Musings From the Weekend: Race of Too Familiar

Here is a rundown of what got me thinking...

Another season of Drive to Survive is out. Cadillac's Formula One program has been confirmed. People are mad at a person for having an opinion. Chase Briscoe won an appeal. Austin Cindric lost some points and some money. NASCAR filed a countersuit against 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports. Meanwhile, in Australia, Sébastien Loeb made history in Race of Champions, winning the Champion of Champions competition for a record fifth time, and Loeb became the first driver to win the individual title and the Nations’ Cup in the same Race of Champions. Loeb and Victor Martins paired for France and defeated Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown representing the host Australians. This year's Race of Champions had me deep in thought.

Race of Too Familiar

At one point, Race of Champions was a regular end-of-year gathering of some of the best motorsports competitors in the world, and it filled a void. Taking place in December, the event fell when most series had been silent for a few months, and we were still about three months from serious competitions resuming. It was a great filler at an otherwise empty time, and just over 20 years ago, it was moved into European metropolises and stadiums were turned into racetracks.

ROC has survived the changing times of the last two decades. Calendars expanded deeper into autumn. November was no longer off limits, and now we are used to championships running into December, running into ROC's once exclusive territory.

The event has moved to the start of the calendar year, and it has even taken time off. This weekend's event in Sydney was the first in two years, and the first to run in March, right on the eve of the Formula One season opener one week later in Melbourne. It was nice to have it back, but the event has lost some of the shine it had 20 years ago.

A competition gathering the best drivers in the world is tough to manage. For starters, you are never going to get the best 16 to 20 drivers in the world all in one place. All you can do is get the best collection of talent that is possible, and ROC did a great job of that at one time. It might not be 16 champions from 16 different series, but it was respected drivers from a variety of categories. It pitted drivers against one another where you were interested to see who would come out on top. 

Lately though, the ROC field has felt familiar... too familiar... and not only has it felt familiar but it is starting to feel outdated. 

In 2005, there were 20 drivers competing in the second Race of Champions to be run at Stade de France in Paris. The average age of those drivers was just under 31 years of age. The oldest driver was German rally driver Armin Schwarz at 42 years old, one of four drivers in their 40s at the event. Ten drivers were below the age of 30.

In 2025, there were 20 drivers competing in the first Race of Champions held at Stadium Australia. The average age of those drivers at the start of competition on Friday was just under 36-and-a-half years old. Four drivers were over the age of 50. Another two drivers were older than Schwarz's age in the 2005 competition. Only six drivers were below the age of 30. 

That is without mentioning that four drivers from that 2005 competition were still competing in 2025, and it would have been five if illness did not prevent Mattias Ekström from traveling. 

Twenty years ago, Race of Champions moving to a stadium was something we had not seen previously. It strived to get the best possible field for people from around the globe to tune it. There was something for everyone. It has weathered some challenges over the last 20 years, but we are not seeing that same effort. The event hasn't come close to drawing that previous excitement.

ROC has become an event where it is resting on the known. It has its cast of characters that they know will not say no. Too many of the current field are retired drivers that do nothing else all year. Twenty years ago, the only ROC driver who did not compete full-time in a series was Colin McRae, and he was only two years removed from his last full season in the World Rally Championship.

Half of the 2025 field is not racing full-time anywhere this year. Kurt Busch, Travis Pastrana, Alister McRae, David Coulthard, Petter Solberg, Sebastian Vettel, Heikki Kovalainen, Toby Price and Molly Taylor are all not competing anywhere, and Valtteri Bottas is the Mercedes reserve driver, which is not competing. The FIA World RallyCross Championship is also in hiatus, and it looks increasingly unlikely there will be a 2025 season, which means Johan Kristoffersson is also without a full-time gig.

Race of Champions is becoming less of a representation of what the best drivers in the world look like every year. 

ROC has a difficult task attracting high profile drivers. It is an unattached event hoping invitees will come from the goodness of their hearts and not because of a paycheck. They are doing this at a time when manufacturers, teams and sponsors have greater control over a driver's career and what he or she can and cannot do. 

It is much easier to get a retired driver, who has no strings holding them back, but we have seen enough David Coulthard. It was nice getting to see Tom Kristensen, but we are good. For all that is good, shake Travis Pastrana's hand and thank him for his service. 

This event must attempt to remain relevant for survival. Running a week before the Formula One opener likely turned out not to be the best choice. What team would let a driver compete in an unsanctioned event a week before the season opener? There is a narrow window for this event to take place and draw drivers from all over. There must be a time between the middle of January and the middle of February where Formula One drivers can participate and plenty of other forms of motorsports are not entirely busy. 

There are more than Formula One drivers out there though. We know Race of Champions isn't going to be the 20 best drivers coming together. That is unrealistic, but what is realistic is bringing together talented drivers from multiple categories of motorsports that makes it interesting. That is what it was in 2005.

Sure, it featured the World Rally Champion, Indianapolis 500 winner and a 24 Hours of Le Mans winner, but you also had three active Formula One drivers plus two of the best junior drivers who were on the verge of Formula One. You had a mix of sports car drivers, touring car drivers and rally drivers. The drivers that were competing you felt fit the category of Race of Champions. 

Jeff Gordon wasn't NASCAR Cup champion in 2005, but he was one of the best in NASCAR. Bernd Schneider wasn't Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters champion in 2005, but he was one of the best in DTM. If you get a smattering of top five drivers from eight or nine championships around the world, you have a pretty compelling competition.

