For the second consecutive season, Scott McLaughlin is starting on pole position for the season opener at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. In the final round of qualifying, McLaughlin took the top spot with a lap at 60.5426 seconds. It is the 11th pole position of his career, but he has won only three times from pole position in his career. He was fourth in last year's St. Petersburg race after starting on pole position and leading 40 laps. Starting on the primary tire meant McLaughlin had to run a stint during the race on the alternate tire, and it cost him and ultimately the lead. IndyCar has introduced a new rule this season where all cars must complete two stints on the alternate tire in street course races. McLaughlin has finished third in the last two IndyCar races. He has not had a podium finish on a street course since he was second in the 2023 Nashville race, another race where he started on pole position.
Marcus Ericsson was 0.0195 seconds off pole position, but this is Ericsson's first front row starting position since the 2023 Grand Prix of Long Beach. This is only the third time the Swede has started on the front row in his IndyCar career, and this will be his 115th start. He started second at Gateway in 2022. Ericsson has finished in the top ten in five of seven St. Petersburg starts. His 2023 victory is his only top five finish at the circuit. Last season, he had two top ten finishes all season, and he started in the top ten in seven races. In three of those he finished outside the top twenty.
Dennis Hauger makes his IndyCar debut from third on the grid, as Hauger was 0.0317 seconds off McLaughlin's time. Since 1946, three driver have won on debut, Graham Hill at the 1966 Indianapolis 500, Nigel Mansell at Surfers Paradise in 1993 and Buzz Calkins in the inaugural Indy Racing League race at Walt Disney World Speedway in 1996. Dale Coyne Racing has had a top ten finisher in seven of the last nine St. Petersburg race. In two of those races, a rookie finished in the top ten. Ed Jones was tenth in 2017 and Santino Ferrucci was ninth in 2019.
Álex Palou starts his pursuit of a fourth consecutive championship from fourth starting position in St. Petersburg. Palou was 0.1416 seconds off please position. Palou could become the fifth driver to win consecutive St. Petersburg races joining Hélio Castroneves, Juan Pablo Montoya, Sébastien Bourdais and Josef Newgarden. Palou has won in consecutive years at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and at Laguna Seca, both active streaks entering 2026.
David Malukas will make his Team Penske debut from fifth, and he was 0.2212 seconds off his teammate McLaughlin. Malukas will become the 39th driver to start an IndyCar race for Team Penske. Only one driver has won on his debut for Team Penske. That was Sam Hornish, Jr. on February 29, 2004 at Homestead, leading a Penske 1-2 with Hélio Castroneves in second. Five drivers have finished on the podium in their Penske debut, 11 have had a top five finish and 19 have had a top ten finish.
Romain Grosjean's return to IndyCar saw him make the Fast Six, and Grosjean starts sixth for St. Petersburg. This was actually the third consecutive St. Petersburg race in which Grosjean made it to the final round of qualifying. He started on pole position in 2023 and started fifth in 2024. However, he finished 18th and 22nd in those races respectively. In four St. Petersburg starts, Grosjean's best finishes fifth, but he finished outside the top ten in the other three starts, and his average finish is 14.5.
Marcus Armstrong fell 0.0368 seconds short of making the final round of qualifying, and Armstrong will open the season starting seventh. This is his third consecutive top ten start at St. Petersburg, but Armstrong has failed to finish the last two St. Petersburg races. His average finish in 13 street course starts is 11.538. Both of his street course top five finishes came in 2024 when he was third at Detroit and fifth at Toronto.
Patricio O'Ward joins Armstrong on row four. In six St. Petersburg starts, O'Ward has finished on the podium three times and outside the top ten in the other three races. He won the most recent street course race at Toronto from tenth on the grid. The worst starting position O'Ward has won from in his career came on a street course. He went from 16th to first in the second Belle Isle race in 2021.
Louis Foster was the top Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing qualifier, and he will start ninth. Foster was the top RLLR starter in only five races in 2025 despite having the best average starting position among the RLLR drivers at 13.529 and winning the team's only pole position. Last year, Foster was caught in the opening lap accident at St. Petersburg and he was unable to complete a lap in his debut.
Kyffin Simpson cracked the top ten in qualifying, and it is Simpson's best career starting position on a street course. His previous best was 13th at Toronto last year, a race in which Simpson finished third. Simpson has finished in the top five of the last two IndyCar street course races, and he has three consecutive top ten finishes. The only other driver who was in the top five in the last two street course races is Colton Herta, who is not entered this weekend. Simpson had the fastest lap in two of four street races in 2025.
Felix Rosenqvist takes 11th on the grid, and dating back to last season it is the third consecutive street race Rosenqvist is starting outside the top ten. Rosenqvist enters this race having not won in his last 92 starts. A victory this weekend would put the Swede third all-time in the most starts between victories behind Graham Rahal's record 124 and Johnny Rutherford, who had a 97-race drought. Rosenqvist led 31 laps at St. Petersburg in 2019, his IndyCar debut, and he has not led at the circuit since.
Christian Lundgaard made the second round of qualifying, but the Dane takes the 12th grid position. Last year, Lundgaard went from 12th to third at Long Beach. Lundgaard failed to win a race in 2025, but he was fifth in the championship. It was the third time since 2020 a top five championship finisher did not win a race. The other two times were also by an Arrow McLaren driver, Patricio O'Ward in 2020 and 2023.
