Communication Breakdown Hurts Scott Dixon's Chances

Updated Mar. 2, 2025 10:01 p.m. ET

INDYCAR

What will it take to deny Alex Palou a third consecutive NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship? At a minimum, an operational radio.

The miraculous aspect of this season-opening weekend is that six-time series champion Scott Dixon said he navigated most of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding without communication with his Chip Ganassi Racing crew. It’s one thing to not have feedback from the spotters positioned around the 14-turn, 1.8-mile street circuit, but imagine not knowing the pit strategy options in a race overly flush with them.

Dixon contended that the lack of a radio cost him this race victory, and it might have as Palou’s No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda overtook him on Lap 75 after Dixon missed a chance to pit together in the final round of stops in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.

“We caught that traffic with about five or six cars and lost about two or three seconds on that in lap, so that was a bit of a nightmare,” Dixon said. “Yeah, (I) needed like a lap board out there or something.”

Nonetheless, Palou has effectively been the class of the field over the past four years, so why would the start of Year 5 be any different? In the end, it wasn’t, with the Spaniard scoring his second career season-opening victory by 2.8669 seconds ahead of Dixon.

The victory was Palou’s 12th in the series and gave him 32 career top-three finishes, with 31 of them coming in the past 68 races (45.6 percent). Dixon finished second in a race for the 52nd time and stood on the podium for the 143rd time in his career.

No wonder team owner Chip Ganassi was literally dancing in victory lane after his first 1-2 series finish since the same order completed the July 2023 race at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

There was a lot to like about Sunday’s 100-lap race once a first-lap accident in Turn 3 was cleaned up. Team Penske’s Will Power ran into the back of Arrow McLaren’s Nolan Siegel, setting off a chain reaction that included rookie Louis Foster of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. All three cars were done for the day.

As this was just the first race of the season, it’s difficult to label winners and losers. But clearly, some left the Florida Gulf Coast city happier than others and some surely had mixed emotions.

Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin was the pole sitter in the No. 3 DEX Imaging Team Penske Chevrolet, but the decision to start on tires of Firestone’s primary compound rather than the alternate compound went wrong. The first-lap incident allowed everyone first choosing the alternates to quickly get off them, under caution to boot. McLaughlin led 40 laps off sequence, but he should have known he was cooked if the race stayed caution-free the rest of the way, which it did. In all, it was a 94-lap race to the finish.

McLaughlin settled for fourth place, one position behind teammate Josef Newgarden in the No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet. Both drivers would have liked more from the season’s first weekend, but their championship hopes didn’t take a hit as those of Andretti Global’s Colton Herta (16th place) and Power (26th) did. Herta lost a host of positions mid-race when the right rear tire on his No. 26 Gainbridge Honda got hung up during a pit stop.

Herta’s teammates fared better. Kyle Kirkwood and Marcus Ericsson finished fifth and sixth, respectively. Ericsson finished 23rd in last year’s race.

It was a disheartening day for Meyer Shank Racing, which had qualified Felix Rosenqvist and Marcus Armstrong on the second row. Like McLaughlin, both drivers started the race on the primary compound, which meant they had to use the alternates longer than everyone else and their first pit stop would come under green. Rosenqvist finished seventh in the No. 60 SiriusXM Honda, Armstrong 24th in the No. 66 SiriusXM/Root Insurance Honda following damage to his left rear suspension.

Arrow McLaren’s glass was less than half full. Siegel got collected in the No. 6 Chevrolet, Christian Lundgaard led 23 laps and finished seventh in the No. 7 Chevrolet on the non-winning strategy, and Pato O’Ward’s difficult weekend – he started 23rd – required a valiant effort just to finish 11th in the No. 5 Chevrolet.

Dale Coyne Racing surely was pleased with its first race with veteran driver Rinus VeeKay, who finished ninth in the No. 18 Honda, and Alexander Rossi’s debut with Ed Carpenter Racing garnered significant lead-pack airtime even as a late pit stop was required to fulfill the requirement to use the alternate tires at least two laps. Rossi finished 10th in the No. 20 ECR Java House Chevrolet.

PREMA Racing made the most of its series debut, getting full-distance performances from Callum Ilott and rookie Robert Shwartzman despite finishes of 19th and 20th. AJ Foyt Racing’s new pairing of David Malukas and Santino Ferrucci similarly ran together, finishing 13th and 14th. The Foyt pair were separated by less than four-tenths of a second at the finish.

For all, there is time to regroup as the next race is The Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix on Sunday, March 23 (3 p.m. ET, FOX, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network).