{"id":501778,"date":"2026-02-26T23:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T23:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/501778\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T23:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T23:00:11","slug":"weekend-schedule-start-time-tv-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/501778\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekend schedule, start time, TV"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2026 IndyCar season is about to get underway with the season-opening Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Alex Palou<\/a> enters as the defending champion, and the dominant Chip Ganassi Racing driver eyes a fifth crown.<\/p>\n

There are several faces in new places, including veteran Will Power<\/a>, who leaves Penske for a new home at Andretti. David Malukas<\/a> will take Power’s place as the driver of the #12, and there are three rookies competing full-time. Those new challengers are Mick Schumacher, Dennis Hauger, and\u00a0Caio Collet.<\/p>\n

IndyCar will be joined by the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at St. Pete, as the third level of NASCAR takes on a street course for the first time in its 30+ years of existence. Former IndyCar stars Dario Franchitti and James Hinchcliffe<\/a> will be on the grid, as will IMSA veteran Colin Braun<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Recent Headlines
\nRead Also:<\/p>\n

What is the IndyCar and NASCAR Truck at St. Pete weekend schedule?
\nFriday, February 27<\/p>\n

12:30pm EST — Indy NXT practice — FOX SPORTS 2<\/p>\n

1:35pm EST — IndyCar Practice #1 — FOX SPORTS 2<\/p>\n

4pm EST — NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series practice — FOX SPORTS 2<\/p>\n

5pm EST — NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series qualifying — FOX SPORTS 2<\/p>\n

Saturday, February 28<\/p>\n

8:30am EST — Indy NXT practice — FOX SPORTS 1<\/p>\n

9:35am EST — IndyCar Practice #2 — FOX SPORTS 1<\/p>\n

12pm EST — NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race (80 laps) — FOX<\/p>\n

3:05pm EST — Indy NXT qualifying — FOX SPORTS 2<\/p>\n

4:30pm EST — IndyCar qualifying — FOX SPORTS 2<\/p>\n

Sunday, March 1<\/p>\n

9:05am EST — IndyCar warmup — FOX SPORTS 1<\/p>\n

10:05am EST — Indy NXT race (45 laps) — FOX SPORTS 1<\/p>\n

12pm EST — IndyCar pre-race — FOX<\/p>\n

12:22pm EST — Green flag for IndyCar Grand Prix of St. Petersburg (100 laps) — FOX<\/p>\n

\"Scott <\/p>\n

Scott McLaughlin, Team Penske<\/p>\n

Photo by: Penske Entertainment<\/p>\n

How can I watch the IndyCar season-opener at St. Pete?<\/p>\n

Weather forecast<\/p>\n

While Sunday looks clear, there is a 50% chance of late afternoon thunderstorms on Friday, with that chance increasing to over 80% throughout the day on Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Who is racing this weekend?<\/p>\n

There are 25 cars on the St. Pete entry list, and notably, no Prema as the team focuses on restructuring after some recent upheaval.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

We want your opinion!<\/p>\n

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?<\/p>\n

Take our 5 minute survey.<\/a><\/p>\n

– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 IndyCar season is about to get underway with the season-opening Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Alex…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,200505,1193,634,18242,82,145859,185775,49442,348],"class_list":["post-501778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-how-to-watch-2026-indycar-and-nascar-at-st-pete-weekend-schedule","tag-indycar","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-truck","tag-sports","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-street-course","tag-start-time","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}