Will Power charged from 21st to finish sixth Sunday in The Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix, a finish that resonated almost as much as one of his 44 career NTT INDYCAR SERIES victories.

“Anytime you finish in the top six, it's a good day,” Power said.

Power gained 15 spots in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet – more than any driver in the race – without the aid of a slowdown. The 65 laps around the 3.067-mile, 17-turn road course ran caution-free, the first NTT INDYCAR SERIES race without a yellow flag since October 2020.

“To do that finish from full green, it's not like a yellow or anything, that was very solid for us,” Power said. “Today we needed that, man. It's been three terrible races in a row, if you count the last two of last year and St. Petersburg. So just for everyone on my group to just get a bit of a roll on here and feel good about a day was really good.”

Power entered the second race of the Milwaukee Mile doubleheader last season trailing Alex Palou by 43 points. With two races remaining last year, both on ovals, Power had a legitimate chance to catapult by the Chip Ganassi Racing driver, who is winless on circle tracks.

Instead, an incident in that Milwaukee race left him 10th on a day Palou finished 19th. In the season finale at Nashville Superspeedway, Power incurred an early-race seatbelt problem, relegating him to pit road and dropping him from second in points to fourth.

The 2025 season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding saw Power collected in an opening lap crash in Turn 3, leaving him with a 26th-place finish.

That’s why The Thermal Club is a place that could kickstart Power into the championship conversation. He jumped from 26th to 14th in points after two of 17 races.

“I feel like if we started in the front today, we would have finished in a pretty good position, maybe a top-five or the win,” Power said. “It was a good day for us – over the moon. Really happy.”

Even with Palou scoring two consecutive victories to begin the season, Power isn’t worried.

“He can have two bad races, as well,” Power said. “He can switch very quickly. It’s just the way this racing is. I've been around too long to know that you could even think about that this early in the season.

“You look at last year. He rolled out of Milwaukee, and I had a great shot to win that race and kind of just caught the weirdest bump. I just couldn't believe it. But that could have been me going in equal (in points), but then the belt would have come off anyway.”

Rosenqvist Happy with Fifth, New Technical Alliance

Felix Rosenqvist charged from ninth to finish fifth in his No. 60 SiriusXM Honda on Sunday. The Swedish driver was happy with his 18th career top-five finish, calling the 65-lap race a good day.

“Really quick car on the reds (alternate Firestone Firehawk tires), struggling bit on the blacks (primary tires),” Rosenqvist said. “Been a case like that all weekend. It was cool to be able to have something there at the end.”

Rosenqvist started the race on the primary tire and pitted after 10 laps for the faster Firestone alternate compound. He pitted again on Lap 29 and went back to the primary tires but fell to 15th on that stint. The team called him down pit road for the final time on Lap 47 and elected to use the alternate tire to get to the finish. 

“Everyone did a good job keeping together,” Rosenqvist said. “We were patient in the beginning of the stints, and we're able to capitalize on that and end. Great day for the team, as well. A P5-P7, we'll be pretty happy with that.”

His teammate, Marcus Armstrong, finished seventh in the No. 66 SiriusXM/Root Insurance Honda, a strong afternoon for MSR in the second race of its technical alliance with Chip Ganassi Racing.

Last season, the team was aligned with Andretti Global.

“To be honest, we have a Ganassi partnership now, and I think that the strength is the race, for sure,” Rosenqvist said. “We weren't as good in qualifying this year as last year, but the race is so important, and it's so long that if you don't have the pace, you're not able to have a good day. So pretty excited about that. I think there's still some stuff we can tune up as we go forward here but a pretty solid start of the season.

“I think, for example, Alex Palou is quicker than I am, and I definitely want to learn from that. I don't want to feel happy having such a gap to ‘teammates.’ Definitely stuff to work on. They'll get involved in some crazy stuff and just kind of get the ball rolling here and see if we can get a podium soon.”

Herta Rebounds from St. Pete To Finish Fourth

Colton Herta finished fourth in last year’s The Thermal Club $1 Million Challenge exhibition event. This weekend, the Andretti Global driver started fourth and finished in the same spot in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda.

“I think that’s probably the max we could have built for,” Herta said. “I don’t think we were good enough to get on the podium. Unfortunately, the McLaren’s and (Alex) Palou seemed a little bit faster than us. It's frustrating not to be able to fight for that win but really can’t complain about a top five.”

Sunday’s result helps forge a path to a championship pursuit after dropping from starting second in St. Petersburg to a 16th-place result. Even with Palou winning as Herta expected, the chances ahead allow a methodical fight back.

“If you look at last year, we kind of circled this one, like I expect him (Palou) to win here,” Herta said. “In the win-loss column, it's not that big of a hurtful thing now. It sucks to give up that chance of winning St. Pete, but I'm just happy that we're able to fight back. Long Beach is a good place for us.”

Odds and Ends

  • Palou is the first driver to win back-to-back races to start a season since his teammate Scott Dixon won the first three races of the 2020 season.
  • The last caution-free NTT INDYCAR SERIES race was 72 races ago, the second race of the Harvest Grand Prix doubleheader in October 2020.
  • Chip Ganassi Racing has won the first points-paying race at the last three road/street courses to debut on the NTT INDYCAR SERIES schedule. In addition to today's race, Palou won on the new circuit on the streets of Detroit in 2023, and Marcus Ericsson won on the streets of Nashville in 2021.
  • Alexander Rossi led Lap 18 on Sunday. That was the first road course lap led for Ed Carpenter Racing in 980 days. Rinus VeeKay led 18 laps on July 17, 2022 on the streets of Toronto. Rossi finished ninth in his No. 20 ECR Java House Chevrolet.
  • Dixon finished 10th in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. That was his 299th career top-10 finish. He is the defending winner of the next race, the 50th Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on Sunday, April 13.
  • There are two NTT INDYCAR SERIES tests this week. Rookie Robert Shwartzman of PREMA Racing will make his oval debut at Nashville Superspeedway on Wednesday, March 26. He is joined by 2024 INDY NXT by Firestone champion and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing rookie Louis Foster to complete their oval rookie tests. The other test is Thursday, March 27 on the 2.439-mile, 14-turn Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci and David Malukas, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon, Alex Palou and Kyffin Simpson, Dale Coyne Racing’s Jacob Abel and Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Conor Daly and Sting Ray Robb will drive at that test to prepare for the Sonsio Grand Prix on the IMS circuit Saturday, May 10.