First Impressions: St. Petersburg 2025

1. We might need to start re-training our brains. As the pit strategy was playing out and Scott Dixon was leading all the drivers who had met the requirement of using both tire compounds and only needing one more stop for fuel, it looked like Dixon was about to pull off another masterclass performance and stealing a race out from underneath everybody. 

It made sense. Dixon had all the pieces lined up in his favor. The one thing that was lined up against was his teammate. 

Álex Palou was only two spots behind Dixon and within sight. Dixon may have made the mistake of going one lap too long. He was behind the back-marker of Jacob Abel. Palou came in and one lap created enough open track for Palou to zoom through to the lead when Dixon emerged from the pit lane. With clear track ahead, Palou left the field in the dust. 

Perhaps the old man doesn't have it anymore, or perhaps it was just a bad radio. It was a good run and Dixon is still better than most competing today, but Palou is the best. He didn't learn it. Palou had the same gift Dixon has possessed and displayed in IndyCar for the last two decades. Perhaps Palou has refined the ability over the last few seasons, but he has had this since he joined the Chip Ganassi Racing organization. We saw it on day one with a victory at Barber Motorsports Park. 

Day one of the 2025 season could not a worse result for the rest of the IndyCar grid. The champion remains on top. Everyone chased him for most of last year and the year before that. Now, everyone is chasing Palou from day one this season. We didn't see anyone catch him the previous two years. This could be a long year ahead.

When Palou has this in his arsenal, the ability to flip tire strategy into his favor without doing much beyond pacing himself, it feels near impossible to defeat him. Palou will be able to do this another two or three times this season if needed. When you cannot match it, the only option is to be outright faster, and Palou isn't going to let that be the case for most of the season. 

The question we must ask ourselves when a race begins to turn into a strategy quagmire, "How can Álex Palou win this?" It is no longer Scott Dixon the first driver that should come to mind. 

2. It wasn't Scott Dixon's day. Radio issues cost him and likely caused him to stay out longer than his wished. Despite all the problems, he was still good enough to finish second. We will never know if Dixon would have been able to hold off Palou if the radio had worked. With how Palou drove, I think it might have still played out this way with the Catalan driver on top. 

It could be the case that the only driver better than Dixon is his teammate Palou, which is good for Ganassi, as it can begin a season with a 1-2 finish. Dixon did everything right. He hasn't truly lost it, but right when it looked like it was his day, going one lap long cost him. We are not used to Dixon losing races because he was the one to run one too many laps behind a back-marker. 

Dixon was great. It is tough when he is not the best even within his own team. There should not be any major concern. There will be one or two races this year where Palou isn't this good and Dixon will be the one to come out on top. It felt like the season opener was meant to be his.

3. Sting Ray Robb will be credited with the assist because this race was not as close as it should have been. Josef Newgarden benefitted from the traffic slowing Palou for much of the final stint, but once cleared, Newgarden did not have enough to pounce on the opportunity created. It actually poised a problem as Newgarden ran out of fuel coming to the checkered flag, and that is what led Dixon to take second on the final lap.

Losing a spot on the final lap aside, this is the start Newgarden needed. Last year, Newgarden was all over the place. He won but then he could not avoid bad days. He made mistakes and he cost himself. He needed to start this season with a good performance. He did that and he was on the same strategy as Palou and Dixon. He kept up with those two and likely should have been between them if he had just a little more fuel.

4. This race was determined before a green flag lap was completed. 

With the alternate tire having a significantly short tire life, some teams decided to start on it and hope to get it off the car as quickly as possible. When Will Power spun Nolan Siegel in turn three on the opening lap, collecting Louis Foster in the process, everyone on the alternate tire stopped immediately under that caution after running two laps. 

Palou, Dixon and Newgarden all started on the alternate tire. They finished 1-2-3. Scott McLaughlin started on the primary tire and he finished fourth. McLaughlin's only hope was to run away in that opening stint, and it appeared to be working. With the tire life of the alternate, McLaughlin was handcuffed. He did 13 laps on the alternate tire, but it cost him track position, and it was not a case of where he could make up ground on the primary tire. 

The only thing that saved McLaughlin's day was the opening stint. If the opening lap incident doesn't happen, this race plays out better for McLaughlin. I cannot say for certain he wins it, but it would not have been as constricting. The top three basically never had to run the alternate tire. They did three corners in anger and then paced around for a lap-and-a-half. That is a big difference than having to run 13 laps and making a green flag pit stop to get off the alternate tire.

5. How do we know this? Because Kyle Kirkwood and Marcus Ericsson ended up fifth and sixth, and they both started on the alternate tire. The top six finishers started eighth, sixth, tenth, first, ninth and seventh. Once clear of the alternate tire, without ever really using the tires during the race, these five drivers were sitting pretty. Kirkwood didn't do anything brilliant today. He kept his nose clean and got a top five finish. He made no mistakes. He did nothing special, but sometimes that is how you get a great result.

6. The same can be said for Marcus Ericsson. I don't think Ericsson was mentioned once during the broadcast. He didn't make a mistake. He didn't overdrive the car. Once clear of the alternate tire, he gave up some track position, but Ericsson knew the result would come on lap 100, not on lap three. Others had to face a difficult stint. Ericsson didn't and it led to a good result.

7. Another year and another example of Felix Rosenqvist dropping down the order after starting at the front. Rosenqvist didn't do anything poorly. He was holding his own against McLaughlin in that opening stint, but he got a double-whammy after his first pit stop. 

First, he was on the alternate tire and the battle was just beginning, but he also came out in traffic and this allowed McLaughlin to be safe once he stopped on the following lap. That cost Rosenqvist additional time and positions. 

It worked out with a seventh-place finish in the end. It isn't what you want from a third-place grid spot. It is a theme of Rosenqvist's career. Qualify at the front, finish worse than that. If that opening lap accident doesn't happen, this race is set up to go in a different direction. There was nothing Rosenqvist could have done once the equation happened. 

Six cars starting in the top ten started on the primary tire, and four cars starting in the top ten started on the alternate tire. Five of alternate starters finished better than where they started. The four primary starters all finished worse than where they started. Rosenqvist was just one of four dealt a bad hand.

8. Christian Lundgaard did not put on the alternate tire for the middle stint, but it did force Lundgaard into a three-stop race. There was no way the alternate tire would be effective for an entire stint. He put the tires on with 31 laps to go, and we knew the extra stop was coming. The smart decision was to take that extra stop when everyone else was stopping. Lundgaard did four laps on the alternate tire and stopped when the rest of the leaders were making their final stops. Lundgaard already lost the time, but it was better than trying to run 12 laps and likely losing more spots as everyone else was running laps. 

Lundgaard drove well, and he led Arrow McLaren on a weekend when I don't think anyone expected that to be necessary. It still was not a great weekend for the team, but Lundgaard was a big plus this weekend.

9. After not finishing better than 13th in 2024, Dale Coyne Racing opens the season with a ninth-place finish with Rinus VeeKay behind the wheel, and VeeKay started 12th. He showed pace all weekend. VeeKay started on the alternate tire, a good choice today. Even after that, he spent a great amount of this race in the top ten. 

The last driver hired showed it wasn't his ability that kept him on the sideline for that long. This should feel good for him and the team. It is going to be a long year, and there will be rough spots, but VeeKay has shown life post-Ed Carpenter Racing can be positive.

10. Speaking of Ed Carpenter Racing, Rinus VeeKay beat the driver who replaced him, though Alexander Rossi deserves credit for turning nothing into something. Rossi started on the primary tire and went from 20th to fifth once everyone on the alternate tire stopped on lap two. Rossi ran the same strategy as Lundgaard, ironically the driver that replaced Rossi at Arrow McLaren, and Rossi went a little longer on the alternate tire, seven laps, but he too stopped when the rest of the leaders did to minimize the time lost. 

For what Rossi lost on tire strategy, he gained from track position after the early pit stops. Rossi was moved to the front and stayed there. Tenth from 20th is a good day no matter how you got it.

11. Patricio O'Ward made the odd choice of starting on the primary tire, stopping on lap two to get the alternate tire out of the way and then running 20 laps and appearing to torpedo his entire race. Somehow it worked out and a four-stop strategy turned into an 11th-place finish. 

O'Ward started 23rd, and he would have been in the top ten had he stayed out. I get doing something different, but I think McLaren believed it could make the alternate tire work longer than everyone expected. That didn't work out. The strange thing is, I think O'Ward ends up finishing 11th either way. I don't see how there was a better strategy. He pulled out an 11th when it appeared it was going to be a disaster.

12. Graham Rahal did benefit from the track position of starting on the primary tire. He went from 21st on the grid to inside the top ten by lap three, and he spent much of the race right on the edge of the top ten. Considering how this weekend began, 12th is a small victory for this team. Rahal was the slowest in a three-car team where he is clearly the most trusted driver. This could have been a deflating weekend out of the gate. It wasn't great, but there is something to draw from this one.

13. David Malukas won the intra-team battle at A.J. Foyt Racing in race #1, finishing 13th with Santino Ferrucci in 14th. Both drivers started on the primary tire. Malukas and Ferrucci started 17th and 19th respectively. It feels like the team should have split the strategy and one of those drivers should have started on the alternate. It felt like these two were set up to miss out on the top ten once the race restarted, and that is what happened. Not their worse days, but they were caught in a pickle and could not work out of it.

14. Here is an interesting thing. Of the six top ten starters that started on the alternate tire, only Colton Herta finished worse than his starting position, and that was because Herta's crew had a pit stop from hell where the right-rear tire could not be secured and the team could not get the car full of fuel despite the extra time spent waiting on the tire. 

A grand total of 14 cars stared on the alternate tire, just over half the grid. Seven of those drivers started 14th or worse. Christian Rasmussen started on the alternate tire and went from 24th to 15th. I cannot say Rasmussen did anything more than not start on the primary tire as the reason he made up nine spots. 

15. Chalk it up to the pit crew letting Colton Herta down again. It was bound to happen at some point. This is the mulligan gone. Maybe Herta can afford a second one, but Herta was ahead of Palou, Dixon, Newgarden, Kirkwood and so on before that pit stop with the alternate compound out of the way. 

The tire issue is one thing. The fuel issue is inexcusable. With just the tire issue, Herta likely can recover and possibly break into the top ten. The combination of the two killed anything positive from the opening race, and that is something Herta cannot afford if he wants to be champion and be greater than he has ever been in this series. 

16. Conor Daly was 17th. Yeah. Started 22nd, got off the alternate tire and still finished 17th. That is where Juncos Hollinger Racing runs. Sting Ray Robb looks like Sting Ray Robb. Third team, same look. A lap down in 21st.

17. While Chip Ganassi Racing went 1-2 with Palou and Dixon, Kyffin Simpson was 18th. At least the checks clear.

18. I don't think Prema was hoping that 19th and 20th would be the best they could get in its first race in IndyCar, but 19th and 20th isn't horrible. 

Callum Ilott started 27th, dead last, and Ilott started on the primary tire, took the primary tire on the second stint, and then did 11 laps on the alternate tire. The only mistake might have not been able to run longer the second stint and done what Lundgaard and Rossi did, and only run five or six laps on the alternate.

Even if Ilott did that, it probably only saves him a spot or two. Not great, but the key thing is Ilott and Shwartzman each ran 100 laps. The team got the most data it possibly could from the first race. Onto the next one.

19. I don't know what happened to Devlin DeFrancesco, but he dropped from 14th to 22nd despite starting on the alternate tire and getting off of it immediately. For how this weekend was going, that was a rough end to it. The qualifying pace was a positive, but it would have been nice if the race pace followed for DeFrancesco. 

20. Jacob Abel didn't have the same speed as his teammate VeeKay. Abel ended up a lap down. I am not sure there is much to draw from this race. This is a difficult spot to be in. I don't think this result is indicative of Abel's ability. 

21. Marcus Armstrong had a good day ruined when he suffered left-rear suspension problems after running the opening stint in third. I don't know how the second stint would have played out for Armstrong on the alternate compound. It was shaping up to be a good day. If Rosenqvist ended up seventh, Armstrong could have finished in the top ten.

22. We made it three corners before the first accident of the season. Power tapped Siegel and it collected Foster. There was not much more to it than that. It didn't look good for Power. It wasn't the worst contact in the world, but if he doesn't touch Siegel, everyone makes it through the first lap clean and we might have seen caution-free race in St. Petersburg. 

It is harsh to all of them because nobody wants to start any race, let alone the first race of the season, that way. Siegel had a promising starting spot wasted, and Foster didn't really make a debut. Thermal cannot come soon enough for these three. 

