Back-to-Back Winner Newgarden Unveils 109th Indianapolis 500 Ticket in Two City Celebration 

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From IMS:

 INDIANAPOLIS (Thursday, March 6, 2025) – Two-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion and back-to-back winner of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge Josef Newgarden celebrated Southwest Airlines’ first nonstop flight from Indianapolis to Nashville when he unveiled the ticket for the 109th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge on Thursday, March 6 at Indianapolis International Airport (IND).
Newgarden earned his second victory in “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” last May and became just the sixth driver to win the Indianapolis 500 in consecutive years. He powered the No. 2 Shell Powering Progress Team Penske Chevrolet to the back-to-back victory with another last-lap pass.
One of the many honors bestowed upon the winner is unveiling the ticket for the next year’s race. Featuring the winning driver on the next year’s “500” ticket dates to Mauri Rose’s appearance in 1948.
Nashville native Newgarden pushed a button to unveil a larger-than-life digital rendering of the colorful ticket in Civic Plaza, IND’s community gathering area. From there, Newgarden and INDYCAR and Indianapolis Motor Speedway President J. Douglas Boles engaged with Southwest passengers and race fans at the gate as they boarded the flight from Indianapolis to Nashville, taking the celebration to Newgarden’s hometown.
Designed in house by Senior Art Director Mandy Walsh, the ticket celebrates the back-to-back wins with full-color images, including Newgarden’s Victory Podium celebrations and his almost identical liveries. Vibrant images from 2024 are shadowed by similar images from 2023.
“It’s very cool to be here in the Indianapolis International Airport,” Newgarden said. “Indiana and Tennessee are my two homes, so the fact we have the Indianapolis 500 in Indiana and the (NTT INDYCAR SERIES) championship finale in Tennessee is a great parallel. To top it all off is seeing this beautiful ticket from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Indy 500. It’s an incredible-looking ticket.
“To see my likeness on there, to see our team represented, it’s a very special feeling. You don’t know if that day will ever come when you drive into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The fact we’ve been able to pull it off twice, back to back, and that it’s been celebrated on this ticket, I’m super, super thankful.”
Once arriving in Nashville, Newgarden and Boles will visit Indianapolis 500 ticketholders and media in Nashville and conclude the day with a Fan Event at Big Machine Distillery and Tavern, where the 2025 Indianapolis 500 ticket and the Borg-Warner Trophy will be on display. Newgarden and Boles will be on hand to meet with fans and conduct a brief question-and-answer session.
Newgarden will attempt to become the first driver to win three consecutive Indianapolis 500s on Sunday, May 25 in the 109th Indianapolis presented by Gainbridge at IMS, with live coverage starting at 10 a.m. ET on FOX, FOX Deportes, FOX Sports app and the INDYCAR Radio Network.
Tickets for the Indy 500 and all Month of May activities are on sale at IMS.com, by calling the IMS Ticket Office at 317-492-6700 or by visiting the ticket office. 
 
 

St. Pete Wrap Up

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I watched the race replay on YouTube yesterday, and it confirmed a few things that I suspected.

Pit stops hurt Colton Herta badly. I hope his team can get it together because he has a strong enough car to fight for the championship. He now has a significant gap to make up given Alex Palou’s consistency.

Tire strategy made the race compelling for a diehard fan, but if I were watching as a casual observer, I may not have stayed until the end of the broadcast.

I learned this morning that race day attendance was 165,000. I would like to know the total for the weekend. Television numbers are not out yet.

Speaking of television, a few notes about the broadcast. Much willecho what others have said.

The IndyCar on FOX debut was a solid extra base hit, probably a double. The commentary was very good. James Hinchcliffe and Townsend Bell seem to have stepped up their game from NBC. Will Buxton had a decent first outing.

Pit reporting was solid with veterans Kevin Lee and Jamie Little. Jack Harvey’s debut was very good, and I’m sure he will improve each race. During the media scrum on Friday Harvey took copious notes and asked questions of drivers. He was well prepared.

