3 drivers feat. Josef Newgarden who can win Thermal Club IndyCar GP

The 2025 Indycar season is one race down, and next up on the calendar is the Thermal Grand Prix of California (previously known as the $1 Million Thermal Club Challenge). Team Penske's Josef Newgarden showed solid pace in his No. 2 car at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg (P3 finish), and in line with this, he could prove to be the ultimate victor of the upcoming event.

Last year's Thermal Club event was run in a non-championship format. It was only designed from the point of view of a 'made for TV' kind of an all-star event. However, for this year, it has been turned into a full-fledged points-giving Grand Prix.

The race weekend is slated to kick off on March 21, and ahead of the event, here are drivers who could potentially score a famous win.

#3 Josef Newgarden

As mentioned earlier, the two-time world champion Josef Newgarden is in red-hot form. Despite starting the first race of the 2025 season from P10, he was able to fight his way up the field to ultimately end his outing with a strong third-place finish.

Josef Newgarden was on song from the get-go, and with a solid start to this year's campaign, he will enter the Thermal challenge with a positive mindset.

#2 Alex Palou

The next name on this list is that of the 2024 world champion, Alex Palou. He has started this year's campaign with a win at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and is riding high on confidence. Moreover, like Josef Newgaden, Palou did not have the best of qualifying sessions in St. Petersburg. He started his 100-lap outing from P8 but was steadily able to move up in the race.

Interestingly, in last year's $1 million challenge at the Thermal Club in California, Alex Palou was the one who came out as the victor. He was rampant in his No. 10 Chip Ganassi challenger and was thus able to get the better of his rivals to triumph in the one-off event.

#1 Scott Dixon

The final name is that of Alex Palou's teammate, Scott Dixon. Going on current form, the 44-year-old will be one of the hot favorites to secure the win in the 2025 Thermal Club Grand Prix.

In St. Petersburg, Dixon was the one who was on course to secure the triumph in the 100-lap race. However, had it not been for radio communication issues with his team, he would have been the one to secure the victory. This was even admitted by the Chip Ganassi Racing team in the post-race interviews. Dixon comfortably kept Josef Newgarden and Alex Palou at bay, but it just wasn't to be for him.