1. It is comedy, pure comedy, every IndyCar race, because as much as we get our hopes up watching Scott McLaughlin and Marcus Ericsson battle for the lead during a pit cycle, the driver who will always come out on top is Álex Palou, and after the first round of pit stops, while McLaughlin and Ericsson tussled, Palou went three laps longer on his last stint and came out ahead of those two and the rest of the field in comfortable fashion. From there, the race was over. Palou was never challenged, running away during the second stint of the race and maintaining his mighty advantage over the final run to the checkered flag and his second consecutive victory at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
Palou didn't do anything brilliant. He didn't make an astonishing pass. He didn't run down the leaders. He ran his race and stayed out of harm's way. He stretched the fuel a little longer on the first stint and he benefitted from others fighting and losing time. The door opened and Palou slipped on through to first. It was all he needed.
He wins three races a year this way. He doesn't need to start first. He can start fourth or eighth or ninth and run this strategy and win. I don't know how you beat this. It is a man playing chess against a bunch of boys playing checkers. How does the rest of the grid not realize this? There are plenty of bright minds in IndyCar. This is year seven for Palou in IndyCar, his sixth with Chip Ganassi Racing. You would think by now someone would have figured this out and come up with a solution for the Palou strategy.
Nope! And instead we see Palou tallying wins like they are going out of style. Race #99 in his career and victory #20. Palou becomes the eighth driver to reach 20 career victories in his first 100 starts. The championship is over, folks. This wasn't even hard for Palou, and he is going to win races harder than this with ease.
2. It is hard to think Scott McLaughlin had another St. Petersburg race get away from him due to tire strategy. It kind of did today, but not like last year where the alternate tire compound became junk almost immediately and he had to run some kind of stint while a number of drivers got away with doing two laps under caution.
If McLaughlin isn't caught in the battle with Ericsson after the first pit stop, maybe he is able to remain ahead of Palou and maybe McLaughlin can hold off the Catalan driver as the race unfolded. With how well Palou ran, it might have been inevitable that Palou was going to win this race. If the pass wasn't going to happen after the first round of pit stops, it was going to come after the second round of pit stops. It is still a good day for McLaughlin. The pace is there. He just has to put the pieces together and not fall asleep when Álex Palou is around.
3. This was a monster day for Christian Lundgaard to go from 12th to third and push McLaughlin for second. Lundgaard had a good middle portion of the race, and took advantage when the top five was backed up due to Marcus Ericsson struggling on the alternate tire. Lundgaard made a pair of bold moves, first on Arrow McLaren teammate Patricio O'Ward and then on Ericsson. Those two spots allowed Lundgaard to get on the podium and push for more.
Lundgaard sounded confident during the race and he looked confident behind the wheel. We are going to see him hit higher levels this season.
4. Kyle Kirkwood held on to finish fourth. It could have been more, but it was great that it ended as well as it did. Kirkwood had to work from 15th. He made up ground early, but he really took advantage of Ericsson's slow end to his second stint to use that as a pick on the final round of pit stops. Kirkwood hit that logjam and came to pit lane. It got him a handful of positions and put him second. The problem became Kirkwood stopped early and had to save fuel.
The fuel conservation took Kirkwood off the podium, but he needed a race where he was competitive with the top drivers after not having a top five finish over the second half of 2025. He accomplished that today. This should be a good boost. Starting 15th was not ideal and that is an area where Kirkwood and Andretti Global must work on, but they should feel better after today.
5. Patricio O'Ward came up short of getting fourth. Fifth is a good day, but it felt like the limit for O'Ward today. He got bogged behind Ericsson and lost out to his teammate in that exchange. The fire wasn't there for O'Ward to take advantage of that opportunity and his teammate pounced. It is a fine start to the season. He is going to be competitive and win races. This is a good foundation to set.
6. Marcus Ericsson took sixth after falling behind. It could have been better, and Ericsson got away with some aggressive driving. I felt like the move on Marcus Armstrong was a little dirty, driving the New Zealander to the inside barrier on the main straightaway. No penalty was called, but it felt like that was the limit. This was an important day for Ericsson because I believe everyone has him being dismissed from Andretti Global when this season is over. He was the top qualifier for the team, he finished sixth, and if he keeps doing this over the remaining races, Ericsson is going to cause a good problem from the Andretti organization.
7. Moving from 23rd to seventh and not being the center of attention is a good achievement for Josef Newgarden. We didn't see anything incredible from him today but he didn't stay at the rear of the field. We were never wondering what was wrong with him in this race. Newgarden had to get a respectable finish out of today, but there is still work to be done. This funk is moving onto year three though. Newgarden has some work to re-discover his groove. Perhaps it is somewhere lost in the desert.
