Alex Palou destroyed the opposition and cantered to victory in IndyCar’s first Thermal $1Million Challenge event and won $500,000 for his trouble.

The grid was split in half to create two heats - each had a qualifying session to decide the order - and the heat races took place just before Sunday’s final event which awarded the big payout at the ultra-exclusive Thermal Club venue.

The Final was 20 laps with a mandated break at 10 laps, where teams could add fuel and make wing angle changes ahead of the 10-lap shootout to the end.

It was done in this way partly to avoid people having to save fuel if it had been a non-stop 20 lap race, but the decision not to allow tyre changes at the break - only pressure alterations - created a different problem for the spectacle.

Five cars dropped to the back of the field - most notably Colton Herta, who immediately dropped back and was just over 1m12s behind at the break - and saved their tyres.

Herta said it "sucked" being on that strategy in the car, "and for the people watching". But it was "feast or famine, and I was hungry".

As the halftime break reset the field, those drivers gambled that saving tyres would be beneficial in the final 10-lap segment. Herta was already at the back of the field after the heat races, and he needed front wing and sidepod repairs before the Final too.

Palou was on pole courtesy of his win in the second heat (more on that below) and led the first 10 laps of the Final comfortably before the break. At that point, all eyes turned to those who had saved tyres and if they could rise up the field.

Herta moved from 11th to sixth in the first two laps, first as Alexander Rossi and Agustin Canapino clashed at Turn 1 on the restart at Turn 1, then Rossi and Josef Newgarden crashed into each other at Turn 2, and then passed Linus Lundqvist for fifth.