The first round of the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series season will be the 20th Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. It is the 13th time St. Petersburg has opened an IndyCar season. Only three times has the St. Petersburg winner gone on to win the championship, most recently in 2014 with Will Power, who is the defending IndyCar champion. Team Penske has won 11 of 19 St. Petersburg races including three of the last four and six of the last nine. The last two St. Petersburg races have been the fastest St. Petersburg races, each exceeding 96.5 mph. Last year's race took place at an average speed of 96.899 mph.
Coverage
Time: Coverage begins at 12:00 p.m. ET on Sunday March 5 with green flag scheduled for 12:30 p.m. ET.
Channel: NBC
Announcers: Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will be in the booth. Marty Snider, Kevin Lee and Dave Burns will work pit lane.
Channel: NBC
Announcers: Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will be in the booth. Marty Snider, Kevin Lee and Dave Burns will work pit lane.
IndyCar Weekend Schedule
Friday:
First Practice: 3:00 p.m. ET (75 minutes)
Saturday:
Second Practice: 10:00 a.m. ET (60 minutes)
Qualifying: 2:15 p.m. ET
Sunday:
Warm-up: 9:00 a.m. ET (30 minutes)
Race: 12:30 p.m. ET (100 laps)
Qualifying: 2:15 p.m. ET
Sunday:
Warm-up: 9:00 a.m. ET (30 minutes)
Race: 12:30 p.m. ET (100 laps)
* - All sessions will be available live on Peacock
Out of the Desert
At the start of the month, IndyCar completed its series test at The Thermal Club out in Palm Spring, California. An unknown track and one that hosts no other events in the 2023 IndyCar season, the results have no direct carry over to the season, but at the moment it is the only measuring stick ahead of the opening weekend of the season.
The 2022 Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericsson topped the two-day test and led a Honda 1-2-3 in Palm Springs. Ericsson had the fastest lap at 98.4223 seconds, just 0.1459 seconds quicker than fellow Scandinavian Christian Lundgaard while Kyle Kirkwood, in his first series sanctioned session with Andretti Autosport, 0.3662 seconds behind Ericsson.
The top Chevrolet was Callum Ilott in fourth. The Juncos Hollinger Racing driver was 0.4181 seconds back while rookie Marcus Armstrong rounded out the top five driving for Chip Ganassi Racing, making it four Honda drivers in the top five, with Armstrong 0.4186 seconds off his teammate.
Defending champion Will Power was sixth ahead of 2021 champion Álex Palou while Scott McLaughlin was the final driver within a half-second of Ericsson on top. Felix Rosenqvist was the top Arrow McLaren driver in ninth while Scott Dixon rounded out the top ten, making it three Ganassi drivers in the top ten.
Simon Pagenaud was 11th in the test, just ahead of his good friend Josef Newgarden. Alexander Rossi took the lucky 13th position in his first outing with McLaren, directly ahead of his former Andretti teammates Romain Grosjean and Colton Herta. Herta was the fastest on day one of the test. Patricio O'Ward was 16th, the slowest of the McLaren drivers.
David Malukas and Hélio Castroneves were 17th and 18th respectively, and they were the final two drivers within a second of the top time. Devlin DeFrancesco and Jack Harvey rounded out the top twenty. Agustín Canapino was 21st, ahead of Graham Rahal, Rinus VeeKay and fellow rookie Sting Ray Robb. Santino Ferrucci, Conor Daly and Benjamin Pedersen rounded out the 27-car field for the test. Pedersen was 1.7074 seconds slower than Ericsson.
Besides Palm Springs, Sebring hosted two private test sessions a day apart for most teams.
On February 14, Grosjean topped the nine-car session at Sebring with a fastest lap of 52.059 seconds, 0.030 seconds quicker than Kirkwood. Ilott was third at 52.137 seconds, directly ahead of Armstrong by 0.080 seconds with Devlin DeFrancesco rounding out the top five. Daly, Herta, VeeKay and Canapino rounded out that test with Canapino 0.671 seconds off Grosjean.
The next day saw McLaren go 1-2-3 in a seven-car session, which included two drivers completing an evaluation test. O'Ward was fastest at 51.882 seconds, 0.252 seconds ahead of Rossi with Rosenqvist 0.354 seconds back in third. Porsche Penske Motorsports driver Felipe Nasr was fourth in an evaluation test for Team Penske. Nasr was only 0.003 seconds slower than Rosenqvist and still 0.120 seconds faster than Ferrucci. Nick Cassidy was sixth in an evaluation test for Chip Ganassi Racing with a fastest lap of 52.518 seconds, 0.021 seconds quicker than Pedersen.
