Alex Palou "can't wait" to reunite with parents and sister at 50th Long Beach GP

Chip Ganassi Racing's Alex Palou won the 2025 Thermal Club IndyCar Race and became the first driver since Scott Dixon to start the campaign with back-to-back wins. FOX’s latest signing Will Buxton caught up with Palou after the Thermal Club race, as the Spaniard highlighted the excitement to meet his parents at the upcoming IndyCar race.

The first two rounds of the IndyCar season are done and dusted with the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach up next, which is going to be the 50th running of the event. IndyCar play-by-play announcer Buxton got in the Honda Civic Type-R alongside three-time IndyCar champion Alex Palou for a victory lap around Thermal Club.

As Palou started his campaign with back-to-back wins, Buxton asked the Spaniard whether he was confident going into the next race of the season at Long Beach. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver replied:

“I would say motivation is high. Confidence is not that high. Like it's going to be a completely different drive to St. Pete, to thermal, and we just need to do all over again. When we go there, we will be last in practice, I mean everybody starts from zero, right? So we need to do everything all over again. So I'm motivated, I'm confident that we have everything we need to make it happen. But it's a lot of work and I'm excited.” (5:00 onwards)

However, Alex Palou did highlight that his family is going to be at the 50th Grand Prix of Long Beach and that he cannot wait to meet and race in front of them. The three-time IndyCar champion added:

“My mom, my dad and my sister will be there, so I cannot wait to be at Long Beach.”

Palou started the 2025 Thermal Club GP in P3 and looked to settle for a podium midway through the race, but made the move in the last stint to take the victory.

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Alex Palou detailed the tire strategy that won him the 2025 Thermal Club IndyCar race

Pato O'Ward and Christian Lundgaard started ahead of Alex Palou and the order remained the same for the first 40 laps. However, unlike the Arrow McLarens, the Spaniard had a set of the new soft alternate tires left, which he utilized in the second half of the race to first overtake Lundgaard and then O’Ward.

AUTO: MAR 02 INDYCAR Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg - Source: Getty

Explaining how the strategy won him the race, Palou said (via IndyCar):

“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 compound), and we knew that we were looking toward the end of the race with that 10 car, and we did it.”

Pato O'Ward used his set of new soft tires at the beginning of the race. By the end of the race, Alex Palou had a 10+ second lead to the Arrow McLarens behind in P2 and P3.