Alex Palou, the Chip Ganassi Racing driver won the Thermal Club Grand Prix in Thermal, California on March 23. While Pato O'Ward dreamed of taking the win at the track, his dreams were soon crushed by the Spaniard.
Alex Palou put together an impressive race full of strategy and pace. He won the race by 10.1857 seconds ahead of O'Ward who had to settle for second place.
While speaking to Bob Pockrass, a Fox Motorsport Insider, Palou spoke about the massive fan following O'Ward has:
"I think it's good for the championship. It's good for the competition. It's good for Pato's fans, so they keep on coming to the races."
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Until the last 15 laps of the race, it seemed like O'Ward had the win in the bag but the wrong strategy by the British team turned the race on its head. McLaren chose to go for the Firestone Firehawk primary compound tires towards the end of Lap 50 while Alex Palou opted for the Firestone Firehawk alternate compound tire. The alternate tires aided Palou to blaze past both the McLaren drivers.
O'ward was caught in the traffic ahead of him and his tires began to give up on lap 56 which allowed the car #10 driver to overtake him easily. The 27-year-old put a gap of 3 seconds between him and the rest of the field by Lap 58.
Post race Palou thanked the Chip Ganassi Racing team for making the right decision during the race.
“What an amazing weekend. We had a really fast car since practice, and everybody at Chip Ganassi Racing on the 10 car executed perfectly. We knew it was aggressive to start with the used reds (alternate tires), and we knew that we were looking toward the end of the race with that 10 car, and we did it.” Palou said.
This is the second victory in a row for Palou and the #10 car team during the 2025 season. Alex Palou has a gap of 39 points in the championship standings between him and O'Ward.
Alex Palou names teammate Scott Dixon as biggest rival
In a recent interview Chip Ganassi Racing driver Alex Palou recently named his teammate Scott Dixon as his biggest rival.
The car #10 driver who is currently chasing his fourth title with the team, was faced with the question of who is his biggest rival in the sport. Initially, Palou gave a very diplomatic answer he said:
“I think in IndyCar, we have 27 full-time drivers who compete in the championship, and you can always expect different drivers and different teams battling for the title. So I'm not counting on one specifically."
"Honestly, I think we need to take it race by race, and there will be, as always, some surprises from teams or drivers that we didn’t expect based on the last couple of seasons, but they will be there. So honestly, I’m focused on trying to get that No. 10 car to the front as many times as possible this weekend, and we’re ready to battle any driver in the series.” He added.
When questioned further about who has a friendly rivalry with on the grid, Palou answered:
“Honestly, I have to say it’s Scott Dixon, my teammate. He’s a six-time champion, and it’s a little bit of both. On one hand, you always want him to be upfront. But at the same time, he’s your biggest rival. Honestly, I’m happy when he wins because I can feel the energy of my team rise, but he’s my biggest rival on track. He will always be my biggest rival.”
Among the two drivers, they have nine titles between them. Dixon has 6 championships to his name, while Alex Palou has 3 titles and is currently chasing his fourth.
