ST. PETERSBURG, Fla — The six month offseason did nothing to dull Alex Palou. He wins the opening round of the 2026 NTT INDYCAR Series at St. Petersburg.
Palou successfully defends his win as he starts his season the same way he did last year for his 20th career INDYCAR win.
Photo: Ryan Kemna/TRE
While Palou had the win in hand halfway through the event, the podium fight was far from over.
Kyle Kirkwood ran second with six laps remaining, but fuel saving left him vulnerable.
Scott McLaughlin and Christian Lundgaard, free to push, drove past and secured the final two podium spots in that order.
Kirkwood sacrificed the battle to protect his championship bid and settled for fourth.
McLaughlin dominated early. He led from pole until the first pit stop cycle but surrendered the lead briefly to Marcus Ericsson.
Ericsson paid the price for the lead. A brush with the outside wall exiting turn ten from his cold tire defense on McLaughlin set the tone.
His defense continued with an aggressive block on Marcus Armstrong heading to turn one. The move cost the second-placed qualifier, and a hard-charging Armstrong, a good chance at podium.
Ericsson gave up a few spots from that move and finished sixth while his challenger Armstrong finished 11th after he overshot the corner.
From there it was the Alex Palou show. Starting a career-best fourth on the street circuit, he executed a perfectly timed overcut in the first pit cycle and grabbed the lead from Ericsson on lap 39 and never looked back.
A lap later, Scott Dixon brought out the second and final caution of the day.
His crew failed to tighten his right-rear lugnut and the tire completely fell off the car bouncing to a halt to join its brethren tire barrier into turn four.
His PNC Bank Honda sustained too much damage from the crash resulting in a 23rd-placed DNF.
Dale Coyne Racing teammates converted their top six starting positions to a double top ten. Their rookie Dennis Hauger finished tenth on debut while his more experience teammate Romain Grosjean finished eighth.
An impressive weekend for a team that assembled so late in the Indycar offseason.
New Places Big Issues
While the Dale Coyne duo shined, it was a rough start for other faces in new places.
Mick Schumacher’s IndyCar debut lasted only a handful of corners. Sting Ray Robb locked up his tires, slid straight into the barriers, and collected both Schumacher and Santino Ferrucci in the process.
Robb continued on but was later penalized for his actions and finished six laps down in 21st.
On the ensuing restart, new Team Penske driver David Malukas flat-spotted his left-front tire into the first corner.
The vibration finally gave way on lap 12, forcing him to nurse the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet to pit road and concede an early lap to the leaders.
Malukas recovered his lost lap after the lap 40 Dixon incident. But failed to get back inside the top ten finishing 13th overall.
On lap 22, Will Power suffered rear suspension damage after a near carbon copy of his practice crash in turn ten.
The carbon fiber went everywhere and the new Andretti Global driver retired from the event finishing 22nd.
They can redeem themselves next week as the NTT INDYCAR Series returns to Phoenix Raceway for their joint weekend alongside the NASCAR Cup Series.