{"id":170112,"date":"2026-02-26T14:26:37","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T14:26:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/170112\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T14:26:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T14:26:37","slug":"indycar-st-pete-season-opener-set-to-kick-off-2026s-open-wheel-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/170112\/","title":{"rendered":"IndyCar St. Pete Season Opener Set to Kick off 2026’s Open-Wheel Drama"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStay up to speed with stories written by drivers, for drivers.<\/p>\n

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We\u2019ve begun IMSA\u2019s sports car season with the Rolex 24 at Daytona, and the NASCAR Cup season with the Daytona 500 and the AutoTrader 400 in Atlanta, and now it\u2019s IndyCar\u2019s turn. With its 2026 season taking the green flag Sunday at the Firestone Grand Prix at St. Petersburg, IndyCar hits the ground running, with four races in March alone, en route to the race everybody waits for: the 110th running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 24.<\/p>\n

First, though, there are five street or road-course races to get through, including St. Petersburg, plus one oval track, which is on March 7 in Phoenix. As usual, the series ends its 18-race season comparatively early on September 6 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, in part because IndyCar doesn\u2019t want its TV package to have to compete with the end of the Major League Baseball season and the start of the NFL.<\/p>\n

As it is, IndyCar has to back a pair of brand-new races this year, the Grand Prix of Arlington, which sits between Dallas and Fort Worth, on March 15. And, as decreed by President Trump, the Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C., on August 23.<\/p>\n

\"Indycar Will Power, now sporting the Andretti name on his helmet.Penske Entertainment: Joe Skibinski<\/p>\n

Certainly, the biggest off-season storyline in IndyCar involves veteran driver Will Power, the Australian who came to America to race in the Champ Car series, which was absorbed by what is now IndyCar. Team Penske hired power in 2009, and he debuted at the St. Petersburg season opener. Power won once in 2009, five times in 2010, and has been an anchor of Penske\u2019s IndyCar team since.<\/p>\n

But Penske did not renew Power\u2019s contract at the end of 2025, which was a miserable year for Team Penske. One of the few highlights was Power\u2019s win at Portland. After 17 years and two championships for Penske, Power was unemployed.<\/p>\n

Well, for one day. Andretti Global quickly signed Power to replace Colton Herta, who moved to Formula 2 in Europe to prepare for a job driving Cadillac\u2019s Formula 1 car.<\/p>\n

Though Power turns 45 on Sunday, the day of his Andretti Global debut, he has lost none of his intensity, and he enters 2026 with something to prove. And as anyone in IndyCar can tell you, a pissed-off Power is a dangerous man. His teammates, incidentally, will be Kyle Kirkwood and Marcus Ericsson.<\/p>\n

\"\" David MalukasPenske Entertainment: Joe Skibinski<\/p>\n

So who did Penske choose as Power\u2019s replacement? David Malukas, 24, a Chicago native whose parents, Henry and Daiva, immigrated from Lithuania. They founded HMD Trucking in 1998, and now have over 500 tractor-trailers and 800 employees. HMD Motorsports was formed in 2019 to back David Malukas, and they did, all the way up to a paying job.<\/p>\n

Malukas climbed the ladder to the IndyCar series, where he was hired by Dale Coyne Racing, debuting at the 2022 St. Pete race. He drove for Coyne for two seasons, usually outperforming his equipment.<\/p>\n

\"indycar Malukas at the Unser Open Test at Phoenix Raceway earlier this month.Penske Entertainment: Joe Skibinski<\/p>\n

He was set to move to Arrow McLaren for 2024, but injured his hand in a mountain biking crash in February, before the first race of the season, and the contract was cancelled. Malukas returned in June of 2024, driving for Meyer Shank. He moved to A.J. Foyt Racing for 2025, where his second-place finish in the Indianapolis 500 caught Roger Penske\u2019s eye.<\/p>\n

For the rest of us, expect a 25-car battle on Sunday. But for fans of Malukas, and especially Power, it\u2019ll be a two-car race\u2014all season long.<\/p>\n

Also worth watching is this year\u2019s rookie battle, but it may be a little lopsided. Caio Collet, 23, is a well-financed Brazilian who raced in Europe against some drivers who are now in Formula 1. He came to America in 2024, driving in the Indy NXT feeder series for the Malukas-owned HMD Motorsports. He\u2019s replacing David Malukas at the A.J. Foyt team.<\/p>\n

Winning the \u201clean and hungry\u201d award is Dennis Hauger, a 22-year-old Norwegian who, like Collet, raced and beat some current F1 shoes in various European developmental series. Hauger, who won the championship in the Indy NXT series last year, will be racing for Dale Coyne, and could learn a lot from his teammate, Romain Grosjean.<\/p>\n

\"indycar:Penske Entertainment: Matt Fraver<\/p>\n

\"\"Penske Entertainment: Joe Skibinski<\/p>\n

The smart money is on the third \u201crookie:\u201d Mick Schumacher, whose father is seven-time F1 champion Michael Schumacher. Son Mick, 26, debuted in F1 in 2021 for Haas. He left Haas at the end of 2022, became a reserve driver for McLaren and Mercedes through 2024, and moved to the World Endurance Championship sports car series for 2025. He was hired by the Rahal Lanigan Letterman team and will make his first IndyCar start on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Schumacher reportedly doesn\u2019t care for the rookie designation, but he isn\u2019t the first: I was lucky enough to be there in 1993 when Nigel Mansell, just hired by Newman\/Haas Racing, sat on the pole and won his very first CART IndyCar race at Surfers Paradise in Australia. The trackside announcer ran up and stuck the microphone into the Formula 1 champion\u2019s car and asked, \u201cSo, what\u2019s it like being a rookie, and winning your first CART race?\u201d\u00a0 Nigel just stared at him, with the most wonderful, bemused look on his face.<\/p>\n

Otherwise in IndyCar this season, it should be pretty much business as usual: Certainly Chip Ganassi drivers Alex Palou and veteran Scott Dixon will continue to deliver, as should Arrow McLaren\u2019s Pato Ward, and maybe the three Team Penske drivers will lead a team turnaround. And there\u2019s always Sting Ray Robb, so named because his father liked Corvettes, to pull for as the underdog over at Juncos Hollinger. As for an overdog: Palou was last year\u2019s winner at St. Pete, the first of eight wins in 2025 that gave him his fourth championship in five years.<\/p>\n

\"\" Alex Palou points to his likeness on the Borg-Warner Trophy.Penske Entertainment: Chris Owens<\/p>\n

Apparently MIA are the two PREMA cars, with drivers Callum Ilott and 2025 Indy 500 polesitter Robert Schwartzman, who may or may not rejoin the series later in the year. The Italy-based PREMA has reportedly undergone some management and financial turmoil, and while they have made plenty of announcements regarding their teams in multiple European series, there\u2019s been no official word about IndyCar.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019d be remiss in not mentioning the support races prior to Sunday\u2019s IndyCar race. Friday at 11:30 a.m. ET, it\u2019s the first of two open-wheel USF 2000 races, followed by autograph sessions for both IndyCar drivers as well as NASCAR Craftsman truck drivers (more about that in a moment). Those truck drivers qualify at 5 p.m.<\/p>\n

\"\"Getty Images<\/p>\n

Saturday, the Mazda MX-5 Cup race, the first of two, starts early at 7:30 a.m. The Craftsman truck race is at 12:23 p.m., with qualifying for the Indy NXT race and the IndyCar race after the trucks.<\/p>\n

And Sunday, it\u2019s the Indy NXT race at 10:06 a.m., followed by the 100-lap Grand Prix of St. Petersburg at 12:30 p.m. That will be followed by another USF 2000 race at 3 p.m., then another Mazda MX-5 Cup race.<\/p>\n

About that NASCAR Craftsman truck race: The entry list is pretty remarkable, led off by the No. 1 TRICON Toyota driven by four-time IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti, who is also the honoree at Hagerty\u2019s Amelia Concours the following weekend, March 5-8. Joining Franchitti in the truck race are Adam Andretti, Colin Braun, Frankie Muniz, and the winner of the Daytona truck race, Chandler Smith. There\u2019s even some star power in the Mazda MX-5 Cup races, with the two-time overall winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Earl Bamber, competing alongside Formula 1, IndyCar, ChampCar, and IMSA star Sebastien Bourdais.<\/p>\n

\"\"Getty Images<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s truck race airs on Fox at noon ET. The IndyCar race will air at noon Sunday, also on Fox, and it may be of interest that it will be followed at 3:30 p.m. by the NASCAR Cup Series\u2019 first road-course race of the year, the DuraMax Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, also on Fox.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the race news: If you are interested in IndyCar politics, read on.<\/p>\n

This season is important to IndyCar to try to regain some credibility it may have lost during the past two years. It\u2019s a blurry optic for IndyCar to begin with: One of the top teams in the series, as well as the IndyCar series itself, and its most famous track, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, are all owned or controlled by one man: Billionaire Roger Penske, who turned 89 last Friday.<\/p>\n

And what happened in the past two years was no help in bringing that into proper focus. First, after the St. Petersburg race in 2024, winner Josef Newgarden, who drives for Team Penske, was disqualified after it was found, weeks later, that the team had illegally altered the push-to-pass feature, potentially increasing his car\u2019s power.<\/p>\n

Then, just prior to the 2025 Indianapolis 500<\/a>, two of the three Penske cars were found to have illegally modified the rear attenuator, which is a crash-absorption device at the very back of the car; in a crash where the car backs into the wall, the attenuator should be the first thing to hit, absorbing some of the energy before it reaches the rest the cockpit. While there is reasonable evidence that the very slight modification Penske employees made was entirely cosmetic, rules are rules.<\/p>\n

\"\" Josef Newgarden at a Sebring test day earlier this month.Pneske Entertainment: Chris Owens<\/p>\n

The two drivers, Newgarden and Power (Scott McLaughlin\u2019s car did not have the alteration), were fined $100,000 each, but were allowed to start the race, albeit from the back of the pack. On the pace lap, McLaughlin, starting 10th, was swerving back and forth, which both cleans the tires and warms them up, when he lost control and crashed before the race even started. Power finished 16th, Newgarden 22nd.<\/p>\n

Again, likely as the result of the optics of a man who owns the team, the series and the track, Penske fired three of his top executives: IndyCar Managing Director Ron Ruzewski, IndyCar General Manager Kyle Moyer, and Team President Tim Cindric, long Penske\u2019s right-hand man who is also the father of Team Penske NASCAR Cup driver Austin Cindric. It seems absurd to think any of the three endorsed or were even aware of the attenuator issue, but Roger Penske had to do something.<\/p>\n

And he did something else: Penske approved the formation of the \u201cIndependent Officiating Board,\u201d which is made up of three men who will oversee IndyCar\u2019s officiating, who presumably will act entirely on their own. They are Ray Evernham, best known as Jeff Gordon\u2019s NASCAR Cup crew chief; Raj Nair, former president of Ford North America and most recently head of Singer, the high-end company that modifies Porsche models; and Ronan Morgan, longtime international race steward and former head of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Formula 1 race.<\/p>\n

How effective the IOB will be remains to be seen. But IndyCar in general, and Roger Penske in particular, can\u2019t afford any more of these incidents. Here\u2019s hoping that this weekend\u2019s racing makes news only for what happens on track.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stay up to speed with stories written by drivers, for drivers. Get automotive news, DIY tips, market trends,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-170112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170112","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=170112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}