Power's Defense
Will Power is attempting to become the first driver to successfully defend a title since Dario Franchitti's three-year title run from 2009 to 2011. In each of those seasons Power was championship runner-up to Franchitti.
In 2023, Power is coming off his best season in terms of average finish at 5.9412 last season. He matched his single-season best nine podium finishes in 2022 and he also won five pole positions, the eighth time in his 18-season career he has won at least five pole positions in a season. His 335 laps led, the seventh time he has led at least 300 laps in a season.
Power's 2022 championship was Team Penske's fifth title in nine seasons. In the previous four championship defenses, all four drivers finished in the top five of the championship the following season. Power dropped to third in 2015 after his 2014 title. Simon Pagenaud went from first in 2016 to second in 2017. Josef Newgarden won the title in 2017 but dropped to fifth in 2018. Newgarden then picked up his second title in 2019 and was second in 2020.
In three of those four title defenses, the defending champion won fewer races in the following season. Power went from two to one, Pagenaud from five to two and Newgarden went from four in 2017 to three in 2018. The exception would be Newgarden from 2019 to 2020. The Tennessean won three times in 2019 but responded with four victories in 2020.
Outside of the Penske champions, every defending champion since reunification has finished inside the top ten of the championship in the following season and 11 of 14 champions have finished in the top five of the championship the following season. Power has finished in the championship top ten in 13 consecutive seasons and he has been in the championship top five in 12 of those seasons. Power's worst championship finish during that 13-year span was ninth.
There has not been a winless defending champion since Scott Dixon in 2004. Power enters this season with a race victory in 16 consecutive seasons, currently the second longest streak in IndyCar history, only trailing Scott Dixon's active streak of 18 consecutive seasons. Power is currently tied with Mario Andretti and Hélio Castroneves for third most seasons with a victory, each having won in 16 seasons. Dixon leads all drivers with 20 seasons and A.J. Foyt is second with 18 seasons with a victory. Power starts this season on 94 podium finishes, six away from becoming the fifth driver in IndyCar history to reach 100 podium finishes in a career.
Last year, Power completed all 2,268 laps. It was only the second time in his career he had been running at the finish of every race in a season. The other time was his 2014 championship season. The most recent Team Penske driver to successfully defend a championship was Gil de Ferran in 2000 and 2001. The only other time a Team Penske driver won consecutive championships was Rick Mears in 1981 and 1982.
If Power were to win his third championship in 2023, he would tie Mears for most IndyCar championships for a Team Penske driver.
Changes of Scenery
There have been plenty of changes on the IndyCar grid this season. We already know about Kyle Kirkwood's move to Andretti Autosport. In Kirkwood's place, Santino Ferrucci returns to full-time IndyCar competition to drive the #14 Chevrolet for A.J. Foyt Racing. This will be Ferrucci's five different team in six IndyCar seasons. He drove for three different teams in 2022 alone. His last two starts have come for Chevrolet teams after his first 41 starts and his first two full seasons were driving for Honda teams.
Not everything will be new for Ferrucci at A.J. Foyt Racing. He will reunite with Michael Cannon as his race engineer. Cannon and Ferrucci worked together at Dale Coyne Racing in the 2019 season before Cannon moved to Chip Ganassi Racing ahead of 2020.
Alexander Rossi left Andretti Autosport to join Arrow McLaren, taking over the #7 Chevrolet as Felix Rosenqvist moves to the #6 McLaren Chevrolet with McLaren becoming a three-car outfit. Rosenqvist and Rossi were eighth and ninth in the championship respectively with the Swede 12 points ahead of the American. Rosenqvist gained 13 positions in the championship from 2021 to 2022 while Rossi has finished in the championship top ten in six consecutive seasons. This will be the first time Rossi has driven for a Chevrolet team in his IndyCar career.
With Rossi joining McLaren, personnel will shift around as well. Craig Hampson will be Rossi's engineer while Brian Barnhart also moves to McLaren from Andretti and Barnhart will be Rossi's strategist. Chris Lawrence will become Rosenqvist's engineer while Billy Vincent will remain as Rosenqvist's strategist.
