Track Walk: St. Petersburg 2025

The first of 17 rounds in the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season is the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. It will have been 168 days between the 2024 season finale in Nashville and the 2025 season opener at Albert Whitted Airport. The grid remains at 27 entries though there is a new team on the grid and there will be 11 different organizations fielding an entry. A dozen cars have different drivers from when they last took to the track in 2024. This will be the first race in IndyCar's charter era, as 25 entries are guaranteed a spot in this race with two open spots remaining to non-chartered entries.

Coverage

Time: Coverage begins at 12:00 p.m. ET on Sunday March 2 with green flag scheduled for 12:29 p.m. ET.
Channel: Fox
Announcers: Will Buxton, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will be in the booth. Kevin Lee and Jack Harvey will work pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule

Friday:

First Practice: 3:05 p.m. ET (75 minutes)

Saturday:

Second Practice: 10:15 a.m. ET (60 minutes)
Qualifying: 2:30 p.m. ET 
Sunday:
Warm-up: 9:02 a.m. ET (25 minutes)
Race: 12:29 p.m. ET (100 laps)

What Has Testing Told Us?

IndyCar had one preseason test at Sebring International Raceway on Tuesday and Wednesday last week. The two-day test split the grid into two groups with each group running either a morning session or afternoon session each day.

Over the combined test session, Will Power ran the fastest lap and he led a Team Penske 1-2. Power's fastest lap was run on Wednesday morning at 52.2459 seconds. Josef Newgarden was only 0.0642 seconds off his teammate. Last year's St. Petersburg winner Patircio O'Ward made it a clean sweep of the top three for Chevrolet. O'Ward was 0.0921 seconds slower than Power's best time. 

The fastest Honda entry is possibly a surprise. Marcus Armstrong was fourth-quickest over the two days, and Armstrong's lap came in the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda as Felix Rosenqvist was under the weather and was not able to participate in the test on Tuesday. The New Zealander's fastest lap on Tuesday afternoon was 52.3675 seconds. Colton Herta rounded out the top five, 0.1269 seconds slower than the fastest time.

Car #6 was sixth fastest with Nolan Siegel running at lap at 52.4405 seconds. The defending champion Álex Palou was responsible for the seventh-fastest time at 52.4948 seconds. 

Prema's first IndyCar preseason test was a rather successful first outing. Callum Ilott had the #90 Chevrolet eighth-fastest and only 0.050 seconds off Palou. Felix Rosenqvist was better for Wednesday's test session, and he ran the ninth-fastest lap among the 27 drivers at 52.5273 seconds. Conor Daly rounded out the top ten for Juncos Hollinger Racing, the seventh different team represented in the top ten at the test. Daly was 0.3197 seconds off Power.

Another surprise in the test was Devlin DeFrancesco in 11th with a lap at 52.5968 seconds in the #30 Honda for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. DeFrancesco is back after a year out of IndyCar, and he was 0.0152 seconds faster than Scott Dixon. Kyle Kirkwood was just behind Dixon, 0.0275 seconds to be exact. Christian Lundgaard and Santino Ferrucci rounded out the top fifteen. 

Alexander Rossi's first preseason test with Ed Carpenter Racing had him 16th at 52.7225 seconds. Jacob Abel was the fastest of the three rookies as Abel had the #51 Dale Coyne Racing Honda at 52.7699 seconds. Sting Ray Robb was 0.062 seconds off Abel. Kyffin Simpson and Rinus VeeKay were next as the top twenty were covered by 0.6207 seconds.

Robert Shwartzman's best lap in the #83 Prema Chevrolet was 52.8901 seconds. That was 0.044 seconds quicker than A.J. Foyt Racing's newest hire David Malukas. Scott McLaughlin was 23rd, 0.6663 seconds off his teammate Will Power. 

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing had a pair of its drivers at the bottom. Graham Rahal's best lap was 52.9595 seconds while Louis Foster's best lap in the #45 Honda was 0.0126 seconds off his teammate. Christian Rasmussen ran a 53.0035-second lap as his fastest and Marcus Ericsson rounded out the field with 0.7637 seconds covering the 27 drivers.

Driver Changes

As mentioned at the top, and somewhat covered in the Sebring test results, there were 12 driver changes in the time between the 2024 finale and the 2025 season opener.

