Alex Palou Dominates the Thermal Million Dollar Challenge

Alex Palou’s finest morning drive happened at Thermal Club. (Photo: Joe Skibinski | Penske Entertainment).

THERMAL, Calif. — Alex Palou had an easy, luxurious Sunday morning stroll around Thermal Club as the two-time INDYCAR champion won the 20-lap $1 Million Dollar Challenge in convincing fashion over Scott McLaughlin.

Nobody had much of an answer to Palou’s No. 10 Ridgeline Honda at the 3.067-mile private road course as the Spaniard led all 20 laps and won $500,000 for his efforts.

Like anyone who wins a lot of money, what is Palou going to do with his earnings?

As a new father, Palou said during his victory circle interview that plenty of diapers would be what the earnings will go towards.

From a racing perspective, he explained during the post-race conference that his car started to feel comfortable during qualifying and continued to feel this way during the race. This came as a relief after his car seemed to struggle at times during the various test sessions throughout the weekend.

“I was comfortable. It’s never easy,” said Palou. “It’s always tough to try and manage the tires. Am I doing too much? Am I not doing enough?

“Honestly, once you saw during the main race, especially McLaughlin and Felix, were saving tires, I was like, ‘Okay, that’s the best thing that they could have done for us.’ I was pretty happy.”

Trailing Palou by a whopping 5.7929 seconds was Scott McLaughlin, who will go home with $350,000. The Penske driver was still happy with how his No. 3 XPEL Chevrolet fared despite trying everything he could to best Palou on the Lap 11 restart.

“I had a really good run actually. I sort of felt that’s where Alex was going to go,” said McLaughlin. “Felix (Rosenqvist) actually went at that same point the run before. I sort of preempted it, hoping he would go to the same spot. That’s exactly where I would go at the start of the restart as well.

“Got a decent start but couldn’t get close enough to make a move. It is what it is. But I was proud of the day. Thought we maximized what he we could. We’re happy.”

Rounding out the podium in Sunday’s exhibition race was Felix Rosenqvist, who once again showed competitive pace leading up to the $1 Million Dollar Challenge. However, he could not match Palou’s pace when it mattered most. Such sentiment was the least of his concerns as Rosenqvist was satisfied with the continuous momentum and experiments he and Meyer Shank Racing’s No. 60 team had built in this young season.

“Really solid for us. Huge statement going into the season. I’m super happy we were able to have this week because it’s kind of been a mix of a race and a test for us, just trying different things, getting to know each other more,” said Rosenqvist.

“We’ve been quick, but I feel like every time we’re out there, we’re just learning something new. This has been a huge learning experience. Also some cash at the end of the day. Super proud of Meyer Shank Racing. We’re enjoying. We think there’s more to come.

“Today we didn’t really have that much more than Scott and Alex. In the first heat race, I was digging hard. I was all over the place. I kind of had to step it back a little bit going into the big one. I think big picture, I think about the last three laps.

“I think we did well with what we had. These guys were super quick. It means a lot to be up there fighting.”

While Palou ran away with the “made for television” event, one driver made certain that the 12-car event was memorable in some capacity. Take a look back at the 12th place starter, Colton Herta, who worked his way up to fourth.

The Andretti Global driver just squeaked his way into the 20-lap main event after avoiding a multi-car crash in Heat 1, which surprisingly eliminated the likes of Scott Dixon and Romain Grosjean.

From there, strategy kicked into high gear as the No. 26 team decided that Herta needed to save his tires in the first half of the main event. Due to this decision, there were some questions as to whether or not Herta could stay on the lead lap, which he was able to do after all.

Once the second half commenced, business picked up for the senior driver at Andretti Global. As Palou raced in a different zip code, Herta was able to make moves for the patrons in attendance and country club residents. Most notably, he sealed fourth place after winning a battle with Marcus Armstrong late in the race.

Colton Herta finished fourth after rolling off 12th in the 20-lap feature. (Photo: James Black | Penske Entertainment).

“I was hungry and the Gainbridge Honda ate today,” said Herta. “P4 is not too bad from when we started theoretically 25th or 26th at the start. Marcus gave me plenty of racing room and it was a really fair fight. I appreciated it from his side of things.”

For a race that was criticized by several people for being boring, Herta hoped his efforts were worthwhile for everyone.

“Inside the car, it sucked. I’m sure for people watching, they wanted to see 12 cars going at it but you got that in the last half,” Herta explained. “I think our strategy worked. We were talking about it where on pure pace, maybe we can move up six spots at most if we get a little lucky and cars have some problems.

“But if we save the tires, we might be able to get a little bit more and that’s what we went for. Obviously, the tire advantage was pretty big so we were able to pick off everybody on the way up there.”

On a day when several of the sport’s champions and popular figures did not make the main event, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing was able to put all three cars in the big dance.

However, two drivers were not able to see the finish as both Graham Rahal and Pietro Fittipaldi occupied the bottom two positions. For the latter, he was disqualified from partaking in the second half after INDYCAR discovered the No. 30 team did not fill their car full of fuel between the heat race and 20-lap feature.

INDYCAR will take a break for two weeks before heading back to Southern California once again. Only this time, points are on the line as the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach commences on Sunday, April 21 at 3:00 p.m. ET on USA Network. Kyle Kirkwood is the defending race winner; his victory marking his maiden INDYCAR win.

2024 Thermal $1 Million Dollar Challenge Results