For a year where Newgarden wants to focus on his craft, something he was already quite excellent at, this is just what one offseason can do. He was flawlessly all weekend, and after getting off to slow starts the last three years, starting out in first is a much better position to be in.
There is a long-way to go in this season. There will be tough days for everyone, but for Newgarden, he isn't climbing out of a hole. He isn't looking up. He holds serve and the next race is Long Beach. If the team is this good at St. Petersburg, how do you think they must be feeling about Long Beach?
Expanding beyond this weekend and 2024, this was Newgarden's 30th career victory, the 13th driver to reach the milestone, and he did it in his 199th start.
Who else had 30 victories in their first 200 start?
A.J. Foyt
Sébastien Bourdais
Will Power
Al Unser
Mario Andretti
Michael Andretti
Now, add Josef Newgarden.
That's it. That's the list. Are those guys any good?
Newgarden is 33 years old. His career is just getting started. He is one victory behind tying tenth all-time. One of those drivers tied for tenth is Dario Franchitti. When Franchitti turned 33 years old, he had 14 victories, zero championships and zero Indianapolis 500 victories. Think about the career Franchitti ended with. The sky is the limit for Newgarden and we should already be appreciating his ability.
2. The mid-race restarts played into Patricio O'Ward's favor as being on the alternate tire while others struggled to get the primary tires up to speed allowed O'Ward to move up to second. He didn't have anything for Newgarden today, no one did, but he was able to capitalize on an opportunity, and it earned him a few spots up the order. Second consecutive year starting with a second, but this one feels significantly better than last year.
3. If it wasn't for Josef Newgarden's dominance, I think Scott McLaughlin had the best performance. McLaughlin went from ninth to sixth in turn one at the start, his crew had a fine first pit stop to get him another position, and holding off on using the alternate tire until the final stint put him on the podium. Solid run on what was a solid day for Team Penske.
4. Rounding out Team Penske was Will Power in fourth. Like McLaughlin, Power held off on the alternate tire until the final stint. That got him a few more spots. It was always going to be a race where Power was going to finish in the middle of the top ten. The cautions and the strategy got him a few more spots. Either way, Team Penske looks good.
5. On the flip side of the tires, Colton Herta probably lost a podium finish because he started on the alternates and he was swallowed up on each restart with new primary tires. Herta lost spots to McLaughlin and O'Ward the first time. He lost another spot to Power the second time. That's three spots and he was fifth. This wasn't as bad as last year for the Andretti Global team. Unfortunately, it is another case of the team not coming to grips, mind the pun, with one of the tire compounds and it costing them.
6. And here in sixth we find Álex Palou. For the first 60% of this race, it didn't feel like he was going to finish in the top ten. Then one pit stop, one stint on the alternate tires to close the race, and he is sixth. Even on a bad day for the #10 Chip Ganassi Racing crew they find a way to pick off a respectable result. The team didn't panic. Palou is a capable set of hands. They stuck to the plan and pulled out something to be pleased with on a weekend that wasn't great for the Ganassi team across the board.
7. It is difficult to look at seventh for Meyer Shank Racing and Felix Rosenqvist and say it was a bad day. If you had offered MSR and Rosenqvist seventh at the start of the weekend, they would have bitten off your hand. This is the team's best finish since Toronto 2022. The problem is Rosenqvist was keeping up with Newgarden in that opening stint. Like Herta, the primary tire did not suit Rosenqvist and he lost spots on every restart. This is an abject failure on the team considering this was a car that spent practically the entire day in the top five and MSR couldn't spend a lap in the top ten for its life in 2023. This is a great starting point for this new combination.
8. Alexander Rossi finished eighth. That's really all that needs to be say. He made up a few spots on each stint, but did nothing exceptional. He started 15th. There was a gap between O'Ward and the other Arrow McLaren cars this weekend. Entering the race, a few teams looks like that with one driver clear of the others. Rossi did the minimum today. At some point, he must do more.
9. Scott Dixon was ninth. Palou found something in the closing stages of the race. The rest of the Ganassi team was not a factor in this race. It appeared the entire team was struggling with the balance of the car. Dixon had a few squirrelly moments. Marcus Armstrong had an error under braking put him in the tires. Not a great day for Dixon, but it could have been much worse.
10. Rinus VeeKay spent a fair amount of the race in the top ten, and he finished tenth. VeeKay ended 2023 heading in the right direction and he picked up 2024 heading in an upward trajectory. He did lose some spots over the closing laps. I think some of that can be pinned down to the likes of Power and Palou finishing on the alternate tire versus VeeKay on the primary.