The best driver from the 2024 championship in a new place is Alexander Rossi. After finishing tenth in the championship last year for Arrow McLaren, Rossi has moved to Ed Carpenter Racing and he will drive the #20 Chevrolet on a full-time basis. Christian Rasmussen, who ran most of the 2024 season in the #20 Chevrolet, will shift to the #21 Chevrolet entry for the team and Rasmussen will run all the races. 

With Rossi gone, Christian Lundgaard steps into the #7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. Lundgaard was 11th in the championship last year, 54 points behind Rossi in the championship. Lundgaard leaves Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing after spending three full seasons with the RLLR organization. 

Rinus VeeKay moves from Ed Carpenter Racing, where he was 13th in the championship in 2024, to Dale Coyne Racing, and VeeKay will drive the #18 Honda. VeeKay had spent his first five seasons at ECR before this move. Along with VeeKay, DCR has brought in Jacob Abel from Indy Lights to run the #51 Honda. 

Marcus Armstrong has switched teams, but he has somewhat stayed in place. With Chip Ganassi Racing contracting down to three cars due to the new charter rules, Armstrong has moved to Meyer Shank Racing to run the #66 Honda. This season, Meyer Shank Racing has a technical partnership with Chip Ganassi Racing. Armstrong was 14th in the championship last year, eight points behind Felix Rosenqvist in the championship. 

David Malukas ended the 2024 season as the driver of Meyer Shank Racing's #66 Honda. Malukas begins the 2025 season as the driver of A.J. Foyt Racing's #4 Chevrolet. After missing the first seven races and losing a ride with Arrow McLaren due to a wrist injury, Malukas had two top ten finishes in the final ten races with his best result being seventh at Toronto. 

Malukas takes over for Sting Ray Robb, who has moved to Juncos Hollinger Racing, and Robb will drive the #77 Chevrolet with Conor Daly as his teammate. This will be Robb's third team in three seasons in IndyCar. Last year, JHR became the 11th different team Daly has driven for in 11 IndyCar seasons.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has made a pair of driver changes. With Lundgaard leaving the team, RLLR has hired 2024 Indy Lights champion Louis Foster to drive its #45 Honda. Pietro Fittipaldi was not retained for the 2025 season, and Devlin DeFrancesco has been drafted in to fill the #30 Honda. 

The other two changes to the grid involves two entries exiting and two entries entering. With the charter agreement limiting a team to three such entries, Chip Ganassi Racing withdrew two entries from the championship, and will run only three full-time cars compared to five in 2024. This has left an opening for the Prema organization to join IndyCar.

Prema will field the #83 Chevrolet for Robert Shwartzman and the #90 Chevrolet for Callum Ilott. Ilott brings IndyCar experience to the team with 38 starts to his name, including two last year driving for Arrow McLaren at St. Petersburg and in the Indianapolis 500. He was 11th in both races. Shwartzman enters IndyCar after competing last season in a privateer Ferrari 499P for AF Corse in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Shwartzman was on the overall winning team at the Austin round. He was previously Formula Three champion in 2019 and runner-up in the 2021 Formula Two championship.

Who Wants to Pick Up Where They Left Off?

It has been a little more than five-and-a-half months since the most recent IndyCar race. While an entire autumn came and went, and we find ourselves in the final weeks of winter, there are a number of drivers hoping the passage of time does not knock them off where they were when the 2024 season ended.

There were a number of drivers who had a good run to end last season. Some were performing at their highest levels. Others were achieving results that could be championship worthy over an entire season. If they can pick up where they left off, 2025 could be their best seasons yet.

Leading this cast of characters is IndyCar's most recent winner, Colton Herta. A victory at Nashville did more than lift Herta's pride to close the 2024 season. That victory was enough to put him up to second in the championship, Herta's best championship finish. It was his second victory and his sixth top five finish in the final seven races. Herta ended the season having led a lap in four consecutive races and in five of the final six. 

This is only the second time Herta has had consecutive podium finishes in his career. The four consecutive top five he had from the second Iowa race through Portland is the longest streak of top five finishes in his career. This capped off a 2024 season where Herta reset his career-best for top five finishes (ten) and top ten finishes (13).

That Nashville victory was enough for Herta to nip Scott McLaughlin for second in the championship by seven points. McLaughlin put up an impressive close to the season in his late championship push. The New Zealander ended the season with five consecutive top ten results, three of which were top five results. McLaughlin had five podium finishes in the final nine races as he won three races in a single-season for the second time in three years. 

