IndyCar: Palou schools Dixon and Newgarden to win in St. Pete
No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing DHL Honda driver Alex Palou took Scott Dixon and Josef Newgarden to school on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida, Sunday to win the Firestone GP of St. Petersburg NTT INDYCAR Series race.
Having won the IndyCar Championship three of the last four years, Palou proved why he is again the best driver in IndyCar.
On his final pitstop, he undercut leader Scott Dixon, took the lead, and never looked back despite having to navigate the moving chicane, Sting Ray Robb, who would not get out of the way of the much faster Palou.
Robb allowed Newgarden to reel in Palou, but Palou finally passed the JHR driver with five laps to go. Once Palou was past, Robb let Newgarden and Dixon go by without a fight. Palou must have been steaming mad in the cockpit
However, Palou kept his cool and kept his Ganassi teammate Dixon (who passed Newgarden for 2nd with one lap to go) and Newgarden at bay to win the 2025 NTT INDYCAR Series opening race.
“What an amazing job by everybody,” Palou said. “They gave me everything we needed this weekend to win. I told you yesterday we had a really, really fast car.
“Our strategy changed a lot during that first yellow, but I’m so glad we got that No. 10 in Victory Lane. It’s been 138 days since Nashville (2024 season finale), and I’ve been dreaming about this every single night.”
Spaniard Palou, who started eighth, earned his 12th career victory in the series. The Ganassi team secured its first 1-2 finish since July 2023 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
Polesitter Scott McLaughlin came home 4th, 8 seconds behind while Andretti Global Honda driver Kyle Kirkwood rounded out the top-5 almost 11 seconds behind Palou.
Team strategies played a huge part in today’s results. The alternate tires were not the favored ones during the race. Due to an incident on Lap 1, both Palou and Dixon pitted under yellow on Lap 3 to get off the alternate tires, while the leader did not.
Alex Palou, Ganassi Racing No 10
“I couldn’t be happier. It’s been a long off-season and a tough off-season for everybody at CGR and HRC. They’ve been working really, really hard to try and — I mean, we were speaking on Thursday during media or Friday that it was one of the places that we’ve been struggling in the past, and we wanted to get a little bit closer to the competition.”
“I wanted to be here in Victory Lane, but I did not expect maybe to be here in Victory Lane. That shows the amazing job that all the men and women did at Chip Ganassi Racing during the off-season. OnYeah, got lucky this time. I’m very glad, I’m very pleased of the strategy they called. At one point it was tough, on lap 5 or 6, that we were P14. It doesn’t seem too bad, but when you drop positions on a street course, it’s actually tough to gain them back, and you expose yourself to mistakes or to accidents.e-two for the team.”
“Yeah, got lucky this time. I’m very glad, I’m very pleased of the strategy they called. At one point it was tough, on lap 5 or 6, that we were P14. It doesn’t seem too bad, but when you drop positions on a street course, it’s actually tough to gain them back, and you expose yourself to mistakes or to accidents.”
Scott Dixon, Ganassi Racing No 9
Scott Dixon, who finished 2nd, did not have a radio to hear the pit crew. The Kiwi was asked how he knew when to pit.
“I had no radio for the entire race. It was kind of tough just to see what we were doing, kind of mileage-wise. I knew it was going to be a lot tighter, obviously; once the first caution happened, it was going to be a strict kind of two-stopper.”
“Kind of worked on the warm-up laps and kind of for the first 10 and that was about it, but ultimately cost us the race, I think, with not coming in when I should have, I think, with about maybe the same lap as Alex. We caught that traffic with about five or six cars and lost about two or three seconds on that in lap, so that was a bit of a nightmare.”
“Glad we got some good points and a nice one, too, for the team.”
