By David Morgan, Associate Editor
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Alex Palou is inevitable.
Once again, the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda starts the NTT IndyCar Series season on the top step of the podium after clinching the win in Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. His 20th career win
The 28-year-old Spaniard would cross the line by an astounding 12.494 seconds over polesitter Scott McLaughlin, followed by Christian Lundgaard rounding out the podium finishers.
“Incredible. I mean, I don’t know what to say from this team anymore,” said Palou. “It’s been a long offseason. I was sad last year that the season ended. I just wanted to continue going, because I knew it was so magical and so tough to get such a great car, such a great team behind me.
“Yeah, this team has done it again here for this weekend. It’s very early on, but still, I think that shows all the preparation they did, and I had by far the best car today.”
Barry Wanser, the long-time team manager for Palou’s No. 10 car, noted that Sunday’s feat was one not often seen at this level.
“That’s really tough to do in INDYCAR. I was asked to describe how Alex was today, and it was certainly perfection, but the whole team, the pit stops were perfection, and everyone on the team did a great job,” said Wanser.
Kyle Kirkwood finished the day in fourth after fading from a potential podium finish on worn tires at the end of the race, with the remainder of the top-10 going to Pato O’Ward, Marcus Ericsson, Josef Newgarden, Romain Grosjean, Rinus VeeKay, and Dennis Hauger.
The critical shift in the race came after the first round of pit stops when Palou’s team kept him out on track three laps longer than then race leader McLaughlin, pitting on lap 38 and then solidly assuming the lead on lap 42 when his CGR teammate Scott Dixon lost a wheel and brought out the caution.
From that point on, Palou would lead all but two of the remaining laps, making his final pit stop on lap 67, returning to the track and eventually stretching the lead to its eventual end and the victory.
For McLaughlin and Lundgaard, it was an end result that everyone knew could happen. And did.
“Look, he’s just doing a great job, put himself in the right position,” said McLaughlin.
“I think that they were on the right strategy today with the tire, and that’s a decision they made compared to us, but I thought we showed plenty of speed. Just, like I said, we were boxed in.
“Yeah, you saw the DHL car. He knew where he qualified. He was going to be there or thereabouts. I knew when he was the third the first stint, that I was like, okay, well, he’s probably going to be the guy throughout the race, and it ended up he was.”
Lundgaard joked that every time he finds himself on the podium, Palou is always the familiar face on the top step.
“Yeah, every time I’m on the podium, second or third, he’s first. It’s pretty annoying,” Lundgaard said with a grin.
Opening Lap Chaos
In addition to the caution for Dixon’s errant wheel, the caution flag would fly one other time during the race on the opening lap after a stack-up in Turn 4 on Lap 1. The incident involved Sting Ray Robb, Mick Schumacher, and Santino Ferrucci and would be triggered by Robb locking up and skidding into the turn, taking Schumacher and Ferrucci with him.
Robb would return to the race after a front wing change to finish in 21st, seven laps down, while Schumacher and Ferrucci were credited with a DNF.
Will Power’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Will Power also ran into issues of his own in his debut with Andretti Global, finding the wall on the outside of Turn 10 for the second time this weekend, explaining that the same issue that caught him out in practice also led to his incident during the race.
“Felt like the same issue I had the other day when I hit the wall. Exactly the same problem that we’ve had,” said Power. “I feel really bad for the guys. The car was really good. Yeah, it’s just plagued us all weekend this thing and we haven’t been able to fix it…I feel really bad.”
Power’s team would get the suspension damage on his car repaired and send him back out, albeit 45 laps down, where he finished the race in 22nd place.
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