2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES Round 2 of 17: The Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix
Suit up boys and girls, because it’s about to get hot in here. The next destination for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES is Thermal, the last in a nesting-doll-like series of decreasingly recognizable locations in Californian geography and therefore the obvious place to find INDYCAR. Like a bridge over non-existent water, The Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix is the solution nobody asked for to a six-week gap in the schedule—but when you’re dealing with drought, starvation, and Californians, you gotta take whatever you can get.
Sorry, Jimmy, Fox nixed the streaming options.The Schedule of Sizzle
Friday, March 21
14:00 – Gates Open
14:00 – Food Trucks Open
15:35 - NTT INDYCAR SERIES Practice 1
17:00 – Food Trucks Close
17:00 – Gates Close
Saturday, March 22
08:00 – Gates Open
09:00 – Pit Stop Activities (Rock Wall, 4 Pedal Carts w/Cone Track, DJ Alf Alpha)
10:00 – Food Trucks Open
10:00 – NTT INDYCAR SERIES Practice 2
12:00 – NTT INDYCAR SERIES Driver Autograph Session
12:00 – Bruno Mars Tribute Concert
12:45 – INDYCAR Experience 2-Seater Rides
14:00 – NTT INDYCAR SERIES Qualifying
15:00 – Food Trucks Close
16:00 – Gates Close
Sunday, March 23
08:00 – Gates Open
08:02 – NTT INDYCAR SERIES Warm-Up
08:45 – INDYCAR Experience 2-Seater Rides
09:00 – Pit Stop Activities (Rock Wall, 4 Pedal Carts w/Cone Track, DJ Alf Alpha)
10:00 – Food Trucks Open
10:00 – Dream Drives Hot Laps for VIPs
11:10 – Cars to Grid
11:25 – Pre-Race Ceremonies Start
11:35 – Driver Introductions
11:56 – Colors, Invocation, and Anthem
12:01 – Drivers to their Cars
12:10 – “DRIVERS! START!! YOUR!!! ENGINES!!!!”
12:17 – Green Flag — The Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix
14:15 – Awards Presentation (you underestimate us)
15:00 – Food Trucks Close
16:00 – Gates Close
Yeah, sure, they’re mostly Lambo-driving douchebags, but you gotta give ‘em credit: they’re punctual Lambo-driving douchebags. All times are Pacific Daylight. If you can’t navigate the temporal minefield that is daylight savings, use this.
The Spotter Guide
It’s not out. Don’t you know how this works yet? As long as I put this section in the OP nobody complains. Shhhh.
How to Watch the Show
North American and United Kingdom Viewers
US NTT INDYCAR SERIES fans can find practice and qualifying on FOX Sports 1 and the race on their local FOX affiliate. In The Land of Hinchcliffe, you can follow on TSN or TSN+. If you reside in the UK, Sky Sports F1 has got you covered.
International Viewers
Check this link to see how to watch all that can’t miss NTT INDYCAR SERIES action.
“International” Viewers
In the modern age, where everything’s computer, you can also subscribe to the Official Streaming Service of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, INDYCAR Live, and get live and on-demand access to every session as it happens. This is especially useful if you just so happen to live in a country which does not have an NTT INDYCAR SERIES broadcast partner. Like Albania, for example.
What’s the Deal With This “Thermal” Place?
Perhaps unsurprisingly, this is still the official track map.Twin Palm Circuit
First INDYCAR “Race”: 2024
Surface: Asphalt
Turns: 19 (10 lefts, 9 rights?)
Track Length: 3.067 miles
Number of Laps: 65
Race Distance: 199.36 miles
Ideal Pit Strategy: wait until half time
Fastest Qualifying Time: 1:38.5675 (Álex Palou, 2024)
Fastest Race Lap: 1:39.8051 (Álex Palou, 2024)
X: @ThermalClub
’Winningest’ Driver: Álex Palou (x1)
’Winningest’ Team: Chip Ganassi Racing (x1)
’Winningest’ Engine: Honda (x1)
2024 Lead Changes: 0
2024 Overtakes: 39
2024 Yellows: 1, for 2 laps
If your first thought on hearing “Thermal” is “Where the f#@k is that?” then perhaps if I say, “California,” I’ll get the Ahhhhhh of Enlightenment. There are other kinds of Ahhhhhh’s but I’m trying not to get banned here. Thermal is a short ways southeast of Palm Springs, which itself is a short ways southwest of the unofficial Middle of Nowhere. With this distance from Anything Resembling Society comes a certain kind of liberation—the kind that inspires you to, say, corral a bunch of overpriced homes around a track purpose-built for
Sure looks like “Paradise Gardens”, doesn’t it?As it turns out, a million ****ing diamonds is about what it’s going to take to live anywhere around this place. Thermal is a racetrack country club for people who love their expensive cars and their black AmEx cards. “Don’t live life without it,” has a different meaning for the drivers than it does the denizens of this oasis—or indeed anyone who doesn’t associate the word “oasis” with droning whiny prog-pop. The track is shaped like a Rorschach test for perverts, with “sweepers, tight corners, long straightaways, and elevation changes” throughout, promising to be a very different paradise for our brave heroes who risk life and limb for glory but a paradise nonetheless. God knows what Mark Miles sees when he looks at the track, but precious few fans are going to be looking at it—having failed to attract a sizable crowd with last year’s bargain basement deal of $2,000 weekend tickets, the venue has resorted to selling a staggering 5000 tickets at a low, low price of ONLY $475 apiece this year. If any of us unwashed masses are gonna get in, somebody’s gotta go back and get a shitload of dimes.