McLaughlin had the most oval points in 2024, and he also had five pole positions, including at the Indianapolis 500. His eight top five finishes matched a personal-best in a season. 

Though he did not win a race in 2024 after winning twice in 2023, Kyle Kirkwood had his best season in IndyCar last year. Kirkwood had five top five finishes in 2024 after entering the season with just two top five finishes in his career. With an average finish of 8.7059, Kirkwood had the fourth-best averge finish last season in IndyCar, and it was five spots better than his average finish the year prior. Kirkwood also led a personal-best 121 laps in 2024.

Last season, Kirkwood opened with ten consecutive races finishing 11th or better. He ended the season starting on his second career pole position, his first on an oval at Nashville.

The entire 2024 season was unexpected for Santino Ferrucci. The A.J. Foyt Racing driver ended up ninth in the championship, the best season for a Foyt driver since 2002. In the process, Ferrucci had two top five finishes and 11 top ten finishes, a career-best in the latter. Ferrucci's average finish of 10.941 was the ninth-best in IndyCar and better than Josef Newgarden and Christian Lundgaard. 

Ferrucci ended the season with four consecutive top ten finishes. This matches his longest streak of top ten results. Ferrucci also started on pole position at Portland, the first of his career. 

It might be a new location, but Rinus VeeKay would not mind starting his time at Dale Coyne Racing on the same form as how his time at Ed Carpenter Racing ended. Through the first nine races in 2024, VeeKay ranked 18th in the championship and his best finish was eighth. In the final eight races, VeeKay had a top five finish and five top ten finishes to improve to 13th in the championship. 

VeeKay's average finish in the final eight races was 9.5 after averaging a finish of 17.444 in the first nine races. The Dutchman completed 2,522 laps last season, the second-most in IndyCar.

Conor Daly completed a minor miracle to close last season. Hired for the final five races to keep Juncos Hollinger Racing's #78 Chevrolet in a Leader Circle position when it was only one point to the good, Daly ended his season with finishes of third and tenth in two of the final three races. Not only did it keep the #78 Chevrolet in the Leader Circle, it put the JHR entry ahead of Ed Carpenter Racing's #20 Chevrolet and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's #30 Honda. 

The third in the second Milwaukee race was JHR's first podium finish in IndyCar. It was Daly's second career podium finish, and his first since June 4, 2016 in the first Belle Isle race.

Who Doesn't Want to Pick Up Where They Left Off?

While some drivers are hoping to begin 2025 as 2024 ended, some are looking for a fresh start.

Two of those drivers are now at Arrow McLaren. Christian Lundgaard may have finished 11th in the championship, but the Dane had one top ten finish in the final five races and three top ten finishes in the final 13 races. Thirteen races is also how many races it has been since Lundgaard's most recent top five result. 

Nolan Siegel made 12 starts last season, the final ten with Arrow McLaren. Siegel had one top ten finish, a seventh at Gateway. However, his average finish was 17.5 over his dozen starts. Prorating his points per start, Siegel would have finished 19th, but been about 33 points behind Graham Rahal in 18th. Considering only his McLaren results, Siegel would have still been 18 points behind Rahal. 

Though neither Lundgaard nor Siegel had the worst results in the world, the Arrow McLaren organization has not shown patience when it comes driver results, and both will likely hope to do better for long-term job security.

For as celebrated as 12th in the championship should have been for Felix Rosenqvist and Meyer Shank Racing, it was not the end to the season either side was likely hoping for. By end, I mean the final 65% of the season. After opening with four consecutive top ten results and five top ten finishes in the first six races, Rosenqvist had one top ten finish in the final 13 races. He was fifth in the championship after the first four rounds. Rosenqvist enters 2025 on a four-race top ten finish drought. 

Marcus Ericsson's oval struggles were well documented in the 2024 season. In seven oval races, his average finish was 20.857 with five finishes of 20th or worse. It did not help that his road and street course form was down across the board in his first year with Andretti Global. Eight top ten finishes were his fewest since his rookie season in 2019. Ericsson failed to finish four of the final six races. Six total retirements were his most in a single season.

