Alex Palou fends off Scott Dixon to win IndyCar Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

Alex Palou roared into the lead within the IndyCar season-opening Grand Prix of St. Petersburg with 26 laps to go, and on Lap 83 of 100, he held a lead of 5 seconds over Josef Newgarden.

However slowly Newgarden reeled Palou in, because the race chief handled slower automobiles in entrance of him. With simply seven laps to go that lead of Palou’s was all the way down to below half a second, and simply behind Newgarden Scott Dixon joined the fray, operating lower than two seconds behind the chief:

That arrange a frantic sprint to the end, with all three drivers vying for the victory within the season-opening race.

With six laps remaining Palou lastly labored his Chip Ganassi Racing Honda round Sting Ray Robb, giving himself some respiration room. However as James Hinchcliffe puzzled within the FOX Sports activities sales space, some “producer politics” got here into play as Robb moved his Chevrolet to the aspect, permitting Newgarden in a Chevrolet to slip by him and provides him an opportunity to run Palou down once more.

However Newgarden couldn’t pull off the comeback, and would in the end accept third.

Palou crossed the road first, adopted by his teammate Dixon, who formed an ideal overtake round Newgarden on the ultimate lap to grab P2. Newgarden got here throughout the road third to safe the ultimate spot on the rostrum.

“I’ll inform you what, it was a loopy race,” mentioned crew proprietor Chip Ganassi to FOX Sports activities following the checkered flag. “Unbelievable.”

Listed below are the highest ten from St. Petersburg:

For Palou, it was his first win within the season opener since 2021, and for Ganassi, it was their first one-two end since Mid Ohio in 2023.

“What an incredible job by everybody at Chip Ganassi Racing,” mentioned Palou trackside. “It’s large. I’m tremendous completely happy. Truthfully we’ve been working actually, actually laborious. It’s been a spot that we’ve struggled so much previously, particularly me personally, so to start out with a win within the 2025 season, it’s wonderful.”

IndyCar returns to motion at The Thermal Membership IndyCar Grand Prix later this month.