Thermal Club – Syndication Server

Failed circuit breaker behind FOX blackout at Thermal

The idle portion of The Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix went dark on Sunday as the live FOX broadcast disappeared for the better part of 15 minutes. A surprising development killed all television and radio broadcasting within the property and for …

The idle portion of The Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix went dark on Sunday as the live FOX broadcast disappeared for the better part of 15 minutes.

A surprising development killed all television and radio broadcasting within the property and for domestic and international viewers, and with an instant loss of content to air, FOX scrambled and ran a number of commercials before switching over to the NASCAR Cup race at Homestead-Miami.

Set in 90-degree weather in California’s Coachella Valley, extreme heat was the suspected culprit. An IndyCar official told RACER a failed circuit breaker in the TV compound was to blame for the sudden dropout that lasted from approximately lap 31 through lap 42 of the 65-lap contest won by Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou.

IndyCar, Thermal weighing options post-race for 2026 return

Senior executives from Penske Entertainment and The Thermal Club met on Saturday to determine how they’ll approach the possibility of having IndyCar return in 2026, and both parties agreed the best path forward was to reconvene after Sunday’s 65-lap …

“Getting through the first race is what we decided to do,” Penske Corporation president Bud Denker told RACER. “But talks have been very good with everyone here.”

Thermal GM Nicholas Rhoades agreed, and said that if an extension comes to pass, the next IndyCar race at the private road course will likely have a different look.

“Waiting to get a direction on the future is what makes the most sense; we want to be able to look back at the entire event and how everything worked, and then start talking about what’s next, which could have a change,” Rhoades said.

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Using the current 3.067-mile, 17-turn layout, Thermal had limited options for where to place grandstands to accommodate the 5000 spectators who turned up for the track’s first professional motor race.

To welcome more fans, and treat them—along with the drivers—to a more dynamic event, Rhoades wants to delete some of the less compelling sections on the first half of the lap and make use of a different configuration that would introduce faster turns which would push the track out to 4.2 miles.

“There’s a whole extra part of the track we don’t use for the IndyCar layout that we would want to go to because there’s a lot more room to put grandstands, and there’s a lot of new houses being built out in that section,” he said.

“And the speeds would increase; they could see 180mph if we brought in some of the other configurations that are possible. I think people would love it.”

Palou rides tire strategy to go back-to-back at Thermal

The inaugural Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix saw Pato O’Ward lead the field of 27 drivers for more than 50 of the 65 laps, but his pole position and dominance wasn’t rewarded with victory. It was Alex Palou in the No. 10 car and superb pit strategy …

The inaugural Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix saw Pato O’Ward lead the field of 27 drivers for more than 50 of the 65 laps, but his pole position and dominance wasn’t rewarded with victory.

It was Alex Palou in the No. 10 car and superb pit strategy from his Chip Ganassi Racing team that saw the Spaniard finish the race on new Firestone alternate tires while O’Ward was on new primaries, and after facing an 11s deficit leaving the pits on the final stop, Palou chased O’Ward down, took the lead on the 56th lap, and rocketed away to claim his second consecutive win of the season.

The race was a processional affair until the last pit stop exchange, but O’Ward and teammate Christian Lundgaard, who started first and second, were able to score plenty of points after completing the podium positions.

“We couldn’t be happier for the entire team, including the No. 10 car,” said Palou’s race strategist Barry Wanser, who made the fateful call that propelled his driver to the win. “We saved the sticker (alternates) for the end hoping to go for the win, and it worked for us.”

Alex Palou takes the lead from Pato O’Ward! #INDYCAR pic.twitter.com/WlVGf8TEc1

— INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) March 23, 2025

Palou was the first driver home for Honda with the two Chevy-powered drivers in tow. Behind the podium finishers, Andretti Global’s Colton Herta, Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist, and Team Penske’s Will Power—who started 21st — completed the top six.

The hot event in 90-degree weather was run under clear blue skies in front of approximately 5000 fans at the 3.067-mile, 17-turn road course situated in California’s Coachella Valley.

We missed it,” O’Ward said of the strategy call that saw his No. 5 Chevy come up 10.1s short of competing a flag-to-flag result.

“It’s always easy to be smart after the fact,” added Lundgaard.

After the top six, it was a strong day for MSR with Rosenqvist and teammate Marcus Armstrong in seventh, and the same was true for Ed Carpenter Racing which had Alexander Rossi earn eighth and Christian Rasmussen secure 12th. Graham Rahal also improved from 18th to 11th.