The last few seasons have not been kind to Graham Rahal and the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing organization, but 2024 was a particularly tough blow. For the fourth consecutive season, Rahal's championship finish declined, dropping to 18th, his worst championship result in a decade. For the first time ever, Rahal did not have a top five finish in a season. While he had a stretch of three top ten finishes in a four race span in the middle of the summer, Rahal finished 20th or worse in four of the final seven races. 

One final driver who will hope to get off the snide at the start of 2025 is the defending champion Álex Palou. Yes! The champion is entering this season on a bit of a slump. Palou's final two results of the season were 19th at Milwaukee and 11th at Nashville. It is the first time Palou has had consecutive finishes outside the top ten since 2021. The Catalan driver is hoping to avoid three consecutive races without a top ten finish for the first time since his rookie season in 2020. Palou had a eight-race top ten finish drought that season. It is the only other time he has gone at least three races without a top ten finish.

Road to Indy

All three series are opening their seasons alongside IndyCar this weekend in St. Petersburg, and for Indy Lights, there will be 21 cars on the grid in the season opening round. 

Andretti Global won the championship last year with Louis Foster, and it has made a big shift change with three new drivers. Lochie Hughes moves up from USF Pro 2000 after winning the championship. Norway's Dennis Hauger joins the series after three years in Formula Two and four years after winning the Formula Three championship. Salvador de Alba moves over from the Andretti Cape joint operation. James Roe, Jr. is the only returning Andretti driver. Andretti Global won nine of 14 races last season.

Caio Collet and Callum Hedge are the top two returning drivers from last season after they finished third and fourth respectively in the championship. Collet has remained at HMD Motorsports while Hedge has moved to Abel Motorsports. Collet is the only returning race winner from the 2024 season. He won at Mid-Ohio.

HMD has eight more cars entered alongside Collet. Nolan Allaer and Josh Pierson are back for another season. Bryce Aron moves over from Andretti Global. Tommy Smith, Nikita Johnson, Sophia Flörsch, Liam Sceats and Haillie Deegan are all making their Indy Lights debut this weekend with HMD.

Abel Motorsports has three other entries. Jordan Missig is in a full Abel entry while Jack William Miller and Myles Rowe remain with their respective teams, but Miller Vinatieri Motorsports and Force Indy are now in partnership with Abel. 

Andretti Cape has two entries for Sebastian Murray and Ricardo Escotto. Chip Ganassi Racing returns to Indy Lights for the first time since 2007 with Jonathan Browne and Niels Koolen as its drivers. Browne ws sixth last year at St. Petersburg. 

Indy Lights will race at 10:10 a.m. ET on Sunday March 2. The race is scheduled for 45 laps or 55 minutes.

USF Pro 2000 has 22 entries for the season opening weekend. 

Jace Denmark is the top returning driver from the 2024 championship. Denmark was third last year and he will drive for T.J. Speed Motorsports with Ariel Elkin and Sebastian Manson as his teammates.

Max Garcia moves up off his U.S. F2000 championship wit Pabst Racing, and Garcia will have Jacob Douglas and Michael Costello as teammates. 

Turn 3 Motorsport won the USF Pro 2000 championship last year with Lochie Hughes and it is back with five entries for the St. Petersburg weekend. Alessandro de Tullio led the preseason test from NOLA Motorsports Park. Cooper Becklin and Tyke Durst are back for another USF Pro 2000 season. Titus Sherlock and Elliot Cox will be rookies this season. 

Mac Clark will look to improve after being 11th last year in the championship with Exclusive Autosport. Exclusive will also be fielding Joey Brienza and Carson Etter. 

Max Taylor was third in the U.S. F2000 championship last year and he moves up with VRD Racing and Owen Tangavelou as his teammate. 

DEForce Racing is back with Nicholas Monteiro and Jorge "George" Garciarce. Jay Howard Driver Development has paired Tanner DeFabis and Frankie Mossman. Logan Adams and Charles Finelli round out the entry list.

The first USF Pro 2000 race will be at 11:35 a.m. ET on Saturday March 1 with the second race of the weekend scheduled for 8:00 a.m. ET on Sunday March 2. Both races will be 25 laps or 40 minutes.

Nineteen cars are entered for the U.S. F2000 weekend with Pabst Racing returning as the championship defending team. Pabst has two cars at St. Petersburg for G3 Argyros and Caleb Gafrarar. Argyros won at last year's season finale in Portland as he was running a limited schedule. 

