Conor Daly brought home a hard fought 17th place finish in the 2025 IndyCar season opener in the streets of St. Petersburg. He joins co-host Chase Holden to unpack the weekend, including the practice sessions which were affected by the new tire allocation rules and qualifying which left a lot of competitive drivers buried in the pack. The guys compare notes on the atmosphere of the event, which saw great attendance and energy following a strong pre-season ad campaign from Fox. Speaking of which, the ratings return from the series’ debut on network Fox saw a massive increase from last year, establishing itself as one of the highest non-Indy 500 broadcasts in recent history.
Race winner Alex Palou joins the show to share how his team captured the victory and held off a hard charging Josef Newgarden and Scott Dixon in the final laps. Alex explains that traffic and well executed pit stops were the key to winning the race, an event that has long eluded him in his IndyCar career. The guys discuss how this win establishes Alex as an early season championship favorite, but there is still a lot of racing to go in a IndyCar series that gets more competitive with each passing year. Alex explains that now that he has captured a win at St. Pete, his next goal is to win on an oval, which he hopes to do this coming May in Indianapolis.