Bad days were had by Penske’s Scott McLaughlin who was hit and spun by Devlin DeFrancesco on the final parade lap and then had overheating issues with his energy recovery system, and PREMA Racing’s Callum Ilott, who was involved in an accident that shot his car skyward on the first lap.

Key moment:

Wanser’s decision to save and use new alternates to race to the end, and Palou’s dogged driving, chasing down and battling Lundgaard for second and his precise efforts on the limit to erase a huge deficit to O’Ward and drive away by a big margin.

Race notes:

The McLaren duo of Pato O’Ward and Christian Lundgaard led the field to green and got through Turn 1 without incident, but Marcus Ericsson did run wide moments later and lost a number of positions. Callum Ilott was shunted as well.

On the run to the green flag, Devlin DeFrancesco and Scott McLaughlin made contact which led to both spinning.

Lap 3 and O’Ward has 2.1s over Lundgaard and 2.6s over Alex Palou. Top three drivers are on alternates, with only O’Ward on new tires.

Team Penske’s rough qualifying where Josef Newgarden was the best of the trio in 17th isn’t working to their favor so far in the race; Newgarden’s the top Penske car after five laps in 22nd, Will Power’s 23rd, and McLaughlin’s in 25th.

Lap 5 and Palou’s 2.5s up on his teammate and 4.5s on a fading Palou.

Colton Herta, the first driver on primaries, is fourth, 7.9s arrears.\

Lap 9 and O’Ward’s running away with 5.1s over Lundgaard and 6.0s over Palou. Herta’s 12.1s back on primaries.

Lap 10 and Palou is just 0.2s behind Lundgaard.

Lap 11 and Lundgaard pits to trade alternates for primaries. Felix Rosenqvist follows.

Lap 14 and O’Ward’s 8.0s ahead of Palou and 20.4 on Herta.

Lap 15 and Herta’s in to take another set of primaries.

Lap 17 and Palou’s down 8.9s, but pits to remove his used alternated for new primaries. Ericsson’s off track again.

Lap 18 and O’Ward’s in for new primaries.

Lap 19 and Rossi’s in to take alternates.

Lap 21 and McLaughlin’s in the pits with an overheating energy recovery system.

Lap 23 and O’Ward continues to cruise up front with 2.3s over Lundgaard and 11.1s on Palou. Of the top five drivers, only Lundgaard is on alternates. Kyle Kirkwood is in fourth ahead of teammate Herta and Marcus Armstrong in sixth.

Power has been active, passing his way up to 12th.

Lap 28 and there’s nothing of interest happening. O’Ward is 3.8s clear of Lundgaard and 12.1s out on Palou. Kirkwood’s 26.9s back in fourth.

Lap 29 and Power pits from 10th. Kirkwood pits as well.

Lap 31 and Lundgaard pits from second.

The FOX broadcast goes dark. After running a bunch of commercials, FOX switches to the NASCAR Cup race.

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Lap 32—halfway point–and Palou is 10.9 behind O’Ward.

Lap 33 and O’Ward pits.

Lap 34 and Palou leads O’Ward by 23.4s.

Lap 35 and Palou pits from the lead. O’Ward returns to the lead.

Lap 39 and O’Ward has 4.4s on Lundgaard and 8.7s on Palou. Kirkwood is 26.4s behind, Herta’s 28.0s down, and Felix Rosenqvist is sixth, albeit 31.6s shy of the leader.

Lap 40 and Power is ninth and Newgarden is 10th as they are rallying hard to score good finishes.

Lap 42 and the FOX broadcast is back. Wild.

Lap 43 and Palou is challenging Lundgaard for second.

Lap 45 and O’Ward is up 8.3s on Lundgaard and 8.7s on Palou while Kirkwood is 28.9s shy.

Palou’s running out of grip. Big slide and his gap to Lundgaard has doubled.

Lap 48 and Lundgaard pits from second for new primaries.

Rosenqvist also stopped, but was sent with the outside wheel gun in the way; he drove over it but the series did not assess a penalty.

Lap 50 and Palou pits while 10.8s down to Palou to take new alternates. He returns right behind Lundgaard in third.

Lap 50 and O’Ward pits and takes a new set of primaries.

Lap 51 and Palou takes second from Lundgaard after some thrilling back and forth action.

Lap 52 and O’Ward’s lead is 7.6s over Palou. New primaries vs new alternates.

Lap 54 and Palou’s cut the lead to 2.4s.

Lap 56 and the lead is down to 0.4s.

