Portugal Colonial - Spain's Palou wins IndyCar Thermal Club title

Palou, who took the season opener three weeks ago at St. Petersburg, Florida, was 10.1 seconds ahead of runner-up Pato O'Ward of Mexico to capture his 13th IndyCar triumph.

"What an amazing weekend," Palou said. "We had a really fast car since practice. Everybody executed really well. The car executed perfectly."

Following Palou and O'Ward after 65 caution-free laps over a 3.067-mile, 17-turn road course in the California desert were Denmark's Christian Lundgaard and American Colton Herta.

Palou credited his pit crew and mechanics for setting up a fast car.

"I have a great team," he said. "They give me a car I feel comfortable with that I can manage and make it look easy. They do all the work. I just try and make it happen."

O'Ward led 51 laps and was in front with Lundgaard second and Palou third late in the race.

But Palou came out of the pit lane from his last refuel stop and overtook Lundgaard after a four-turn, side-by-side battle to grab second place.

Palou then charged from nine seconds down to overtake O'Ward on the inside of a long left-handed turn with 10 laps remaining and pulled away from there.

O'Ward missed out on his eighth career IndyCar victory.

"When you miss it by that, you feel like you've left points on the table," O'Ward said. "We're going to keep pushing."

A power failure at the course blacked out the television coverage for parts of the middle of the race.

The third race of the 17-event campaign will be April 13 at Long Beach.

H.Portela--PC