23. This turned out to be a better race than expected partially because of the alternate tire. With St. Petersburg at 100 laps, it is a two-stop race for fuel. Firestone deserves credit for bringing a tire where it wasn't wise to try and make this a two-stop race. You do not need to stop three times, but with a tire that cannot go a stint length, it forces everyone's hand. Those who started on the alternate tire got fortunate. 

The best St. Petersburg races were the ones that were 110 laps because the pit windows were wide. We know five races this season were extended from their 2024 race lengths. We can only hope St. Petersburg could get those ten laps back in the future because it would definitely be a three-stop race, and if combined with the alternate compound we saw today, it would cause many headaches for the teams and drivers. 

24. This was a good start to the season. Good race. Open result. There is a little break until Thermal Club. At least we are easing into the season after such a lengthy break. 

Morning Warm-Up: St. Petersburg 2025

Scott McLaughlin opens the 2025 season with pole position for the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. McLaughlin set a lap of 59.4624 seconds in the final round of qualifying, and it is the tenth pole position in his career. It is the New Zealander's second pole position for the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. McLaughlin won the 2022 pole position, and then he won the race. Last year, he led IndyCar with five pole positions. None of those came at a street course. McLaughlin had an average finish of 22.25 on street courses last year with his best result being 16th at Toronto

Colton Herta joins McLaughlin on the front row after falling 0.1759 seconds off the Penske driver. Herta has finished in the top five in three of the last four St. Petersburg races, including a victory in 2021. This will be Herta's 100th career IndyCar start. Herta will be the second-youngest driver to reach 100 starts. Only Graham Rahal reached 100 starts at a younger age. Rahal and Herta are the only drivers to start 100 races before turning 25 years old.

Felix Rosenqvist leads an all-Meyer Shank Racing row two, as Rosenqvist put up the third-best time in the final round, 0.2365 seconds slower than McLaughlin. This is the second consecutive year Rosenqvist has started in the top three at St. Petersburg. His fifth-place result last year was his first top ten finish in this race since he was fourth on debut in 2019.

Marcus Armstrong starts fourth in his first race for MSR, as Armstrong was 0.3654 seconds off the top time. The New Zealander has finished in the top five of the last two IndyCar street races. Only Scott Dixon has a longer active streak of top five finishes on street courses with Dixon on three consecutive street races with a top five result. In each race Armstrong started in the top five last year, he ended up finishing 26th in the race.

Speaking of Scott Dixon, he qualified fifth, the third New Zealander in the top five spots. Dixon was 0.4039 seconds slower than his fellow Kiwi McLaughlin. Dixon has made 20 starts at St. Petersburg. There are only five other tracks where Dixon has started more than 20 races, Texas (25), Indianapolis Motor Speedway (22), Belle Isle (21), Iowa (21) and Mid-Ohio (21). Along with St. Petersburg, Iowa is the only other track Dixon has not won at. 

Christian Lundgaard begins his Arrow McLaren tenure as the best starting driver among the three-car effort as Lundgaard qualified sixth. His previous best starting position at St. Petersburg was 11th in 2023. Last season, Lundgaard's only top ten finish on a street course was seventh at Toronto. The Dane had multiple top ten finishes in street races in his first two full IndyCar seasons.

Marcus Ericsson was 0.0038 seconds short of advancing to the final round of qualifying. Starting seventh, this is the fourth consecutive year Ericsson has started in the top ten at St. Petersburg. The Swede's retirement in last year's St. Petersburg race ended a streak of four consecutive top ten finishes at the track.

Álex Palou missed out on a top six starting spot by 0.0367 seconds, and Palou will begin his title defense in eighth. Palou has seven top five finishes in his last eight street course starts. He has 15 top ten finishes in 18 street course starts with Chip Ganassi Racing. He has finished in the top ten of all four season openers he has raced with Ganassi.

Kyle Kirkwood finds himself in ninth, but Kirkwood was 0.0495 seconds outside the top six at the end of the second round of qualifying. The Floridian had top ten finishes in all four street course races last season. His average finish in street races was 5.75. That was the second-best in IndyCar behind only Scott Dixon's average street course finish of third.

Josef Newgarden starts tenth after being 0.1428 seconds off advancing. Newgarden has finished outside the top fifteen in the last three St. Petersburg races. Prior to that, he had three consecutive podium finishes in this race and five consecutive top ten results. Last season Newgarden's only top ten finish in a street race was fourth at Long Beach. His average street course finish was 16.75.

Nolan Siegel starts the 2025 season in 11th position. This matches Siegel's best career starting position, but this is his best start on a road or street course. His previous best was 16th at Mid-Ohio last year. Siegel won last year's Indy Lights race at St. Petersburg and he was second the year prior to that. 

After not starting better than 13th in any race in 2024, Dale Coyne Racing will start 12th in the first race of 2025 with Rinus VeeKay taking the team to the second round of qualifying. This is the first time DCR made the second round of qualifying since Nashville 2023. Despite having 94 drivers race for Dale Coyne Racing prior to VeeKay, VeeKay will be the first Dutch driver to race for the organization. 

Will Power fell 0.0179 seconds off advancing from the first group in the first round of qualifying, and this puts Power 13th on the grid for the season opener. It is only the second time Power did not make it out of the first round of qualifying at St. Petersburg. The other year was in 2021. Power has six top ten finishes in his last seven St. Petersburg starts. 

Devlin DeFrancesco makes his first IndyCar start in 539 days, and DeFrancesco was 0.084 seconds shy of advancing to the second round of qualifying on his return. The Canadian will start 14th. He had started 18th in his first two St. Petersburg visits. Last year, DeFrancesco competed in only the five IMSA endurance races driving the #78 Forte Racing Lamborghini in the GTD class. He was second in class at Petit Le Mans. 

Kyffin Simpson starts 15th for the first race of 2025. Last year, Smpson had only one race where he started in the top fifteen. That was 12th at Road America. Simpson is credited with fastest lap in last year's St. Petersburg race after the disqualification of Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin. 

Louis Foster was the best rookie in qualifying, as Foster will start directly behind his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing teammate DeFrancesco in 16th. Foster has three podium finishes in four Road to Indy starts at St. Petersburg, but he never won at this circuit. 

