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Alex Palou during the 2025 IndyCar Grand Prix of St. Petersburg
(Photo: Joe Skibinski/Penske Entertainment)

Alex Palou Takes 1st 2025 IndyCar Win After Final Pit Stop at St. Petersburg

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The three-time and back-to-back defending NTT IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou started his campaign for a fourth title off the right way with a win at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Sunday (March 2) for the first time in his career.

Palou won the opening race of the 2025 IndyCar season after battling to the front thanks to excellent pit strategy from his team throughout the race. Palou, who started eighth, asserted his dominance on the final round of green flag pit stops, passing his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon on the undercut and the driver who originally finished first last year Josef Newgarden on an overcut.

Palou captured his 12th career IndyCar win of his career and his first at St. Petersburg.

Palou and his No. 10 team put themselves into position to win, and the Spaniard was able to hold off a pushing Newgarden in the final run to the checkered flag with a lap car of Sting Ray Robb ahead of him for most of the chase.

“What an amazing job by everyone at Chip Ganassi Racing, HRC, DHL and everybody on the 10 car,” Palou said. “I’m so glad we got that No. 10 in victory lane.

Dixon was able to get by Newgarden entering turn 10 on the final lap to earn CGR their first one-two finish since 2023 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Dixon held the lead on the winning strategy mid-way through the race before he lost the lead to his teammate. On top of that, he ran the whole race with no radio.

“We had no radio, just flying blind out there,” Dixon told FOX. “Ultimately, I think they were trying to call me in because in that last lap we had before we pitted, there was just so much traffic, and we lost two or three seconds. That’s where the 10 car got us. [It’s] definitely frustrating. I think we had the speed. We had a great car. I think the pit stops were fantastic, just would’ve been nice to have a radio so I could know what was going on out there.”

“We had a really clean out lap, good run [and were] fast, and we opened the gap from there,” Palou said.

Newgarden ran out of fuel coming to the line but was still able to finish on the podium in third ahead of his Team Penske teammate and polesitter Scott McLaughlin. Kyle Kirkwood in his Andretti Global No. 27 Honda completed the top-five.

“It was a great race by the [No.] 2 team, a couple of hiccups, but this team fought really hard” Newgarden said. “We’ve had a good car all weekend. I think [we] could’ve qualified higher than 10th. I felt like our car was capable of winning, just didn’t quite get there for a couple of reasons. The pit cycles – we needed to go longer, and we had a shift at the end that we didn’t realize, so we had to give up that second place, but it was a great fight from our team.

“This was a good start for us, Newgarden continued. We’re on the podium. We got some points. We’d like to keep these points on the board and then have a good solid year. It’s a long season.”

Marcus Ericsson, Felix Rosenqvist, Christian Lundgaard, Rinus VeeKay and Alexander Rossi rounded out the top 10.

On lap 1, trouble found the mid-pack as Nolan Siegel, Will Power and rookie Louis Foster crashed in turn 3. All three drivers retired. This wreck was the only full-course caution of the day.

“Our strategy changed a lot during that first yellow,” Palou said.

The crash allowed Colton Herta, who started second, to lead the drivers who were able to pit and take the alternate soft tire off. Newgarden, Dixon, Palou and Kirkwood were the top five drivers that were able to execute the strategy.

Herta had a slow stop as he lost spots to Newgarden and Dixon due to his not getting the right rear tire on his No. 26 Honda under green on lap 40, shortly after, Herta had to come back in due to a problem with onboarding fuel.

Lundgaard and Rossi commanded the top two respectively midway through the race on an alternate strategy, choosing to take the alternates late in the race, but while in the lead, the 24-year veteran Dixon was able to drive all the way to the rear of the Arrow McLaren No. 7 Chevrolet of Lundgaard before he pitted on lap 69 for alternate tires.

McLaughlin lost the advantage due to the lap 1 crash after starting on the primary tires. The New Zealander couldn’t beat the advantage of the three on the better three drivers of Palou, Dixon and Newgarden.

Last year’s official winner at St. Petersburg Pato O’Ward had problems all weekend. He started 23rd and had early strategy issues that relegated him to the back for most of the race. He ran sixth late in the running but had to make a final pit stop that set him back to finishing 11th.

Marcus Armstrong raced in the top-five of the main strategy all day, but he had to retire his No. 66 Meyer Shank Racing Honda after mechanical issues with the left rear of the car. This was Armstrong’s second straight retirement at St. Petersburg.

Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Results

IndyCar will return to action at The Thermal Club near Palm Springs, Calif. for The Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix. Coverage will air live on FOX March 23 at 3 p.m. ET.

Wyatt Watson has followed NASCAR closely since 2007. He joined Frontstretchas a journalist in February 2023 after serving in the United States Navy for five years as an Electronic Technician Navigation working on submarines. Wyatt writes breaking NASCAR news and contributes to columns such as Friday Faceoff and 2-Headed Monster. Wyatt also contributes to Frontstretch's social media and serves as an at-track reporter, collecting exclusive content for Frontstretch.

Wyatt Watson can be found on Twitter @WyattGametime