“What’ll that asshole think of next?”Remind Me Again What Went Down Here Last Year?
Are you sure you want me to?
Thermal was the site of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES $1 Million Challenge, a non-championship contest in which the winner would receive—that’s right, you guessed it—$500,000. The weekend format was two heat races consisting of 12 drivers each, the Top 6 from each one advancing to the 12-driver Main Event cash money shootout sweepstakes. In this 20 lap Main Event with a mandatory half-time to bunch the field after 10 laps, pit stops were forbidden, causing everyone except Colton Herta to remember that tire wear exists and there’s no point pushing if you get time back for free. Ultimately, like most things, it wouldn’t be enough to stop Álex Palou from running away with the dough. Everything was made up and the points didn’t matter. It was more Hawaii Super Prix than Marlboro Challenge. Even the retrospective on the INDYCAR website isn’t cooked all the way, however accurate it feels.
Even when he loses he wins.To top it all off, we couldn’t even pull off an extravagant money-themed celebration, with shovelfuls of Benjamins raining down from the sky while we hung a chain necklace with a giant gold dollar sign around Palou’s neck and handed him a check the size of a Volkswagen. Noooo, certainly not in INDYCAR, which it seemed up until recently had mastered the impossible feat of half-assing the act of half-assing on the daily, and gave the internet more complaint fodder with a go-kart podium and Walmart trophies. In response, INDYCAR gave us some nonsense about how it’s not the size of the podium that matters but how it’s used—as if anyone’s ever had any luck with that excuse.
“They referred to the podium: ‘if it’s small, something else must be small.’ I guarantee you there’s no problem.”On the Previous Edition of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES…
“Look, you guys are just guys, OK? Him—he’s the devil. He is smarter than you, he is luckier than you. Whatever you think is supposed to happen, I’m telling you, the exact, reverse opposite of that is gonna happen.” - Jesse Pinkman on Álex Palou
A new year, a new network, a new beginning, all on a cloudless day in sunny Florida. It sounds like the perfect way to kick off a new year of INDYCAR and it damn near was. Scott McLaughlin hauled the Printerwagon™ to pole position ahead of Colton Herta, who led an all Meyer-Shank second row of Felix “The Cat” Rosenqvist and Marcus “Take That Chip Ganassi” Armstrong. Behind them lined up new McLaren arrival Christian Lundgaard and perennial series veteran Scott Dixon, ahead of other notable entrants Álex Palou and Josef Newgarden and surprising Q1 victims Will Power and Alexander Rossi.
None of this lasted more than a lap, as Will Power gave the chrome horn to McLaren newbie Nolan Siegel, literally and figuratively enacting the first spin of INDYCAR’s wheel of misfortune and ensuring that Siegel had the least auspicious full season debut for a top team since Zachary Claman DeMelo started this race for Andretti (I guess at least they both made it farther than Isack Hadjar).
Chaos then reigned supreme, as everyone who was able ducked into the pits to ditch the papier-mâché alternate gaouiyoulé tires for good on *checks notes* Lap 2. This neutralized a lot of the strategic intrigue amongst the top cars, and as Dixon and Palou slid to the front, set the race up as a battle between INDYCAR’s very own Gustavo Fring and Walter White. A minor radio glitch proved to be Dixon’s undoing, preventing the Wolf Pack from warning him that Palou had stopped early enough to undercut him and leaving Dixon to stop late enough to be overhauled by Newgarden. The result only seemed briefly in doubt when Sting Ray Robb, grabbing with both hands the chance to lead Álex Palou for more laps than anyone else so far this year, backed Palou into Newgarden and Dixon, until our Conquistador of Concrete deftly overtook him with a handful of laps to go to resume bathing in catbird sweat. Sure, a lack of blue flags is part of the deal, but I imagine Palou spent most of those laps thinking what his fellow Spaniard Oriol Servia once said: “You just hate idiots, wherever they are.”