Outside of the local Australians, nobody competing this year did anything notable in a top category the year before. 

Max Verstappen and Kyle Larson might be out of reach, but there are plenty of drivers in this world that would make for a memorable competition. 

The United Kingdom deserves Nick Tandy and James Calado as its representatives. 

The Netherlands has more than Verstappen. Nyck de Vries, Robin Frijns, Nicky Catsburg, Renger van der Zande and Richard Verschoor are out there.

We should have an Italian team with DTM champion Mikko Bortolotti and Antonio Fuoco or Antonio Giovinazzi or Alessandro Pier Guidi or any of the Italian Ferrari Hypercar drivers. 

Pick any of the 300 Danish drivers that are succeeding around the world. 

New Zealand should have had a better team than relying on a teenager to compete. I know they are busy, but between Scott Dixon, Scott McLaughlin, Mitch Evans, Nick Cassidy, Brandon Hartley, Marcus Armstrong and Earl Bamber, none of them were available? Formula E is in the middle of a two-month break! How busy could Evans and Cassidy be?

How come we cannot get a Japanese team in this competition? Or a Swiss team? Why can't the van der Linde brothers represent South Africa? There is always Jordan Pepper if one backs out. Get Dane Cameron and a Taylor Brother or Colin Braun to represent the United States. 

It is never going to be perfect, but Race of Champions can be better. Perhaps the world has changed too much and it is truly impossible to orchestrate for a respectable collection of drivers to compete in an all-star competition, but the effort must be made. 

Eventually, it will not be possible to call David Coulthard, Petter Solberg and Sébastien Loeb for said competition. Either the event will die because it will be unable to replace the old geezers or it will die because the competitors are drivers the audience did not grow up watching. 

Race of Champions has a place in the motorsports world. Motorsports needs a competition that cuts through the specialization and brings together racers from all corners of the world, but Race of Champions must actually bring together respectable racers that are relevant to the current championships, not to the championships decided 20 years ago.

Winners From the Weekend

You know about France and Sébastien Loeb, but did you know...

Christopher Bell won the NASCAR Cup race from Phoenix, his third consecutive victory. Aric Almirola won the Grand National Series race. 

Kakunoshin Ohta and Tadasuke Makino split the Super Formula races from Suzuka.

Cooper Webb won the Supercross race from Indianapolis, his third victory of the season. Seth Hammaker won the 250cc race.

Coming Up This Weekend

Formula One opens in Melbourne.

Supercars has four races scheduled at Albert Park as well.

The 73rd 12 Hours of Sebring is here.

MotoGP is going to Argentina.

NASCAR makes a stop in Las Vegas.

2025 Race of Champions Preview

After a two-year hiatus, the Race of Champions returns and in a new location. For the first time ever, Race of Champions will be held in the Southern Hemisphere, taking place in Stadium Australia in Sydney, famously the host stadium of the 2000 Summer Olympics.

Twenty drivers are scheduled to compete in this year's competition from nine different countries. The draw has been set for both the Nations' Cup competition on Friday night and the Champion of Champions competition set for Saturday. 

For the Nations' Cup, nine countries have been divided into three groups of three. The two-time defending Nations' Cup champions Norway have received a bye into the quarterfinal round. The remaining seven spots in the knockout round will be determined in the group stage with the top two finishers from each group and the best third-best team advancing. 

Nations' Cup

Quarterfinals

Norway

Best Result: 1st (2022-23)
Drivers:

Petter Solberg : Three-time Nations' Cup champion (2014, 2022-23) and 2018 Champion of Champions Runner-Up

Oliver Solberg: Two-time Nations' Cup champion (2022-23), 2024 World Rally Championship-2 Vice Champion

The Solbergs won the Nations' Cup both years the competition was held in Sweden. The only nation to win the Nations' Cup in at least three consecutive competitions is Germany, which won six consecutive from 2007 through 2012. Petter also won the 2014 Nations' Cup as a member of the Nordic team with Tom Kristensen. 

Speaking of Kristensen, the Dane is not enters in this year's Race of Champions, the first time Kristensen is not a participant since 2004, ending a streak of 16 consecutive ROC appearances. Kristensen also competed in the Race of Champions in 2000 and 2001. Kristensen is a three-time Nations' Cup winner (2005, 2014 and 2019), and he is famously a five-time Champion of Champions runner-up.

Group A

Finland

Best Result: 1st (1998, 2006)
Drivers:

Valtteri Bottas: Ten-time Formula One Grand Prix winner

Heikki Kovalainen: 2004 Champion of Champions and 2006 Nations' Cup champion

Team All-Stars

Best Result: 1st (2003)
Drivers:

Johan Kristoffersson: 2019 Nations' Cup champion and seven-time World Rallycross champion

Chaz Mostert: 2024 GT World Challenge Australia champion, two-time Bathurst 100 winner and third in the 2024 Supercars championship

France

Best Result: 1st (2000, 2004)
Drivers:

Sébastien Loeb: Four-time Champion of Champions and 2004 Nations' Cup champion

Victors Martins: 2022 Formula Three champion and seventh in the 2024 Formula Two championship

Group Breakdown: This is a group of historic Race of Champions participants. All three teams have won the Nations' Cup previously, but none of them have won in the last 19 years. France and Finland were the first two countries to win the Nations' Cup multiple times. 

