Alex Palou celebrates his victory, holding his daughter after the race. Photo courtesy of Isabella Ferrou.
Alex Palou claimed first place on Sunday, March 1, at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg NTT IndyCar Series race. The race was the main event of the three-day motorsports festival featuring NASCAR, IndyCar, and Mazda.
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By Terry Hunsicker
TAMPA, Fla. — On Sunday, March 1, Alex Palou claimed first place in the NTT IndyCar season opener at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. The main event of the three-day motorsports festival, Palou earned 53 points on his quest for a repeat NTT IndyCar Series championship.
The reigning series champion, Palou, took home the trophy with a dominant performance, leading in 59 of the 100 laps and the final 30 laps. Palou took the lead on lap 42 following the second of only two caution flags during the race, surrendering the lead for only two laps before the finish. Despite the strong performance, Palou said he felt beatable.
“It’s not easy to win races, although it might seem like it,” said Palou. “It takes a lot of stuff to go well for it to happen.”
Palou said while he would celebrate the win on Sunday night, he would be back at work preparing for races the next day.
“Are we gonna be amazingly fast, or are we just gonna be slow? Nobody knows. So, we take it one step at a time,” Palou said.
Barry Wanser, Palou’s strategist and formerly the senior manager of Palou’s team Chip Ganassi Racing, before a recent retirement from the role, said the decision to start on fresh alternate tires and use one of his two sets of alternate tires during the final round of qualifying on Saturday helped Palou go the distance on Sunday despite failing to win pole position.
“We started on the sticker reds which we knew was a bit of a risk to not save those, the best tires, for last but it worked out,” said Wanser.
Scott McLaughlin and Christian Lundgaard, who shared the podium with Palou at second and third, respectively, each started the race on primary tires. McLaughlin won pole position the previous day during qualifiers and held the lead until lap 34.
“I think they were on the right strategy today with the tire, and that’s, that’s the decision they made compared to us,” said McLaughlin.
The NTT Series opener was not the only race of the day. On Saturday, NASCAR made Craftsman Truck Series history by having its first street-course race. INDY NXT opened Sunday’s races with its own variant of the St. Pete Grand Prix race, and USF2000 and the Mazda MX-5 Cup series each held their second races of the weekend following the NTT series race.
Indy NXT witnessed 17-year-old rookie driver Nikita Johnson earn first place in his hometown of St. Pete, overtaking pole-sitter and second-place finisher Max Taylor at the start of the 42-lap race to win without ever giving up the lead. Johnson previously won on the St. Pete course in 2024 as part of the USF Pro 2000 series and in 2023 with the USF2000 series.
When asked about his plans to celebrate at home, Johnson said he would have an early night, but his friends and family might not.
“I’ll probably hear them from my room and have to put AirPods in, but we’ll see what happens. Hopefully, I’ll get to sleep,” said Johnson.
Following the conclusion of the NTT series race, USF2000 held its second race of the weekend. Sebastian Garzon, winner and pole-sitter for race one, claimed a second win during race two.
The weekend festival concluded with race two for the Mazda MX-5 cup series in St. Pete, won by Justin Adakonis. Adakonis, pole-sitter for race two, leaped from his performance in race one, where he placed 35th overall after failing to complete the full 23 laps.
NTT IndyCar will continue its season at the Good Ranchers 250 in Phoenix on March 7. INDY NXT’s next race is on March 15 at the Grand Prix of Arlington in Arlington, Texas, and both the Mazda MX-5 cup series and the USF2000 will return on the weekend of April 14-16 at the Indianapolis Grand Prix circuit.