Scott McLaughlin turned a sizzling final lap as time expired to win the pole for tomorrow’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Presented by RP Funding. He edged teammate Will Power, who will start on the front row for the 12th time at St. Pete.
Scott McLaughlin on his pole winning lap
Group 1 in Round 1 ended with six different teams advancing, including A. J Foyt Racing with Kyle Kirkwood, Ed Carpenter Racing driver Rinus Veekay. Colton Herta led the round with a time of 59.466 seconds, followed by Graham Rahal, VeeKay, Scott Dixon, Kirkwood, and Josef Newgarden.
Group 2 saw Power lead with a lap of 59,394 seconds, followed by McLaughlin, Romain Grosjean, Simon Pagenaud, Marcus Ericsson, Alex Palou. Palou and Grosjean recovered from heavy damage in the morning practice.
The second round saw a great battle for the lead between Power, Grosjean, McLaughlin, and Herta, with Power taking the round. Power set a track record with his lap of 59.346 seconds.
Will Power
The Firestone Fast Six looked to be comfortably in Power’s grasp as Herta, Grosjean, and Pagenaud all failed to beat his time. McLaughlin’s final lap was 0.12 seconds better than his teammate. The second year driver has earned his first career pole.
Two drivers and teams who had great drives today- Kyle Kirkwood of A. J. Foyt Racing and Rinus VeeKay of Ed Carpenter Racing. Neither team is known for their prowess on road and street courses, nut today may be a sign that the situation could be about to change. Kirkwood finished fifth in Round 1. The rookie has shown in two days how talented he is.
VeeKay appears to be fully recovered from the shoulder injury he suffered mid -season last year. VeeKay was third in Round 1, sixth in Round 2, will start fourth tomorrow.
Scott McLaughlin led a disjointed practice session interrupted by three red flags, which consumed nearly a third of the time allotted. Indycar plans to extend sessions in this instance when possible. A street event, with a packed schedule, does not allow for time extensions.
McLaughlin, in his second Indycar season, posted a time of 0.59.734, the only lap under 60 seconds so far. Colton Herta was second for the second day in a row, 0.351 seconds behind.
Simon Pagenaud, fourth on Friday moved up to third.
Romain Grosjean, yesterday’s leader, was involved in a multicar incident. He ran into the back of a slowing Takuma Sato.
The first red flag flew 20 minutes into the session when Jack Harvey clipped the turn 9 wall. The last red flag with about five minutes left involved 2021 series champion Alex Palou, who had a hard hit at turn 9. The session restarted for one more lap.
Ed Carpenter Racing had a strong practice with Rinus VeeKay sixth and Conor Daly 11th. Rookie Kyle Kirkwood, 12th Friday, improved to eighth this morning.
8:00AM – 8:45AM Indy Pro 2000 Race 2 9:00AM – 9:45AM NTT INDYCAR SERIES Practice 2 Peacock 10:00AM – 10:45AM Mazda MX-5 Cup Race 2 11:00AM – 12:00PM SRO GT America Race 2 12:30PM – 1:45PM NTT INDYCAR SERIES Qualifying Peacock
2:00 PM-2:30 PM Indy Lights Autograph Session Fan Village
3:00 PM- 4:00 PM Indycar Autograph Session Fan Village
4:00 PM-6:00 PM Party in the Park North Straub Park
8:00 PM Fireworks
On track activity is packed into just five hours today. The Indycar field has just 45 minutes to prepare for qualifying. Andretti Autosport had three drivers in the top 10 Friday while Team Penske and Rahal letterman Lanigan Racing each had two drivers near the top. The team that puzzled me the most was Arrow McLaren SP, who had Felix Rosenqvist 16th and Pato O’Ward 20th.
Chip Ganassi Racing didn’t have any driver higher than 15th place Marcus Ericsson.
The practice round today will be run in cooler conditions than Fridy’s late day session. The temperature at 12:30 when qualifying starts is expected to be 76 degrees and sunny, rising to 78 by the time the Fast Six begins.
Indycsr decided not to alter it’s qualifying format in spite of a larger full time grid and even more cars at some events. We saw a few cars backed up in turn 10 yesterday trying to make a gap, but not a huge line. A qualifying round may look different.
Yesterday’s fastest driver, Romain Grosjean, said about his session,
“I think we’ve got a very, very strong baseline, but I think there’s a little bit more to come if we put it all together. Hopefully we can find that and have fun for the rest of the weekend.”
