Alex Palou continues his dominance over the IndyCar field, getting his second win of 2025 at Thermal Club. McLaren’s Pato O’Ward and Christian Lundgaard joined him on the podium.
Thermal Club’s Second Year Running was full of Surprises.
IndyCar faced the heat while racing in California today during the Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix. This is Thermal’s second consecutive year as a stop on the IndyCar calendar and things were interesting, to say the least.
The Thermal Club is essentially an exclusive golf club but instead of being home to a golf course, it’s home to a racetrack. Last year, the drivers raced for a million-dollar cash prize but this year the race was for the championship.
Alex Palou Secures Second Win of 2025
It seemed like Pato O’Ward and the team over at Arrow McLaren were going to take home the win, but Palou managed to pull off an impressive stint during the race’s late stages.
The race was dominated by O’Ward who started on pole position. He would’ve been the second driver to win from the pole at Thermal after Palou pulled it off last year.
After his final pit stop, Palou was slowly closing the gap between him and O’Ward, and the once comfortable margin between the two ended with Palou overtaking and leading the last 10 laps for the win.
The podium was completed by O’Ward finishing in second and his Arrow McLaren teammate Christian Lundgaard.
The Palou show rolls on! 🕺@AlexPalou starts the 2025 season going back-to-back at Thermal! pic.twitter.com/Z4m5tGxcUU
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) March 23, 2025
Problems for Prema
Prema Racing made its debut in IndyCar this year, officially joining as the 11th team on the grid. The Italian team had an issue early on that was quickly resolved by lap two.
Callum Ilott drove into the back of teammate Robert Schwartzman which resulted in front wing damage for Ilott. He pitted after the opening lap for a new one.
Thermal Track Troubles
One of the harder things to navigate during the race seemed to be staying on track. Last year IndyCar saw one crash and others got close to making contact. The same goes for this year.
On the opening lap and well as lap 16, Marcus Ericsson went wide and ended up going off track and into the dirt. The second time it happened Ericsson was on fresh tires that hadn’t warmed up at all yet.
READ MORE: IndyCar Thermal Club Million Dollar Disaster
Additional Notable Moments
The heat was on in more ways than one for Scott McLaughlin. Following the contact between the two Prema drivers, McLaughlin and Devlin DeFrancesco made contact. Both cars spun off track but were able to rejoin the pack.
Later on, McLaughlin had engine issues. IndyCar started using the hybrid system mid-season last year. McLaughlin’s unit was overheating which had him waiting in the pits for it to cool. By the time he was able to go back to racing, he was down by six laps.
During his pit stop, Felix Rosenqvist ran over his air hose and consequently had to serve a drive-through penalty.
IndyCar goes racing again next month on April 13. They’re headed to another street circuit and it could be anyone’s day during the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. This will be the 50th anniversary of IndyCar racing in Long Beach.
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