The blacks (primary tires) really kind of took a turn for the negative at the end of the race, and that was it. We didn’t stand a fighting chance.”
Palou became the first driver to win the first two races of the season since CGR teammate Scott Dixon opened 2020 with three consecutive victories en route to his sixth championship. Palou’s titles have come in 2021, 2023 and 2024.
NTT P1 Award winner O’Ward controlled most of the race from the pole. He led 51 of the first 55 laps, surrendering the top spot only during pit stops.
But O’Ward and 25 other drivers left Southern California empty-handed after another masterpiece of tactics and temerity by Palou and strategist Barry Wanser. In the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding on March 2, Palou and Wanser made the quick shift to alternate tires early in the race and then Palou executed flawless, blazing in and out laps surrounding his last pit stop to ensure victory.
The next race is the 50th Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on Sunday, April 13 (4:30 p.m. ET, FOX, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network). A Spanish-language telecast will be available on FOX Deportes.
Photo Courtesy of INDYCAR
Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix Race Results
Position Starting Position Car Driver C/E/T Lap Status
1. 3. Car 10 Palou, Alex D/H/F 65 Running
2. 1. Car 5 O’Ward, Pato D/C/F 65 Running
3. 2. Car 7 Lundgaard, Christian D/C/F 65 Running
4. 4. Car 26 Herta, Colton D/H/F 65 Running
5. 9. Car 60 Rosenqvist, Felix D/H/F 65 Running
6. 21. Car 12 Power, Will D/C/F 65 Running
7. 7. Car 66 Armstrong, Marcus D/H/F 65 Running
8. 8. Car 27 Kirkwood, Kyle D/H/F 65 Running
9. 6. Car 20 Rossi, Alexander D/C/F 65 Running
10. 11. Car 9 Dixon, Scott D/H/F 65 Running
11. 18. Car 15 Rahal, Graham D/H/F 65 Running
12. 19. Car 21 Rasmussen, Christian D/C/F 65 Running
13. 17. Car 2 Newgarden, Josef D/C/F 65 Running
14. 14. Car 14 Ferrucci, Santino D/C/F 65 Running
15. 20. Car 8 Simpson, Kyffin D/H/F 65 Running
16. 15. Car 76 Daly, Conor D/C/F 65 Running
17. 13. Car 18 Veekay, Rinus D/H/F 65 Running
18. 12. Car 4 Malukas, David D/C/F 65 Running
19. 16. Car 6 Siegel, Nolan D/C/F 65 Running
20. 26. Car 30 DeFrancesco, Devlin D/H/F 64 Running – Canadian
21. 5. Car 28 Ericsson, Marcus D/H/F 64 Running
22. 27. Car 83 Shwartzman, Robert (R) D/C/F 64 Running
23. 24. Car 77 Robb, Sting Ray D/C/F 64 Running
24. 10. Car 45 Foster, Louis (R) D/H/F 64 Running
25. 23. Car 51 Abel, Jacob (R) D/H/F 64 Running
26. 22. Car 90 Ilott, Callum D/C/F 64 Running
27. 25. Car 3 McLaughlin, Scott D/C/F 53
Race Statistics:
Fastest Lap: 106.794 mph (103.3875 sec) on lap 3 by 5 – Pato O’Ward
End of Lap 65: Time of Race: 01:56:23.2677 Avg Speed: 102.771 Lead Changes: 5 Caution Laps: 0
Next Event: Sunday, April 13 Streets of Long Beach FOX 4:30 p.m.
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