France's only final appearance since 2004 was in 2012 when Sébastien Ogier and Romain Grosjean were runners-up to Germany. Finland lost the 2007 final to Germany with Kovalainen and Marcus Grönholm. The All-Stars were runner-up in 2023 with Felipe Drugovich and Thierry Neuville as its representatives. An All-Star team won in 2003 with Fonsi Nieto, Cristiano da Matta and Gilles Panizzi.

Group B

Australia (Supercars)

Best Result: Semifinalists (2012)
Drivers:

Brodie Kostecki: 2023 Supercars champion

Will Brown: 2024 Supercars champion

Australia (Off-Road)

Best Result: Semifinalists (2012)
Drivers:

Molly Taylor: Two-time Extreme E champion and 2016 Australian Rally Championship

Toby Price: Two-time Dakar Rally winner (bike class) and 2024 Baja 500 winner 

New Zealand

Best Result: Race of Champions Debut
Drivers:

Hayden Paddon: Two-time European Rally champion

Louis Sharp: 2024 GB3 Championship champion

Group Breakdown: Group B is nothing but debutants. All six drivers competing have never competed in Race of Champions previously, and for the first time ever, New Zealand is participating in the Nations' Cup. Paddon is a World Rally Championship veterans with 82 appearance, and he has won the ERC title the last two years. Sharp will enter Formula Three this year with Rodin Motorsport. 

The host nation Australia gets two teams. This is the first time Australia has competed in the Nations' Cup since 2015 when Daniel Ricciardo and Mick Doohan paired to lose to Germany in the first round. Kostecki replaced seven-time Supercars champion Jamie Whincup, who withdrew due to Cyclone Alfred threatening to hit Queensland, and Whincup wished to remain with his family.

Group C

Germany

Best Result: 1st (2007-12, 2017-18)
Drivers:

Sebastian Vettel: Four-time World Drivers' Champion, 2015 Champion of Champions and seven-time Nations' Cup champion

Mick Schumacher: 2020 Formula Two champion and 2023 Champion of Champions runner-up

United States

Best Result: 1st (2002)
Drivers:

Travis Pastrana: 2006 Nations' Cup runner-up

Kurt Busch: 2004 NASCAR Cup Series champion and 2015 Nations' Cup runner-up

Great Britain

Best Result: 2nd (2009, 2010, 2014)*
Drivers:

David Coulthard: Two-time Champion of Champions

Alister McRae: 2011 Asia-Pacific Rally Champion

Group Breakdown: While Germany has the most Nations' Cup championships, it has not won in the last three Race of Champions, its longest drought since it went winless in the first eight Nations' Cups. Vettel and Schumacher were runners-up in 2019 in Mexico when the Nordic team of Tom Kristensen and Johan Kristoffersson took the title. 

The United States was Nations' Cup runner-up in 2022 with Jimmie Johnson and Colton Herta. Coulthard's only appearance in a Nations' Cup final was when Great Britain was runner-up in 2014 in Barbados to the Nordic team with Kristensen and Petter Solberg. Susie Wolff was Coulthard's co-driver that year. McRae is replacing his son Max, who injured his hand in the British Rally Championship. This is McRae's third ROC appearance, who competed in 2000 and 2007.

Champion of Champions

For the Champion of Champions competition on Saturday, 18 drivers will be split into six groups for the group stage. A spot in the group stage has been reserved for the eROC competition winner, which pits sim racers against one another in the virtual and real world competitions. The eROC competitions will be held before the Nations' Cup on Friday.

Automatically positioned into the quarterfinals will be four-time Champion of Champions Sébastien Loeb, and 2023 Champion of Champions runner-up Mick Schumacher.

The six group winners will advance to the quarterfinals. 

The six groups have been divided in half with the first three groups comprised of rally drivers with the next three groups consisting of circuit racing drivers.

Group A

Johan Kristoffersson 

Best Result: Semifinalist (2018, 2023)

Molly Taylor

Best Result: This is his debut.

eROC Winner

Group Breakdown: In the last two Race of Champions held in his native Sweden, Kristoffersson lost in the quarterfinals, to Mattias Ekström both years. Ekström went on to win the competition in 2023, a record-tying fourth for Ekström, who was unable to participate in this year's competition due to illness. Taylor has made 17 appearances in the World Rally Championship, most recently the 2021 Rally Finland.

The Group A winner will face Loeb in the quarterfinals. Each of Loeb's four Champion of Champions title have come in four different countries, but all in Europe. He won the final year on the Canary Islands in 2003 before winning the second year at Stade de France in Paris in 2005. He won the final year at Wembley Stadium in London in 2007, and Loeb won the first year at Piteå, Sweden in 2022.

Group B

Travis Pastrana

Best Result: Quarterfinalist (2006-07, 2017)

Heikki Kovalainen

Best Result: 1st (2004)

Oliver Solberg

Best Result: Quarterfinalist (2022-23)

Group Breakdown: This will be Pastrana's tenth appearance in the Race of Champions while Kovalainen makes his ROC return for the first time since 2010. Kovalainen defeated Pastrana twice in the 2006 Nations' Cup final to take the title for Finland. Pastrana competed in the Nations' Cup solo that year and went 5-4 over the three rounds, defeating Germany and Scotland to make the final. Solberg won the WRC2 event at Rally Sweden last month.

Group C

Petter Solberg

Best Result: 2nd (2018)

Toby Price

Best Result: This is his debut.

Hayden Paddon

Best Result: This is his debut.

