Alex Palou and his Chip Ganassi team celebrate their back-to-back victory after winning the Thermal Club Grand Prix. (Photo: Christopher Vargas | The Podium Finish)
THERMAL, Calif. — The skies were blue and the sun was shining in beautiful Southern California at the exclusive Thermal Club just outside of Palm Springs.
The track was not the only thing heating up under the sunny California skies.
After two fast practice sessions on Friday and Saturday, and a third-place qualifying effort, three-time and two-time defending series champion Alex Palou was intent on closing this month with a perfect record. This time, he had a potent but familiar adversary in Pato O’Ward.
The 65-lap Thermal Club Grand Prix on the 3.067-mile road course kicked off a bit on the rough side for a few drivers prior to the green flag. As the field pulled off from pit road, 21-year-old NTT IndyCar Series rookie Louis Foster was unable to pull off from his 10th place starting position due to a hybrid system issue.
Things also did not start off well for Team Penske driver Scott McLaughlin in the No. 3 XPEL Chevrolet. After an abysmal qualifying effort that resulted in a 25th starting position, McLaughlin was tagged and spun prior to the green flag by Canadian Devlin DeFrancesco in the No. 30 Mi-Jack Chevrolet for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
As a result, DeFrancesco was served a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact.
Once the race was formally underway, O’Ward quickly opened up a 2.5 second lead over his teammate Christian Lundgaard. Several drivers struggled to adapt to the Twin Palm layout road course as several drove off-track in the opening laps.
As the pace settled down, Robert Shwartzman began to feel comfortable in the No. 83 Prema Racing Chevrolet, gaining 10 positions by the third lap of the race from his 27th starting position.
It was a refreshing start for Shwartzman after not completing a single lap of practice this weekend. The 25-year-old Israeli suffered a fueling issue on his out-lap of opening practice, which caused a fire on-board and forced the team to move to a back-up car for qualifying.
Much of the afternoon was dominated by O’Ward as he led 51 of the scheduled 65 laps and maintained a healthy lead over Lundgaard and Palou as the race closed in on the halfway mark.
The race took an unexpected turn for those in the media center and for race fans watching on TV when the FOX Sports broadcast abruptly froze and cut to television commercial due to an electrical issue at the FOX Sports TV compound in Thermal. Certainly, it was a set of unfortunate circumstances for the new TV partner of the NTT IndyCar Series.
In the closing stages of the Thermal Club Grand Prix, Palou’s No. 10 DHL Honda team brilliantly played the tire degradation game, overcutting O’Ward and Lundgaard, making the move of the race.
Palou pitted on Lap 49 and took on a fresh set of grippier Firestone Firehawk soft red tires one lap after O’Ward and Lundgaard, the latter two opting for the harder black-tire compound.
Pato O’Ward navigates the 3.067-mile Thermal Club in the IndyCar Thermal Grand Prix. (Photo: Christopher Vargas | The Podium Finish)
By having more grip, Palou closed the nine-second deficit with 15 laps remaining and pulled within 4.9 seconds on Lap 52. Palou made up significant time and quickly reeled in O’Ward on Lap 55, passing him for the lead.
Palou’s Thermal Club Grand Prix victory was his 13th career win in the No. 10 DHL Honda Chip Ganassi Racing car. More importantly, Palou continues his championship defense with back-to-back wins.
“What an amazing weekend,” Palou said to FOX Sports. “Honestly, we had a really fast car since practice and they executed very well. Everybody at Chip Ganassi Racing, the 10-car executed perfectly. We knew it was aggressive to start with the used reds. Yeah we did it, back-to-back wins, it’s awesome.”
O’Ward and his No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet team rolled the dice in efforts to challenge Palou for the win. Instead, the Monterrey, Mexico, native placed runner-up, realizing the great unknown put them between a rock and a hard place.
“We took a gamble, and it didn’t work out for us,” O’Ward told FOX Sports. “We used our new reds in the start because we really didn’t quite know what the deg was going to be like. The blacks really kind of of took a turn in the negative towards the end of the race, and we didn’t really stand a fighting chance.”
Coming home in third-place was Lundgaard in the No. 7 Velo Chevrolet for Arrow McLaren Racing. This marks the first time since the 2023 Indy Grand Prix that two Arrow McLaren drivers captured podium finishes.
“I think the No. 7 Velo Arrow McLaren Chevrolet has done a very good job, the entire team has done a very good job all weekend,” Lungaard told FOX Sports. “We just didn’t have it there, I mean we gave it a shot and came up short. It’s tough seeing this guy (Palou) beat us every single event. We got to find a way to stop him.”
Despite the dominating start by Palou, the drive of the day easily belonged to Will Power in the No. 12 Verizon Business Chevrolet Team Penske car. Power started the day from the 21st starting position and patiently worked his way through the field, gaining 15 positions to bring it home in the sixth position.
Will Power driving to his 6th place finish in the IndyCar Thermal Grand Prix. (Photo: Christopher Vargas | The Podium Finish)
For Ed Carpenter Racing‘s 400th NTT IndyCar Series start in 14 seasons, California native Alexander Rossi opened 2025 with his second top-10, a ninth-place finish in his No. 20 Java House Chevrolet.
Rossi’s teammate, Danish driver Christian Rasmussen brought it home in the 12th position in the No. 21 Splenda Chevrolet, capping off a solid weekend for the Indianapolis, Indiana based team.
Next up for the NTT INDYCAR Series is the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach that gets underway on Sunday, Apr. 13 at 4:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