8. A top ten finish on his IndyCar return was the best possible outcome for Romain Grosjean this weekend. Grosjean qualified sixth and dropped to eighth, but it is still outstanding. We saw last year Dale Coyne Racing show good speed. Pit stops were always going to be a trouble area this year. That is where time was lost today. Grosjean looked comfortable and he looked like he never missed anytime. It will be fun to see this season play out.
9. Every damn year we finish a season opener and we are wondering how the heck Rinus VeeKay cracked the top ten. Again, not a special day, he never made a notable move, but VeeKay was ninth at the finish from 19th on the grid. He impressed us last year with such a drive in this race with Dale Coyne Racing. He has picked up where he left off at Juncos Hollinger Racing. If he can finish between 12th and 14th in the championship again, it is hard to fathom how VeeKay does not get a call from a larger team because he has been impressive with lesser equipment.
10. First race, first top ten finish as Dennis Hauger takes tenth though he started third. Hauger lost spots during the race. Some of that was down to pit stops. Some of it was also down to his speed at the end of stints, but it was his first race and Hauger is going to develop. This was a great weekend for the Coyne group. Both cars made the Fast Six. Both cars finished in the top ten. It is a great place to start from.
11. It was a great weekend for Dale Coyne Racing, but it was a missed opportunity for Meyer Shank Racing. Marcus Armstrong was 11th and Felix Rosenqvist was 12th. Armstrong got up to fourth at the start of the race from seventh. After the block from Ericsson, Armstrong lost time and never recovered. It is harsh he did not get a top ten finish.
I am trying to figure out the strategy for Felix Rosenqvist because he started on the alternate tire, switched to the primary on lap 31 and then came in under the caution for Scott Dixon's unsecured tire to put on the primary tire on lap 42. No matter what, Rosenqvist could not make it to the end of the race with that pit stop and he still had to put on the alternate tire a second time. Either there was a problem with the tire or the team didn't get enough fuel in the car. It didn't make sense and definitely ended a top ten run for the Swede.
12. Thirteenth doesn't feel good, but it could have been worse for David Malukas after his left front tire blew up a few laps after Malukas had a lock up. Seeing it live, it felt like Malukas should have immediately made a pit stop. That left front was not going to go a full stint. It didn't even make it ten more laps. This was a missed opportunity for Malukas. The result could have been much worse. Onto Phoenix!
13. This feels like another bad result for Louis Foster because of strategy because I don't know what Foster's team was thinking. Foster started the race with two stints on the primary tire, but he did 22 laps on his first stint and then the final stint had to be cut short due to the Dixon caution. Either way, Foster had to make one more stop from there.
It felt like Foster's team expected the alternate tire to wear much more and it didn't, or the team thought teams had to use both tire compounds twice, which they didn't. It was not the case that every team could only go 20-25 laps on the alternate tire. The tire lasted a full stint. It was not like last year when no one wanted to run the alternate tire.
We will talk about the tires in a moment.
14. Kyffin Simpson did nothing brilliant and finished 15th. I think Alexander Rossi's team misread the tire regulations because he stopped under the opening lap caution to get onto his second set of alternate tire, but the alternate tire was fine, and this put Rossi in a hole. Caio Collet was 17th and at least he got to run every lap. I don't think Collet was mentioned once during the race. Graham Rahal had a good race going and looked like he could steal a top ten finish but something happened in the final pit cycle and stint that dropped him to 18th. Rahal's day was better than this.
15. There is one notable thing Simpson did, and that was spin Christian Rasmussen in turn one. No penalty was called. I didn't mind there was no penalty. It was a racing incident, two cars going side-by-side into the corner. Rasmussen didn't look out for himself. It ruined his day.
16. Nolan Siegel got lapped on the track. Do you know how hard it is to be lapped on track in IndyCar on a street course? It isn't a matter of if McLaren replaces Siegel after the season. It is a matter of after what race does McLaren replace Siegel this season.
17. Sting Ray Robb locked up on the opening lap entering turn four and he collected Santino Ferrucci with Mick Schumacher left with nowhere to go. Robb locked up. It happens. It wasn't reckless. Robb's reputation doesn't help him. We know we have seen the maximum potential from him.
It was a tough start to the season for Ferrucci and Schumacher. For Schumacher, it was a tough start to his IndyCar career. It is the second consecutive year a debutant has failed to finish a lap in the season opener, and in both cases the rookie had nowhere to go.
