Thermal, CA

  • Reigning NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Alex Palou scores second win in two races to open 2025 championship defense   
  • Herta, Rosenqvist score top-five finishes at The Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix 
  • Palou extends his championship lead to 39 after just two rounds

 Alex Palou continued his impressive start to the 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season, scoring back-to-back victories to open his championship defense. 

The reigning and three-time IndyCar series champion started third at today's Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix and made the pass for the lead with 10 laps to go. Palou would eventually cross the line with an impressive 10-second lead over P2. Today's victory extends the Chip Ganassi Racing driver's championship lead to 39 points after just two races. 

Colton Herta started alongside Palou in the fourth position on the grid aboard his #26 Andretti Global Honda, and would finish just off the podium in fourth place—and just ahead of Meyer Shank Racing's Felix Rosenqvist. 

Rosenqvist's MSR teammate, Marcus Armstrong (P7), Herta's Andretti Global teammate, Kyle Kirkwood (P8), and Palou's Chip Ganassi teammate, Scott Dixon (P10) all scored top-10 finishes with Honda power today at Thermal. 

The Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix Honda Race Results

1st Alex Palou Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
4th Colton Herta Andretti Global Honda
5th Felix Rosenqvist Meyer Shank Racing Honda
7th Marcus Armstrong Meyer Shank Racing Honda
8th Kyle Kirkwood Andretti Global Honda
10th Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
11th Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
15th Kyffin Simpson Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
17th Rinus VeeKay Dale Coyne Racing Honda
20th Devlin DeFrancesco Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
21st Marcus Ericsson Andretti Global Honda
24th Louis Foster - R Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
25th Jacob Abel - R Dale Coyne Racing Honda

R – Rookie

 

Quotes

Alex Palou (#10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) finished first: "Number one! I'm very, very happy about this weekend. Since practice 1 we've had an amazing car. During the race, it was challenging. It was a crazy race. We needed to gamble a little bit with the tire choice at the beginning—we started on used alternate tires to try and have the new ones at the end and go as fast as possible at the end of the race. Everyone at the #10 car and HRC gave me everything I needed. We had plenty of Honda power and great pit stops, so I just had to execute and everything went well. I couldn't be happier to start the season with a double win. Let's go!"

Felix Rosenqvist (#60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda) finished fifth: "It was a weird one! We really struggled on the black tires in the first stint and luckily we got off of them pretty quickly because of the struggle and we did the whole rest of the race on reds. We were the opposite [compared to the performance on the black tires] on the red tires, we were really good. I think we were one of the strongest cars, and we were able to capitalize on that and pick off a few cars at the end to get a top five. That's a pretty good day from starting P9!"

Kelvin Fu (Vice President, Honda Racing Corporation USA): "Great to go back-to-back for Honda to start the year. Amazing drive by Alex Palou in difficult conditions. I think this is really a testament to Alex, to the team at Chip Ganassi Racing, but also to everyone at Honda and HRC. We're putting in a ton of effort to improve over last year and looking at every single little detail where we can get an advantage. I think St. Pete and today is really some of the culmination of that effort. We're going to continue to push forward the rest of the season and hopefully take the Indianapolis 500 win and the Manufacturers' Championship." 

Next
The 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES Championship returns to California for the home race of Honda and HRC, the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, on April 13th.

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