In both his heat race and in the final, Alex Palou was untouchable.
The driver of the No. 10 car took home his heat race by five seconds over teammate Marcus Armstrong (No. 11) in second. The Ganassi drivers were over ten seconds ahead of third place Graham Rahal (No. 15).
In the Million Dollar Challenge, Palou again won by over five seconds, never facing serious challenges for the top spot.
The podium was set from the start.
The Spanish driver took the lead at the start and fended off Scott McLaughlin (No. 2) for the first lap before driving off into the sunset. McLaughlin started third and passed Felix Rosenqvist (No. 60) at turn one after spending the whole first heat race behind the Swedish driver.
Palou insisted he didn’t have too easy of a day though.
“You always have to work,” Palou said. “It’s never easy to grow a gap to McLaughlin.”
As expected, tire wear dominated the race discourse. Drivers lost seconds of lap time in the 10-lap heat races.
“In heat one, I pushed to the max to see what the limit was,” Palou said. “I saw that that was not the way to do a 20-lap stint.”
Palou and the rest of the field spent the first half of the main event focusing on their tire life to optimize the second half of the event.
“Once I saw that, during the main race, everybody, especially McLaughlin and [Rosenqvist] were saving tires, I was like ‘okay, that’s the best thing that they could have done for us.”
After other drivers — most notably fourth-place finisher Colton Herta (No. 26) — spent the first half of the main event seconds off the pace, the race winner floated the idea of an elimination-style round. After a set interval of laps, the last-place car would be eliminated until only one remains.
“Everyone should be pushing,” Palou asserted.
Although Palou wasn’t a fan of the choice, Herta felt good about his choice not to push for the first half.
“I think our strategy worked,” Herta, who started the race last, said. On pace, the team expected to finish no better than sixth. The tire advantage gave the No. 26 team the chance to gain two more positions and an additional hundred thousand dollars.
The race was an unusual one — shorter and, as a result, less strenuous. For that reason, the exclusive nature of the Thermal Club and strategies like Herta’s, many fans were vocally opposed to the race on X (formerly known as twitter). Drivers, though, enjoyed their experience.
“Honestly, it’s the most challenging track we’ve been to in a while,” Rosenqvist said. “If someone gets a lap done, you’ll normally be four or five tenths in front of everyone.”
Palau went further, advocating for the race to move from an exhibition event to a race for points.
“I don’t know why this is a non-points race,” Palou said. “If we come back here, we need to keep it as a points race.”
Palou wasn’t alone in wishing to remove the exhibition tag from the race.
“Today, we proved that we can race here like any other track,” Rosenqvist said. “I think that would be really cool.”
Even though many drivers enjoyed this format and were not opposed to having more exhibition events, the reigning champion shot down the idea of making heat races and short, interrupted races a core part of the IndyCar schedule.
“I like to sweat and to suffer,” Palou said. “I wouldn’t want this every week.”
A different format, such as the elimination-style round Palou suggested, could allow for more of the sport’s stars to shine.
Six-time champion Scott Dixon (No. 9) failed to transfer from his heat race into the main event after a collision on the first lap led to a drive-through penalty for the New Zealander. Two-time champion Will Power (No. 12) and McLaren’s Pato O’Ward (No. 5), possibly the most popular driver in the series, also failed to advance from their heat races, along with a host of other established, successful drivers.
It could also have led to a less disappointing main event for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. The team shocked the paddock when all three of its cars transferred out of their heat races, but the wheels fell off the bus early in the 20-lap race.
Pietro Fittipaldi (No. 30) had to drop to the back of the field after the team realized it hadn’t put enough fuel in the car to make it to the tenth lap. He was then disqualified, as IndyCar had mandated that tanks be full of fuel. Graham Rahal (No. 15) dropped out of the race on lap nine, compromised by a stuck throttle.
Christian Lundgaard (No. 45) showed pace all weekend, but he had to drop to the back to start the main event after the team made repairs to his car, which was damaged in the lap one incident in the first heat race. Although he finished the race — unlike his teammates — he struggled to make any headway once the race got underway.
For now though, Palou views the event positively.
“I think it was a success and a win for IndyCar,” Palou said, before suggesting a similar event in January or October to bookend the season.
IndyCar will be back April 21 with the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, as the series returns to Southern California.