Group Breakdown: Solberg failed to make it out of the round of 16 in the two Swedish editions of Race of Champions. He lost to eventual winner Sébastien Loeb in 2022 and his son Oliver in 2023. Price made his first Dakar Rally start in the car class this year with Toyota, but retired. Paddon's only World Rally Championship victory was the 2016 Rally Argentina over Sébastien Ogier and Andreas Mikkelsen.

Group B and Group C winners will face-off in the quarterfinals.

Group D

Sebastian Vettel

Best Result: 1st (2015)

Brodie Kostecki

Best Result: This is his debut.

Louis Sharp

Best Result: This is his debut.

Group Breakdown: Though famed for his six Nations' Cup championships, Vettel has only won the Champion of Champions competition once. His only other finals appearance was in 2022 when he lost to Loeb. His semifinal lost in 2023 to fellow German Mick Schumacher was the third time Vettel has lost in the semifinal round. He lost to Mick's father Michael in 2009 and the eventual Champion of Champions in 2010, Filipe Albuquerque. Kostecki won the Bathurst 1000 last year. Prior to his GB3 championship last year, Sharp won the F4 British Championship in 2023.

Group E

Valtteri Bottas

Best Result: Round of 16 (2023)

Kurt Busch

Best Result: Quarterfinalist (2014)

Chaz Mostert

Best Result: This is his debut.

Group Breakdown: Busch competed in the 2014 competition in Bushy Park. He was undefeated in his group, defeating Petter Solberg, Barbadian Rhett Watson and Susie Wolff, but then lost to Jamie Whincup in the quarterfinals. In 2017, Busch failed to get out of his group, with losses to David Coulthard and Tom Kristensen and his only consolation was victory over Ryan Hunter-Reay. In Bottas' ROC debut two years ago, he lost both legs of his first round matchup against Kristensen. On three occasions did Mostert compete in Supercars on the Homebush street circuit, which went around the Sydney Olympic Park. His best finish on that track was fifth in 2014.

Group D and Group E winners will meet in the quarterfinals.

Group F

Will Brown

Best Result: This is his debut.

David Coulthard

Best Result: 1st (2014, 2018)

Victor Martins

Best Result: This is his debut.

Group Breakdown: Coulthard is probably thankful the ROC is out of the Arctic. He failed to get out of the preliminary round in 2023, and lost in the round of 16 in 2022. Brown opened the Supercars season last week with finishes fifth, third and second at Sydney Motorsports Park. Martins has two Formula Two victories, the 2023 Silverstone feature race and the 2024 Barcelona sprint race.

The Group F winner will face Schumacher in the quarterfinals. Prior to last year's runner-up performance, Schumacher lost to Jamie Chadwick in the preliminary round in 2022, and he lost in the 2019 quarterfinals to Esteban Gutiérrez.

There will be six vehicles used in this year's competition. There will be an FC2 rallycross car as well as a Supercar Lite rallycross car. The KTM X-Bow Comp R will be used, ten years after the KTM X-Bow was last used in the competition. The Polaris RZR Pro R is back after being used in Sweden.

Suburu makes its Race of Champions debut with the BRZ tS and Toyota is back with the GR86. The Toyota GT-86 was used in the 2012 competition from Bangkok. 

The Nations' Cup will begin at 3:30 a.m. ET on Friday March 7 with the Champion of Champions competition taking place at 3:30 a.m. ET on Saturday March 8. 

Musings From the Weekend: We Need a Season Where Ganassi and Penske Are Not a Factor

Here is a rundown of what got me thinking...

It was a good weekend for the Márquez family. Cadillac laid an egg in Qatar. Ferrari swept a podium, and Corvette came out on top. The fastest car in Formula One testing from Bahrain was a Williams. Everyone believes in McLaren, are uncertain about Red Bull, think Ferrari is good but not great, and Mercedes looks destined for a long season. There was a popular result in Daytona. Austin came up with a shortcut. Álex Palou led a Chip Ganassi Racing 1-2 at St. Petersburg ahead of Scott Dixon with Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin making it a Team Penske 3-4. That has me thinking...

We Need a Season Where Ganassi and Penske Are Not a Factor

With another IndyCar season opener brings the usual excitement for the year ahead. 

Drivers have moved around. Some have remained put. New names are ready to surprise us. Old names look to keep status quo. Anything can happen in an IndyCar season.

And yet, we all know the season will have one of three possible outcomes. 

Either a Team Penske driver is going to control the championship and win without really feeling like they are in that much danger. 

Álex Palou will continue to be Álex Palou and no one will be able to exceed his level of output. 

Or Scott Dixon is going to do something unthinkable and leave us all amazed. 

Anybody can win in IndyCar, but we all know who the champion will be. 

It is the vexing state of the series. In any given race, anybody could win. 

Alexander Rossi and Ed Carpenter Racing find great balance in the car at Gateway and turn that into a victory? Absolutely plausible. 

Felix Rosenqvist being lightning quick at Long Beach and nobody is able to keep up as he wins after leading 81 of 90 laps to give Meyer Shank Racing its second victory? We could all see it happening.

Graham Rahal getting off the snide as Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing continues to find its sweet spot on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course? History would suggest it was bound to happen. 

Seven teams could win a race this year and no one would think it was strange. There would be no surprise if A.J. Foyt Racing won an oval event or even Conor Daly winning with Juncos Hollinger Racing on an oval. A team can find its wheelhouse and have all the stars align. They don't even need luck. These teams can produce a car capable of winning and then nail a race from start to finish to take an unlikely victory, and none of us would be stunned to see it. 