Jay Howard Driver Development is one of two teams with four cars entered. JHDD has Liam McNeilly as its lead driver after an impressive offseason testing. Brad Majman, Timothy Carel and Anthony Martella are the other JHDD drivers.

VRD Racing's four-car effort has Thomas Schrage returning to U.S. F2000 while Christian Cameron, Teddy Musella and Ryan Giannetta are rookies. Schrage had two podium finishes last year, a second at Mid-Ohio and a third in Portland. He also had three pole positions.

Exclusive Autosport has three drivers at St. Petersburg. Jack Jeffers was the quickest of the trio in testing ahead of Evan Cooley and Lucas Fecury. DEForce Racing also has three cars with Jeshua Alianell, Sebastian Garzón and Brady Golan. 

Rounding out the entry list are Eddie Beswick, Ayrton Houk and Wian Boshoff.

The U.S. F2000 season begins at 4:45 p.m. ET on Friday February 28 with a 20-lap race with a 45-minute time limit. The second race of the weekend will be at 12:30 p.m. ET on Saturday March 1.

Fast Facts

This will be the sixth IndyCar race to take place on March 2 and the first since Scott Dixon won at Homestead in 2003. It was Dixon's second career victory.

There have been five different winners in the last five St. Petersburg races.

The most consecutive years without a repeat St. Petersburg winner is six (2008-2013).

There have been four different teams to win the last four St. Petersburg races. This is the longest streak of different teams winning this event. 

Team Penske has not won the last two St. Petersburg races. Team Penske has never gone three consecutive years without a St. Petersburg victory.

Honda has won 11 St. Petersburg races and Chevrolet has won nine times at St. Petersburg.

Three of the last four St. Petersburg races have been completed between in under an hour and 52 minutes but in over an hour and 51 minutes. 

The average starting position for a St. Petersburg winner is 5.1428 with a median of fourth. 

Last year, Patricio O'Ward became the third driver to win at St. Petersburg in IndyCar and Indy Lights. Josef Newgarden and Colton Herta had done it previously. O'Ward also won at St. Petersburg in Pro Mazda in 2016.

Felix Rosenqvist, Rinus VeeKay, Kyle Kirkwood, David Malukas and Nolan Siegel are all past Indy Lights winners at St. Petersburg entered this weekend. VeeKay, Siegel, Sting Ray Robb and Christian Rasmussen have all won at St. Petersburg in Pro Mazda/Indy Pro 2000. Kirkwood is also a past winner at St. Petersburg in U.S. F2000. 

Four drivers hav won consecutive St. Petersburg races (Hélio Castroneves 2006-07, Juan Pablo Montoya 2015-16, Sébastien Bourdais 2017-18, Josef Newgarden 2019-20).

The average number of lead changes in a St. Petersburg race is 6.333 with a median of seven.

The average number of cautions in a St. Petersburg race is 4.0952 with a median of five. The average number of caution laps is 18.0476 with a median of 16.

Every St. Petersburg race has had at least one caution. The 2022 St. Petersburg race is the only one to feature only one caution.

This will be the first IndyCar race broadcasted on Fox since the 2002 Grand Prix of Long Beach. It was Michael Andretti's 42nd and final career victory. 

The only driver from the 2002 Grand Prix of Long Beach entered this weekend is Scott Dixon. It was Dixon's 22nd career victory and his penultimate start with PacWest Racing in what was PacWest Racing's penultimate race. 

Six other races have been broadcasted on a Fox-owned channel, all coming in the 1999 Indy Racing League season. Five were on the cable Fox Sports Net and one was on Fox. 

The Fox Sports Net races in 1999 were Phoenix, Texas, Atlanta and both Pikes Peak races. 

The only other Fox IndyCar race was August 1, 1999 at Dover. Greg Ray won the race ahead of Buddy Lazier and Kenny Bräck. 

Predictions

Team Penske never goes three years without a victory in St. Petersburg and it will have Josef Newgarden win this time and keep it with Will Power also on the podium and Scott McLaughlin in the top five. Álex Palou will also be in the mix. At least two Andretti cars stumble out of the blocks. At least eight teams are represented in the second round of qualifying. At least four top ten finishers started outside the top ten. All three rookies are running at the finish. Prema will have at least one car finish ahead of both Ed Carpenter Racing entries. Sleeper: Christian Lundgaard.