Alex Palou and his Chip Ganassi crew celebrate in victory lane after Sunday’s thrilling win in the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. (Photo Credit: Sydney Redden | The Podium Finish)
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Alex Palou picked up right where he left off from his third NTT INDYCAR Series championship in 2024, taking advantage of a perfect pit strategy call to win the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Sunday afternoon.
Palou secured the victory over his teammate and six-time NTT INDYCAR Series champion Scott Dixon by a margin of 2.8669 seconds, marking his 13th career win in the series. This victory will help begin Palou’s quest for a third consecutive championship.
Scott McLaughlin secured the pole position during Saturday’s qualifying session and took off as soon as the green flag was waved for the first time in 2025.
As McLaughlin led down into Turn 3, a massive first lap crash took place with some of the series’ top contenders.
Will Power attempted to gain an advantage as the field approached Turn 3. When the cars ahead slowed down, Power collided with sophomore driver Nolan Siegel from Arrow McLaren, resulting in a significant accident that also collected defending Firestone INDY NXT Series champion Louis Foster, who was making his series debut for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Because of the wreck, Power, Siegel and Foster were not able to continue, and their races were over just under a minute after the green flag waved.
After the AMR Safety team cleaned up the carnage that ensued in Turn 3, McLaughlin led the field back to the green flag and stayed out front for the next 24 laps, pulling away from the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing entry of Felix Rosenqvist. When McLaughlin entered the pits for his green flag stop, Marcus Armstrong took the lead on Lap 34.
As the field cycled through the first run of green flag pit stops, McLaughlin got back out in front of the lead on Lap 39.
During the next run of green flag stops, Christian Lundgaard, who qualified fifth for Sunday’s race, took over the lead as McLaughlin fell back to seventh and held onto the lead until Lap 68.
Christian Lundgaard racing through the tricky twists and turns of St. Petersburg. (Photo Credit: Tammy-Mariah Gill | The Podium Finish)
As the race reached its critical stages at the challenging 1.8-mile street circuit in St. Petersburg, Lundgaard made his final pit stop on Lap 68, allowing Scott Dixon to take over.
Palou entered the lead for good on Lap 75 when Rosenqvist completed his last pit stop, with multiple drivers experimenting with different strategies throughout the race.
With Palou in front, Josef Newgarden moved up to second place, closely following Palou in the final 20 laps.
As the race approached its conclusion, Newgarden had cut Palou’s lead to just under a second with 10 laps remaining, setting the stage for a fierce defense from Palou against the three-time NTT INDYCAR Series champion. However, Newgarden’s momentum faltered as they took the white flag, allowing Dixon to challenge for second place and ultimately take it away from Newgarden.
The battle for second continued all the way to Turn 10, where Dixon managed to edge out Newgarden. With clean air and a clear track ahead, Palou cruised to a dominant late-race performance, securing his 13th career victory in the NTT INDYCAR Series.
Alex Palou celebrates after winning the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. (Photo Credit: Tammy-Mariah Gill | The Podium Finish)
“What an amazing job by everybody,” Palou said after winning Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. “They gave me everything we needed this weekend to win. I told you yesterday we had a really, really fast car.”
Dixon, who finished runner-up to Palou, spoke about how he ran the entire 100-lap event without any radio communication with his Chip Ganassi Racing crew.
“We were just kind of flying blind out there, Ultimately, I think they were trying to call me in because on that last lap we had before we pitted, there was just so much traffic, and we lost two or three seconds. That’s where the 10 car got us.”
Newgarden filled out the final podium spot, finishing third after Dixon got by him on the last lap. Pole sitter McLaughlin rallied back to a fourth-place effort, followed by Kyle Kirkwood to finish out the top five.
Marcus Ericsson, Rosenqvist, Lundgaard, Rinus Veekay and Alexander Rossi capped off the rest of the top 10 finishers.
Palou jumps out to an early 10-point lead in the championship over Dixon. McLaughlin and Newgarden are tied for third in the championship standings at 36 points apiece.
The series now heads to The Thermal Club in California for the second event of the 2025 campaign in the running of the Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix on Sunday, March 23.
2025 Firestone Grand Prix Of St. Petersburg Results
| Start | Finish | Car No. | Driver | Team | Status |
| 8 | 1 | 10 | Alex Palou | Chip Ganassi Racing | Running |
| 6 | 2 | 9 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | Running |
| 10 | 3 | 2 | Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | Running |
| 1 | 4 | 3 | Scott McLaughlin | Team Penske | Running |
| 9 | 5 | 27 | Kyle Kirkwood | Andretti Global | Running |
| 7 | 6 | 28 | Marcus Ericsson | Andretti Global | Running |
| 3 | 7 | 60 | Felix Rosenqvist | Meyer Shank Racing | Running |
| 5 | 8 | 7 | Christian Lundgaard | Arrow McLaren | Running |
| 12 | 9 | 18 | Rinus VeeKay | Dale Coyne Racing | Running |
| 20 | 10 | 20 | Alexander Rossi | Ed Carpenter Racing | Running |
| 23 | 11 | 5 | Pato O’Ward | Arrow McLaren | Running |
| 21 | 12 | 15 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | Running |
| 17 | 13 | 4 | David Malukas | David Malukas | Running |
| 19 | 14 | 14 | Santino Ferrucci | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | Running |
| 24 | 15 | 21 | Christian Rasmussen | Christian Rasmussen | Running |
| 2 | 16 | 26 | Colton Herta | Andretti Global | Running |
| 22 | 17 | 76 | Conor Daly | Juncos Hollinger Racing | Running |
| 15 | 18 | 8 | Kyffin Simpson | Chip Ganassi Racing | Running |
| 27 | 19 | 90 | Callum Ilott | Prema Racing | Running |
| 18 | 20 | 83 | Robert Shwartzman | Prema Racing | Running |
| 26 | 21 | 77 | Sting Ray Robb | Juncos Hollinger Racing | Running |
| 14 | 22 | 30 | Devlin DeFrancesco | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | Running |
| 25 | 23 | 51 | Jacob Abel | Dale Coyne Racing | Running |
| 4 | 24 | 66 | Marcus Armstrong | Meyer Shank Racing | Accident |
| 11 | 25 | 6 | Nolan Siegel | Arrow McLaren | Accident |
| 13 | 26 | 12 | Will Power | Team Penske | Accident |
| 16 | 27 | 45 | Louis Foster | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | Accident |
