Alex Palou started the IndyCar St. Pete race in P4 but managed to snag the win, charging ahead of his competitors with a 13-second lead. Chip Ganassi Racing worked hard to bring Palou another great car ahead of this season. Having won 4 Championships, his dominant win started off his 2026 IndyCar season right where he left off.
Every win is pure excitement
Palou was high off his win when discussing the results of the St. Pete IndyCar race. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver explained that his short memory helps him forget about his winning streak. He puts his next race at the forefront of his mind and allows that excitement to carry through each weekend.
“Yeah, honestly, it feels like — I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, but I have really short memory, and I try and forget about stuff very early, or my mind just does. So for me, winning a race, it’s pure excitement.”
Palou explained that he still gets very excited for every season. He expressed his delight for the work CGR has put into the car this year. Though he reminded himself that it is never easy, the No. 10 driver maintained his excitement for another good car put into action at the St. Pete IndyCar track.
“We are genuinely very excited. We’re genuinely very proud of the amazing work that everybody has done in the team. But, yeah, I knew we had the team and the ability to win, but it’s never easy. Yeah, I was so excited.”
Balancing fuel and tyres
Starting behind Scott McLaughlin’s No. 3 Chevy on pole and Marcus Ericsson in the No. 28 Honda, Palou had a different tyre strategy. He used two sets of alternate tyres before finishing the race on hards to take a dominant lead in the race.
Ahead of the St. Pete IndyCar race, the CGR driver knew the Honda gets better mileage and adjusted his strategy accordingly. He ran longer than McLaughlin and Ericsson, easily overcutting them.
“We were talking about this. We had different tire strategies. I was a little bit surprised by the fuel-saving that the 3 and the 28 were doing at that moment. Just felt like it was just being more on our favor, especially knowing that Honda always gets a lot better mileage.
The Spanish driver explained that he isn’t always sure they saved enough tyres to maintain a lead. He knows that not every race works in his favor like that. However, Palou was careful to save enough tyre and fuel on the St. Pete IndyCar track in the first stint.
“I was just waiting. I didn’t know if we were going to have enough tyres at the end to make it, but yeah, we did. We had couple of clean laps, and that’s what gave us the lead. So, yeah, it doesn’t always work like that. Sometimes you go, you try to push, and the tyres are gone, so you just lost an ability to pit and get out of the bad tyres, but we were able to keep both fuel and tyres.”
The No. 10 driver won the St. Pete IndyCar race last year and has had a top 10 finish for the last five years. Being a seasoned driver, he knows exactly when to push and how much to rein in before the end of a race.
Staying ahead is about keeping pace
This weekend, Palou got ahead of the top 4 drivers on the 50th lap of the St. Pete IndyCar race. His 2.5-second lead soon grew to 8, 9, 10 seconds, and by the last lap, he won by a 13-second margin. The CGR driver didn’t push for a higher margin nor back off during the race. He focused on the feel of the tyres, using their degradation to guide his pace on the track.
“It’s, like, in between. I wouldn’t say it’s one or the other. I think especially on street courses, it’s not good to relax for the tyres, like the bumps, how they feel. You might just start feeling even worse if you go at lower speeds.”
Palou continued, stating that he solely focused on what was good for the car and his driving during the St. Pete IndyCar race. He keeps pushing throughout a race because he knows what can happen when he drops the pace or tries to stay calm. In Mid-Ohio last year, he had the lead for 75 laps but went wide and lost it to his teammate Scott Dixon.
“I try and keep my pace, try and keep a pace that it’s good for the car and my driving. Yeah, every time that I try to keep — to stay calm or to drop the pace, it’s been bad. Yeah, I was just trying to push. Not to, like, quallie laps, but I was pushing until the end.”
Recognising weaknesses
Palou is known for speaking on his areas of improvement, but he was tight-lipped on his weaknesses after the first race on the St. Pete IndyCar track.
“I mean, I’m not going to say it here out loud, but I mean –“
Choosing to elaborate, the Spaniard highlighted that he didn’t start on pole despite winning the first race of the season. He also aims to brake one foot later after the St. Pete IndyCar race. He believes you can always keep on improving, and that’s the beauty of any sport. The CGR driver reinforced that he keeps his soft spots to himself in order to ward off his competition early this season.
“I feel there are so many things. We didn’t start on pole. We started fourth. I think we could have done stuff better throughout the weekend.
“I feel like myself also driving-wise, you can always brake just a little bit later, just one feet. It only takes one feet later to go a bit faster. You can always go on power a bit better. You can always set up your car better.
“So you can always keep on improving, I feel like, in all sports, which is the beauty of it. So, yeah, not going to tell you where everybody can beat me, but…”
Competitors are right behind him
Looking past the first IndyCar race on the streets of St. Petersburg, Palou knows his competition is following close behind. He cautioned that his performance looked good on paper, but he knew the other cars aren’t far behind.
“Closer than it seems. It looks very good on TV. It looks very good on paper. It’s actually super close.”
The No. 10 driver gave his perspective on how one decision can make a huge difference in the pecking order. All it takes is one decision on fuel or a bad pit stop, and another car can take the lead. Once behind, he elaborated that the dirty air can keep you from Victory Lane. Though he had a large margin at the St. Pete IndyCar race, the CGR driver knows one wrong move could’ve dropped him down to P4 or worse.
“If you don’t make that decision on the tyres or that decision on fuel or the pit stop doesn’t go well, you suddenly are not P1. You don’t have clean air. You start pushing more, and suddenly you are P4. You can go from a race that you win by 12 or 10 seconds to finishing P4, and it only takes one action not to work for it to go bad.”
He remained honest that, despite his performance this weekend in St. Petersburg, it isn’t easy to win. The four-time IndyCar champion reminded his Yellow Army that it takes a lot for things to go well every season.
“So, yeah, honestly, it’s not easy to win races. Although it might seem like it, it takes a lot of stuff to go well for it to happen.”
