It is Indycar’s New Year weekend. The long, tortuous off season ends today at 2:45 pm Eastern when cars begin the first practice for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Sunday;s race is the 20th running of the downtown street race. I will leave the turmoil of the off season for a non race week. For now, let’s celebrate the new year.

Only Team Penske has the same lineup as they did in 2023. Every other team made at least one driver change. It is not as if Penske needs an advantage at this track. The team has won 11 of the 19 previous races at St. Pete, and three of the last five.

Here are four things to look for this weekend.

New Practice Format and Restart Procedure

Today’s practice is an experiment to see if it will create more continuous on track action. The first 20 minutes will be a normal practice period with all cars eligible to run. After that, the cars in the odd number pit stalls will have the track for 10 minutes, then the rest of the field gets 10 minutes. The first group gets another 10 minutes, followed nu the second group getting the final 10 minute segment.

During the race, a restart line has been placed just past the exit of turn 14. Cars may not pass until they have crossed this line after the green flag waves to restart the race. This procedure should eliminate some of the chaos that we saw last year on restarts. I hope it also allows for shorter yellows.

Lighter, Faster Cars- For Now

If you like speed and watching track records tumble, enjoy the first half of 2024. Until the hybrid units come on line mid season, the cars will be lighter and faster. Many of the components- the bell housing and aeroscreen frame in particular, have been made lighter to help reduce the added weight of the new system.

The track record at St. Pete is 59.3466 seconds by Will Power in 2022. Could we see a 58 second lap?

Rookies

Five rookies will start the race. Kyffin Simpson and Linus Lundqvist with Chip Ganassi Racing; Christian Rasmussen with Ed Carpenter Racing, Tom Blomqvist with Meyer Shank Racing, and Colin Braun with Dale Coyne Racing.

Blomqvist and Braun are rookies only in the sense that they have little experience in Indycar. They have had successful sports car careers, and I think after a few races, they will be fine.

Stil, rookies make up 20% of the grid for the opening race of 2024.

Old Faces in New Places

Musical chairs was the theme Silly Season. Several teams signed a driver from a rival squad. It may take some time to remember who is where.

Here is a list:

Felix Rosenqvist – Meyer Shank

David Malukas- Arrow McLaren

Marcus Ericsson- Andretti Global

Sting Ray Robb- A. J. Foyt Racing

Jack Harvey- Dale Coyne Racing

Romain Grosjean- Juncos Hollinger Racing

While it’s difficult to not pick a Penske driver to win in Sunday, especially given how strong Scott McLaughlin has been at St. Pete the last two years, I’m going with Kyle Kirkwood to be on the top step of the podium Sunday. Andretti showed a lot of street course strength in 2023, and Kirkwood won two street races.