David Malukas was the best A.J. Foyt Racing qualifier in his first weekend with the team, but it has Malukas starting 17th. Malukas was tenth in his most recent St. Petersburg start in 2023. He missed last year's race due to a wrist injury. Malukas was sixth in his most recent street course start last year at Toronto, his only street course race in 2024. 

Robert Shwartzman put Prema in 18th for its first IndyCar race. Shwartzman was 0.3674 seconds off advancing from the second qualifying group. He missed most of the Saturday morning practice session due to radio issues. Shwartzman will become the first Israeli driver to start an IndyCar race.

Santino Ferrucci had an off during the first qualifying group, and Ferrucci will start 19th. The Nutmegger enters the 2025 season with four consecutive top ten finishes. Ferrucci has never had five consecutive top ten results. The most recent A.J. Foyt Racing driver to score five consecutive top ten finishes was Eliseo Salazar, who had six consecutive top ten finishes over the 2000 and 2001 seasons.

Alexander Rossi's first race in the #20 Chevrolet sees Rossi start 20th. Rossi missed the first turn on his first qualifying run and was unable to have enough time for a proper second run. Rossi has finished sixth or better in four of the last seven St. Petersburg races. In the other three races, Rossi has finished 20th or worse.

Graham Rahal wound up taking 21st on the grid. This will be the second consecutive year Rahal has started on row 11 at St. Petersburg. Dating back to last season, this is the sixth consecutive race Rahal has started outside the top ten. Though the location of his first career victory, Rahal has only one other top five finish at St. Petrsburg in 17 starts, a second in 2018.

Conor Daly makes it four consecutive American drives on the grid in 22nd spot. Daly changed numbers at the last moment prior to first practice, now driving the #76 Chevrolet for Juncos Hollinger Racing, as the team picked up the gas station chain 76 as a sponsor. Daly has an average finish of 16th in six St. Petersburg starts with his best finish being 13th in 2016, his first St. Petersburg start.

Patricio O'Ward ended up 23rd after not advancing from round one. This is O'Ward's worst starting position since he was 25th at Mid-Ohio in 2023. The Mexican has finished on the podium the last two years at St. Petersburg. On four occasions has a driver had at least three consecutive podium results in this race. Tony Kanaan had four consecutive from 2005 to 2008. Hélio Castroneves did it twice from 2006 to 2008 and from 2012 to 2014. Josef Newgarden is the most recent driver to do it, from 2020 to 2022.

Christian Rasmussen finds himself starting 24th for the first race of the season. This is the fourth consecutive race Rasmussen will be starting outside the top twenty. The Dane started outside the top twenty in seven of 14 starts last year. In three of four street races last season, Rasmussen finished 27th. St. Petersburg was the exception, where he finished 19th. 

Jacob Abel makes his IndyCar debut from 25th starting spot. Abel will become the first driver alphabetically by last name to start an IndyCar race. Abel will also be the first Kentucky-born driver to start an IndyCar race since Scott Harrington at Michigan on July 28, 2002. Harrington started 25th in that race and finished 21st.

Sting Ray Robb's first race for Juncos Hollinger Racing will start from 26th on the grid. This is the 33rd time in 35 starts Robb is starting outside the top twenty. In nine career street course starts, Robb's average finish is 20th with his best finish being 16th in his first career street race, which was his IndyCar debut at St. Petersburg in 2023. 

Callum Ilott has the second Prema car starting in 27th. This matches Ilott's worst starting position. He started 27th in the 2023 Indianapolis 500 and finished 12th. Dating back to 2023, Ilott has finished in the top fifteen in his last four starts. Only once has Ilott had five consecutive races with top fifteen results. 

Fox's coverage of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg begins at noon E.T. with green flag scheduled for 12:29 p.m. The race is scheduled for 100 laps.

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.

First Impressions: St. Petersburg 2024

1. Coming into this season, it was noted that for all of Josef Newgarden's oval success, his form on road and street courses hurt him in 2023. It took all of one weekend for Newgarden to get back on top. Pole position, most laps led, victory in convincing fashion. The Tennessean had not finished on the podium on a street course since his Long Beach victory in 2022. 

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. 

Morning Warm-Up: St. Petersburg 2024

Josef Newgarden won pole position for the season opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg with a lap of 59.5714 seconds in the final round of qualifying. It is Newgarden's first pole position since Belle Isle in 2022 and the 17th in his career. The Tennessean has won four times from pole position in his career, most recently at Mid-Ohio in 2021. He has never won from pole position on a street course in his career. This is his sixth pole position on a street course. Newgarden has failed to finish in the top fifteen in the last three season openers. 

Felix Rosenqvist makes his debut with Meyer Shank Racing from second on the grid, after coming up 0.0058 seconds shy of pole position. This is Meyer Shank Racing's best starting since Jack Harvey started second at St. Petersburg in 2021. This is the eighth front row start of Rosenqvist's career. Since finishing fourth on his IndyCar debut in 2019 at St. Petersburg, Rosenqvist has an average finish of 16.5 in four St. Petersburg starts. The Swedish driver's best finish when starting on the front row is fifth. 

Patricio O'Ward had the top three covered by 0.0826 seconds, as O'Ward matches his career best starting position at St. Petersburg. The Mexican driver started third last year in this race before finishing second with 23 laps led. O'Ward enters this weekend with ten consecutive top ten finishes, the longest streak of his IndyCar career. 

Colton Herta put himself fourth on the grid. This will be Herta's fifth top five starting position in the last seven races. However, he did not finished in the top five in the final seven races of last season, the longest drought since Herta went 13 races between top five finishes during his rookie season. 

Romain Grosjean will start fifth in his first race for Juncos Hollinger Racing. JHR did not have a top five start at all last season. After finishing runner-up in consecutive races last year at Long Beach and Barber Motorsports Park, Grosjean had only one top ten finish in the final 13 races of 2023.

Marcus Ericsson starts besides the driver he is replacing in the #28 Honda for Andretti Global in sixth position. Ericsson could become the fourth driver to win consecutive St. Petersburg races. Ericsson has only had podium finishes in the same race in consecutive years once in his career. That was the Indianapolis 500, which he won in 2022 and finished second in 2023.

Rinus VeeKay was 0.0119 seconds shy of making the Fast Six, and VeeKay will settle for seventh on the grid, his best street course starting position since starting fourth at St. Petersburg in 2022. The Dutchman has not finished in the top ten in his last nine street course starts. His most recent street course result was sixth in the 2022 St. Petersburg race. 

