The familiar sight of Alex Palou leading the way greeted NTT INDYCAR SERIES teams and fans on Friday during the opening day of testing at The Thermal Club near Palm Springs, California. The reigning series champion picked up right where he left off last season, pacing both practice sessions on the challenging 17-turn, 3.067-mile road course.

Palou’s best overall lap of 1 minute, 39.3373 seconds came in the hotter afternoon session behind the wheel of his No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. The two-time titlist also led the way in the cooler morning running, circling the undulating circuit in 1:39.5149.

While testing data and driver experience are always valuable, this weekend’s activities carry even more significance. Qualifying on Saturday will set the lineups for Sunday’s heat races, which will then winnow the 27-car field down to just 12 drivers for the 20-lap, $500,000 Sprint for the Purse special event.

“We want to focus on the race this weekend, but it’s an opportunity to take today and tomorrow morning as test days,” said Palou. “It’s good. It’s exciting.”

Behind Palou’s blistering pace, Christian Lundgaard ended up second overall at 1:39.6974 in his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda. Marcus Armstrong made it two Chip Ganassi cars in the top three with a 1:39.7313 lap, just edging Alexander Rossi’s 1:39.7556 in the quickest Chevrolet entry from Arrow McLaren.

As teams gear up for Sunday’s lucrative sprint race, managing tire degradation on the technical Thermal Club circuit will be critical, especially with no tire changes allowed over the two 10-lap segments unless approved for emergency service.

“With the high tire degradation, it should make for some good racing on Sunday,” predicted Marcus Ericsson. “We’ll see, especially on the 20-lap race when we have one set of tires. That’s going to be tough to keep your car underneath you.”

Track action continues Saturday with two more practice sessions ahead of qualifying to set the heat race lineups later that evening.