Palou Stays on Top

By: Derek Pierce

A new era for Indycar kicked off at St. Pete on Sunday, but it looks like the performances left off just as they were last season. With Alex Palou taking the win, Josef Newgarden making sure his name is in the mix, and Colton Herta being held back by issues still, we might be looking at a replay of 2024.

Palou, Right Where He Left Off

The reigning back-to-back champion, Alex Palou, found himself in familiar territory with his victory on Sunday. It was the 12th win of his career and could be the start of yet another championship campaign with this Chip Ganassi team. The win didn't come without a little bit of late race drama, however.

It looked like Scott Dixon was actually going to be the victor of this race before final pit stops unfolded. Dixon was leading of the cars that didn't need to run the alternate tires, which meant he would eventually inherit the lead. This changed when through the pit cycle, Palou was able to overtake him, granting him inheritance of the lead. It didn't end there for Dixon as Newgarden was also able to jump by him which created a dramatic run to the finish.

Palou was catching the lapped traffic as Newgarden was closing in, giving it everything he possibly could to catch up. Eventually, he was there and looked poised to get around Palou. However, the speed of the Spaniard was too much for Newgarden's Penske car and he wasn't able to quite get the move done.

Newgarden ran out of fuel coming to the line, allowing Dixon to get back around him for 2nd place and Newgarden stayed in 3rd. Given that it was just the first race, hope isn't lost for the competitors to beat Palou in the championship, but it has certainly started in the best way possible for him and could very well continue on to the next race.

Issues for Herta Continue

The results won't come close to showing it, but Colton Herta truly was the early favorite to win this race. Herta qualified on the front row, but didn't spend much time up front there as he pitted off of the alternate tires when the caution came out for a massive wreck on lap one. This put Herta in position to take over the race lead once the others also pitted for their stint on the alternates, but he never got that far.

In his first green flag pit stop, a problem outside of his control looked to ruin his entire race. There were problems with getting the right rear tire on which costed Herta about four seconds. All hope wasn't lost here however, as he was extremely quick and had the possibility of making that time back up before the end of the race.

If that issue wasn't enough, they had yet another. Something that I haven't seen confirmed anywhere else caused Herta to make an extra pit stop for fuel only, losing him a massive amount of time and ultimately taking him out of the race for good. 

Without either of these issues, we could be looking at a very different story coming out of this weekend of Herta and the Andretti team cleaning up their mistakes and going on the hunt for the championship, which could mean an F1 ride for the young driver in 2026. 

Notable Drives

Marcus Armstrong - Armstrong was on a mega drive, up in the top five before a loose wheel ended his race. The third-year driver made the move over the Meyer Shank Racing team from Chip Ganassi Racing and the connection has already looked promising. If they can keep this performance up, we can be looking at a great year for the young driver and the possibly the start of something great. While time will ultimately tell, things are looking up for him.

Christian Lundgaard - On the surface, it doesn't look like Lundgaard had a great race, but there is one very specific detail from Sunday that makes me want to put him on this list. He was one of the drivers that had yet to take the alternate tires when others were making their final stops of the race. Rather than taking on the extra pit stop, his team told him they were going to take the alternates, which were measured to last no more than 12 laps, and make them last for the final 30 laps of the race. Not only did he make the tires last all the way to the finish, but he actually gained positions on those tires. After his stop he was sitting in 10th, and managed to finish in 8th. This honestly really impressed me as I was expecting him to really fall down the order, but moving up instead is something that deserves to be noted. 

Race Review

Outside of the Indy 500 and maybe an occasional view here and there, this was the first Indycar race I truly sat and watched all the way through. There were many things that surprised me, but I'll save those for another time, I want to focus on how good this race was.

I described this kind of racing as the aggression of NASCAR mixed with the technicality of F1 and that was on display in St. Pete. Drivers were making huge moves into corners, but very rarely made contact. The only caution of the race come from a stack up early on and it remained clean ever since. 

Just because there was no chaos doesn't mean that it was boring, though. The strategy of when to take the alternate tires kept me interested throughout the middle stages and the battle for the lead after the final stops made for an intriguing finish. It was a great first impression of the sport and I think this will be a great season.