Will Power was only 0.0212 seconds outside the top six, and Power will start eighth. This is the third time in the last four St. Petersburg races Power has not started on the front row. In his first 12 St. Petersburg starts, Power started off the front row only twice. Power led 242 laps in his first eight St. Petersburg starts, including leading 50 laps or more in three races. In his last seven St. Petersburg starts, Power has led only 27 laps, and the most laps he has led in a St. Petersburg race is 17.

Scott McLaughlin finds himself starting ninth. This is the third time McLaughlin has qualified ninth in his career. He has finished worse than his starting position in the prior two occasions. McLaughlin has led 87 laps in four St. Petersburg starts. He ranks eighth all-time in laps led in the history of the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. 

Marcus Armstrong rounds out the top ten, the top Chip Ganassi Racing driver. Last season, the only time Armstrong was the top Ganassi qualifier was in the summer race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. He will make his 13th career start this weekend. The most recent driver to have their first career victory come in their 13th career start was Marco Andretti at Sonoma in 2006. 

Scott Dixon takes 11th on the grid and makes it three consecutive New Zealanders in the starting lineup. Each of Dixon's three victories last year came from a starting position outside the top ten. Dating back to 2022, his last four victories have come when starting outside the top ten. Dixon's eight victories from outside a top ten starting spot are the most in IndyCar history, and double the next closest drivers. Dixon has five consecutive top five finishes in St. Petersburg and eight consecutive top ten finishes in this race.

Christian Lundgaard rounded out the second round of qualifying, his second consecutive year starting on row six at St. Petersburg. The Dane has finished 11th and ninth in his first two St. Petersburg visits. Lundgaard was the top Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing finisher in ten of 17 races last year.

Álex Palou begins his title defense from 13th starting position. Palou missed out on advancing form round one by 0.1695 seconds. He failed to make it out of the first round of qualifying only once in 2023. That was at Toronto. Palou is attempting to become the first defending champion to win the season opener of the following season since Dario Franchitti won at St. Petersburg in 2011.

Santino Ferrucci fell 0.0242 seconds off advancing from group two, and Ferrucci will start 14th, his best starting position on a street course since he started 12th for the second Belle Isle race in 2021. Since finishing third in the 2023 Indianapolis 500, Ferrucci's best finish in his last 11 starts was 13th at Gateway, his only top fifteen finish during that span. His average finish on road/street courses last year was 19th. 

Alexander Rossi leads an all-Arrow McLaren row eight. This is the fourth consecutive year Rossi will start outside the top ten in St. Petersburg. He has led 84 combined laps over the last three seasons. In Rossi's prior four seasons, he had never led fewer than 83 laps in a season. 

Callum Ilott will be to Rossi's outside on row eight. Ilott is driving the #6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet in place of an injured David Malukas. Last year, Ilott went from 22nd to fifth, the biggest mover in the race. It was his first career top five finish. Ilott was fifth in the 2023 season finale from Laguna Seca. 

Tom Blomqvist was the top rookie qualifier in 17th. This is the best starting position of Blomqvist's IndyCar career. His previous best was 20th on debut last year in Toronto. The Brit made three starts last season driving for Meyer Shank Racing. Blomqvist had finishes of 25th, 24th and 26th in those events.

Kyle Kirkwood ended up 18th in qualifying, Kirkwood's worst starting position since he started 20th at Texas last year. This will be the fifth consecutive race and seventh in the eight that Kirkwood has started outside the top ten. His first two victories have come on street courses. The last driver to have his first three victories come on street courses was Mike Conway from 2011 to 2014. All four of Conway's victories came on street courses.

Linus Lundqvist's first race for Chip Ganassi Racing will come from 19th starting position. Lundqvist started in the top 12 in each of his three starts last year with Meyer Shank Racing. The Swede scored fastest lap in two of his first three career starts. Since 1993, the fastest to three fastest laps in a career is five starts, which Tomas Scheckter did in 2002.

Agustín Canapino rounds out the top twenty. Last year, Canapino started in the top twenty in five races, four of which were on road/street courses. Canapino had an average finish of 16.6 in the street races last season, including three top fifteen results. His best finish was 12th, which came at St. Petersburg.

Christian Rasmussen will make his IndyCar debut from 21st starting postion. Rasmussen becomes the sixth Danish driver to compete in an IndyCar race. In eight Road to Indy starts at St. Petersburg, Rasmussen had one victories and six top five finishes.

Graham Rahal starts 22nd, only the third time Rahal has started outside the top twenty at St. Petersburg. Rahal has only two top five finishes in 16 St. Petersburg starts, his first career victory in 2008 and a runner-up finish in 2018. He started 24th in that runner-up finish six years ago.

Kyffin Simpson ended up 23rd in qualifying. Born in Bridgetown, Barbados and representing the Cayman Islands, Simpson will be the first driver from a Caribbean Island to start an IndyCar race. Simpson was 11th and tenth in his two Indy Lights races at St. Petersburg.

Sting Ray Robb qualified 24th, the fourth consecutive race he has qualified 24th. Robb ended the 2023 season with his best finish of the season, 12th at Laguna Seca. Laguna Seca was only the second lead lap finish Robb had in 2023. The other was at Road America. 

Colin Braun will start 25th for his IndyCar debut. Braun will become the fourth driver born in 1988 to start an IndyCar race. The other of three drivers born in 1988 to start in IndyCar are Mario Moraes, Simona de Silvestro and J.R. Hildebrand. Of the "class of 1988," Hildebrand is the most recent to make his IndyCar debut, coming on August 8, 2010.

Pietro Fittipaldi makes his first IndyCar appearance since May 30, 2021 in the Indianapolis 500, and it will come from 26th on the grid. This will be Fittipaldi's tenth career IndyCar start. The average number of days between his ten starts is 240.4.

Jack Harvey rounds out the 27-car grid. Harvey is coming off a 30-race stretch with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing where he had one top ten finish and an average finish of 18.4. Harvey's best St. Petersburg result was fourth in 2021 with Meyer Shank Racing. 

NBC's coverage of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg begins at noon ET with green flag scheduled  for 12:30 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 100 laps.

Track Walk: St. Petersburg 2024

The first race of the 2024 NTT IndyCar Series is on the streets of St. Petersburg, as for the 14th time the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg opens a season. Three different teams have won the last three years at St. Petersburg, and it is only the third time St. Petersburg has had three different teams winning in three consecutive years. There has never been a streak of four consecutive different teams winning this race. Four different drivers have won the last four years, the longest streak at St. Petersburg since there were five different winners from 2011 through 2015. 