Another pair of drivers that have flipped seats are Jack Harvey and Christian Lundgaard. Harvey will move to the #30 Honda for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing while Lundgaard takes over the #45 HyVee Honda. Lundgaard was 14th in the championship last year, claiming Rookie of the Year in the process, but he was eight positions ahead of Harvey in the championship. Twenty-second in the championship was Harvey's worst championship result in a full season.
Also changing within the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing camp are engineers. Eddie Jones will return to Graham Rahal's pit stand. Jones and Rahal won five races together from 2015 to 2017. Allen McDonald will become Harvey's engineer while Lundgaard will keep Ben Siegel on his car.
Takuma Sato is stepping into a new role in his IndyCar career. Sato will drive the #11 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda at the five oval events this season, bringing an end to a full-time IndyCar career that dates back to the 2010 season. Last season, Sato drove for Dale Coyne Racing. Ganassi will be the sixth different team Sato has driven for in IndyCar competition and the third different team in the last three seasons.
Sato isn't the only person moving from Coyne to Ganassi for 2023. Ross Bunnell will become Scott Dixon's race engineer after being David Malukas' engineer on the #18 Honda. Alex Athanasiadis will become Malukas' engineer for the 2023 season.
Class of 2023
There are four rookies entered for the 2023 season, including one that will be sharing the #11 Ganassi Honda with Sato.
Marcus Armstrong will drive the #11 Honda in the 12 road/street course races this season. Armstrong moves to IndyCar after spending three consecutive seasons in Formula Two. He won four races in the Formula One development series. He was also second in the 2019 Formula Three championship. Armstrong could become the first Rookie of the Year for Chip Ganassi Racing since Juan Pablo Montoya in 1999.
The other three rookies will be aiming to run the full season.
Sting Ray Robb was second in the Indy Lights championship last year and won one race at Laguna Seca. This year Robb moves to Dale Coyne Racing in the #51 Honda, which Takuma Sato previously occupied. Robb is the first Idahoan to enter an IndyCar race since Davey Hamilton in 2011. Hamilton was ninth in his rookie season, the inaugural Indy Racing League season in 1996. Dale Coyne Racing's most recent Rookie of the Year winner was Alex Lloyd in 2010.
Benjamin Pedersen was fifth in Indy Lights last year. Pedersen also only won once in 2022, and now the Danish-American will take over the #55 A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet from Dalton Kellett. Pedersen will be the fourth Rookie of the Year contender for A.J. Foyt Racing in the last six seasons. None of those previous three Foyt rookies finished better than 18th in the championship with Matheus Leist being the best of the newcomers. A.J. Foyt Racing has never produced a Rookie of the Year winner.
Agustín Canapino joins IndyCar in the #78 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet. Canapino comes to IndyCar after spending over a decade racing in Turismo Carretera and Súper TC2000 in his native Argentina. He is a four-time Turismo Carretera champion and a two-time Súper TC2000 champion. Canapino will be the first Argentine driver to contest for Rookie of the Year since Juan Fangio II ran the 1996 CART season for All American Racers. Canapino could become the ninth Argentine to start an IndyCar race.
The last eight IndyCar Rookies of the Year have represented eight different nationalities, including three of which that are represented in the 2023 rookie class, the United States, New Zealand and Denmark. The most recent South American Rookie of the Year was Gabby Chaves in 2015. If Pedersen were to take top rookie honors, it would be the first time a country had produced consecutive Rookies of the Year since Colombia won it in 2014 and 2015 with Carlos Muñoz and Chaves respectively.
Only three of the Rookies of the Year in the DW12 era have finished in the top ten of the championship. Those drivers would be Simon Pagenaud in 2012 (fifth), Carlos Muñoz in 2014 (eighth) and Felix Rosenqvist in 2019 (sixth). The average championship finish for Rookies of the Year since 2012 is 12th.
Only three rookies have won a race since 2012. Carlos Huertas won the first Houston race in 2014. Alexander Rossi did it in 2016 in the Indianapolis 500, and Colton Herta won twice as a rookie in 2019 at Austin and Laguna Seca.
A Few Rule Changes
As with almost every new season, there have been a few tweaks to the rulebook and we will see them first hand this weekend.
IndyCar and Firestone will be experimenting with a new tire compound allocation for St. Petersburg and Long Beach. Each team will be receiving a second set of the alternate tire compound for available for the practice sessions in hopes of increasing participation in the two sessions. Teams will be allowed to the alternate compound in either session. A set of the alternate tire will still need to be returned prior to qualifying, but starting this season the teams will also have return a primary set of the tire compound as well.
