THERMAL, Calif. — In a race that ran green flag from start to finish, nobody could keep Alex Palou from the checkered flag.
Palou passed Pato O’Ward with 10 laps to go and drove to his 13th career IndyCar Series victory in The Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix Sunday. It was Palou’s second-straight victory to start the IndyCar Series season and already had a 39-point lead in the championship standings.
Palou is the first back-to-back IndyCar Series champion since Dario Franchitti won three-straight championships from 2009-’11. Sunday’s win was the first time an IndyCar Series driver has won back-to-back races since Scott Dixon opened the Pandemic-delayed 2020 season with three straight victories.
“We cannot wait to get our third win a row,” Palou said, referring to the April 13 50th Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. Palou has never finished out of the top five in that race but has never won the famed street race in Southern California.
As for Sunday’s race at The Thermal Club, Palou started third and followed the two Arrow McLaren drivers including pole-winner O’Ward and Christian Lundgaard for much of the race. O’Ward led 51 laps in the 65-lap race, but Palou waited until the right time to make his move.
On Lap 49, Palou came into the pits and put on a new set of softer Firestone Reds. When he left pit lane, he was once again in third place behind Lundgaard.
Two laps later, the race leader pitted and O’Ward’s crew put on a set of the harder Firestone Black primary tires.
O’Ward was able to maintain the lead during that pit stop sequence as Palou and Lundgaard had the best battle of the race for second position.
The two drivers went through four-straight corners using crossover moves that swapped positions. Palou had the tire advantage and Lundgaard could not hold him off.
That put Palou second, but he was 11 seconds behind O’Ward as the race leader on Lap 51.
By Lap 52, O’Ward’s lead was cut to 2.4 seconds.
One lap later, Palou passed O’Ward for the lead entering Turn 7 and never looked back.
“I knew I was going to catch him, for sure,” Palou said. “I didn’t know if I was going to be able to pass him once I caught him. It just depended on the tires.
“I couldn’t push way too hard to get fast to him because then, once I was going to get to him, I would have no more tires to finish the race, so I had to be a little bit patient at the beginning.
“I knew we were going to get to him. The question was if I was going to be able to overtake him and then pull away a little bit or not. So, everything worked out perfectly today.”
Palou’s No. 28 DHL Honda finished 10.184 seconds ahead of O’Ward’s No. 5 Chevrolet at the checkered flag.
“Obviously we were the car that had everything to lose because we were starting on pole,” O’Ward said. “We led 51 laps, it kind of sucks to lose it there at the end.
“We need to keep pushing. We obviously weren’t perfect. There is obviously something that we could have done better in order to give it more of a proper fight to the 10 car.”
Both O’Ward and Lundgaard said they were having overheating issues with the hybrid unit. Combine that with the tire strategy and it played in Palou’s favor.
“Obviously here it’s probably one of the most helpful areas where the hybrid is of good use because of those very stop-and-go corners and long straightaways,” O’Ward explained. “In race trim, if you’re asking me if I would have won that race if I didn’t have those issues, the answer is still no.”
So, for the second straight race, it was Palou who stole the show, and this time, he went back-to-back.
“Even to win the first race of the year at St. Pete, it felt amazing,” Palou said. “You always go through a weekend wanting to win, never expecting to win, but maybe expecting to fight.
“There is always so much stuff that needs to go right in order to win an IndyCar race — all the pit stops, your tire mileage, also fuel mileage. There’s so much stuff that needs to go right that it’s tough to get it.
“It’s amazing to start with a double win this season, so yeah. Super happy.”