Coverage

Time: Coverage begins at 12:00 p.m. ET on Sunday March 10 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 Georgia Henneberry 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: 2:00 p.m. ET 
Sunday:
Warm-up: 9:10 a.m. ET (30 minutes)
Race: 12:30 p.m. ET (100 laps)

* - All sessions will be available live on Peacock

Ganassi's Title Defense

Walking into this season, Chip Ganassi Racing is the team to beat. Ganassi won nine of 17 races last year, its most since 2009. Ganassi went 1-2-6 in the championship, and it enters this season on a four-race winning streak. Ganassi is looking for five consecutive victories for the first time since 1998. The team also enters as the defending St. Petersburg winners. 

Álex Palou has not finished outside the top ten since 2022. Last year, Palou's worst finish was eighth, one of which came at St. Petersburg. He completed 2,258 of 2,260 laps as he won five times with ten podium finishes. Palou was on the podium in the last three street course races, including a victory in Detroit. The Catalan driver has 13 consecutive top ten finishes in street races entering this season. 

Besides Palou, Ganassi has Scott Dixon, a driver who won three of the last four races to close out the 2023 season. Dixon had 11 top five finishes last year, and he enters this season with 14 consecutive top ten finishes. His retirement at Long Beach last April was Dixon's only result outside the top ten last season. 

Ganassi had a top five finisher in every race in 2023, and it has had a top five finisher in 19 consecutive races dating back to 2022. The team had multiple top five finishers in 11 races last year. Marcus Ericsson was one of the reasons behind those results. Ericsson is no longer with the organization, and Ganassi has two rookies and a sophomore rounding out an expanded five-car team. 

Marcus Armstrong started all 12 road/street races in 2023, and he will now be full-time in the #11 Honda. Armstrong had five top ten finishes with two finishes of 11th and a 13th allowing him to capture rookie of the year honors despite not running a full schedule. 

Ganassi will attempt to claim its second consecutive rookie of the year honors with Linus Lundqvist, who replaces his fellow Swede in the #8 Honda. Lundqvist made three starts last year with Meyer Shank Racing, where he scored fastest lap twice, including on debut, and his best finish was 12th. 

In the fifth Ganassi entry will be rookie Kyffin Simpson driving the #4 Honda. Simpson spent the last two seasons in Indy Lights where he had two podium finishes and six top five finishes in 27 starts. Simpson won the European Le Mans Series LMP2 championship last year and he also won in the LMP2 class at the 2023 12 Hours of Sebring. 

Ganassi's St. Petersburg victory last year was only its second, coming 12 years after Dario Franchitti earned its first.

Driver Changes

Ganassi is keeping its top two drivers from 2023, and it is promoting one to a full-time gig, but the likes of Lundqvist and Simpson are just two of 12 drivers that are in different seats from last year. 

We know Lundqvist replaced Ericsson at Ganassi, as Ericsson has moved to Andretti Global, taking over the #28 Honda. Ericsson replaces Romain Grosjean, who has moved to Juncos Hollinger Racing to drive the #77 Chevrolet.

Lundqvist and Simpson are two of four rookies in the 2024 field. Tom Blomqvist ran three races at the end of last year, but the IMSA champion will be full-time in IndyCar this year, driving the #66 Honda for Meyer Shank Racing as MSR underwent a re-numbering of its second full-time entry. 

Christian Rasmussen will be the fourth rookie in 2024. The 2023 Indy Lights champion, Rasmussen will drive the #20 Chevrolet for Ed Carpenter Racing in every road and street course race this year, as Ed Carpenter will drive the oval events in this entry. ECR is scaling back and not running the additional third car for Carpenter this year, reverting to the two-driver setup the team used in the #20 Chevrolet from 2014 through 2021. Rasmussen will be entered in a third ECR car for the Indianapolis 500 as well.

While Blomqvist has a new number, he will also have a new teammate as Felix Rosenqvist moves to the #60 Honda for MSR. Rosenqvist had spent the prior three seasons at Arrow McLaren.

Sting Ray Robb moves from Dale Coyne Racing to A.J. Foyt Racing's #41 Chevrolet. 

Dale Coyne Racing's other driver from 2023, David Malukas, will drive the #6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet this season, however, a wrist injury suffered last month in a mountain biking accident will keep Malukas out of the car for St. Petersburg. Substituting for Malukas in the season opener will be Callum Ilott, who spent the previous two seasons at Juncos Hollinger Racing. 

Ilott is driving full-time this season in the FIA World Endurance Championship, where he is in the #12 Porsche 963 for Hertz Team Jota. Ilott is coming off a second-place finish in the WEC season opening Qatar 1812 km last week.

Not a rookie, and not unfamiliar to IndyCar, Pietro Fittipaldi will take over Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's #30 Honda entry in a full-time effort. Fittipaldi has nine IndyCar starts to his name, but his most recent was the 2021 Indianapolis 500 and his IndyCar debut came nearly six years ago. Fittipaldi remains a test/reserve driver to Haas F1. He ran for Team Jota in WEC's LMP2 class last year, where he was victorious at Monza. 

Dale Coyne Racing will field Jack Harvey in the #18 Honda while Colin Braun will make his IndyCar debut in the #51 Honda. Harvey is slated to compete in 14 races for Coyne while Indy Lights driver Nolan Siegel will drive at Long Beach, the Indianapolis 500 and Toronto, as well as the exhibition race at Thermal Club in Palm Springs, California. Braun is only scheduled to run St. Petersburg and at Thermal Club, but the Texan could run additional races this season.

What Did Testing Tell Us?

IndyCar had a two-day test last week at Sebring International Raceway ahead of the season opener. The field was split over each day with half the entries testing on Monday February 26 and the other half testing on Tuesday February 27. The entire field never experienced the same track conditions. 

This split meant those testing on Tuesday swarmed the top of the combined results. The top five were all from Tuesday, as were seven of the top ten. 

Andretti Global's Marcus Ericsson led the session around Sebring's short course at 51.9512 seconds, only 0.0564 seconds ahead of Will Power. Patricio O'Ward was only 0.0592 seconds back in third with Meyer Shank Racing's Felix Rosenqvist in fourth, 0.0793 seconds behind his fellow Swede. Graham Rahal was in fifth, the first driver over a tenth off Ericsson. Álex Palou made it six different teams represented in the top six, 0.1371 back. Palou was the top Monday participant.

