With 13 laps to go to go at the Thermal Club, Alex Palou cut the lead to 3.5 seconds. Then, with 12 to go, he cut it to under two seconds. With 11 to go, he pulled up to the rear of Pato O’Ward.
Palou ran down into Turn 7 to overtake O’Ward for the lead with 10 laps to go and drove onto his second straight win to start the 2025 NTT INDYCAR Series season.
“It’s amazing,” he said. “We love this feeling obviously. I think everybody does. We never take anything for granted, at least they don’t, anybody in the team. They just keep on working and giving me better cars and all the tools that I need to try and win and fight for the races.
“It’s been incredible, an incredible weekend with lots of speed and perfect execution on pit stop, strategy. At the beginning starting on used reds, we didn’t know if they were going to make it five laps, 10 or 15.”
It’s his 13th career victory in the NTT IndyCar Series.
O’Ward, who led a race-high of 51 laps, finished runner-up. Christian Lundgaard rounded out the podium in third.
“No, it’s all very good points day for the team today,” O’Ward said. “Obviously we were the car that had everything to lose because we were starting on pole. I think we led like 50-something laps. It kind of sucks to lose it there in the end. Yeah, we need to keep pushing. We obviously weren’t perfect. There is obviously something that we could have done better in order to give it more of a proper fight to the 10 car. Yeah, great weekend all around. Great recovery. Looking forward to Long Beach.”
“Yeah, I think where we were in St. Pete to where we are now, I think it’s a clear step,” Lundgaard said. “The 7 car, we had a good weekend. We scored some points in St. Pete coming here. I think overall looking across the three cars, we’re more competitive. Leaving with two podiums, a first and second, qualifying, I think we can be very happy with the weekend.”
Colton Herta and Felix Rosenqvist rounded out the top five.
Will Power, Marcus Armstrong, Kyle Kirkwood, Alexander Rossi and Scott Dixon rounded out the top 10.
Race summary
O’Ward led the field to green at 3:23 p.m. ET. After three laps, he pulled out to a 2.5-second lead over Lundgaard. After five laps, he extended the lead out to four seconds. Lundgaard started the first cycle of pit stops from second on Lap 10 for new Firestone reds. O’Ward pit from the lead on Lap 17 for new Firestone blacks as Rossi pit from the lead a lap later for used Firestone reds. This cycled O’Ward back to the lead on Lap 19.
O’Ward picked up where he left off in the first run of the race by pulling out to a 3.5-second lead by Lap 25. Josef Newgarden and Dixon kicked off a second round of pit stops on Lap 26. Newgarden took new reds, while Dixon took used reds.
During this cycle, the broadcast feed went out and FOX switched over to NASCAR at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The third and final cycle of green flag stops commenced on Lap 45. O’Ward pit from the lead on Lap 49 for blacks. After a five-corner overtake battle with Lundgaard, Palou, on reds, cut bits and chunks out of O’Ward’s lead on the run to the finish.
What else happened
Coming to the green, Devlin DeFrancesco made contact with Scott McLaughlin in Turn 15 and turned him. He received a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact.
Marcus Ericsson went off track and spun out on Lap 16.
Nuts and bolts
The race lasted one hour, 56 minutes and 23 seconds, at an average speed of 102.771 mph. There were five lead changes among three different drivers and zero cautions for the first time in 72 IndyCar races.
Palou leaves with a 39-point lead.
The NTT INDYCAR SERIES returns to action on April 13 on the streets of Long Beach.