At all street course events, Firestone's alternate tire will be the green sidewall tires made of sustainable guayule rubber. These tires debuted last year at the Nashville round.
Qualifying will see a few timing changes. In 2023, timing for each qualifying session will not begin until the first car on track has crossed the alternate start/finish to begin a lap. In previous seasons, a session would begin once the cars were allow to leave pit lane and start their warm-up laps. This change was made in hopes of giving teams more time to create gaps on-track for their qualifying laps while also allowing teams at the further end of pit lane additional time to get their laps in.
Time management for red flags in qualifying has also been adjusted. The clock will stop for the first red flag in each knockout round. Any additional red flags in a round will not see the clock stop.
IndyCar has introduced a new rain vanes that will sit on the front suspension access panel in hopes of directing as much water as possible away from the aero screen after drivers had visibility complaints last season. A larger LED rain light will also be at the rear of the car this season.
A new headrest has been developed to increase cushioning for a driver in the event of an accident, and teams will be allowed to use their short-oval barge boards on road and street courses this season.
Road to Indy
Along with the opening round of the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series season, St. Petersburg opens the season for all three to Road to Indy series.
Nineteen cars are entered for the Indy Lights season opener, the largest field in the series since 19 cars started the 2012 Freedom 100 from Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Andretti Autosport will field the top returning driver from the 2022 championship, Hunter McElrea, and the 2022 Indy Pro 2000 champion, Louis Foster. McElrea was fourth in the championship last year with two victories and seven podium finishes from 14 races. Foster took the Indy Pro 2000 championship with seven victories, 11 podium finishes and 13 top five finishes from 18 races.
Along with McElrea and Foster, Jamie Chadwick and James Roe, Jr. will round out the four-car Andretti lineup. Chadwick won three consecutive W Series championships. Roe, Jr. was 12th in Indy Lights starting only 11 races with his best finish being seventh.
HMD Motorsports will field nine cars this Indy Lights season, six of which are in partnership with Dale Coyne Racing and one with Force Indy. Christian Rasmussen moves from Andretti Autosport to HMD while Christian Bogle and Danial Frost each return. Nolan Siegel and Josh Green each move up from Indy Pro 2000 after finishing fourth and sixth receptively in that championship.
Rasmus Lindh returns to Indy Lights driving full-time for HMD. Lindh was runner-up in the 2019 Indy Pro 2000 championship behind Kyle Kirkwood, and he started six Indy Lights races with Juncos Racing in 2021. The Swedish driver has been competing primarily in IMSA's LMP3 competition. Josh Pierson will run some Indy Lights races this season while also competing in IMSA and the FIA World Endurance Championship. Kyffin Simpson will be in another HMD car while Ernie Francis, Jr. returns for a second season driving the car in partnership with Force Indy.
Juncos Hollinger Racing will field two cars this season. Reece Gold moves up after finishing second in the Indy Pro 2000 championship last year. Matteo Nannini did not compete last season. He was 14th in the 2021 Formula Three championship and won a race at Budapest. Abel Motorsports expands to two cars, keeping Jacob Abel while adding Colin Kaminsky. Cape Motorsports joins Indy Lights and it brings Jagger Jones up from U.S. F2000 and Enaam Ahmed up from Indy Pro 2000. Jones was fourth in U.S. F2000 championship while Ahmed was third in Indy Pro 2000.
Indy Lights will race at 10:00 a.m. ET on Sunday March 5.
USF Pro 2000 will feature the top three drivers from the 2022 U.S. F2000 championship moving up a division.
The reigning U.S. F2000 champion Michael d'Orlando will drive for Turn 3 Motorsport alongside Jonathan Browne, who returns for a second season, and Jackson Lee, who drove in U.S. F2000 the previous two seasons.
Myles Rowe and Jace Denmark will continue to be teammates and continue to drive for Pabst Racing. They will have a third teammate in Jordan Missing, who was 11th in the Indy Pro 2000 championship last year.
Salvador de Alba is the top returning driver in the championship. De Alba was fifth in the championship last year and he will move to Exclusive Autosport to drive alongside Yuven Sundaramoorthy, Joel Granfors and Lindsay Brewer. Kiko Porto continues at DEForce Racing with Bijoy Garg as his teammate.
Jay Howard Driver Development is back with a two-car team. Reece Ushijima joins the team after the American spent the 2022 season in Formula Three where he was 20th in the championship, but he finished third in the Silverstone sprint race. His teammate will be Ricardo Escotto.
