Alex Palou underscored Sunday at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg the adage, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
All during the offseason, leading up to this 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season-opener on Florida’s Gulf Coast, the question for most of the field was, “How do you stop four-time and reigning champion Alex Palou?” After his 20th career victory in his 99th start as he gapped runner-up Scott McLaughlin by a race-record 12.4948 seconds, the question remains unanswered.
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Drivers changed teams. IndyCar changed rules. Even the schedule changed. But Alex Palou didn’t. He positioned himself well with a No. 4 start, waited for his moment, capitalized on it, and kept exasperating his competitors.
Palou became the first driver since Sebastien Bourdais in 2017-18 to score back-to-back victories at the first race of the season in back-to-back years.
Winning team owner Chip Ganassi said immediately afterward, “You know, it’s interesting—all the other teams aren’t flat-footed over the off season. They’re working to try to beat us, and we work hard to keep a gap between us and them. And it’s a challenge. You never know how hard they worked or how hard you worked. And I’m pleased with what we’ve been able to accomplish in the off season to maintain some gap here with the competition. It’s been an interesting off season on the track and off the track. It’s all behind us now, and we’re right back to where we want to be.”
“All the other teams aren’t flat-footed over the off season. They’re working to try to beat us.”
Ganassi’s other headliner, six-time series champion Scott Dixon, once again, for a 22nd-straight time, left without a victory after making his record-extending 420th overall start and 357th straight. But he unintentionally paved the way for Palou’s continued dominance. Dixon lost a right wheel and tire just after leaving the pits on Lap 41. Palou was the beneficiary, as he took the lead that lasted for a total of 59 laps.
As he took the checkered flag, Palou said through the radio to his crew, “We’re so back!” But this driver of the No. 10 DHL Honda never had gone anywhere, really.
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He called his performance “quite an incredible drive” and “amazing” and said, “It’s been an amazing off season. Everybody at CGR and Honda have done a tremendous job and yeah, I don’t know what to say. The car was unbelievable today, but those Firestones were everlasting. They would just keep going. I had an amazing car today. A lot of power. So yeah, cannot thank these guys enough. This team keeps on improving, keeps on making new changes, and they just keep on raising the bar. So it’s pretty impressive. Long season in front of us, but what a great way to start this season.”
McLaughlin, Team Penske’s polesitter, and Christian Lundgaard, of Arrow McLaren, filled the podium.
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Hinting that he’s focusing on consistency throughout the 20-race season in pursuit of a first title, McLaughlin, who was going for a repeat of his 2022 triumph here Sunday, was pragmatic with his result. “Good start with the DEX Chevy. I love it—super fast, but I think it’s just a mixed bag on what tire you start on,” he said, referring to the two different tire compounds teams are required to use. “Maybe we come back here again and maybe you start on reds [alternates] and just get them out of the way. But overall, made the passes that we needed to make at the right times. And I thought we maximized our day. And that’s all we needed to do.”
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Christian Lundgaard.
Third-place finisher Lundgaard said his team’s “strategy was good. The car was really good. I think we missed it in qualifying. So ultimately, I just have to say thanks to Chevy and Arrow McLaren. We put so much effort into the off-season, moved into a new shop, and I think it’s just paying off. It’s just nice to get it done in the beginning of the year. So here we go.”
And on the series goes to Phoenix Raceway’s mile oval for this coming Saturday’s Good Ranchers 250 that’ll be the second of three consecutive events.
Andretti Global driver Kyle Kirkwood and Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward will head West with top-five finishes. Kirkwood, battling fuel management, dropped from second to fourth in the final 10 laps but ended up fourth. O’Ward, the 2024 St. Petersburg winner, was fifth.
First-lap pileup knocks out Mick Schumacher
The highly anticipated maiden race for former Formula 1 driver Mick Schumacher was anticlimactic. The Rahal Letterman Lanigan newcomer and son of multi-time World Drivers’ Champion Michael Schumacher and A.J. Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci were taken out on the first lap when Sting Ray Robb pinched them off in Turn 4 as he fought braking issues and sent them into the wall. For Ferrucci and Schumacher, it was a wrong-place/wrong-time encounter in this ninth first-lap caution period in the past 23 races.
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Schumacher said, “I saw Santino lock up. I wasn’t aware that there was another guy on the inside locking up. I mean Sting Ray, seemed like he went a little deep and that kind of chain-reactioned the whole scenario, unfortunately. Our real target was to finish the race and get in laps, and we got even less than that. So, yeah, very unfortunate.”
Schumacher’s Honda wound up on top of the rear end of Ferrucci’s Chevrolet. Robb’s Juncos Hollinger entry didn’t incur any serious damage, so he continued on after a 30-second stop-and-go penalty for avoidable contact and ultimately finished 21st. Schumacher was last among the 25 starters, and Ferrucci was 24th.
Will Power can’t solve braking problems in debut for Andretti Global
Hoping for a much happier 45th birthday Sunday and a more impressive start for his new Andretti Global team, Will Power had an early end to his race day.
His No. 26 TWG AI Honda sustained rear suspension damage after he hit the Turn 10 wall in a carbon-copy of his Friday practice crash.
“I felt like the same issue I had when I hit the wall, exactly the same problem that we’ve had,” Power said. “I feel really bad for the guys. We were doing such a- car was really good. And yeah, it’s just plagued us all weekend, this thing, and haven’t been able to fix it.”
David Malukas was ready, but tire wasn’t
David Malukas, who put his No. 12 Verizon Chevy into the Fast Six in qualifying Saturday, was looking strong for Team Penske for the first dozen laps Sunday. However, he finished 13th after a flat-spotted left front tire evolved into a full-blown delamination.
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David Malukas.
It was a disappointing first race for his new organization. Before the start, Malukas said, “It’s a new team. It’s a new year. It’s a new David Makulas.”
And he said several times that this is the most prepared he has been for a season-opener.
“So far, everything that we’ve been working on so hard, all this teamwork, the amount of resources I have, I feel like it’s finally coming to show here,” he said. “Even Practice 1, I’ve never had it where I pull up to St. Petersburg, Practice 1 or Practice 2 where everything feels good and I’m happy, everything’s in the position I want it to be.
“I’m always complaining about something,” Malukas said, “but this first time ever where I’m happy and I could focus on what I needed to do. And I think that qualifying performance showed that. So we’re going to keep carrying this momentum into this race today and hopefully our strategy will pay out.”
He’ll have five days to become refocused.
Susan Wade has lived in the Seattle area for 40 years, but motorsports is in the Indianapolis native’s DNA. She has emerged as one of the leading drag-racing writers with nearly 30 seasons at the racetrack, focusing on the human-interest angle. She was the first non-NASCAR recipient of the prestigious Russ Catlin Award and has covered the sport for the Chicago Tribune, Newark Star-Ledger, and Seattle Times. She has contributed to Autoweek as a freelance writer since 2016.