18. Two drivers we haven't mentioned: Will Power and Scott Dixon.
Will Power slapped the wall exiting turn ten, and it ended what may have been a top ten finish. Scott Dixon had an unsecured tire after his second pit stop, which ruined what could have been possibly a top five finish or better.
Power had a similar accident in the first practice. People say it was down to driving for a new team, but all the teams have the same brakes. That wasn't a difference Power must overcome at Andretti Global compared to Team Penske. It was a strange thing to see two near-identical accidents for Power this weekend. That is kind of a red flag. Did Andretti get Power a year too late?
As for Dixon, the tire changer didn't get the tire secure. That is a rough way for a race to end. Dixon stopped under the first caution and put on the primary tire. He was in a similar boat a Foster and Rossi, but Dixon was doing better and had more speed. He was positioned to make that stop and come out in the top ten. He was going to start his second stint on the alternate tire. From there, Dixon could have gotten more, possibly benefited from the Ericsson logjam, and it could have been a top five or podium finish. This ends a run of ten consecutive top ten finishes at St. Petersburg.
19. Let's cover the tire strategy rule because I think IndyCar got this one wrong.
Making the teams use the alternative tire twice means races can still be two stoppers. I think what IndyCar was hoping for was the alternate tire would wear like it did last year and make it so everyone would have to make a third stop no matter what. That didn't happen.
If IndyCar wanted a three-stop race, it should make it mandatory to use both tire compounds twice, like it did as a trial in last year's Grand Prix of Indianapolis. It didn't do that, there was no difference between the compounds, and we had a normal St. Petersburg race where everyone was gunning to run a 33-35 lap stint to make it on two stops.
Regardless of the outcome of today, if there is going to be a primary tire compound and an alternate tire compound, there must a difference between them. If both tires can do the full stint and are basically be identical on time, then what is the point?
I thought Firestone had it right last year. The alternate tire went to junk quickly, but it played a role in strategy. How long was a team going to run them? How much time would be lost? IndyCar's issue last year, and it still remains, is if there is an opening lap accident, a team can get off a tire compound without ever really using them. They introduced this new rule but it didn't matter because there was no difference in the compound. Either the minimum number of laps on a compound must increase or the tire compounds must be very different.
We didn't see the alternate tire wear and become a handful until about 25 laps into a run today, but that is too late. The alternate tire compound should be junk after 15 laps and it should come down to whether or not a team immediately gets off it when it starts to turn or if it tries to hold on for another five laps or so because it gets them in a better fuel window or doesn't force the primary tire to be stretch too long. That would lead to a much more lively race.
Today's race was ok once we got toward the end of a stint, but what is the point of waiting for a half-hour for things to mix up? A tire that wears quicker keeps the race fluctuating, and if you have that and the mandate that the alternate tire must be used twice, these races could swing wildly with someone moving through the field while another team drops down the order due to a gamble gone wrong.
Firestone had it at the start of last year. Something was different this year because the alternate was nowhere near this good in 2025. Let's hope we do not see more of the same at Arlington and Long Beach.
20. IndyCar has an opening lap issue. We had the incident today. Last year saw seven races have a caution on the opening lap. There were also nine races in 2024 that had an opening lap caution. Twelve races in 2025 had the first caution fall in the first four laps of the race. That kind of predictability is not a good thing.
It makes the drivers look amateur. It takes the fun out of the start of races. It makes conservative pit strategies more appealing and teams will take fewer risks. It is problem, but I am not sure there is an easy solution. Can we spread out the field more at the start? Should there be a penalty for early accidents? Everyone would fear aggression being penalized, but I don't think it being a genuine 50-50 on whether or not 25 drivers can complete one lap without an issue is a good thing either.
A half-brain idea in the immediate aftermath of the race is if there is an opening lap accident, a penalty carries over to the next race. If you cannot get through the first lap in one race, you start from your pit box the next race. Not the end of the pit lane. Before the start of the final pace lap, any car in an opening lap accident in the previous race comes to pit lane and parks in their pit box. The race starts on track and once the field clears the end of the pit lane, those cars can exit their box and join the race.
It is harsh but it would likely change something. Drivers would be held accountable.
To add to it, if you are involved in a caution between laps two and five, you automatically start at the rear of the field. You would be on track but you would be starting 25th.
I don't know when it becomes a problem that IndyCar and its drivers notice, but I think it is a problem now. There should not be a fear to have a higher standard of driving.
21. We will be back at it in six days in Phoenix. It is a big opportunity for many.
