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

Saturday at St. Pete

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All times Eastern. Morning IndyCar practice on FS2.

Qualifying on FS1

Today’s schedule:

Number change– Conor Daly’s car will be number 76 this weekend as Juncos Hollinger Racing has a new sponsor in Union 76 gasoline. We’ll see if this number stays throughout the season or just at select races. One positive is that the 76 in an orange circle on the side if the roll hoop makes the JHR easier to tell apart.

FOX first broadcast– The biggest complaint about yesterday’s practice on FOX was ta plethora of commercials. Comments I have seen on social media say that the content was very good and that the raphics looked great.

Last night the network said that all commercials during the race will be side by side. It’s a step n the right direction.

This morning’s practice will give a better idea of who will contend for the pole. Andretti looked strong yesterday with Kyle Kirkwood and Colton Herta each leading a segment. Kirkwood led the session overall. Don’t count out Team Penske, McLaren, or Ganassi cars thought. They all had good runs.

I’ll be back after practice with a quick qualifying preview.

Kirkwood Tops Opening Practice

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Kyle Kirkwood had the overall fastest time in the season opening practice session for the Grand Prix of St. Pete. The session consisted of a 45 minute session followed by two 10 minute sessions, each for half the field. Kirkwood’s fast time of 1:00.4409 came in first 10 minute session.

Colton Herta and Scot Dixon did not come on track until the last 10 minutes of the main practice.

Alex Palou led the long session and Colton Herta had the fastest time in the second short period.

Three spins mared the practice. The two Meyer Shank cars, first by Felix Rosenqvist, and then one by his teammate Marcus Armstrong, resulted in no contact and the session did not stop. The first 10 minute period ended when Scott McLaughlin hit the wall and had damage to the left front. McLaughlin still ended with the third best lap.

This looked to be the biggest Friday crowd I have seen at St. Pete. The turn 10 grandstand was quite full.

That will do it for The Pit Window today. See you tomorrow for qualifying.

Results

St. Pete Friday Mid Day Report

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A robust size crowd and sunny skies has the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg off to a great start. While waiting for the 3:05 pm start to IndyCar practice, I took a walk through the midway. It looks like there are more vendors than last year, and a new fan amenity has been added to the lawn in front of the Mahaffey Theater. Tables and chairs are set up, and a big screen television is attached s above the theater. The set up is similar to the fan plaza at the Rolex in Daytona for the 24 race.

The lines for the autograph session are usually long, but one line in particular today was one of the longest I’ve ever seen. I can only assume Pato O’Ward was at a table for this line. This photo is just a portion of the line.

The foreground is about halfway to the autograph tables.

Some drivers from Indy NXT and IndyCar met with the media this morning. I thought there was more media present than I’ve seen here in a few years.

Sophia Floersch will make her Indy NXT debut this afternoon.
Pato O’Ward
Alexander Rossi

PREMA, the new IndyCar team, arrived in style with an impressive looking paddock.

I’ll be back after practice with a wrap-up for the day.

St. Pete Preview

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Today’s Schedule: All times Eastern.

Indy NXT and IndyCar practices on FS1.

And so it begins. Another IndyCar season is a little more than 48 hours away. Off seasons seem to get longer with each passing winter, and to arrive at the St. Pete track on Friday of Race Weekend is the true beginning of spring.

2025 brings a new television partner, FOX, which has done an amazing job with promotions since January. I hope the momentum continues through the season. Sunday’s broadcast will be their first big test.

The 2025 season brings a few rules changes. IndyCar will allow drivers to start a stalled cr on pit lane with the self starter of the hybrid component. Last yearthis was not allowed. This makes sense.

Tire allocations have changed for road and street courses. Teams now have an extra set of alternates and one less set of primaries. The new allotment may allow teams to be more aggressive in qualifying and still have a set of new alternates for the race.

The extra alternate set may also play into race strategy. Teams that didn’t advance in qualifying were thought to have a bit of an edge because they saved a set of alternates. That advantage is now neutralized to some extent.

Rookies

Three rookies- Jacob Abel, Louis Foster, and Robert Shwartzman, make their IndyCar debuts this weekend. Only Shwartzman has not raced at St. Pete before.

I always find it fascinating to watch how rookies do at St. Pete. I remember Robert Wickens did pretty well his rookie year here.

In addition to rookie drivers, IndyCar has a rookie team. PREMA makes it series debut with Shwartzman and Callum Ilott. I look at this race as shakedown for them. Anything inside the top 20 would be a good showing.

No Change at the Top

Team Penske has dominated this event, winning seven of the last 10 races, They have not won the last two. Marcus Ericsson won in 2023 driving for Chip Ganassi Racing, and Pato O’Ward won last year for McLaren after finishing second to Ericsson the year before. I look for another O’Ward victory Sunday.