Dixon gashed an out-of-fuel Newgarden in the final four corners to steal second place, while McLaughlin and Kyle KirkWOOd rounded out the Top 5. The strategy upheaval allowed Rossi and newfound ECR nemesis Rinus Veekay to sneak into the Top 10. None of it, though, was enough to keep Álex Palou, through a combination of skill and good fortune in equally formidable quantities, from regaining command of the championship standings on a day it looked certain he would miss the podium, leaving the rest of the field to wonder just what it is they could possibly do to stop him.
Now we’re coming to a track on which Palou has a 100% win rate. What could possibly go wrong?
The Verdict
Better than: A half measure
Not as good as: A full measure
Wait for it: Better Slow Palou
The Story So Far
NTT INDYCAR SERIES
1st – Álex Palou (51 pts)
2nd – Scott Dixon (41 pts)
3rd – Josef Newgarden (36 pts)
4th – Scott McLaughlin (36 pts)
5th – Kyle Kirkwood (30 pts)
6th – Marcus Ericsson (28 pts)
7th – Felix Rosenqvist (26 pts)
8th – Christian Lundgaard (25 pts)
9th – Rinus Veekay (22 pts)
10th – Alexander Rossi (20 pts)
NTT INDYCAR SERIES Fantasy Challenge Driven by Firestone
1st – Jellyfishcake (722 pts)
2nd – Bring Back Villeneuve (708 pts)
3rd – Muppetmad (702 pts)
4th – No Ordinary Rabbit (697 pts)
5th – paulB_Team-PickingBlind (688 pts)
6th – La Christina (687 pts)
7th – HowSwedeItIs (686 pts)
8th – tpatricio (681 pts)
9th – H0R (673 pts)
10th – Teamy! (669 pts)
On This Week’s Episode of “INDYCAR”...
Palou enters the weekend riding the high of being the winner of both the last race and the last race here. Dixon, the Penske trio, Herta, and O’Ward all see themselves as title contenders and will be looking for a good performance here to ensure they remain in contention. The forecast for the weekend is constant sunshine in the mid-80’s Fahrenheit. With the teams facing hybridization and triple the race distance, trying to read into last year’s event as if it’s some kind of form book for INDYCAR’s return this year is probably more intuitive than using your favorite car’s Haynes Repair Manual as a cook book, but not by much. We’re in Thermal, so if you want the difference in potential between what’s going to happen this weekend and what happened last time we were here, I suggest integrating the ensemble averaged derivatives of the potential energy of this weekend over a coupling parameter relating it to the last weekend. Set the coupling parameter to range from 0 to 1 and Penske’s your uncle:
I've handily colored this chart based on each driver’s usual sponsor colors. While we can see about half of our probability distribution for the weekend is yellow-red Palou territory, if we end up in one of the blue regions here, we’ll see a winner other than Palou. That black and red underworld is where Will Power usually resides. It’s dangerous there.The Regular Features
NTT INDYCAR SERIES TRIVIA UNAFFILIATED WITH GRIDRIVAL
- Over 80% of US-produced dates (the fruity kind) come from Palm Springs.
- The origins of this race go back to Randy Bernard, who fielded interest for an INDYCAR race at The Thermal Club during his tenure at the sport’s helm.
- This is the first points-paying Indy car race in Riverside County, California since the Budweiser 500K at Riverside International Raceway in 1983. The race was won by Bobby Rahal.
- Read consecutively in alphabetical order, the last word of every full-season entrant’s team name is “Enterprises Global McLaren Racing Racing Racing Racing Racing Racing Racing Penske”.
- The sum of the eliminated car numbers in Heat 1 of last year’s race was 219, and in Heat 2 it was 180. The sum of the numbers in the bottom half of drivers in the Main Event was 177. The sum of these three numbers is 576.
- No driver has scored this exact point total since reunification in 2008.
You Wish You Had...
... your own cologne stand at races.
Take a Drink Every Time...
... you hear, “Points are on offer this weekend.”
Do You Remember...
... the last time we ran a second points-paying race in March?
Anagram of the Day:
Devlin deFrancesco/Condensed Elf Vicar
Don’t Forget the Heat
We’re finally back, and not for gimmicks this time, but I promise you’ll still be hearing about money almost as often as classic rock radio stations force you to. INDYCAR’s championship is groggily getting underway, and even if things look a bit like they have the last few years, you’d be remiss if you missed it, because if there’s one thing we can count on with this series, it’s that it’s even better than Palou at leaving us all surprised. Unfortunately it’s also going to leave us to wait three weeks before we get another taste of whatever’s on offer this weekend, but if I can count on one thing, it’s that I’ll still want it. Won’t you?