11. Santino Ferrucci spent the entire race somewhere between 15th and 11th and he ended up finishing 11th. Through practice, it didn't feel like Ferrucci would be on the cusp of the top ten. There wasn't anything to suggest he would have been on the bubble to advance from the first round of qualifying, and yet he was. He backed up that speed today. It is one race. The technical alliance with Team Penske is bound to yield some results.
12. Kyle Kirkwood was stuck outside the top ten all race. He started 18th, he really couldn't make up much ground. He looked like he could push for a top ten but ended up bogged down in 12th. It felt like Kirkwood should have been up there with his teammates through practice. One off qualifying session set him back and this was the best he could do.
13. Considering he was a substitute, 13th should be feel unfulfilling for Callum Ilott. Ilott didn't get much time in the car as David Malukas' deputy, but there must be some disappointment Ilott wasn't more of a threat for the top team while O'Ward ended up third and Rossi in eighth. Every race is an audition. This one wasn't make or break, but he probably feels he could have done better.
14. Credit to Kyffin Simpson because he ended up 14th and ran respectably well. He didn't make any mistakes and for someone who didn't have outstanding Indy Lights results, he started his IndyCar career as well as the average rookie. Not bad.
15. We are going to start hitting teams and drivers in bunches. Not the opening weekend Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing likely hoped for. Once Christian Lundgaard's tire was punctured on the opening lap, his race was ruined. He was kept out under the first caution to put him out front and hopefully run about five to eight laps to open a gap and maybe help him. Of course, Sting Ray Robb then broke down and that Hail Mary strategy was cancelled out. Lundgaard had to settle for 20th.
Pietro Fittipaldi was best in the team finishing 15th, but he never showed great pace. Graham Rahal struggled with electrical issues all weekend, and he fought to finish 16th. For a team hoping to be clear of the issues from last year, they haven't quite ironed everything out.
16. Tom Blomqvist was 17th. It is an improvement from his first three races but he has a long way to go. Agustín Canapino ran wide in turn one at one point, losing Canapino a few spots, and he still finished 18th. Jack Harvey went from 27th to 19th. It isn't worth throwing a parade but considering how late everything was put together at Dale Coyne Racing, how good did you really think Harvey and this team would do?
17. Christian Rasmussen was having issues prior to the start and the team got the car sorted just before the race went green. It did mean Rasmussen had to start at the back, which isn't saying much since he was starting 21st anyway, but it was six more cars ahead of him than expected, and he still finished 21st.
18. Colin Braun's IndyCar debut will never turn into a feature film, but it did have a flashy moment when it appeared the fuel hose broke apart on one stop and it sent Braun out in a burst of flames, literally. The fire put itself out and it wasn't much of a scene. Braun did run wide in turn nine at one point. Despite all this, Braun remained on the lead lap and finished 22nd with only one day of testing prior to the season. Again, how good did you really think Coyne would do this weekend?
19. Romain Grosjean spun Linus Lundqvist in turn nine. It was just after the final pit stops had concluded. No one was caught out, but this did cost Grosjean a possible top ten. Lundqvist had been the top running rookie for most of the race up to that point. To add insult to injury, Grosjean's race ended 18 laps early with what sounded like a gearbox issue.
20. Two other cars broke down. Marcus Ericsson lost power while running in the top ten. There was the aforementioned incident with Sting Ray Robb stopping on course. Robb wasn't making waves prior to that incident. Ericsson was running in the top ten as well.
21. St. Petersburg has a small problem. The race reverted back to 100 laps in 2020, during the pandemic. It has remained 100 laps for the last five seasons. When it was 110 laps, we saw greater variety in strategies, better battles because it was a three-stop race, but a three-stop race with large pit windows. At 100 laps, it is a two-stop race with small pit windows.
After a few races last year, I suggested IndyCar should mandate each tire compound must be used twice during a race. It would at least break a race up. Either that or IndyCar should shortened St. Petersburg by another ten laps. It isn't going to return to 110 laps in all likelihood. Those races always took over two hours and television doesn't want a race that takes two hours and 12 minutes to complete. Even 100 laps is a little long. This is the longest street race by over 12 miles and it is 29 miles longer than Toronto.
Shortened this race to 90 laps. It would be 162 miles in length, in the ballpark with Long Beach and Detroit. Everyone ended today's race with stints between 34 and 37 laps in length. If a stint is an average of 35 laps, you are talking about drivers able to pit as early as lap 20 and being able to make it to the finish. Or you could go 35 laps. It opens it up, and adds some variety in strategy.
22. Let's get out of here. There is two weeks until an exhibition race from The Thermal Club in Palm Springs, California, and only... 42 days until race number two of the season in Long Beach. Oh boy.