Christian Lundgaard and Josef Newgarden also ran on Monday, and they were seventh and eighth. Kyffin Simpson and Linus Lundqvist rounded out the top ten. Colton Herta was in 11th, only two ten-thousandths off Lundqvist. 

Santino Ferrucci was 12th ahead of Alexander Rossi, who was just over three-tenths behind Ericsson. O'Ward ran on Monday in the #6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet in place of the injured David Malukas, and O'Ward was 14th, just two thousandths behind Rossi. Scott Dixon rounded out the top fifteen, 0.3158 seconds slower than his former teammate. 

Romain Grosjean was 16th ahead of Marcus Armstrong, Kyle Kirkwood and Christian Rasmussen. Scott McLaughlin rounded out the top twenty after competing on Monday. Seven of the bottom eight ran on Monday. McLaughlin was 0.5921 off Ericsson. Rinus VeeKay was 21st ahead of Pietro Fittipaldi, Tom Blomqvist, Agustin Canapino and Sting Ray Robb. 

Dale Coyne Racing took the bottom two spots with Tuesday's runner Colin Braun ahead of Monday's runner Jack Harvey. Braun was 0.9657 seconds off Ericsson with Harvey 1.1254 seconds back.

Street Course Guessing Game

Last season, four different drivers won the five street course races held. Dating back to 2022, there have been eight different winners in the last ten street course races.

Kyle Kirkwood was the only winner of multiple street course races in 2023. The Andretti Global driver won at Long Beach and Nashville. Marcus Ericsson, Álex Palou and Christian Lundgaard won the other three street course races, as Honda swept the street events last year. Honda has won seven consecutive street course races dating back to 2022. 

It should come as no surprise that Palou led all drivers in street course points last year with 185, 19 points more than Kirkwood and 29 points more than Ericsson. Despite not winning a street race, and having only one top five finish in the street races, Scott McLaughlin was fourth on 137 points, one more than Scott Dixon.

Last season was the second time in three seasons Team Penske failed to win a street race. It won the first three street races in 2022 with all three of its drivers, Scott McLaughlin at St. Petersburg, Josef Newgarden at Long Beach and Will Power at Belle Isle. Scott Dixon won the final two street course races that year at Toronto and Nashville.

Familiar names struggled on street courses last year. Patricio O'Ward may have been second at St. Petersburg, but his next best street result was eighth and he finished outside the top fifteen in two of those races. O'Ward was tenth in street points on 108, two fewer than Marcus Armstrong. Colton Herta had three fewer points than O'Ward, and Herta finished outside the top ten in three of five street races, including finishing 20th or worse in two of them. 

While Alexander Rossi was in the top five in two street races, he was outside the top fifteen in the other three, ending up 14th in street points on 96, one fewer than Romain Grosjean, who was second at Long Beach, but outside the top fifteen in three street races. Graham Rahal scored only 88 points in the five street races last year.

The last four first-time winners in IndyCar have all come on street courses, including Kirkwood and Lundgaard last season. For three consecutive seasons, at least one first-time winner has occurred in a street race. 

There will be 13 drivers entered at St. Petersburg looking for a first career victory. Three times has St. Petersburg produced a first-time winner. Those were Graham Rahal in 2008, James Hinchcliffe in 2013 and Scott McLaughlin 2022. 

Procedural Changes

A few things will look different this IndyCar season, and you will see them straight away at St. Petersburg, specifically in first practice. 

In an effort to increase participation in the practice session, the first 20 minutes of practice will be open to every car to participate. After the first 20 minutes, the field will be divided into two groups, determined by alternating pit boxes, and each group will get to take to the track in alternating ten-minute increments. 

Group one will get the first ten minutes before being called to pit lane where group two will get the next ten minutes. The groups will alternate until all 75 minutes of the practice session has elapsed. 

This new practice format will be trialed at St. Petersburg and future use will be decided based on how this weekend goes. 

During the race, there will be a new restart procedure. A restart line will be painted at the exit of the final turn. Drivers must remain in line and cannot pass until a driver has crossed the line. 

This has been introduced after a number of accidents on restarts, most notable in last year's season finale at Laguna Seca. Three of the eight cautions in that Laguna Seca race were due to incidents in the final corner with cars coming to the restart. 

One thing you will see on the race cars will be a new LED light strip on the edge of the rear wing endplates in an effort to improve awareness of a car ahead on track in wet conditions. With the introduction of aeroscreen and the center bar down the middle, the LED rain light on the rear attenuators was obscured to the trailing drivers. 

Road to Indy

The Road to Indy brings 64 cars to St. Petersburg this weekend for the opening road in all three series. Indy Lights has 21 cars entered, the most since July 4, 2009 at Watkins Glen, a race that J.R. Hildebrand won, and in which James Hinchcliffe was last. 

Nolan Siegel is the top returning driver from the 2023 championship, Siegel was third in points, and he already has a foot in IndyCar, as he is scheduled to run three championship races for Dale Coyne Racing this year, including the Indianapolis 500, as well as the exhibition race at Thermal Club. The Californian began last season with four podium finishes, including two victories, in the first six races, but he had only one podium result in the final eight events.

Siegel is one of ten HMD Motorsports supported drivers this season. Also in the team will be Myles Rowe, the 2023 USF Pro 2000 champion, who will be driving the Force Indy supported entry. Reece Gold, Josh Pierson and Christian Bogle are back as well. There are five other rookies with the team, including Caio Collet, a Brazilian moving over from FIA Formula Three. Callum Hedge joins the team after winning the 2023 Formula Regional Americas Championship. 

Jonathan Browne, Nolan Allaer and Niels Koolen round out the HMD lineup. 

There are seven returning regulars from last season, including three of the four Andretti Global entries. Louis Foster was fourth in the championship last year, and his 2023 season ended up the upswing. After having only three podium finishes in the first ten races, Foster was on the podium in three of the final four events. James Roe, Jr. was seventh in the championship with only one podium result, and Jamie Chadwick is back after her best finish was sixth at Portland. 

American Bryce Aron rounds out the Andretti lineup. Aron spent the previous four years competing in Europe. His best achievement was finishing fifth in the 2020 Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch, and then finishing third in the Walter Hayes Trophy at Silverstone later that year. 

