Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Alex Palou dominated and won an IndyCar race.
The driver of the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda pulled an overcut to take the lead under the second caution and led 59 of 100 laps on his way to winning on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida, for the second year in a row.
“Incredible,” he said. “I mean, I don’t know what to say from this team anymore. 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.”
It’s his 20th career victory in his 99th NTT INDYCAR Series start and first of the 2026 season.
Pole sitter Scott McLaughlin overtook Kyle Kirkwood in Turn 10 with seven laps to go to finish runner-up. Christian Lundgaard followed suite in Turns 11 and 12 to round out the podium.
“Obviously you want to be top step,” McLaughlin said. “I think that was a solid day for us. I think we maximized our strategy. I think it was going to go one way or the other with tires.
“I maybe thought the black tire could have probably performed a little bit better in that first stint, but yeah, my car just didn’t probably turn that tire on well enough. Wanted to pull a gap, but I was also trying to save fuel and make it a two-stop in some ways.
“Yeah, it was a difficult first stint, and then I sort of got stuck behind the Andretti guys when they were losing their tires. I thought our car was really good. Just probably was a little bit hidden today just where it was position on track, but that’s okay.
“Like I said, I think we maximized our day. No mistakes. Pit road was great. Yeah, just good start.”
“Yeah, I mean, I didn’t know I led a lap, so that’s a bonus, I guess,” Lundgaard said.
“No, it was a good race. I think we just very clearly just missed it in qualifying yesterday. We made some changes after P2 that just simply didn’t work.
“Got out of the car. Obviously didn’t transfer from Q2 and wasn’t necessarily that upset, because I knew exactly where we had gone wrong. It was just undo that, and I think the car just came alive like we expected it to today.
“Again, you have to do the job out there, and I thought it was a very exciting way to start out the season.”
Kirkwood posted the fastest lap on his way to a fourth-place finish and Pato O’Ward rounded out the top-five.
Marcus Ericsson, Josef Newgarden, Romain Grosjean, Rinus VeeKay and Dennis Hauger rounded out the top-10.
Alex Palou whoops field at St. Pete
Race summary
McLaughlin led the field to green at 12:28 p.m. ET. Caution flew on the first lap when Sting Ray Robb pulled inside of Santino Ferrucci and locked up in Turn 4. Which put them both into the tire barrier and collected Mick Schumacher, too. Robb received a 30-second stop-and-hold penalty for avoidable contact.
Back to green on Lap 6, the field settled into a green flag run. Green flag pit stops commenced on Lap 22. McLaughlin pitted from the lead on Lap 35 and took Firestone reds. Ericsson pitted from the lead on Lap 36, took Firestone reds and cycled out ahead of McLaughlin. They made contact with each other on the exit of Turn 3 on Lap 38. Palou pitted from the lead on Lap 38, took Firestone reds and cycled out ahead of Ericsson. Scott Dixon, who pitted under the pitted from the lead on Lap 39. After exiting the pits, Dixon’s lost his right-rear wheel in Turn 4 and caution flew for the second time on Lap 40. Louis Foster pitted from the lead under the caution and Palou cycled to the lead.
Back to green on Lap 44, the race again settled into a green flag run. By Lap 60, Palou pulled out to a seven-second lead over Ericsson. By Lap 63, the gap grew to nine seconds. On Lap 65, McLaughlin overtook Ericsson into Turn 1 for second. Kirkwood kicked off a round of green flag stops on Lap 66. Palou pitted from the lead on Lap 67 and took Firestone blacks. McLaughlin pitted from the lead on Lap 68. Christian Lundgaard pitted from the lead on Lap 69. Josef Newgarden pitted from the lead on Lap 70 and Palou cycled back to the lead.
As he did in the previous run, Palou pulled away from the field on his way to victory for the second year in a row at St. Petersburg, Florida.
Alex Palou whoops field at St. Pete
What else happened
David Malukas, in his first race for Team Penske, locked up into Turn 1 on the Lap 6 restart. On Lap 12, his left-front tire went flat and he limped his way to pit road. He went a lap down in the process.
Will Power, in his first race for Andretti Global, brushed the wall in Turn 10 on Lap 21, in a carbon copy of his wreck in practice, and made an unscheduled stop. He radioed that the “right-rear suspension is bent.” He hopped out of the car, but the team repaired the damage and he returned to the race 30 laps down.
Alex Palou whoops field at St. Pete
Nuts and bolts
The race lasted one hour, 52 minutes and 21 seconds, at an average speed of 96.118 mph. There were eight lead changes among seven different drivers and two cautions for seven laps.
Palou leaves St. Petersburg, Florida, with a 13-point lead over McLaughlin.
The NTT INDYCAR SERIES returns to action, Saturday, at Phoenix Raceway.