Lap 56 and Palou takes the lead.

Lap 61 and Palou’s got 6.1s on O’Ward and sauntering to a second straight win.

Lap 65—the Palou Show is over.

Team Penske licking wounds after horrendous Thermal qualifying

The fickle and highly competitive state of IndyCar racing was on display during qualifying for The Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix. Team Penske earned pole position at the start of the month at St. Petersburg with Scott McLaughlin, but Saturday at …

Josef Newgarden was the best of the Chevy-powered trio in 17th with the No. 2 car, and Will Power, IndyCar’s all-time best in qualifying, was surprised to find himself in 21st with the No. 12 machine. St. Pete’s best was the greatest shock of all as McLaughlin was slowest in the opening qualifying group, which relegated his No. 3 car to a starting position of 25th.

“We just weren’t quick,” Newgarden said. “All of us didn’t look fantastic in our group. I felt really good going into qualifying. Obviously, we have to find some speed now.”

Among the extended Penske-affiliated cars, AJ Foyt Racing’s David Malukas was the fastest of the quintet, earning 12th while teammate Santino Ferrucci was 14th as the Foyt cars made good use of their Penske setup information.

“I lacked a good out lap to get some good front tire temp,” Power said. “Man, we were good in every single session except the one that counted. When it came time to do it, it wasn’t there.”

O’Ward crushes pole dry spell with Arrow McLaren 1-2 at Thermal

On Monday, Pato O’Ward was deep in his feelings about the poor state of his qualifying performances, coming off a shocking run to 23rd in St. Petersburg. Saturday at The Thermal Club, the Arrow McLaren driver put a pole position dry spell dating …

“Maybe I figured out how to drive quickly again,” O’Ward told RACER with a smile.

O’Ward was joined in the demonstration of speed by new teammate Christian Lundgaard, who locked out the front row for Arrow McLaren and Chevy (1m40.1245s).

Entering the Firestone Fast 12, eight Hondas dominated the mix, but it was the Bowtie that got it done as the best from Honda was Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou in third (1m40.3092s), who had the Andretti Global duo of Colton Herta in fourth (1m40.3978s) and teammate Marcus Ericsson in fifth (1m40.7435s). Ed Carpenter Racing’s Alexander Rossi completed the Fast Six (1m41.0359s) and bookended the session for Chevy.

The shock of qualifying came from Team Penske, which saw all three of its drivers fail to make it out of the opening round. With the 27-deep field spit into two opening knockout sessions, the majority of IndyCar’s fastest drivers were in the first group where all three Penske drivers were located. Once it was over, the trio of Josef Newgarden (P17), Will Power (P21), and Scott McLaughlin (P25) were left with a lot of overtaking to do during Sunday’s 65-lap contest.

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Qualifying got underway with McLaughlin spinning on his opening lap on Firestone’s primary tires as the field was met with 84 degrees and perfect blue skies.

In the final minutes, the group was led by David Malukas and Conor Daly, but as the rest of the field headed out on alternates to take their shots, the session ended with a transferring six led by Palou, Felix Rosenqvist, Scott Dixon, Marcus Armstrong, Malukas, and Kyle Kirkwood.

The second group with the remaining 14 drivers faced 85-degree weather and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Louis Foster was the first to set a fast lap. On the quicker alternate tires, O’Ward jumped ahead to first as the clock wound down to 2m30s.

It would shuffle as the best six to transfer was led by Lundgaard, Herta, O’Ward, Rossi, Louis Foster, and Ericsson.

Moving onto the Firestone Fast 12, things got serious in the final 90 seconds as Palou took command ahead of O’Ward, Lundgaard, Ericsson, Rossi, and Herta.

Positions seven through 12 were locked in with Armstrong, Kirkwood, Rosenqvist, Foster, Dixon, and Malukas.

In the Fast Six, Rossi sat on pit lane until the last moment as Palou went fastest until the McLaren drivers jumped ahead and locked out the front row.

O’Ward working on qualifying form to rectify poor performance

Pato O’Ward doesn’t like where he finds himself when it’s time to qualify the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevy. The young Mexican has five IndyCar Series pole positions to his credit, but the last came nearly three years ago on the Mid-Ohio road course, …

Pato O’Ward doesn’t like where he finds himself when it’s time to qualify the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevy.

The young Mexican has five IndyCar Series pole positions to his credit, but the last came nearly three years ago on the Mid-Ohio road course, and after a dismal start to the season where he qualified 23rd, it’s the one aspect of his game that needs immediate improvement.