Andretti Global is also running two cars in partnership with Cape Motorsports. Salvador de Alba and Michael d'Orlando both move up from USF Pro 2000. D'Orlando is currently only confirmed for St. Petersburg. 

Jacob Abel was fifth in the championship last year, but fell short of a race victory. Abel is back with Abel Motorsports, and he will have Josh Mason and Yuven Sundaramoorthy as his teammates. 

Lindsay Brewer and Jack William Miller round out the Indy Lights grid. Both drivers are moving up from USF Pro 2000 with Juncos Hollinger Racing and Miller Vinatieri Motorsports respectively. 

The Indy Lights race is scheduled for 45 laps or 55 minutes, and it will take place at 10:10 a.m. ET on Sunday March. 

Twenty-two USF Pro 2000 cars will be competing this weekend.

The 2023 U.S. F2000 champion Simon Sikes moves up with Pabst Racing, where his teammates will be Christian Brooks and Jace Denmark. Denmark is the top returning driver to USF Pro 2000. He was seventh in the championship last year.

Nikita Johnson was runner-up in U.S. F2000, and Johnson won two races at the end of last USF Pro 2000 season. He continues on with VRD Racing. Shawn Rashid will be Johnson's teammate this weekend. Lochie Hughes makes it the top three from U.S. F2000 graduating up a level. Hughes is one of five Turn 3 Motorsport cars on the grid along with Adam Fitzgerald, Danny Dyszelski, Tyke Durst and Ethan Ho. 

Mac Clark moves up with DEForce Racing after finishing fifth in U.S. F2000 the year before. Clark's teammate from last year Jorge Garciarce also moves up with DEForce. They will have Nicholas Monteiro join the team in a three-car lineup. 

BN Racing had two quick drivers in testing with Colombian Nicolás Baptiste and Mexican Ricardo Escotto. Exclusive Autosport sees the return of Braden Eves, a past USF Pro 2000 race winner who did not compete last year. Avery Towns will be in a second Exclusive Autosport seat. TJ Speed Motorsports has entered three cars for Liam Sceats, Hunter Yeany and David Morales. 

Jay Howard Driver Development is down to one car for Frankie Mossman. Logan Adams will drive for Comet/NCMP Racing. 

Race one for USF Pro 2000 will run at 11:55 a.m. ET on Saturday March 9 with the second race on Sunday March 10 at 8:00 a.m. ET. Each race will be 25 laps or 45 minutes.

For U.S. F2000, 21 cars will be on the grid. 

Evagoras Papasavvas was fourth in the championship last year, and he is back with Jay Howard Driver Development with Tanner DeFabis and Michael Costello as his teammates. 

Pabst Racing will be looking to retain the championship with a three-driver lineup with Max Garcia, Sam Corry and Hudson Schwartz. VRD Racing has Nico Christodoulou and Max Taylor leading the way. Cole Kleck and Xavier Kokai round out the VRD team. 

USF Juniors champion Nicolas Giaffone joins the series with DEForce Racing in a five-car lineup. DEForce has the top two from USF Juniors last year, as Quinn Armstrong will drive for the team. Lucas Fecury, Maxwell Jamieson and Brady Golan are in the other three cars. 

Exclusive Autosport is running a three-car team with Jack Jeffers, Joey Brienza and Thomas Schrage. DC Autosport has entered Carson Etter and Ayrton Houk this weekend. Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Development continue with Elliot Cox this season. 

U.S. F2000 kicks off the racing this weekend at 4:20 p.m. ET on Friday March 8. The second race will be at 4:45 p.m. ET on Saturday March 9. Both races are scheduled for 20 laps or 45 minutes. 

Fast Facts

This will be the fourth IndyCar race to take place on March 10 and the first since Josef Newgarden won at St. Petersburg in 2019.

The other March 10 winners were Bobby Unser at Ontario in 1974 and Cristiano da Matta at Monterrey in 2002.

All three March 10 winners have gone on to win the championship in those three respective seasons. 

Chip Ganassi Racing has won three of the last four season openers with three different drivers at three different circuits (Scott Dixon at Texas in 2020, Álex Palou at Barber Motorsports Park in 2021 and Marcus Ericsson at St. Petersburg in 2023).

Chip Ganassi Racing has not won consecutive season openers at the same venue since Dan Wheldon won at Homestead in 2006 and 2007.

Last year, Marcus Ericsson won with only four laps led. It is the fewest laps led for a St. Petersburg winner. The previous lowest laps led for a St. Petersburg winner was ten laps by Dan Wheldon in 2005.

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 Global 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.

Since reunification, five of the 16 champions won the season opener.

Since reunification, 14 of 16 champions have finished in the top ten of the first race of the season. Nine of those 16 drivers were on the podium in the opening race and ten of 15 finished in the top five.

The average starting position for a St. Petersburg winner is 5.25 with a median of fourth. 

Last year, Marcus Ericsson became the sixth driver to win from fourth starting position at St. Petersburg. Fourth starting position has produced the most St. Petersburg winners, including in four consecutive years from 2013 to 2016.

Four times has the pole-sitter won at St. Petersburg, including in two of the last three years.

The third-place starter has never won at St. Petersburg. 

Only twice has the St. Petersburg started outside the top ten (Sébastien Bourdais from 21st in 2017 and Sébastien Bourdais from 14th in 2018).

The average number of lead changes in a St. Petersburg race is 6.45 with a median of seven. 

Five of the last seven St. Petersburg races have had seven or more lead changes. 

The average number of cautions in a St. Petersburg race is 4.15 with a median of five. The average number of caution laps is 18.15 with a median of 18.

Last year's St. Petersburg race had five cautions for 26 laps. It was the 11th St. Petersburg race to feature at least five cautions and the tenth St. Petersburg race to feature at least 20 caution laps.

Predictions

Colton Herta gets off the snide early this season and wins a thriller over Scott McLaughlin. Álex Palou continues his top ten streak. There will not be a seven-car pileup on the first lap. No car will be launched into the air. One of the Dale Coyne Racing entries will have a mechanical issue. Patricio O'Ward has no engine woes this weekend. Callum Ilott will qualify ahead of Alexander Rossi and at least make the second round of qualifying. Linus Lundqvist will be the top rookie by at least five positions and finish in the top ten. Sleeper: Marcus Ericsson.