The biggest presentation issue I had was when Newgarden’s pass of Dixon wasn’t shown live because they were covering a pit stop. All pit stops are pretty much the same, and we don’t need to see all 27 cars pit two or three times a race. It’s okay for the first stop, but late in the race just show the leaders’ stops, especially if they pit together and race off pit road.

Graphics

As many have pointed out, this the network’s biggest issue at the moment.

The scoring pylon is a bit too large. We nee to see which tire the cars are on and the intervals between positions. Spots below the top 5 need to rotate more often. Fans want to see where their favorite driver even if he isn’t contending. The lap counter seemed to come and go.

Fox fell into the trap every other network has in switching from counting laps to showing how many laps to go. It reverted to the lap counter. I think most fans are smart enough to count.

FOX did show some informational tidbits in the lower right hand corner, such as how many cars pitted during the caution. More things like that would be fine.

The telemetry display is a nice feature, but I wonder if teams afre happy with their sponsors names being blocked while it’s running. I think some kind of workaround is needed. I found it hard to get used to yellow for accelerating and blue for braking.

One thing I did not miss was the ERS deployment display. I never thought last year that contributed much to my understanding of the race.

I think FOX overall had a very good debut, and I’m sure we will see improvement every race. I want a perfect telecast by the Indianapolis 500. Eric Shanks talked some about that on Saturday at St. Pete. I will share that later this week.

Quick Thoughts- St. Pete

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It took 75 laps to make it a race, but what had been a processional event got suddenly interesting as Sting Ray Robb held up leader Alex Palou and allowed Josef Newgarden to inch closer. The early caution changed the race long term as several drivers ditched the primary tires. The move worked out for many of them.

Another near miss for Scott Dixon. Had his radio worked, he might have scored his first win at St. Pete. He ends the day with his fifth runner up, eighth podium, and 11th top five in the season opener. In the post race press conference Dixon said that he stayed out a lap too long, and was caught in traffic.

Of the top five finishers, four started the race on alternates and pitted during the only caution.

Alex Palou begins 2025 where he ended 2024- leading the points. Palou used an undercut pit stop to get to the front.

Pato O’Ward finished 11th after starting 23rd. O’Ward pitted during the first lap caution and pitted three more times during the race.

Bad Weekend– Will Power has had some rough weekends, and this one has to rank among one of his worst. A hybrid failure cut short Friday’s practice. He failed to make Round 2 in qualifying. This morning there was another hybrid issue in warm up. Power’s race ended just three corners into the race when he was caught up in the incident with Nolan Siegel and Louis Foster.

Strong team debuts– Alexander Rossi finished 10th in his first race for ECR. Rinus VeeKay came home in 9th as he begins his stint at Dale Coyne Racing.

PREMA had a solid debut with Callum Ilott finishing 19th and Robert Shwartzman 20th. Shwartzman was the top finishing rookie.

Keep an eye on Meyer Shank this season. Marcus Armstrong led three laps before a broken tow link ended his day. Felix Rosenqvist finished seventh.

Colton Herta had a disappointing day as he caught the wrong end of the pit cycle. he definitely had a car better than 16th. Teammate Kyle Kirkwood finished fifth, his fifth top five and 11th top 10 in his last 18 races.

I haven’t heard attendance figures yet, but I think the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg set another record.

That will do it for me this weekend. Thanks for following along. I will have more thoughts after I watch the FOX broadcast of the race.

Warm Up Complete; Let’s Race

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Four teams had drivers in the top five in this morning’s St .Pete warm up session. Josef Newgarden was fastest at 1:01.1952, 0.35 seconds ahead of Scott Dixon. Newgarden turned his quick lap on primary tires, Dixon was fastest on the alternate tire.

Alex Palou, Felix Rosenqvist, and David Malukas completed the top five.

Front row starters Scott McLaughlin and Colton Herta finished 21st and 10th respectively.

Results

Race Day at St. Pete!

