Update: Herta Transporter Catches Fire; Car Okay
Andretti Autosport issued the following statements on Twitter @FollowAndretti around 11 am ET:
At this time, damages to the 88 car appear to be minor and cosmetic, caused by heat, smoke and/or water. We have no current reason to believe that any competition or mechanical aspects of the 88 car have been damaged or compromised. (cont.)
Andretti Autosport
@FollowAndretti
Our Indy Lights team is in Florida for testing and is now in route to St. Pete to help evaluate and assess. Additionally, we are sending a team of INDYCAR crewman from Indianapolis to St. Pete today – in advance of the full team’s arrival tomorrow morning. (cont.)
Andretti Autosport
@FollowAndretti
We are also preparing backup pit equipment at our Indy race shop, this equipment & a spare transporter will depart Indianapolis today as well. Again, we would like to express our gratitude to our transport drivers & local fire departments for their quick responses & support.
The transporter carrying Colton Herta’s number 88 car to the Firestone Grand Prix caught fire early this morning just about 15 minutes from the track. An update just a few minutes ago reported that the car was not damaged, but there is extensive damage to the pit equipment.
Herta is expected to be a contender for the NTT Indycar Series championship. Follow along all day for updates.
My guess is the fire was caused by brake failure. A similar incident involving a Penske transporter happened in the early 2000s. I believe it Helio Castroneves’ car, but I’m not sure. He went on to win the race.
Update from Nathan Brown if the Indianapolis Star:
St. Pete Entry List
Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Fast Facts
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Daly Fills Schedule Gaps with Carlin
Conor Daly will drive a full NTT Indycar Series season after all. Carlin Racing announced today that Daly will drive the 59 car on all the ovals except Indianapolis in place of Max Chilton, who will drive on the road and street courses. In 2019, Daly also raced the ovals for Carlin. His best finish was 6th at Gateway.
Daly will race the 104th running of the Indianapolis 500 and the road and street courses for Ed Carpenter Racing. It had been rumored after he signed with ECR that running the other ovals for Carlin was a possibility.
I’m sure there is a no information sharing agreement in place. While I am happy that Conor will be in all 17 races, this move doesn’t help ECR teammate Rinus VeeKay on the ovals. It also takes some seat time away from another driver looking for some work. But it is a good deal for Carlin. Daly usually makes any car he gets in better.
Carlin also announced that Felipe Nasr will drive car 31 at the St. Pete opener this weekend.. Nasr, a former F1 driver who currently drives for Action Express in the IMSA Weather Tech Series, turned the fastest lap on the first day of testing at Sebring last week. Nasr will likely be in more races this year, but will not run the full season. His entry keeps alive the streak of at least one Brazilian driver in an Indycar race which began in 1999. I still fear that streak may end at some point this season.
PPG Windscreen Set for St. Pete Debut
Rossi and Dixon Looking for Better Seasons in 2020
Alexander Rossi and Scott Dixon hope Friday practice at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg helps them find out how the aeroscreen will affect the cars in race like conditions. In a teleconference this afternoon, Rossi said the brief testing time the team has had leaves a lot to figure out. Dixon wondered about how the extra weight and higher center of gravity will affect handling.
According to Dixon, “The adjustments have been made. The cooling at least was very sufficient for us. Handling-wise I think the CG is a little higher, the car is heavier, definitely one of the areas we’ve really got to try and turn around because we keep adding weight to this car, which especially for accidents is not a good thing. It’s the same for everybody as far as the handling issues. We haven’t seen too much of a difference for us. Springs and dampers and things like that. But every team is unique on that side of things, too. ”
Rossi is still not sure what to expect. “… we’ve really only had at Andretti a day and a half with the weather at COTA. That was kind of a half day. Sebring is kind of its own unique animal. I don’t really know that we know, to be perfectly honest with you. It’s definitely different, but the extent of that won’t become clear to us until probably at least Friday night in St. Pete.”
Both drivers think the expansion of their teams will help them have a better season. Rossi explained,
” I think it’s really cool to be able to bring Colton on kind of into the fold full-time I guess. He was kind of already there with the Harding Steinbrenner Andretti relationship we had last year. We have already noticed a positive difference having the engineering staff back in the office and everyone kind of under the same roof, being able to just more efficiently kind of bounce ideas off each other, just progress the whole team forward. ”
Dixon added,
“We added actually a lot of people this year, probably four or five on the engineering side, then the depth of the whole GT program coming over has helped as far as management and also crew people as well. I think personnel-wise the team is probably in the best situation I’ve seen it in the last maybe five or six years. So I think off-season development has been really good. Also the change of mindset. I think we kind of got stuck there a lot of times just doing the same thing and looking for different answers, which just wasn’t working…”
On the influx of young, talented drivers entering the series, Rossi said, ” Racing is a very difficult sport in the sense that you’re only as good as your last race. You’re constantly having to go out and reprove yourself regardless of what you’ve accomplished in the past. There’s so many guys coming in, your job security really doesn’t exist.”
Dixon replied, “Never think that you know everything. I think that’s the worst position you can be in. You’re constantly learning, it’s constantly changing. I think the sport, even over the last 19 or 20 years that I’ve been a part of it, how much it evolves and changes from season to season is pretty impressive. It’s cool to see. I think it’s fantastic to see the amount of young guys coming in now. There was some pretty good influx probably five to six years ago, as well, with a lot of the guys. You can see their performance, how they’ve adjusted, how quick they’ve been. It’s extremely important for the health of the sport. Hopefully they can keep charging. ”
Electronic Flagging at Laguna Seca
One news item that came out of the conference is that Weather Tech Raceway Laguna Seca will use an electronic flagging system in 2020. Formula 1 uses this system in their races and I’m glad to see it coming to an Indycar track.
It’s Race Week! First Look at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg
The first race week for the 2020 NTT Indycar Series is here at last. While the offseason is long, this break had lots of news breaking and was one of the busiest I remember. I will have my race preview Thursday. I will be posting every day this week as we build toward the weekend.
The television schedule:
Practice 1 – Mar 13, 10:45AM ET 
Practice 2 – Mar 13, 3:00PM ET
Practice 3 – Mar 14, 10:45AM ET
Qualifications (Live) – Mar 14, 2:40PM ET
Qualifications – Mar 14, 10:00PM ET 
Warm Up – Mar 15, 10:25AM ET
Race – Mar 15, 3:00PM ET
The race has been reduced to 100 laps from 110. I’m assuming to more easily fit in the television window, which is from 2:30-6. ET. I will talk more about the effects the new distance has on strategy later.
The entry list should be out in the next couple of days. There are 26 cars confirmed. The biggest question is who will be in the 31 for Carlin. I’m guessing it will be Felipe Nasr.
Dragonspeed unveiled their livery for St. Pete today.
What a beautiful car. It reminds me a bit of the Strike car Josef Newgarden drove for Sara Fisher at Houston.
The early weather outlook is great with temperatures in the low 80’s and dry.
I’ll be back tomorrow with some more tidbits leading up to the track opening on Friday.
St. Pete Update on Coronavirus
The Pit Window by Mike Silver 