Track News

Solving Alex Palou Puzzle on Field's Mind at St. Pete Opener

1 HOUR AGO

Just hours from now, the NTT INDYCAR SERIES roars to life anew. Twenty-five car-and-driver combinations will roll off onto the streets of St. Petersburg, a season-starting tradition like no other in the sport.

Splashed in the Florida sunshine, the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg (Sunday, noon, FOX, FOX One, FOX Deportes, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network) will feature both new and familiar names. The top teams will still be the ones to beat. Until proven otherwise, Alex Palou is the reigning champion. Chevrolet and Honda figure to again be stoked with competitive fire.

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And yet, much has changed.

Will Power and David Malukas have changed teams. Romain Grosjean has returned to the series and a team from his past. Three rookies are here with decorated resumes, one with a globally famous father. Several teams out of title contention have beefed up since we last gathered.

Speed and aggression will be the sensations over the next 18 races. It will take elite focus and consistency to earn an Astor Challenge Cup. The season’s first green flag awaits.

Here are five things to watch:

It’s Palou Until It Isn’t

The driver of the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda (photo, top) has won the past three season titles and four of the past five. Had it not been for the turmoil of a legal dispute with Arrow McLaren that began in 2022, Palou might be riding a five-season championship streak.

History has a way of glorifying those who are no longer in the seat, but this much is true: What Palou has done since joining Chip Ganassi’s organization five years ago is about as good as anyone that raced in the past.

A.J. Foyt (seven championships) and Scott Dixon (six) are the only drivers ever to win more season titles than Palou, whose four has him stacked alongside the careers of Mario Andretti, Sebastien Bourdais and Dario Franchitti. Bourdais is the only driver to have won four championships in succession, so that’s Palou’s next marker.

Palou enters the season with 19 career race wins, eight of them accrued last year. The only drivers to have won more in a season are Foyt and Al Unser (10 each in 1964 and 1970, respectively) and Andretti (nine in 1969). But the latter were earned a half-century ago.

Palou’s next race win will make him one of 24 drivers in history with at least 20. Last year the Spaniard won five of the first six races, so figure he scales the all-time chart quickly. The bigger question is his point total for the season. Last year, he won by an astounding 196 points, the most dominating season the sport has seen since at least the early 1980s.

Scott McLaughlin

Who Can Challenge Palou for Title?

A few drivers have the chops, if not the consistency. Palou’s average finish last year was less than 4.1, and the series’ point system has its largest margin between first and second place. Palou finished in the top three 13 times in 17 races last year.

Dixon (No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) certainly has the experience to contend with his teammate, although it will surely take more than the three podium finishes that Dixon earned a year ago. Arrow McLaren teammates Pato O’Ward (No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet) and Christian Lundgaard (No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet) should be others to be considered in title contention.

Team Penske’s drivers can never be discounted. Two-time series champion Josef Newgarden (No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet) and Scott McLaughlin (No. 3 DEX Team Penske Chevrolet, photo, above) are looking for bounce-back seasons after last year’s struggles, and Malukas (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet) could catch fire in Year 1 with Roger Penske’s organization.

Colton Herta, who finished second to Palou in 2024, has left the series for Formula 2, replaced in Andretti Global’s No. 26 TWG AI Honda by Power, a two-time series champion. Power has 45 career race wins, including one at Portland International Raceway last year. His new teammates are both viable race winners: Kyle Kirkwood (No. 27 JM Bullion/Gold.com Honda) and Marcus Ericsson (No. 28 Delaware Life Honda).

Caio Collet

Three Newcomers in Field

Mick Schumacher, the son of seven-time Formula One World Champion Michael Schumacher, is the headliner in the INDYCAR SERIES’ rookie class, but he is anything but a motorsports rookie. The German driving the No. 47 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda is a former FIA Formula 2 champion (2020), has made 43 F1 starts and spent last year in the prestigious World Endurance Championship.

INDYCAR’s other two newcomers finished first and second in last year’s INDY NXT by Firestone championship. Dale Coyne Racing’s Dennis Hauger (No. 19 Ault Block Chain Honda) and AJ Foyt Racing’s Caio Collet (No. 4 Combitrans Amazonia Chevrolet, photo, above) combined to win nine of the 14 races in 2025.

Pato O'Ward

The Challenge of St. Pete’s Streets

Palou won last year’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, the first of his five victories in a six-race stretch to open the season. If he performs similarly this year, he’ll be off and running toward yet another title.

But several other drivers have won INDYCAR SERIES races on this 14-turn, 1.8-mile temporary street circuit that has raced continuously since 2005. Power (2010, 2014) and Newgarden (2019, 2020) have multiple wins, and McLaughlin (2022), Ericsson (2023) and O’Ward (2024, photo, above) preceded Palou in reaching the top step of the podium.

Power leads all series drivers with nine podiums at this venue. McLaughlin won the pole last year; Palou charged to the win from the eighth starting position.

While no preseason testing can replicate a temporary street circuit such as the one in St. Petersburg, the bumpy surface at Sebring International Raceway comes close. At a recent test that featured most of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES competitors, Marcus Armstrong of Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb-Agajanian turned the fastest lap in his No. 66 Root Insurance Honda. Armstrong finished eighth in last year’s series standings, eight points out of sixth place.

Armstrong is one of several drivers trying to score his first series victory. The next such driver to do so will become the 300th driver in history with a series win.