When it comes to the championship though... naturally, that's harder to win than a single race. 

Anyone can have one sensational day or possibly even two, but a championship requires a full season of great days. Perhaps a team can overcome a mulligan or two, but no team is getting lucky 15 times in a season. The best win championships. They arrive and perform at the highest level nine times out of ten. 

For over a decade now, the only teams capable of that are Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing. The two organizations have combined to win the last 12 championships. The "Big Three" was declared dead a few years ago. There are two options. 

Chocolate or vanilla?

Paper or plastic?

Great taste or less filling?

The only thing that saves IndyCar from the entire season being a complete bore is neither team has a dedicated number one driver. It hasn't exactly been "A" or "B" for a decade where we know what driver each team wants to win. It will be one of their drivers, but the door is open to any of them, and the teams will let the drivers battle it out on the track. You just have to hope you enjoy which of three flavors you get. 

Consider the 2017 season. 

There were seven different winners in the first seven races. And none of them were Chip Ganassi Racing drivers. The first repeat winner was Graham Rahal. That is what makes IndyCar fantastic. Something like that could happen and nobody would think it is peculiar. Sébastien Bourdais winning with Dale Coyne Racing? Makes sense. Takuma Sato winning the Indianapolis 500? With Andretti Autosport, sure! Rahal sweeping the Belle Isle doubleheader? That team had it clicking. 

None of those results were fluky. These weren't cases of drivers getting lucky week after week and the winners not matching the result. 

Of course, the season still ended with a Team Penske driver as champion, but it was tolerable and celebrated because it was Josef Newgarden breaking through in his first year with the team. Newgarden caught his opportunity and seized it immediately. He immediately showed he was up to the task and the hype was justified. For an American driver who had pulled off some impressive results with smaller teams, this is what we all hoped for, the next generation showing up and making a name for itself.

We can have Newgarden win a championship or Álex Palou win a championship out of nowhere and it overshadows the reality. Will Power can win a championship eight years after his first title and we can all be pleased with it. Scott Dixon can open a season with three consecutive victories and go wire-to-wire to claim a title and we are awed by it. We can find joy in those accomplishments and performances, but when you step back and take a 10,000-foot view of it, you cannot ignore how the landscape looks. 

Dominance is common across all forms of motorsports, but it is the one thing IndyCar has not been able to buck. Anyone can win, but it is only a moment in the sun. It is never a seismic shift in the series. That next great superpower has not arose, and it has been quite sometime. You can only promote anyone can win for so long before you must acknowledge that it is never sustained over an entire season. We have yet to see it be “Ed Carpenter Racing’s year” or “Meyer Shank Racing’s year.” At best, those teams get a race.

IndyCar would benefit from a season where neither Ganassi nor Penske were in the picture for the championship. I am not saying have both teams nosedive and no longer be competitive for the rest of eternity, but a refreshing season with completely different names competing at the top would be a shift the series could use. 

The organizations are there. Andretti Global was once considered part of the problem, but we are going on 13 years since it last won a championship. Arrow McLaren talks like it is there, but it must win now. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has been competitive in IndyCar and sports cars. Ten years ago, RLLR and even Ed Carpenter Racing had a driver with a shot at the title entering the final race of the season. Meyer Shank Racing is a championship team from sports cars. Any of those teams have what it takes, but it just never works out that way in IndyCar. 

A year without Ganassi or Penske in the battle would put different names in view. It would also give us a storyline we have not see in two decades now, two powerhouse teams struggling. Penske's worst season in the last 20 years was a still season where it won three times, one of those races was the Indianapolis 500, and it only lost the championship on tiebreaker after three of its drivers entered the finale with a shot at the title. Ganassi has had a top five championship finisher in 18 of the last 19 seasons. In the one season it didn't, Dixon was sixth and won twice, a solid year for 85% of the grid. 

For the sake of something different, it would be intriguing to watch Ganassi and Penske have to battle try to find its way back to the front. It would at least give us something else to watch. The races would have the unknown fighting at the front in a battle where we would be uncertain who would come out on top, and the stalwarts would be giving us something to watch at the back. Whether they could pull out the results or not would be the mystery. It would not be boring that is for sure.

Ganassi and Penske are not going anywhere. We can hope one day we will see greater variety in the championship battle, and a few different teams take control of an entire season. Theoretically, it could be this year, but after seeing both teams combine to sweep the top four positions in the season opener, it will likely have to be another year.

Winners From the Weekend

You know about Álex Palou, but did you know...

Marc Márquez won MotoGP's Thailand Grand Prix and the sprint race. Manuel González won the Moto2 race. José Antonio Rueda won the Moto3 race.

The #50 Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen won the Qatar 1812. The #33 TF Sport Corvette of Daniel Juncadella, Jonny Edgar and Ben Keating won in LMGT3.

Christopher Bell won the NASCAR Cup race from Austin, his second consecutive victory. Connor Zilisch won the Grand National Series race.

Dennis Hauger won the Indy Lights race from St. Petersburg. Alessandro de Tullio and Max Garcia split the USF Pro 2000 races. Liam McNeilly swept the U.S. F2000 races.

Ken Roczen won the Supercross race from Daytona. R.J. Hampshire won the 250cc race.

Coming Up This Weekend

The best drivers in the world descend on Australia... for the Race of Champions in Sydney.