Will Power said about qualifying this season,
“It will be very tight qualifying sessions, and it’ll come down to whether you get a clean lap and don’t get held up, if someone doesn’t back up or you don’t go through a yellow. Yeah, it’s going to be that sort of year, which is great. I think it’s very good, very fun.”
Today will be a fun day. Practice and qualifying can be seen on Peacock.
New year, different team, but Romain Grosjean hasn’t missed a beat. The second year driver led the first practice of the season at the Firestone Grand Prix this afternoon. Grosjean’s first run for Andretti Autosport turned a quick lap of 1:01.0525. His teammate, Colton Herta, was second fastest, 0.1042 seconds behind.
Six teams finished in the top 10, including three who switched teams for 2022- Grosjean, Simon Pagenaud, and Jack Harvey. Rookie David Malukas ended the session 10th.
Among the other rookies, Kyle Kirkwood was 12th, Devlin DeFrancesco 13th, Callum Ilott 22nd, Christian Lundgaard 25, and Tataiana Calderon 26th.
Defending series champion Alex Palou ended the day 17th, Marcus Ericsson in 15 was the fastest of the Ganassi drivers.
The session was halted briefly when Jimmie Johnson went into the runoff area in Turn 10 and returned to the track with his brakes on fire.
Some notes from wandering around the track this morning and some quotes from driver interviews.
The Grand Prix is back to full concessions and vendor booths. In 2021 food and vendors were fewer than normal. Sadly, Wild Bill’s Root Beer stand is still missing. The crowd came late,but is now a healthy Friday attendance. The late arrivals have may been because of the late start for the first Indycar practice.
Some photos from the paddock:
Pato O’WardCallum Ilott
Herta Sets Plaque
Colton Herta took his place permanently in St. Petersburg racing history as he placed his plaque on the winner’s monument just behind Dan Wheldon Way. Of the now twelve names on the stone column, six are no longer racing in the series.
Herta’s nameplate completes the front side of the winner’s stone.
I’ll be back later with some driver quotes from this morning and a practice wrapup.
Indy lights just completed their qualifying session. Hunter McElreay won the pole.
Over 53,000 fans responded to Motorsport Network-hosted Global INDYCAR Fan Survey, conducted by Nielsen Sport
INDYCAR’s fans share overall favorable opinion of current state of sport – approve of “competitive” and “exciting” product
Sport showing gains with younger and female fans internationally
Romain Grosjean, Pato O’Ward and Helio Castroneves voted top three favorite drivers by fans
INDYCAR’s audience is avid content consumers across multiple platforms
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (Feb. 25, 2022) – INDYCAR and Motorsport Network today announced the key findings of the 2022 Global INDYCAR Fan Survey. Launched in January, the Global INDYCAR Fan Survey was commissioned by INDYCAR, hosted by Motorsport Network and analyzed by Nielsen Sports, the global information, data and measurement experts. Conducted in 11 languages across the Motorsport.com platform and receiving feedback from over 53,000 fans in 147 countries, the survey revealed that INDYCAR has maintained a loyal and approving fanbase, while growing its ranks among younger and more diverse demographics in recent years. Unsurprisingly, while the U.S. comprised 56% of the survey responses, the top five countries also included France, the U.K., Japan and Canada, suggesting a growth in interest internationally for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES. This growth reflects an expanding and more diverse audience, highlighted by 37% of respondents under 35 years of age and 12.2% of respondents identifying as female. This is the second-highest female participant rate for a survey fielded by Motorsport Network of a global racing series.
“INDYCAR is growing – at a historic and rapid pace,” said Mark Miles, president and CEO of Penske Entertainment Corporation. “Our product is viewed as competitive and exciting, and just as we’ve attracted new and talented drivers to our field, we’ve also seen admirable success in attracting new devotees to our ranks. As we embark upon a consequential and marquee year for INDYCAR, we’re tremendously encouraged by the picture the Global INDYCAR Fan Survey provides and remain confident that the future is bright for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES and its stars.”Overall fan approval of the racing product is very high. INDYCAR’s top five attributes, as reflected by the survey, are: “competitive,” “exciting,” “entertaining,” “growing” and “dangerous,” with over 80% of the respondents viewing INDYCAR as “competitive.”Findings from the Motorsport Network INDYCAR Global Fan Survey indicate fans want to watch races live, predominantly on TV. Most INDYCAR consumers are now watching races via a combination of cable and streaming platforms, with the latter now surpassing free-to-air viewing. Paywalls remain a concern of some fans in specific markets, potentially lowering access to live races. Social media has become the leading platform for non-race weekend content for all fans and the main source of all INDYCAR content for those among the under-35 set.