“My qualifying was horrible at St. Pete. It wasn’t even bad; it was horrible,” O’Ward told RACER. “And then to top it off in horribleness, we got completely screwed by someone else’s crash with having a puncture. Considering that we were dead last, about to be lapped within like 20 laps and still made my way to 11th, [it] was good, but we can’t start so far back.

“I was the fastest car in terms of race pace the whole race, so it’s not like the speed was missing. But bad qualifying is really penalizing you in IndyCar, and then if you top it off with a puncture, some bad luck to start the race where you just can’t even go through your tire strategy, it all snowballs.”

Known for his lighting reflexes and rabid race-day performances, the ongoing struggles in qualifying is an admittedly strange development for one of IndyCar’s fastest drivers. O’Ward took three wins last year and tore through the field at St. Petersburg, but he’d have better odds of securing more podiums and victories if he was able to consistently fire the No. 5 Chevy into the first few rows during time trials.

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“I don’t want to get too greedy, because I do think things can always be worse, but if I could have qualified 10th, and I could have missed the crash, it’s a different conversation,” he said. “Just qualifying has been a struggle for me, even last year, and I don’t know why. I can’t pin quite pinpoint why I’ve struggled so much, because I’ve always been the other way around.

“Qualifying has always been the best, and then in the race, we can’t carry it through, but then I keep finding myself really battling through the races to get to the podium and to win races. We just need to get to where we want to be, which is the first five cars. I don’t know why this is happening.”

O’Ward does wonder whether the tail-heavy hybrid Dallara DW12 chassis has been part of the problem. For a driver who makes his speed with a fast-reacting front axle—and deals with oversteer in a flash—the change in weight distribution to the tune of 105 new pounds at the back of the cars just might be an issue for O’Ward to accept and overcome. Due to the rearward weigh bias, sliding the cars, which O’Ward has mastered, has become a perfect way to spin.

“I think [about] how I ran my cars in qualifying — with that little edge that you can deal with for a lap or two… It just doesn’t seem to be possible with the hybrid,” he said. “I’ve had to have the car in a somewhat different window for qualifying and it’s definitely been a struggle to feel like I can get the most out of it. I just haven’t quite gotten there.

“Obviously, when you don’t have all the confidence in the car because it bites left and right, when you do this and you do that, you just … you can’t extract the lap time, you know? We’ve had instances with the hybrid car where I’ve put it on the front row, but it’s not something that’s consistent for me. It’s an area I really want to make sure that we nail sooner rather than later.”

Lundgaard brings McLaren to the top of second Thermal practice

Christian Lundgaard ended Saturday morning’s practice for The Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix with the fastest lap in his No. 7 Chevy. The Arrow McLaren driver turned a 1m40.6421s lap despite being forced to sit out the last 10 minutes of the …

Christian Lundgaard ended Saturday morning’s practice for The Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix with the fastest lap in his No. 7 Chevy.

The Arrow McLaren driver turned a 1m40.6421s lap despite being forced to sit out the last 10 minutes of the session due to missing the mandatory visit to the scales to log driver weights after FP1 on Friday.

Behind Lundgaard in the No. 10 Honda was Alex Palou, Friday’s fastest driver (+0.4826s) and Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson in the No. 28 Honda was third (+0.6410s).

Meyer Shank Racing’s Marcus Armstrong was fourth in the No. 66 Honda (+0.7153s), followed by Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward in fifth (+0.7913s) and Team Penske’s Will Power in sixth (+0.8379s),

PREMA Racing, which lost most of Friday’s session with Robert Schwartzman’s No. 83 Chevy after a fuel line came loose and set the back of the car on fire, worked throughout the night to prepare a backup chassis that hit pit lane in the final minutes of the session. Shwartzman was sent out for an installation lap before the checkered flag.

The hot 45-minute session was run under blue skies and had teams focusing heavily on qualifying setups for the grid-setting run this afternoon.

UP NEXT: Qualifying, 5:05-6:30 pm PT.

Tire deg the life of the party at Thermal Club

A disjointed Friday practice session made it hard for IndyCar Series teams to do long runs on Firestone’s black-banded primary tires and the softer red-banded alternate compound, but some of the fastest drivers at The Thermal Club were able to offer …

“Oh, it’s still a cheese grater,” said Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward. “We just need to look at the data, really. I think it was a bit different for each of our cars. The common denominator is that the deg (tire degradation) is going to be big. I would see it like an Iowa — like an old Iowa kind of thing, I would say, but [on a] road course.”