NASCAR will be in Phoenix. 

Supercross heads north to Indianapolis. 

Super Formula opens its season with a doubleheader at Suzuka.

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.

Best of the Month: February 2025

The second month is the quickest and we are onto another collection of positivity as this year is 1/6 of the way over. 

Business is picking up. NASCAR has started. The FIA World Endurance Championship is racing at time of posting. Australia has been busy. Supercross is already in Daytona. Formula One is testing. MotoGP and IndyCar open this weekend. 

The silence of winter is breaking and soon with the warmth will be an abundance of motorsports as far as the eye can see. 

Possible IndyCar Milestones

With IndyCar practice beginning today, it is a good time to keep in mind what little bits of history we could see in 2025. A few things are rather significant. We do not see all-time records break that often, at least not records of significant, but one is poised to change, and change rather soon at a historical venue.

Scott Dixon: All-Time Leader in Starts

Late in the 2024 season, Dixon became only the second driver to reach 400 career starts. Entering 2025 on 402 starts, Dixon has the record in his sight. Mario Andretti made 407 starts from 1964 to 1994. If everything goes as expected, Dixon should make start #408 in the 109th Indianapolis 500.

For over two decades, Dixon has been the torchbearer for greatness in IndyCar. He has already ascended to second all-time in championships and second all-time in victories. Dixon is already the leader in top five finishes. Nobody has won in more seasons than Dixon. There are not many categories where Dixon is not somewhere at the top.

This will feel right. In 24 seasons, Dixon has only missed one race. He has been Mr. Consistent from almost the very beginning. For him to have this spot in history is fitting, and to some it will likely be surprising. When Andretti retired, I don't know if many believed if some of his records would be touched again. Less than seven years after Andretti’s final career start, an unassuming boy from New Zealand came along and proceeded to re-write history.

Dixon: All-Time Leader in Podium Finishes

Andretti has not just one record in jeopardy, but two! 

Dixon enters 2025 with 142 podium finishes. That is two behind Andretti's all-time record. 

Like the starts, it is not a matter of "if" but "when."

With the starts, we at least have an exact idea when it will broken. Podiums is a little more flexible. It could be in three races at Long Beach, the earliest it could be broken. It could be in the final race in Nashville. There is a chance it is not broken in 2025, but keep in mind Dixon has had at least three podium finishes in 19 consecutive seasons! In all 19 of those seasons, Dixon has had at least four podium finishes. 

Dixon: 300 Career Top Ten Finishes

Every year we do this it gets a little boring because there are about five or six milestones Scott Dixon could hit that are significant. This is entire practice and be a little redundant because the drivers that are most likely to hit significant milestones have been around for a while, and it ends up being the same cast of character.

In this case though, we must give Dixon the attention, because 300 top ten finishes is incredible. IndyCar does not publish official records on top ten results, but you need at least 300 starts to have 300 top ten finishes, and there are only nine other drivers to reach 300 starts, so you know the list cannot be long. 

Like podium finishes, Dixon is three away from this milestone. His 297 top ten finishes in 402 starts translate to top ten finish percentage of 73.88%.

Graham Rahal: 300 Career Starts

Speaking of 300 career starts, we are on the verge of someone else joining that club. Graham Rahal is about to join a club that even his father Bobby is not a member. 

The younger Rahal is eight starts away from becoming the 11th driver to hit 300 career starts. It would come at Gateway. 

It might not be the most decorated career we would have expected at 300 starts, but Rahal's career is one of perseverance. Rahal has come back from rough seasons and been a winner when most thought he was a disappointment. Even now, he continues to press on looking for more. 

Conor Daly: Most starts before a first career victory

Here is a record no one wants, but they wouldn't mind having it. Conor Daly has made 115 starts over 11 IndyCar seasons. Daly has raced for 11 teams during that time. He has become a journey for a new generation the same way we once had Roberto Moreno or Oriol Servià. 

Daly has not had many race-winning capable race cars. One could argue he has had none. The fifth Andretti Autosport car has a slim shot. It doesn't mean Daly has not come close, and Daly has had a few good races in his career. Luck and the bounces didn't quite go in his direction for an upset, but Daly keeps trying and life is a number's game. Eventually, it will go you way. 

If it does go Daly's way, there is a chance he could make history.

If Daly does not miss a race and does not win until the 12th round of the season at Iowa, he will set the record for most starts before a first career victory. 

Currently, Michel Jourdain, Jr. holds the record with 126 starts before he won for the first time at Milwaukee in 2003. If Daly wins at any point between now and the first Iowa race, he will still be ranked second all-time. 

It isn't a great record but if you have it that means you won at least one race. Daly would love to have just one. It is better than being tied for sixth all-time with Tom Bigelow for most starts without a victory, which is where Daly is presently. Daly is three spots away from surpassing Hiro Matsushita in that category. If Daly does not win at all this season, he would pass Vitor Meira for fourth all-time with 132 starts and zero victories. 

Josef Newgarden: 20 Career Oval Victories

As much as we love first time winners, we love history, and Josef Newgarden has plenty of potential history in front of him in 2025. One piece that you might not realize is Newgarden is three victories away from 20 oval victories in his career. It does not sound like much, but it is more rare than you think. 

Only ten drivers in IndyCar history have won at least 20 oval races. Newgarden would be the 11th. Hélio Castroneves has 18 oval victories, but it appears unlikely Castroneves will get there. Newgarden has a longer runway and he is the only other driver that is close.

