Defending series champ Alex Palou wins after starting third, surging by the Arrow McLaren front row of Pato O'Ward and Christian Lundgaard.

In its first appearance as a regular season event, the Thermal Club put up a host of challenges for teams and drivers — but Arrow McLaren and Alex Palou had it all covered.

Palou spent most of the race running in third place, sometimes 11 seconds behind Pato O’Ward. On lap 56, Palou passed O’Ward for the lead and held it for the last nine laps of the race. It punctuated a caution-free and mostly incident-free 65-lap race at Thermal Club.