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Most drivers completed short runs in the three- to five-lap range on the primaries, and maybe one or two hard laps on alternates to close the day. With Sunday’s 65-lap race expected to see a need for primary tires to last between 10-15 laps between pit stops, teams have a lot of knowledge to gain on how long the primaries can last before losing most of their grip.

“I think this track in general makes anything hard to drive, with the lack of overall grip and how Pato said — it ruins tires pretty quickly, so there’s a lot of deg,” said Andretti Global’s Colton Herta. “That makes it difficult to get a lap together. I think the overall performance of the tires, red and black, are a little bit better than what we saw in St. Pete, so that should be a little bit better in that sense. But it’s still going to be interesting, right? On the reds, you’re looking at one, maybe two laps in qualifying. It puts a lot of pressure on us to get it done on that one- or two-lap tire.”

Palou leads first Thermal practice with Andretti cars hot on his heels

Alex Palou ended Friday’s opening practice for The Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix with the fastest lap and all three Andretti Global drivers close behind. Palou turned a 1m40.5486s lap in the No. 10 Honda and had Andretti’s Kyle Kirkwood in second …

Alex Palou ended Friday’s opening practice for The Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix with the fastest lap and all three Andretti Global drivers close behind.

Palou turned a 1m40.5486s lap in the No. 10 Honda and had Andretti’s Kyle Kirkwood in second with the No. 27 Honda (+0.0901s), Marcus Ericsson in the No. 28 Honda in third (+0.1884s), and Colton Herta closing the Honda-powered cluster (+0.2953s) in the No. 26 car.

Ed Carpenter Racing’s Christian Rasmussen was next, first of the Chevy-powered drivers, in fifth with the No. 21 car (+0.3242s) and Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward completed the top six with the No. 5 Chevy (+0.3606s).

The long and hot session run under blue skies saw teams complete installation laps, return to the pits, and sit for the next 10 minutes. Once the session got moving, the first red flag appeared as PREMA Racing’s Robert Schwartzman came to a stop with small flames licking out of the back of the No. 83 Chevy. A powertrain issue ended his day on the spot, and towards the end of the first split group session towards the close of the afternoon, another red was needed to clear Devlin DeFrancesco’s No. 30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda.

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DeFrancesco appeared to stall in Turn 1, re-fired his car, but was unable to drive away. The No. 30 machine was eventually lifted and carried away on the back of a tow truck.

With just enough time left on the clock for the first group to go out and turn one more fast lap, Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist, who’d led the group, was pipped at the end by Herta. In the second group, Palou set his mark and it held until the checkered flag.

Tires — the big topic of the event — didn’t get as much attention as expected on Friday as the stop-start nature of the session, along with the paddock-wide effort to sit for long stretches and save tire sets for Saturday and Sunday, meant few drivers turned more than a handful of laps on the primary and alternate compounds.

Fastest times of the day, set in the split groups, were done on alternates, but speeds were not particularly notable after hard rains recently fell and washed all of the rubber from the 3.067-mile, 17-turn road course.

MSR to host 500 veterans and first responders at Thermal

Meyer Shank Racing has partnered with the Folds of Honor military charity to host 500 veterans and first responders during this weekend’s IndyCar Series race at The Thermal Club. The Folds of Honor organization, which MSR describes as “a nonprofit …

Meyer Shank Racing has partnered with the Folds of Honor military charity to host 500 veterans and first responders during this weekend’s IndyCar Series race at The Thermal Club.

The Folds of Honor organization, which MSR describes as “a nonprofit organization that provides educational scholarships to the spouses and children of US military service members and first responders who have fallen or been disabled while serving our country and communities,” will be given full access to the team and its operation at the event held in California’s Coachella Valley.

“Supporting our military and first responders is something that my family as well as Jim Meyer and his family value deeply.” said team co-owner Mike Shank. “Partnering with Folds of Honor is an incredible opportunity for us to give back and recognize the service of these heroes and hopefully for them to have a little fun and see some competitive racing. We’re honored to welcome them to the track and share our passion for racing with them.”
Lt. Col. Dan Rooney, founder and CEO of Folds of Honor, expressed his appreciation for MSR’s benevolence.

“We are grateful to Meyer Shank Racing and its outstanding team for supporting Folds of Honor and our recipients during the Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix,” he said. “IndyCar, its affiliated teams and its fans have a long history of patriotism and honoring American heroes. MSR understands the importance of an education and is doing something about it. They are making a life-changing difference.”