Based on survey respondents, esports are increasingly relevant to INDYCAR fans, with nearly half partaking in gaming weekly. This number rises to 85% among 16- to 24-year-olds and 70% among 25- to 34-year-olds, suggesting a robust audience for the upcoming release of an INDYCAR-centric video game title.“It has been fascinating to work on this largest ever Global INDYCAR Fan survey, and the inescapable conclusion is that fans believe that INDYCAR is a series on its way up,” said James Allen, president of Motorsport Network.
“INDYCAR is the pre-eminent single-seater racing championship in North America, but it has long had a following in other continents due to prominent international drivers racing there. Today, the international makeup of the grid is reflected in the survey findings, with a strong geographical spread outside of North America. While the series has its loyal followers in the older age groups, particularly in the U.S., INDYCAR will be studying closely the data on its new, younger and female fans internationally. Thanks to the internet and social media giving easy access to rich content, anyone anywhere can become an INDYCAR fan today. And gaming and esports is clearly going to play a significant role in the future. It will be fascinating to see how the trends develop over the next few years.
”Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, there is still a strong desire to attend races live. Over 80% of respondents expressed the desire to attend a race live, while nearly 50% of respondents indicated that they have attended a race live in the past five years. One of the biggest factors cited as preventing live race attendance is the inability to attend a local race for fans, especially outside North America.From an ecological standpoint, younger fans place higher importance on green initiatives in motorsport, and while most were satisfied with what INDYCAR is doing to be greener, over 20% of female fans believe INDYCAR should be doing more on the sustainability front.
“Off the back of the success of the Formula One fan survey, it has been a pleasure to be involved in another global motorsport survey with Motorsport Network,” said Nigel Geach, senior vice president, global motorsport, Nielsen Sports.
“Our partnership not only delivers interesting insight on various motorsport disciplines but also actionable fan opinions that can help a series grow and evolve in a way that appeals to fans old and new. I look forward to running our next survey with Motorsport Network to unearth more insightful opinions from our vast global motorsport fan base.
”The survey findings were revealed at the opening round of the 2022 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season today and included the size and demographics of the sport’s audience, fan disposition and attitudes toward the sport, their affinity for INDYCAR races, teams and drivers, and their consumption of racing as remote and live audiences.
Additional key findings from the 2022 INDYCAR Global Fan Survey include:
Venues and Competition
The top five most important races for fans are: the Indianapolis 500, Long Beach, Road America, Laguna Seca and St. Petersburg.
INDYCAR fans are happy with the mix of tracks (street, road & oval) and believe they provide the best test of a driver’s talent, and they also feel the sport is healthier now than three years ago, featuring the right balance of sport and entertainment.
For the future fans want INDYCAR to:
Feature multiple suppliers in key category areas
Maintain the Indy 500 as a double-points event
Minimize stewarding interference and let drivers race
Manage team operating costs and prioritize close racing over technical innovation
Fans are strongly against changing race formats and show little appetite for qualifying modifications.
Top Teams, Drivers and Races
Nearly 80% of fans support a number of teams and drivers.
Younger fans aged under 24 are more likely to follow a single driver.
Fans in South and Central America and Asia-Pacific are more than twice as likely to follow a favorite driver.
Team Penske was voted as the overall favorite team with 19% of votes, followed by Andretti Autosport and Arrow McLaren SP, who were tied at second, each with 17% of votes, to round out the top three teams.
Romain Grosjean was voted the survey’s most popular INDYCAR driver with 32% of fans placing him in their top three and nearly 12% of fans ranking him their favorite driver. Pato O’Ward was second, with a particularly high young fan voting and voted number one by female fans. Third was Helio Castroneves, followed by Scott Dixon. Alexander Rossi was the top-ranked U.S. driver, who was voted fifth overall.
The eighteenth Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg began late this morning with a gala luncheon. Drivers from each of the series racing on the downtown streets were present. Mayor Ken Welch, who will serve as the race’s Grand Marshall, welcomed everyone. The race expects a record crowd for the three day long event.
St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch
The drivers each gave brief remarks.
I chatted with Takuma Sato, David Malukas, and Kyle Kirkwood.
Sato is enjoying his new team, Dale Coyne Racing.
Takuma Sato
“I love it. Right obviously you know some nervousness but it’s a lot of excitement in a new team new boys engineers and you know, I’m happily settling. So very, very good.”
