Instant Recall: Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

Alex Palou doesn’t seem to mind which pit strategy Chip Ganassi Racing employs in the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

Last year, it was the undercut, a process by which he made his final pit stop one lap ahead of race-leading teammate Scott Dixon. That decision netted the lead and later the win.

Sunday, Barry Wanser’s (photo, top) call was for Palou to stay on the track two-plus laps longer than rivals Scott McLaughlin and Marcus Ericsson, and the Spaniard hustled his way around the 14-turn, 1.8-mile street circuit as the others pitted and worked to regain their top speed. When Palou emerged from pit lane, he had the lead by a comfortable margin.

Palou and his No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda were never headed, romping to a second consecutive victory in the season-opening event. Palou’s margin over McLaughlin at the finish was an event-record 12.4948 seconds, and the advantage had been wider. Two laps earlier, he led by 14-plus seconds, but there was no need to push that hard with victory in sight.

Palou became the fifth NTT INDYCAR SERIES driver to win this event in consecutive years, following Helio Castroneves (2006-07), Juan Pablo Montoya (2015-16), Sebastien Bourdais (2017-18) and Josef Newgarden (2019-20). Three of those drivers were employed by Team Penske; Bourdais was with Dale Coyne Racing. Thus, Palou became the first of Chip Ganassi’s drivers to achieve the St. Petersburg double.

The win was the 20th of Palou’s still-young career, making him one of 24 drivers in history with at least as many. He also will take an 11-point lead over McLaughlin into Saturday’s Good Ranchers 250 at Phoenix Raceway (3 p.m. ET, FOX, FOX One, FOX Deportes, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio, powered by OnlyBulls).

Other observations:

• After last year’s winless season, McLaughlin needed a strong start to this campaign, and he got it. Won the pole, led 34 laps, finished second. The Team Penske driver considers St. Petersburg one of his better circuits – he won from the pole in 2022 and finished fourth in last year’s race – and capitalizing on this opportunity was key. Three of the 12 poles McLaughlin has earned in his career have come in this event.

• Arrow McLaren admittedly didn’t have its best first two days in St. Petersburg, but it came out of the race with Christian Lundgaard (photo, above) finishing third and Pato O’Ward fifth. Keep those bounce-backs in mind this summer if the two are contending for the championship, as expected.

• The team changes of Will Power (Andretti Global) and David Malukas (Team Penske) did not produce quality first results. Power crashed twice in Turn 10 during the weekend, the second leading to a 22nd-place finish. Malukas fared better, but he cooked his left front tire approaching Turn 1 early in the race and later saw it come apart. He finished 13th.

• Except for Power, Andretti Global came out of the weekend with nice point totals. Kyle Kirkwood (fourth) and Ericsson (sixth) were in the lead pack throughout the race and have to be optimistic about their chances as the season unfolds, particularly on the street circuits. For Ericsson, it was a needed result after last year’s struggles.

• Dale Coyne Racing was the last team to get organized for 2026, but it came out of the box exceptionally well. Romain Grosjean and rookie Dennis Hauger qualified in the Firestone Fast Six and ran well enough in the race to finish eighth and 10th, respectively. It was the first time the team has placed two drivers in the top 10 since August 2022 when Malukas finished second and Takuma Sato fifth at World Wide Technology Raceway.

• Kudos, too, to Juncos Hollinger Racing and its new driver, Rinus VeeKay (photo, above), who finished ninth. VeeKay also finished ninth in this event last year, and he now has top-10 finishes in nine of his past 20 races.

• Poor Mick Schumacher. His first series race was clean for three corners before Sting Ray Robb and Santino Ferrucci collected each other in Turn 4. Schumacher was collected, his car driving over the back of Ferrucci’s machine. Now Schumacher gets his first shot at an oval with Saturday’s Good Ranchers 250 at Phoenix Raceway.