Among active full-time drivers, only three have ten career oval victories. Scott Dixon has 25, Newgarden is on 17 and Will Power has ten. The next closest is Patricio O'Ward on three.

There are not many oval races on the schedule. A few years ago, I contemplated how Scott Dixon might be the last driver for a long time to reach 20 oval victories in a career, and Newgarden had a chance at it but he was the only likely driver to reach the mark. Newgarden is there, but we are looking at only the third driver to begin their career in the last 49 years to reach 20 oval victories. The only other driver to meet that criteria is Rick Mears.

It is tougher to do than you would think. With only five or six oval races a season, it requires being brilliant to get close to 20. Newgarden has been brilliant. He has won at least three oval races in two of the last three seasons. His last eight victories have been on ovals. This feel more "when" than "if" and when could be in 2025. 

Alexander Rossi and Álex Palou: 50 Career Top Five Finishes

Both Alexs are on the verge of something only 33 drivers have achieved. Fifty top five finishes does not sound like much, but not many have made it to that milestone. 

For Rossi, he is one away, sitting on 49 top five finishes. Palou is seven away, with 43 top five finishes in 81 career starts. It could be a fun bet to see who gets there first. 

Alexander Rossi and Álex Palou: 1,000 Laps Led

The two Alexs are on the verge of another club. There are a few more members but it is still rather impressive to reach. Only 43 members have reached 1,000 laps led. Two drivers reached it last year. Those were Scott McLaughlin and Colton Herta. This year, there are two drivers right on the precipice. 

Rossi has led 995 laps in his career. Palou has led 956 laps. Again, it could be a fun bet to see who gets there first.

Will Power: Top Five All-Time in Top Five Finishes

Like Dixon, Power could probably hit a dozen milestones this season. This one is a little more historic. 

Currently, eighth all-time in top five finishes, Power has 136 to his name. The top five is within reach. In fifth is Al Unser, Jr. on 141 top five finishes. Last year, Power had seven top five finishes. If Power repeats that, he could jump as high as fourth. Seven more would take Power to 143 and one more than Hélio Castroneves.

Of course, Castroneves could secure fourth all-time if he were to finish in the top five of the Indianapolis 500, but Power is looking to climb a few more spots this season. Theoretically, Power could become the third driver to reach 150 top five finishes in a career. That would require a staggering 14 top five results. Power's personal best in a season was 12 two years ago.

Hélio Castroneves: 25 Indianapolis 500 Starts

We usually hold off on Indianapolis 500 stuff until... well, you know... May, but I think this one deserves early recognition. Castroneves is a four-time Indianapolis 500 winner after all. 

Only three drivers have made at least 25 Indianapolis 500 starts. A.J. Foyt (35), Mario Andretti (29) and Al Unser (27). That's it. That is the list!

Castroneves must qualify, but we don't think speed should be a concern. The Brazilian will also make another bit of history. He will be 50 years and 15 days old when the green flag waves to start the Indianapolis 500. Should he make the race, Castroneves will become the 13th driver since 1946 to start a race after the age of 50. He would become the the first driver over the age of 50 to start the Indianapolis 500 since...

Lyn St. James! I bet you didn't see that one coming St. James was 53 years and 26 days old when she made her final start in the 2000 Indianapolis 500. That is also the last time we have seen any driver over the age of 50 start an IndyCar race. 

It is kind of staggering we haven't had anyone over the age of 50 start an IndyCar race in nearly a quarter-century. Not many drivers race to that age, but you would think one or two would have done it. It was once commonplace not long ago that a NASCAR Cup race would have multiple drivers over the age of 50 competing. 

I don't think anyone considered more drivers reaching 25 Indianapolis 500 starts a decade or so ago. Twenty felt like the limit. Plenty of outstanding drivers didn't reach 20 Indianapolis 500 starts. Rodger Ward, Bobby Unser, Tom Sneva, Rick Mears, Danny Sullivan, none of them reached 20. 

Part of that is the times have changed. Bobby Unser was 29 years old when he made his first Indianapolis 500 start. Time was not conducive to 20 Indianapolis 500 starts. There was also danger. Drivers got hurt. Some reached a certain age and decided they were done, getting out alive, milestones be damned. 

Castroneves hitting this mark would be a testament to his longevity but also the safety improvements motorsports have made, especially in the 21st century. 

Ok, About Something That Really Happened in February

It is nice to wax about what we could see, but none of that has happened. None of it is guaranteed to happen. It definitely isn't happening in February 2025. What about something in February? What was something nice that we saw in the last 28 days that should be shared?

Daytona 500 qualifying? 

For the first time in a while it felt like their were real stakes on the line for making the Daytona 500. Thirty-six of the spots are locked up. A vast majority of the drivers are showing up knowing they only have to worry about Sunday. For a much smaller group, qualifying on Wednesday and the qualifying races on Thursday are suffocating. 

Almost everyone attempting the Daytona 500 as an open entry is basing their season on that one race. Most are only attempting Daytona. The rest might have a part-time schedule, but the Daytona 500 has been the only race drivers have failed to qualify for since 2019. Running at Atlanta and Michigan and the Brickyard 400 doesn't make up for missing the Daytona 500. 

The crop of open drivers is what made this year feel heightened. 

Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and two-time Daytona 500 winner Jimmie Johnson had to qualify for the Daytona 500.

