Author: thepitwindow

I'm a retired educator and lifelong racing fan. I hope to return to fostering greyhounds in the near future. Living mainly in Indy and wintering in Florida. I attend about 10 Indycar races a year as well as some sports car events

Newgarden Inches Past Rosenqvist for Pole

thepitwindow

Photo by Kyle McInnes

My computer crashed this afternoon. Reports tonight and tomorrow will be brief, but when I get home tomorrow night, I will catch up on everything.

Newgarden won the pole by 58 ten thousandths of a second, the closest margin on a street course since Detroit 2012 and the fourth closest street course margin since 2008.

Results:

I will post results tomorrow. I apologize for not being able to write more, but doing this by phone is not fun

Herta Edges Penske Duo in Saturday Practice

thepitwindow

Ohoto by Kyle McInnes

Colton Herta edged Josef Newgarden and Will Power for the top spot in Saturday morning’s practice. The session sets the stage for Grand prix of St. petersburg qualifying at 2 pm ET this afternoon.

Herta’s time of 1:00.1 nipped Newgarden by 0.245 seconds with Power 0.277 behind. Power led the middle of the session. Newgarden went to P1 as the final third of the round began, then Herta grabbed the lead with about 10 minutes to go.

I t was a very competitive practice. There was constant track action as teams searched for the best setup for qualifying.

Kyle Kirkwood was running in third when he hit the wall in turn 4,causing damaqge to the right side of the car. His time was still strong enough for seventh place.

Santino Ferrucci never got on track due to a mechanical issue. The team brought the car out to the pits but needed to take the number 14 back to the garage to fix it.

Flash Results:

Although a Honda car lede the session, Chevy cars seemed to dominate. Seven different teams had cars in the top 10.

I will have the qualifying groups up in a bit.

St.Pete Saturday

thepitwindow

Good morning. Gates open at 8 am ET. Today’s schedule:

Several drivers I spoke with yesterday said they were glad the series wa trying a new format for practice. Alexander Rossi felt something needed to be done about the congestion on track. Josef Newgarden said he was happy the series was trying something.

Alexander Rossi

Newgarden doesn’t think the reduced weight, which is only 25 pounds, will make a huge difference in speed. He thinks the increase will be marginal.

The tires in use were designed with the added weight of the hybrid components in mind. Drivers didn’t seem to think there was a lot of difference from last year’s tire.

If you’re looking for a pole favorite today, don’t count out Will power. he looked strong yesterday and seems to be reinvigorated this season.

Back after practice.

Rosenqvist Tops Practice 1

thepitwindow

Photo by Kyle McInnes

Maybe a new team is exactly what Felix Rosenqvist needed, The Swedish driver lead the new format first practice for the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg this afternoon with a time of 1:00.3390. Pato O’Ward was 0.4722 seconds behind Rosenqvist, and Marcus Armstrong ended the day third, anothet0.007 seconds back.

The new practice session format accomplished its goal of creating more on track action during a session that usually has some dead periods.

Will Power, who was fourth, said he liked the new format. “It has a similar flow to qualifying. It’s been very difficult in the past to get a run in.” He also noted that turn 3 is a lot smoother this year.

Rosenqvist said the transition to Meyer Shank Racing has been “super easy.” He is Impressed with how the team is working.

Marcus Armstrong’s third place run was impressive. He ran just 12 races last year, and he will do the entire 2024 schedule. I think he may be a surprise top 10 contender all season.

Photo by Kyle McInnes

Results: