Hope always springs eternal amid the season\u2019s fresh start. At present, everyone has as many points as Palou, who sprinted away last year by winning five of the first six races. Currently, there is no discrepancy among the teams, just a large collection of people and their machinery ready for battle. Sunday\u2019s race (noon ET, FOX, FOX One, FOX Deportes, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network) is the first of three events to be held on consecutive weekends to open the calendar. In other words, it\u2019s important to be ready right from the get-go.<\/p>\n
Six drivers in this 25-car field have won series races on St. Petersburg\u2019s 14-turn, 1.8-mile street circuit, including Will Power and Josef Newgarden, who have won two races each. Power has been the fastest qualifier an event-leading nine times. Among the other former St. Petersburg pole winners are drivers whose teams have renewed optimism thanks to offseason changes. They include:<\/p>\n
Team Penske drivers Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin, respectively, have won the past two St. Petersburg poles, and they are eager to bounce back after subpar seasons a year ago. McLaughlin, who won the race in 2022, finished 10th in the standings with Newgarden 12th, and only Newgarden won a race (the season finale at Nashville Superspeedway). Team Penske seemed to regain its footing late in the year after being rocked by Indianapolis 500 penalties and the subsequent release of three key management personnel. How the new-look organization, which includes David Malukas replacing Power, responds will be one of the intriguing aspects of 2026.<\/p>\n
Romain Grosjean, who won his St. Petersburg pole in 2023, was the last driver named to this year\u2019s full-season grid. He has returned to Dale Coyne Racing, which employed him in 2021. Dale Coyne\u2019s team also is fielding INDY NXT by Firestone champion Dennis Hauger, and the hiring of veteran engineer Bill Pappas to reunite with team manager\/engineer Mitch Davis provides optimism for the organization.<\/p>\n
Graham Rahal won a St. Petersburg pole in 2009, and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has undergone several management changes during the offseason. Brian Barnhart, the former INDYCAR SERIES president, is regarded as one of the paddock\u2019s better race strategists, and he was hired to work with Rahal. Gavin Ward also joined RLL recently as a special advisor.<\/p>\n
![\"Alex](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/02-24-Palou-StPete.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Andretti Global\u2019s Marcus Ericsson (2023), Arrow McLaren\u2019s Pato O\u2019Ward (2024) and Chip Ganassi Racing\u2019s Palou (2025, photo, above) are the other recent St. Petersburg race winners. Newgarden is the only driver to have won this event in consecutive years \u2013 in 2019 and 2020.<\/p>\n
Power\u2019s presence is always felt in St. Petersburg, and he is even more in focus this year as he will make his debut with Andretti Global after 17 years and two series championships at Team Penske.<\/p>\n
The season\u2019s first race also offers a chance for something new to occur. Malukas could win his first race for Roger Penske. Meyer Shank Racing\u2019s Marcus Armstrong, who took a big step last year, also could earn his first victory in the series. Rinus VeeKay, who finished ninth in last year\u2019s race, could give Juncos Hollinger Racing its first series victory.<\/p>\n
And then there\u2019s Palou, who won last year\u2019s title by a staggering 196 points. But at least for now, everyone is even with him.<\/p>\n
The first practice of the season is at 1:30 p.m. ET Friday on FS2. Saturday\u2019s action includes the weekend\u2019s second practice at 9:30 a.m. on FS1 with qualifying for the NTT P1 Award at 4:30 p.m. on FS2. Sunday\u2019s pre-race practice is set for 9 a.m. on FS1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Finally, the start of the 2026 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season is at hand. The first of the 18…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167389,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-167388","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-st-pete","9":"tag-st-pete-headlines","10":"tag-st-pete-news","11":"tag-st-petersburg","12":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","13":"tag-st-petersburg-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}