2025 Firestone GP of St. Petersburg Results
| Pos | No | Name | Laps | Behind | Gap | Led | ST | Engine | Points | Team |
| 1 | 10 | Alex Palou | 100 | 0.000s | 0.000s | 26 | 8 | Honda | 51 | Chip Ganassi Racing |
| 2 | 9 | Scott Dixon | 100 | 2.8669 | 2.8669 | 5 | 6 | Honda | 41 | Chip Ganassi Racing |
| 3 | 2 | Josef Newgarden | 100 | 6.2044 | 3.3375 | 2 | 10 | Chevy | 36 | Team Penske |
| 4 | 3 | Scott McLaughlin | 100 | 8.6878 | 2.4834 | 40 | 1 | Chevy | 36 | Team Penske |
| 5 | 27 | Kyle Kirkwood | 100 | 10.9709 | 2.2831 | 0 | 9 | Honda | 30 | Andretti Global |
| 6 | 28 | Marcus Ericsson | 100 | 23.0835 | 12.1126 | 0 | 7 | Honda | 28 | Andretti Global |
| 7 | 60 | Felix Rosenqvist | 100 | 24.2895 | 1.2060 | 0 | 3 | Honda | 26 | Meyer Shank Racing |
| 8 | 7 | Christian Lundgaard | 100 | 32.2045 | 7.9150 | 23 | 5 | Chevy | 25 | Arrow McLaren |
| 9 | 18 | Rinus Veekay | 100 | 38.9443 | 6.7398 | 0 | 12 | Honda | 22 | Dale Coyne Racing |
| 10 | 20 | Alexander Rossi | 100 | 42.3385 | 3.3942 | 0 | 20 | Chevy | 20 | Ed Carpenter Racing |
| 11 | 5 | Pato O’Ward | 100 | 42.7293 | 0.3908 | 0 | 23 | Chevy | 19 | Arrow McLaren |
| 12 | 15 | Graham Rahal | 100 | 48.4992 | 5.7699 | 0 | 21 | Honda | 18 | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
| 13 | 4 | David Malukas | 100 | 49.1500 | 0.6508 | 0 | 17 | Chevy | 17 | AJ Foyt Enterprises |
| 14 | 14 | Santino Ferrucci | 100 | 49.5216 | 0.3716 | 0 | 19 | Chevy | 16 | AJ Foyt Enterprises |
| 15 | 21 | Christian Rasmussen | 100 | 52.3835 | 2.8619 | 0 | 24 | Chevy | 15 | Ed Carpenter Racing |
| 16 | 26 | Colton Herta | 100 | 52.7048 | 0.3213 | 1 | 2 | Honda | 15 | Andretti Global w/Curb‑Agajanian |
| 17 | 76 | Conor Daly | 100 | 59.6324 | 6.9276 | 0 | 22 | Chevy | 13 | Juncos Hollinger Racing |
| 18 | 8 | Kyffin Simpson | 100 | 60.1701 | 0.5377 | 0 | 15 | Honda | 12 | Chip Ganassi Racing |
| 19 | 90 | Callum Ilott | 100 | 61.2309 | 1.0608 | 0 | 27 | Chevy | 11 | Prema Racing |
| 20 | 83 | Robert Shwartzman | 100 | 62.3754 | 1.1445 | 0 | 18 | Chevy | 10 | Prema Racing |
| 21 | 77 | Sting Ray Robb | 99 | 1 LAPS | 11.9063 | 0 | 26 | Chevy | 9 | Juncos Hollinger Racing |
| 22 | 30 | Devlin DeFrancesco | 99 | 1 LAPS | 17.7243 | 0 | 14 | Honda | 8 | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
| 23 | 51 | Jacob Abel | 99 | 1 LAPS | 28.5915 | 0 | 25 | Honda | 7 | Dale Coyne Racing |
| 24 | 66 | Marcus Armstrong | 46 | Contact | 2 LAPS | 3 | 4 | Honda | 7 | Meyer Shank Racing |
| 25 | 6 | Nolan Siegel | ‑‑‑ | Contact | 0.2536 | 0 | 11 | Chevy | 5 | Arrow McLaren |
| 26 | 12 | Will Power | ‑‑‑ | Contact | 0.2063 | 0 | 13 | Chevy | 5 | Team Penske |
| 27 | 45 | Louis Foster | ‑‑‑ | Contact | 1.8981 | 0 | 16 | Honda | 5 | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
Race Statistics
Winner’s average speed: 97.173 mph
Time of Race: 1:51:08.5118
Margin of victory: 2.8669 seconds
Cautions: 1 for 6 laps
Lead changes: 9 among 7 drivers
Lap Leaders:
McLaughlin, Scott 1 – 31
Armstrong, Marcus 32 – 34
Herta, Colton 35
Newgarden, Josef 36 – 37
Dixon, Scott 38
McLaughlin, Scott 39 – 45
Lundgaard, Christian 46 – 68
Dixon, Scott 69 – 72
McLaughlin, Scott 73 – 74
Palou, Alex 75 – 100
Lucille Dust reporting live from St Pete