ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Showing absolutely no signs of letting up from a 2024 championship season, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou took the lead of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg with 25 of the 100 laps remaining and went on to claim a 2.86-second victory – his first ever in the season-opener around the 1.8-mile St. Petersburg downtown waterfront course.
Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden made Palou earn it, cutting a seven-second lead into less than a minute in the closing 10 laps on two-lap fresher tires than the reigning series champ.
Newgarden – last year’s Indy 500 champion – won the 2024 St. Pete race on-track but the victory was later disqualified after the IndyCar Series officials discovered he had illegally used “push-to-pass” – which gives cars a brief surge of more horsepower. Although he said there was no extra motivation to earn another trophy this week Newgarden absolutely pushed Palou in the final sprint to the checkered.
The top three cars at the time – Palou, Newgarden and Palou’s Ganassi teammate Scott Dixon – encountered lapped traffic in the final three laps helping Palou keep his advantage in the midst of hard racing. He ultimately pulled away and increased the differential between himself and Newgarden from less than a half-second to more than two-minutes.
The six-time series champion Dixon – who later revealed he drove the vast majority of the race without clear radio communication – was running third in the final laps, but got around Newgarden on the very last lap to claim a dramatic runner-up finish. Newgarden was third, followed by his Penske teammate, polesitter Scott McLaughlin and Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood, who rounded out the top-five.
“I’ll tell you what, what a great race,’’ winning team owner Chip Ganassi exclaimed.
It is the 12th career series victory for the 27-year old Spaniard Palou, who held his baby girl Lucia in his arms immediately after climbing out of his No. 10 Honda.
“What an amazing job today by everyone at Chip Ganassi Racing,’’ said Palou, who has won three of the last four NTT IndyCar Series championships.
“They gave me everything I needed this weekend to win. I told you yesterday we had a really, really fast car and was looking forward to the race.
“It’s been 138 days since Nashville,’’ Palou said with a smile, referring to the end of the 2024 season.
“To start with a win in the 2025 season is amazing,’’ he added.
Palou took the lead for good passing his teammate Dixon on a pit road out-lap but had to earn that trophy holding off the pair of former series champions Newgarden and Dixon. It marks the first 1-2 finish for the Ganassi team since 2023.
“Was kind of just flying blind out there,’’ said Dixon, who was quite frustrated having no communication with his team. “Just so much traffic and we lost 2-3 seconds and that’s where the 10-car caught us. Definitely frustrating, had the speed had a great car and pit stops were fantastic just would have been nice to have a radio so I could know what was going on out there.’’
While understandably disappointed to miss out on the win after such a solid race, Newgarden said he was ultimately encouraged by the season-start.
“It was a great race by the two-team, a couple hiccups but this team fought really hard,’’ Newgarden said. “It starts with a great car and this team has had a great car all weekend and we should have qualified higher than 10th. It was definitely capable of winning, just didn’t get there for a couple of reasons.
“Great fight by our team and a good start for us,’’ he continued. “We’re on the podium and got some points and we’d like to keep these points on the board and have a good solid year. It’s a long season and a long way to go.’’
Will Power, an eight-time St. Pete pole-winner and two-time race winner, didn’t even make a single lap of competition on Sunday, the Austalian Team Penske driver collected in the only accident of the day – a three-car mishap with young drivers Nolan Siegal and rookie Louis Foster on lap one.
The NTT IndyCar Series races next on March 23 at The Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix. The first points race at the Thermal Club in Thermal, Calif.
