Two pit stops in Sunday’s The Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix or three? How about four?

You get the idea. This 65-lap affair in Southern California (3 p.m., FOX, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network) is shaping up as one of the great unknowns of recent memory. Yes, the NTT INDYCAR SERIES and its 27 entries competed on the 17-turn, 3.067-mile circuit a year ago, but that was in an exhibition format featuring a sequence of no more than 10-lap runs. Sunday, the drivers must complete significantly more than that in succession, and no one is sure how best to pace themselves.

SEE: Starting Lineup/Tire Choice

Tire wear is central to the uncertainty as the track’s dusty, low-grip surface eats at the rubber. Drivers and their teams must decide how long to stay with a set of tires, and it figures to be a lap-by-lap evaluation. There are consequences with each decision, and those who choose wrong figure to struggle maintaining their position. That scenario creates comers and goers.

“If you’re slow (as a result of) taking care of your tires, you’re done,” two-time reigning series champion Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing said. “If you’re fast and don’t take care of your tires, you’re done, as well.”

A two-stop race would create three segments of an average of 21-22 laps, but many in the paddock think that’s too long to expect the tires to hold up. In Friday’s practice, Graham Rahal of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing reported a drop in performance of a set of primary compound tires after just one lap.

Three stops in the race would create four segments of about 16 laps each. That probably will be the strategy used by most teams Sunday, but there are some who believe there will be takers of a four-stop strategy. That plan would reduce the number of laps per segment to about 13.

“I think everyone will do the three-stop, but I think on paper that two is possible (although) I doubt that the alternate (compound) will be able to do that,” Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson said Saturday. “Maybe someone will (do) four (stops) if you have really big drop-off, like three or four seconds, then a four-stop could come into play because if you’re out there running four or five seconds slower that someone on track, that extra pit stop goes away quite quickly.”

Palou doesn’t think anyone will choose the four-stop strategy, and he expects someone to give two stops a go. One of those could be his teammate, Scott Dixon, the six-time series champion who is the master of saving both tires and fuel.

“I think the only idea we have is we cannot make it in one stop,” Palou said. “Two-stop is the goal; four is too much. So, it’s going to be between two and three.

“But it could change if the tire (wear) is huge and we cannot make it in two, and maybe four starts to appear (as an option) if there’s a yellow.”

See the conflict in Palou’s words? The options are circulating through the paddock. Count on someone to pit out of sequence early and try something different. That’s the fun of what’s at stake in this second race of the season.

The thought going into the weekend was that the primary compound would be the preferred option, in part because Firestone beefed up its durability in anticipation of higher-than-normal wear. To that end, Firestone provided each team with six sets of primaries and four sets of alternates, but the script might have flipped based on information gleaned in the two practice sessions.

Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin said the alternate compound might offer better performance. “(They) didn’t die like we thought they would,” he said.

Andretti Global’s Colton Herta only turned three laps on alternates during practice, and he acknowledged they saw considerable wear as the car often slid through the corners.

“They will fall off,” he said, “but the (primaries) fall off a cliff.”

Regardless of how it plays out – primaries vs. alternates, varying stops used – the competitors like having options and, quite frankly, the unknown. So should the viewers. Literally, every team has a chance to use a winning strategy.

“You have to sort of take decisions on the fly, and as a driver you need to be really good at sort of feeling what the car is doing, what the tires are doing and sort of communicating that (to the crew),” Ericsson said. “So, I like that challenge.

“I mean, that’s fun, and it makes the drivers and the teams that do that well (excel).”