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Today’s Schedule:

All Times Eastern. Warmup and Indy NXT race on FS1. IndyCar race on FOX with pre race beginning at noon.

After 167 long days, IndyCar races again this afternoon with the 21st Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

Drivers predictions for the race range from interesting to chaotic. Tires are the major concern. Firestone has created the wider gap between alternates and primary tires that the series requested. Some drivers aren’t sure the alternates can last a full fuel stint, and others say the primaries are degrading faster than usual.

Marbles could be an issue on track andfit should be fun for the fans watching how the different strategies play out.

Pato O’Ward will be coming from 23rd and will have to pick his way through field to get to the front. Will Power in 13th will be another driver to watch.

In the end, I like Colton Herta to end up in Victory Lane.

FOX Debut

FOX begins its coverage of IndyCar today. I am eager to see the replay later this week. I watched the replay of qualifying last ight, and I liked much of what I saw, but the still have some work to do.

I thought the booth was great. Will Buxton did a fine job, an James Hinchcliffe and Townsend Bell seemed to have stepped their game a notch too. I really like the telemetry graphic, which appeared as a faux dashboard. I like that it showed the car’s track location and he distance to the next turn. The driver portraits were a nice touch, although some were a bit cartoonish.

I thought Jack Harvey had a fine debut as a pit reporter. I could sense his nervousness, and he asked safe but good questions. I’m sure he will grow into the role and relax as the season goes along, but he is off to a great start.

For qualifying FOX needs to indicate which tire a driver is using, and also display the pace in comparison to other drivers. The scoring pylon wasn’t even on during McLaughlin’s last lap in the Fast Six. I wanted to see if he was on track to get the pole.

I will be back later with warm up results and tire selections in a bit, then a quick race summary after the race. Look for a more detailed analysis tomorrow.

McLaughlin on Pole

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Scott McLaughlin bounced back from a crash in Friday’s practice to take his second pole at St. Petersburg. The Penske driver edged Colton Herta by 0.1769 seconds. McLaughlin has now won 11 IndyCar poles.

It was a very interesting qualifying under cloudy skies as the temperature cooled significantly. Favorites Pato O’Ward and Will Power were eliminated in the first rounds. Power had suffered a hybrid failure in the morning practice.

The Fast 12 had several surprise entries, among them Rinus VeeKay, Nolan Siegel, and both Shank cars of Felix Rosenqvist and Marcus Armstrong. Meyer Shank was the only team to have multiple representatives in the Fast Six.

Santino Ferrucci brushed the wall at the end of the front stretch in round 1. He brought the car to a stop on the escape road at turn 1 and it remained there until qualifying ended. Scott Dixon spun in turn one but kept the car off the wall and continued.

McLaughlin and Herta both said that the race will be interesting because of tire strategy.

Fast Six Results

Fan Fun

FOX isn’t fooling around with their promos. Two kiosks on the Mahaffey lawn bring to life exc erpts from the Newgarden and O’Ward commercials.

This from a faux magazine stand. The books are blank.

Samples available.

Ericsson Tops Practice

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Marcus Ericsson led morning practice as IndyCars teams prepare for this afternoon’s Firestone Grand prix of St. Petersburg qualifying. Ericsson’s lap of1:00.5151 edged Rinus VeeKay by 0,09 seconds. Ericsson set his quick time on primary tires while VeeKay was on the alternates for his best lap.

It was a very good session for Juncos Hollinger Racing. Conor Daly was fifth and Sting Ray Robb finished the session in seventh. David maluks, in his first outing for A. J. Foyt Racing, wwas 10th’

Josef newgarden was the quickest Penske driver in 14th. Will Power stalled in turn 1 early in the practice, which brought out a red flag. Scott McLaughlin ran some very cautious laps’

A second red flag just past the midway point flew because of a track surface issue in turn 12.

Each of the Andretti cars has led a practice segment the last two days.

Qualifying begins at 2:30 pm Eastern on FS1.

Results