TJ Speed Motorsports enters USF Pro 2000 with three cars. Christian Weir moves up from U.S. F2000 while Lirmi Zendeli moves over from Formula Two, and Francesco Pizzi moves over from Formula Three.
Jack William Miller is back for his third season in this series and Nicholas Monteiro moves up from the Formula 4 Brazilian Championship.
USF Pro 2000 will race at 11:15 a.m. ET on Saturday March 4 and at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday March 5.
U.S. F2000 will look different this year as Cape Motorsports is not competing as it focuses on its Indy Lights program. Cape Motorsports drivers have won ten of 13 championships since U.S. F2000 returned in 2010.
DEForce Racing won the 2021 championship with Kiko Porto, and it will field 2022 USF Juniors champion Mac Clark. Clark won the penultimate race of the 2022 U.S. F2000 season stepping up for the final round. Clark's teammates will be Jorge Garciarce, who was 13th in this championship last year, and Maxwell Jamieson.
Jay Howard Driver Development will field four cars for Evagoras Papasavvas, Al Morey, Lochie Hughes and Louka St. Jean. Velocity Racing Development will field five cars, including a car for Nikita Johnson, who was on the podium in second of the first Portland race last year. Sam Corry, Danny Dyszelski, Gordon Scully and Noah Ping will round out the Velocity lineup.
Jacob Douglas is back with Exclusive Autosport. Douglas had three top five finishes last season. Joey Brienza and Avery Towns will be his teammates this season. Elliot Cox will drive for Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Development and Future Star Racing will field two cars for Andre Castro and Trey Burke.
The first race of the U.S. F2000 season will be at 3:45 p.m. ET on Saturday March 4 and the second race will be at 8:00 a.m. ET on Sunday March 5.
Fast Facts
This will be the third IndyCar race to take place on March 5 and the first since Jacques Villeneuve won on the streets of Miami in 1995.
The only other March 5 IndyCar race was on March 5, 1922 at Los Angeles Motor Speedway. Tommy Milton won the 250-mile race on the 1.25-mile board oval.
Scott McLaughlin could become the fifth driver to win consecutive St. Petersburg races joining Hélio Castroneves (2006-07), Juan Pablo Montoya (2015-16), Sébastien Bourdais (2017-18), and Josef Newgarden (2019-20).
The last two seasons have seen the season opener winner be a first time IndyCar race winner.
Chevrolet has won eight of 11 St. Petersburg races since the start of the DW12 era in 2012.
Since reunification, 14 of 15 champions have finished in the top ten of the first race of the season. Nine of those 14 drivers were on the podium in the opening race and 11 of 14 finished in the top five.
Of the ten teams on the grid, only Arrow McLaren, Ed Carpenter Racing, Meyer Shank Racing and Juncos Hollinger Racing have never won an IndyCar season opener.
Andretti Autosport has not won a season opener since James Hinchcliffe won at St. Petersburg in 2013.
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's only season opener victory was Homestead in 2000 with Max Papis. A.J. Foyt Racing's most recent season opener victory was the 1996-97 Indy Racing League opener at Loudon with Scott Sharp.
The average starting position for a St. Petersburg winner is 5.3157 with a median of fourth.
The last two St. Petersburg races have been won from pole position after only two of the first 17 St. Petersburg races were won from pole position.
Fourth starting position has produced the most St. Petersburg winners. Five times has the St. Petersburg winner started fourth, including in four consecutive years from 2013 to 2016.
The third-place starter has never won at St. Petersburg.
The average number of lead changes in a St. Petersburg race is 6.47368 with a median of seven.
Five of the last six St. Petersburg races have had seven or more lead changes.
The average number of cautions in a St. Petersburg race is 4.1052 with a median of five. The average number of caution laps is 18.1052 with a median of 16.
Last year's St. Petersburg had a record-low one caution for a record-low eight caution laps.
Predictions
Josef Newgarden gets his third St. Petersburg victory in four seasons, and two Penske drivers will be standing on the podium. Kyle Kirkwood will get his career best finish. Alexander Rossi will be the best McLaren finisher. Marcus Armstrong will be the top rookie finisher by at least four positions, but Armstrong will not be the top New Zealander. There will at least be nine positions between the Ed Carpenter Racing drivers. At least two caution periods will occur, and an incident will occur in turn ten. Sleeper: David Malukas.
