NASCAR on TV this week
The IndyCar field takes the green flag at The Thermal Club in 2024.
(Photo: Joe Skibinski/Penske Entertainment)

2025 The Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix Preview

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For the first time in its history, the NTT IndyCar Series will hit the Palm Springs Thermal Club for a race that will actually count in the record books. 

The spring testing location is a challenging, 3-mile road course, surrounded by sprawling multi-million dollar homes in California. Last year the series ran the unique $1 Million Challenge, which Alex Palou won. 

However, fan enthusiasm for the non-points race didn’t seem to motivate leadership to try a repeat of the experiment. Instead, a standard event was scheduled.

Here are the storylines to follow as IndyCar heads into its second round in the 2025 championship.

Last Year

Palou won what was deemed an uninspiring event in 2024 despite a format meant to spice up the racing and force drivers to go hard for each segment. But it didn’t work. With 10-lap heat races, and a 20-lap feature, where no more than half of the paddock was on the track at one time and no tire changes, there wasn’t enough action to grab headlines.

That begs the question, what will it be like with a full field racing around the 3-mile circuit? There will also be the inclusion of the hybrid power unit and the option tire, neither used last year. It’s anticipated there will be significant tire wear as the track is in a relatively sandy environment, so an old-school Darlington NASCAR race might break out.

It’s Early, But…

The paddock watched Palou win at round one in St. Petersburg with a great strategy and skilled race craft. Now the field returns to a track he conquered last year. 

I’m not a school-trained race strategist by any means, but to beat Palou in the championship, drivers actually have to beat him on Sunday. Meanwhile, he just goes out and wins. So is anyone going to step up?

No fret though, as championship competitors ran well at St. Pete. The Team Penske duo of Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin redeemed themselves after getting zero points this time last year with a third and fourth place respectively. Scott Dixon leap-frogged Newgarden in the last couple of laps to take second.

All of them are consistent championship contenders, so they are comfortably pressuring the three-time champion Palou right out of the gate.

Get Comfortable

Drivers in new seats for 2025 didn’t fare amazingly at St. Pete. The highest finisher out of the group was Christian Lundgaard for Arrow McLaren Racing with an eighth place. But the rest of the top 10 included Rinus VeeKay and Alexander Rossi in their first drives with other teams. 

That shows that it does take a minute to figure out a new operation, unless you are Palou who won his first race with Chip Ganassi Racing (and that’s worked out well hasn’t it?). Since The Thermal Club is just hosting its second IndyCar race, the challenge of catching up might balance out as teams will have less data than say at the 2-decade run at St. Pete. 

Perhaps I’ll put one of these guys in my predictions? 

What else?

Kyle Kirkwood had a sneaky good start to the year. He earned his first top five at St. Pete and second in a row, dating back to Nashville, where he finished fourth.

Teammate Marcus Ericsson was on the verge of a top five at St. Pete, but finished one spot behind Kirkwood in sixth. That was his second-best result to start the season in his IndyCar career as he looks to rebound from inconsistency last year.

In their first IndyCar race, PREMA Racing finished back to back, with Callum Ilott 19th and Robert Shwartzman 20th. 

Frontstretch Predictions

Let’s go crazy. I’m picking Palou to go two for two to start the year. 

OK, so I’m not clinically insane. But I would be if I didn’t make that call. 

I feel Dixon gets second because the track conditions are going to require some great tire conservation and he’s one of the best.

Third, how about one of them fresh faces in new places, Lundgaard — who I did pick to finish here at round one as well. I was feeling good about that pick, as he ran well early at St. Pete, and I just got a Palou-esqe vibe with him in a consistent ride like Arrow McLaren.

  1. Palou
  2. Dixon
  3. Lundgaard

IndyCar’s second race of 2025 is this Sunday (March 23) for The Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix. Coverage will begin at 3 p.m. ET on FOX.

Tom Blackburn

Tom is an IndyCar writer at Frontstretch, joining in March 2023. Besides writing the IndyCar Previews and frequent editions of Inside IndyCar, he will hop on as a fill-in guest on the Open Wheel podcast The Pit Straight. A native Hoosier, he calls Fort Wayne home. Follow Tom on Twitter @TomBlackburn42.