“Hahahahahahaha, AGAIN!”
And as per my last email, welcome to the second half of a DRR Double, and in Part 2 of the first week of Motorsport season, we’re going to kick off the 2026 IndyCar Season with its traditional opening round in St Petersburg, Florida. And well, if you were tuning in hoping to see Alex Palou face some adversity, I’d advise you to stop reading this post, go outside and touch some grass. There’s nothing good for you here.
Still here? Right, let’s get into it then.
“You have 19 Sir! Hit me!”
The story really began for St Pete on Saturday. Scott McLaughlin got his third pole in St Pete, with some surprising names behind. Marcus Ericsson, under extreme pressure to succeed in a contract year, was second. And then, Dennis Hauger for Dale Coyne Racing with a superb effort in third, with teammate Romain Grosjean in P6 too. Stunning to put Alex Palou in a sandwich.
So of course, Palou immediately passed Hauger into Turn 2 and got into P3 the moment the race started. Although we immediately got a caution due to Sting Ray Robb “allegedly” putting Santino Ferrucci into the wall at Turn 4… not that we got a direct angle on camera. Welp. 30 second stop and hold, and Mick Schumacher got collected too, meaning his IndyCar debut lasted 25 seconds without a lap logged. It means him the 10th driver in IndyCar to make a debut without logging a lap:
Mick Schumacher (2026), Louis Foster (2025), Tom Blomqvist (2023), Benjamin Pedersen (2023), Takuma Sato (2010), Jeff Bucknum (2005), Naoki Hatotri (1999), Jose Romero (1984), Dale Whittington (1982) and… Chip Ganassi (1982). Ha. (Credit: Hickey93 on X)
You’d never guess if you looked at the box score that McLaughlin led the first 34 laps of this one. I suspect given his early pace on the black tyre he was trying to stretch the opening stint while keeping Ericsson and Palou close behind. The only problem with that was it was playing directly into Palou’s hands. He was able to stretch his opening stint out four extra laps than Ericsson and three more than McLaughlin, and when the former pair started fighting when realising the overcut was stronger, the table was laid for Palou to take the lead when he got home from work.
Then Daddy came home.
A middle stint of the Gods from Palou. He took his one remaining sticker set of Alternates and laid the hammer on Ericsson. It was slow at first, but as Palou was just hitting low 1:03 after low 1:03, it became more and more clear that Ericsson was taking out more of his tyre life to try and stay with him, and the longer that went on, the bigger the gap grew. Two seconds, three, then it ballooned out as Ericsson’s tyres completely went. By the time McLaughlin was able to pass him, it was 12 seconds and it didn’t really matter that Palou still had his Prime tyre stint to take, the race was over barring a caution, and the caution never came.
Palou came in on Lap 67 of 100 to eliminate that caution chance, and a new challenger appeared – Kyle Kirkwood, who came from 15th on the grid to get to second via overcuts and track position. He was on sticker reds to try and gun Palou down, but he fell into the exact same problem – Taking too much tyre to try and make laptime. All while Palou was dancing on his primary tyre, his bread and butter. Kirkwood’s gap stabilised, then it started growing again. And by the end of the race and McLaughlin and Lundgaard came through, it was a 13 second gap again.
I’m not fully convinced Palou’s strategy was the best one. But what matters is, it was the best for him. And what he produced was one of the most perfect drives I can remember in IndyCar. He was the shiver of sharks from “Deep Blue Sea”, fronted by LL Cool J. The entire second and third act of the film is pulling the survivors around the facility to intentionally flood the place and get free. It sounds silly, but it’s the same principle here – Palou’s pace was so ridiculous, he bullied the field into over-exerting themselves into oblivion. The only one who didn’t take the bait was McLaughlin, and he lost out in traffic after his gameplan unravelled in terms of track position.
It’s Palou’s 20th win in 85 starts for Chip Ganassi. It’s his 44th podium in that time span. HE HAS AN OVER 50% PODIUM RATE FOR CGR SINCE JOINING THEM, IN A SPEC SERIES, OVER FIVE SEASONS AND CHANGE. WHAT IN THE FUC-
*deep breath and opens a fresh can of Irn Bru* Ahem.
Look, I try to be as measured as I can in this weird space I call a blog, but it’s really, really hard not to dump a TNT Sports sized vat of glaze on Alex Palou because he is just that much better than everyone else here. It’s silly. I need the Lightning Round before I end up needing a cold shower.
The Lightning Round
Swings and roundabouts. On a positive note, an excellent pull for FOX to bring in Jameis Winston, the world’s most enthusiatic man, to hijack the grid walk and be race starter, he was infectiously great, sounded like he genuinely enjoyed himself and couldn’t help but smile at seeing him lead Dennis Hauger’s team into a pre-race prayer.
On the downside… Jon Gruden was Grand Marshal. Now, to be mildly serious for a moment here, there’s a reason why the man’s changed his Twitter handle to Barstool Gruden, the media company’s seemingly done a very good job of rehabbing of his image after being fired for his racist e-mails. But because he’s now suing the Ginger Hammer in charge, he’s the good guy again. I hate everything I’ve just typed and IndyCar needs to stop rubbing shoulders with racists to help promote its product. It’s desperare and unnecessary. Back to the unserious!
Christian Lundgaard’s 7th podium since joining McLaren in 18 starts. If he can start figuring out the ovals, Pato O’Ward’s going to have company. Odd that the latter dropped off quite hard in the final stint. Speaking of which, is it good that Zak Brown failed to mention their other driver in the team? The one who finished 20th and was lapped on the road?
When was the last time Dale Coyne had both its cars in the Top 10? The miraculous Gateway 2022 night with a rookie David Malukas. An exceptionally mature and level-headed weekend from Dennis Hauger, and we all knew Romain Grosjean wasn’t slow in his first stint in the series. Badly needed weekend from them.
Fair play to Josef Newgarden going from the back of the field to finish 7th. Proof the man still has some road track awareness in him. Just makes you wonder what could have been given he botched his qualifying by being dropped in traffic in Round 1.
Happy Birthday Will Power! How to celebrate your big 4-5? Two weekend crashes into the Turn 10 wall. Welcome to Andretti! (The real famous birthday was Bob Pockrass anyway. 🐐 Screw Justin Bieber)
Scott Dixon had a tyre that wanted to escape to its people, so it did.
So, this race also introduced a new rule for IndyCar street tracks – Two Soft stints are mandatory going forward, forcing a two-stop race. What’s weird is, last year we had the green-coloured recyclable tyre that had no life whatsoever, so it kind of made sense seeing the drivers in survival mode. In this race, Palou comfortably took an alternate red set 38 laps… either he really is that big a freak, or I wonder, what’s the point? Did having two red stints make this race any better? Not convinced.
Shoutout as well to the NASCAR truck series for letting us get some fun cameos with “Little Jimmy Hinch” finishing in the Top 10, and some guy called George making his big mainstream Motorsport return. Where I have heard the Franchitti surname before…
And finally, will another Podcast hire Will Buxton before I hit publish on this blog? Get money, holla back.
The Verdict: 6/10 (Decent) – Hard for me not to go much lower here given the glaze pool swimming party in the main section, but we did get a surprising amount of thrills here, which is amazing given we only had two cautions. Mildly intriguing strategy in the middle portion and some fun passes, including an early contender for the Golden Melon for McLaughlin’s outside Turn 10 pass on Ericsson. That was filthy and I previously thought impossible. Decent start to the season. Now what’s weird here – We’ll see you next week on IndyCar for Phoenix and one half of the Desert Double. Till next time.