This time the race will be for points.

A year ago, the NTT INDYCAR SERIES made its debut at The Thermal Club, a private motorsports club in Southern California. But the $1 Million Challenge, as that event was known, was a 20-lap sprint only for cash.

SEE: Thermal Event Details

This week, the series and its 27 car-and-driver combinations return to the base of the Santa Rosa Mountains near Palm Springs for an official event, the second of 17 races that will help determine which driver takes home the prestigious Astor Challenge Cup as the series champion. The Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix is set for Sunday at 3 p.m. ET (FOX, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network).

Then and now, the spotlight will be on Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou, the three-time series champion who has conquered the past two seasons. The Spaniard not only won last year’s exhibition race at The Thermal Club, he is atop this year’s standings by virtue of winning the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding on March 2.

In St. Petersburg, Palou led a 1-2 finish by Chip Ganassi’s organization as six-time series champion Scott Dixon finished second. While Palou certainly was a deserving winner, Dixon made a strong case for reaching the top step on the podium by driving much of the race without radio communication with his team, a predicament that caused him to pit one lap later than he should have, which allowed Palou to overtake him.

Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden and pole winner Scott McLaughlin finished third and fourth, respectively, in the year’s opening tilt.

Palou led all 20 laps from the pole in last year’s The Thermal Club event. He distanced McLaughlin by 5.7929 seconds, with Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist finishing third. The other story that day was Andretti Global’s Colton Herta, who purposefully drove slow in the first 10 laps to save his Firestone Firehawk tires for the 10-lap final shootout. He finished fourth.

This race on the 17-turn, 3.067-mile natural terrain road course will have no such strategy, although it will be critical to manage tires on a surface that tends to be abrasive due to the dust that accumulates in the region. The race distance is 65 laps, and the fuel load figures to last longer than the tires, especially with the warm temperatures that are expected.

But the overall objective will be the same: Beat Palou.

The Weekend Schedule:

All Sessions Live Except for Race on FS1, INDYCAR Radio Network; Race on FOX, INDYCAR Radio Network

Friday: Practice 1, 6:30 p.m. ET

Saturday: Practice 2, 1 p.m. ET; Qualifying, 5 p.m. ET

Sunday: Warmup, 11 a.m. ET; Race (65 laps), 3 p.m. ET