Will Power's Andretti Global debut will be from 13th starting position as Power fell 0.0696 seconds off making it out of group one in the first round of qualifying. This is the second consecutive year Power is starting 13th at St. Petersburg. He spun on the opening lap last year and barely completed three corners before being classified in 26th. Power has led the most laps all-time at St. Petersburg with 269, but he has led only 27 laps in the last ten St. Petersburg races.
Christian Rasmussen missed out on advancing from group two by 0.0129 seconds, and Rasmussen will start 14th. In the last two races, Rasmussen has finished first and he has finished last. It was the 41st time in IndyCar history a driver has gone from first to last in the next race. On 30 occasions has a driver finished last and then won the next race. On seven occasions has a driver won a race, finished last in the next race, and then won the race after that. The most recent was Will Power in 2019, who won at Pocono, was last at Gateway and then won at Portland.
Kyle Kirkwood is a spot directly behind his new Andretti Global teammate in 15th position as the American was 0.1068 seconds off making it to the second round. Dating back to last season, this is the sixth time in the last eight races Kirkwood has failed to start in the top ten. Kirkwood's finishing position has improved each year at St. Petersburg. He went from 18th in 2022 to 15th to tenth and was fifth last year. Kirkwood has nine consecutive top ten finishes on street courses dating back to his Nashville victory in 2023.
Scott Dixon will start 16th, his worst starting position at St. Petersburg since he started 20th in the 2013 race. Dixon has ten consecutive top ten finishes at St. Petersburg. He was second last year, his fifth runner-up finish at St. Petersburg and he is still looking for his first victory in the event. Dixon has the most victories in IndyCar history from outside a top ten starting position with eight. No other driver in IndyCar history has more than four victories from outside the top ten.
Santino Ferrucci occupies the inside of row nine. Last season, Ferrucci started outside the top ten in 15 of 16 starts, but he finished better than his starting position 11 times and on five occasions he finished at least ten spots better than where he started. The only time Ferrucci started 17th in 2025 was at Mid-Ohio. He did finish better than his starting position, but he only improved to 16th at the checkered flag.
Graham Rahal occupies the outside of row nine. Rahal started outside the top fifteen in nine races last season, including St. Petersburg where he started 21st. This is his fourth consecutive St. Petesburg race starting outside the top fifteen. This is about to be the 20th season of Rahal's IndyCar career. He has finished outside the top ten in 14 of 19 season openers in his career. His best season opening finish was second in 2018.
Rinus VeeKay leads an all-Juncos Hollinger Racing row ten for his very first IndyCar race with the organization. However, 19th is VeeKay's second-worst starting position ever at St. Petersburg. He stated 24th in 2023 and his race ended with an accident, classifying him in 21st. VeeKay has four top ten finishes in six season openers in his career, and he also has four top ten finishes in six St. Petersburg starts.
Sting Ray Robb starts the season in 20th, and prior to this weekend Robb had only started in the top twenty once for a street course race. Last year at Long Beach, he started 19th and went on to finish ninth, his second career top ten finish. In three St. Petersburg starts, Robb has finished 16th, 24th and 21st. He has never finished on the lead lap in this race.
Mick Schumacher opens his IndyCar career from 21st starting position. Schumacher has not won a race since September 26, 2020. It was the Formula Two feature race from Sochi. Yuki Tsunoda was second and Callum Ilott was third in that race. Marcus Armstrong was ninth. Christian Lundgaard was involved in an opening lap collision with current Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing reserve driver Jüri Vips.
Nolan Siegel was 22nd in the championship last season, and Siegel opens the 2026 season starting 22nd. Siegel ended last season with six consecutive finishes outside the top fifteen. His average finish in six career street course starts is 20.5 with his best finish being 18th at Toronto last year. He ended last season with seven consecutive finishes outside the top ten.
Josef Newgarden has his worst ever starting position at St. Petersburg in 23rd. This is the fourth consecutive street course race where Newgarden is starting outside the top ten In the last seven season openers, Newgarden has either finished on the podium or outside the top fifteen. He was third last year at St. Petersburg. This will be Newgarden's 240th consecutive start, and it will break a tie with Ryan Hunter-Reay for the fifth-longest streak in IndyCar history.
Caio Collet will begin his IndyCar career from 24th starting position. Fourteen of the first 22 St. Petersburg races have featured at least 24 starters. Only once has a 24th-place starter at St. Petersburg gone on to finish in the top ten. That was Graham Rahal in 2018, who went from 24th to second. The average finish for the 24th-starter at St. Petersburg is 17.0714. Collet was seventh and third in his two Indy Lights starts in St. Petersburg.
Alexander Rossi rounds out the grid in 25th starting position. This is Rossi's worst starting position since the 2024 Nashville season finale when he started 26th. This will be the fourth time in Rossi's career that he is starting outside the top 25 and only the ninth time he has started outside the top 20 in what will be his 165th start. He has one top five finish when starting outside the top 20, fourth from 32nd in the 2018 Indianapolis 500, and his only other top ten finish was eighth from 21st in the first Iowa race in 2020. Rossi has three consecutive top ten finishes at St. Petersburg after finishing 20th or worse in his three visits prior to this streak.
Fox's coverage of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg begins at noon ET with green flag scheduled for 12:29 p.m. The race is scheduled for 100 laps.