NASCAR Cup Series champion and three-time vice-champion Martin Truex, Jr. had to qualify for the Daytona 500. 

The first Cup Series entry for Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s JR Motorsports with Justin Allgaier had to qualify for the Daytona 500.

Hélio Castroneves ended up benefitting from the first ever Open Entry Provisional to lock himself into the race, but Castroneves could have made it without relying on the provisional. 

Either way, there were only four spots on the line with eight drivers competing for them.

It ended up being a little anti-climatic as the two biggest names ended up being the fastest two Open qualifiers on Wednesday, and Truex, Jr. and Johnson were locked in on speed. There is more intrigue if one of them or neither of them makes it on speed and must race in. 

It ended up following the most logical outcome. Truex, Jr. and Johnson make it, Allgaier and JR Motorsports race in, Corey LaJoie in a Rick Ware Racing car, which was full-time last year, raced in and the teams and drivers that missed were... 

J.J. Yeley and NY Racing Team, which has next-no funding and was the second-slowest car in qualifying...

Chandler Smith and Garage 66, which hadn't attempted the Daytona 500 since 2022... 

B.J. McLeod and Live Fast Motorsports, which failed to make the Daytona 500 the year before and it is a under-funded team...

And Anthony Alfredo and Beard Motorsports, which has been a regular entry at superspeedway races and has had some good results over the last eight years, but it is still a small organization. 

The results on paper is what we got. 

Though it went as expected, it was still enthralling. It is lacking because these teams have such a narrow path into the race. One spot available to the top finisher in each qualifying race is rather disappointing. I would love to see Daytona 500 qualifying return to how it once was where the front row was locked up, the best 14 finishers from each qualifying race take the next spots on the grid and then the remaining spots are filled in on qualifying speed.

Let's consider if it was done that way. Of course, that would have changed how teams would have prepared for qualifying on Wednesday night and how drivers raced on Thursday night this year, but for the sake of the experiment, let's say the teams and drivers acted as if they had to race in and charter teams were not locked in. 

We would have ended up with LaJoie still racing in, Alfredo racing in, and then Zane Smith, Alex Bowman, Brad Keselowski, Truex, Jr., Noah Gragson, Daniel Suárez, Johnson, Justin Haley, Cole Custer and Carson Hocevar falling back on qualifying times. The drivers that would have missed are Castroneves, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Chandler Smith, McLeod and Yeley. 

Essentially, the only difference between the historic system and the current system would have been Alfredo making it and Stenhouse, Jr. missing it as the one stunner. Castroneves only made the race because of the OEP. He missed the race and then caught a saving grace. 

Maybe this is something NASCAR should explore. The charter teams wouldn't like the risk but it makes all of Thursday more important. That added tension could be a good thing. It would be a better way to drum up interest ahead of the big race on Sunday. 

March Preview

We are going to do a mini-Super Formula preview here because that series begins next weekend in a rather early start for that championship. This will be the longest Super Formula season as there will be 12 races with five doubleheader rounds scheduled. 

Suzuka opens with two races over March 8-9. Motegi hosts a doubleheader over April 19-20. Autopolis is one race on May 18. Fuji is two races over July 19-20. Sportsland SUGO is one race on August 10. Then there is two months until the second Fuji round, another doubleheader on October 11-12. Suzuka closes out the season with two races November 22-23. 

Last year, only one car featured an international driver, and it featured three. The #19 Team Impul Toyota had Théo Pourchaire, Ben Barnicoat and Nyck de Vries combine to run five races. The other four saw Hibiki Taira behind the wheel.

This year, there are four international drivers set to run the full season. 

Defending champion Sho Tsuboi has Sacha Fenestraz as his teammate at Team TOM'S. Fenestraz is returning after being championship runner-up in 2021. The Argentine driver will also race for Toyota in a Super GT GT500 entry.

Zak O'Sullivan will be Kenta Yamashita's teammate at Kondo Racing. O'Sullivan won two Formula Two races last year before his funding dried up and he lost his Williams Driver Academy spot. Dane Oliver Rasmussen moves from a Hertz Team Jota hypercar role to the #19 Team Impul Toyota with Mitsunori Takaboshi as his teammate. Brazilian Igor Fraga will drive for Nakajima Racing after spending the previous two years in Super GT's GT300 class. 

Among domestic talent, Tomoki Nojiri was second last year in the championship, and he has finished in the top three of the championship in four consecutive seasons and in the championship top five in six consecutive seasons. Nojiri pairs with Ayamu Iwasa at Team Mugen.

Kakunoshin Ohta ended last season with two consecutive victories, and Ohta and Team Dandelion Racing teammate Tadasuke Makino were third and fourth in the championship last year. Makino also won two races. 

Kamui Kobayashi continues to look for his first career Super Formula victory. Kobayashi remains at Team KCMG with Nirei Fukuzumi as his teammate. In 70 starts over the previous ten seasons, Kobayashi has yet to win with five runner-up finishes and eight total podium results. 

This Super Formula season will see the absence of a few notable names. Three-time champion Naoki Yamamoto retired as did two-time champion Yuki Kunimoto. Both drivers will still compete in Super GT this season. 

Other events of note in March:

There will be Race of Champions next week from Sydney, Australia. 

Formula One begins with two races in Australia and China. 

The 12 Hours of Sebring comes along.

IndyCar returns to Thermal Club, and this time it counts. 

MotoGP has plans to race in Argentina and the United States.

NASCAR will have some races.

Supercross continues. 

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.