About his rookie teammate, Sato said,
“…he’s obviously the one of the upcoming young drivers, is very bright and cheerful and he’s been quick to learn so I think we have a really good opportunity to work together.”
Sato is excited for this weekend, but thinks there are a lot of unknowns.
“Well, I would say you know, re are little unknown factors but yeah, that’s how it is and in particular for the first practice for the day.”
David Malukas
Sato’s teammate, David Malukas is eager to begin his Indycar career. He ha d a lot of praise for Sato, who was on his radio during the first test day at Sebring.
“Sebring was great. I mean, the first day was amazing, I think we ended up being like P two on the time. It’s like I was always surprised. Second day, we tried many different changes, because the whole goal we’re not winning Sebring. We didn’t want to chase the car to try to get ready for today. And we found some pluses somewhere like confusing, but in the end we were exactly right. After three months off, I was like really impressed with the car. I was like, What do I do? Takuma has been a big help. Oh, of course. I mean, he has so much expertise and he helped me so incredibly. Like he helped me so much the first day; he didn’t actually drive so like he had the headset on and he was talking to me telling me some information like what I should do. He’s awesome. He’s so friendly.”
Malukas is concerned about pit stops and driving on the alternate tires. About the red tires, he said,
“So I hear rumors. I heard some rumors that like actually sometimes the car’s slower with it because it’s so much grip and it’s so hard that they don’t want you to stand on it, I don’t know. Hopefully we could see like, I mean, there’s a big jump with it. Hopefully we can figure it out and hope like I still hold on to the wheel. Because I heard it gets even heavier.”
Pit stops are totally new to Malukas, but he thinks the walls and the limiter may help him.
“Oh, that’s still very new to me. We did some practice and man I’m not gonna lie I was pretty bad. Takuma did it like perfectly every time so that’s gonna be, I think, the hard part for me is getting it right. I’ve never done that my whole life. So we’ll see how it goes. I think now you know that I like an actual wall and there’s people everywhere. I think it’d be a bit easier because you know, at Sebring we’re trying to simulate a situation with tires, everything and it just wasn’t good. So we’ll see.”
Kyle Kirkwood
Kyle Kirkwood is happy with how testing went last week and appreciates the help he has received from his A. J. Foyt Racing teammates, Dalton Kellett and Tatiana Calderon.
“Dalton has obviously a wealth of knowledge as well as engineering capabilities and Tatiana hsa a lot of experience. She n a lot of different cars, so there’s a lot of things that she’s been able to add to the team that are just like I’ve never really thought to do that.”
Kirkwood is uncertain how the alternate tires will perform.
“They changed this weekend. I don’t know what’s gonna happen. I think from my knowledge, looking at the seat they’re gonna be quicker but they’re going to go away faster. I don’t know what made you know, I’ll let you know I’ve never driven on red tire so that’s what I was wondering. Yeah, anticipation. I’ll let you know after the first practice.”
INDIANAPOLIS (Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022) – Kyle Novak, race director for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES and Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires, was elected by the FIA General Assembly as one of 36 judges to serve on the FIA Courts. Among its many roles, the FIA is the governing body of global motorsport. As an FIA judge, Novak can be appointed to sit on an FIA International Tribunal or International Court of Appeal. The International Tribunal is the first instance level of jurisdiction of the FIA and can hear disciplinary matters brought before it by the FIA President. The FIA International Court of Appeal is the appeal level of jurisdiction of the FIA and hears appeals of decisions taken by various sporting and disciplinary bodies, such as stewards or the FIA International Tribunal. Novak, an attorney, is the sole INDYCAR representative among the FIA judges.The appointment of Novak increases INDYCAR’s representation within various FIA committees and roles. INDYCAR President Jay Frye serves on the Single-Seater commission, INDYCAR Director of Medical Services Dr. Geoffrey Billows is on the medical commission, and INDYCAR Track Inspection Consultant Tony Cotman works on the Circuits commission. “To be able to add to the list of INDYCAR representatives who have served the FIA is a tremendous honor,” Novak said. “With the great competition and all of the growth we’ve experienced over the past few years, I think this shows the level of worldwide respect for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES.” Novak has served as NTT INDYCAR SERIES race director since the 2018 season, and he also will assume the race direction role for Indy Lights starting this season. The 2022 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season starts Feb. 25-27 with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding, with the Indy Lights season also starting that weekend on the streets of St. Petersburg.
