{"id":172246,"date":"2026-02-28T00:31:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T00:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/172246\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T00:31:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T00:31:18","slug":"mclaughlin-leads-st-pete-practice-as-heavy-hitters-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/172246\/","title":{"rendered":"McLaughlin leads St. Pete practice as heavy-hitters crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Credit:<\/p>\n

Team Penske\u2019s Scott McLaughlin has finished quickest in an incident-marred opening practice session of the 2026 IndyCar season on the streets of St. Petersburg.<\/p>\n

The New Zealander led both the all-skate and group segments as teammate Josef Newgarden, compatriot Scott Dixon and reigning Rookie of the Year Louis Foster all suffered incidents in a session which saw the red flag brandished on five occasions.<\/p>\n

Behind McLaughlin in the order, Meyer Shank Racing (MSR)\u2019s Felix Rosenqvist led Andretti Global\u2019s Kyle Kirkwood – all three with a time set in Group 2. Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR)\u2019s Kyffin Simpson led Group 1 and was fourth overall, followed by Andretti\u2019s Marcus Ericsson.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Three-time defending champion \u00c1lex Palou ended the session sixth, with the top 10 completed by MSR\u2019s Marcus Armstrong, Ed Carpenter Racing (ECR)\u2019s Christian Rasmussen, Penske newbie David Malukas and Arrow McLaren\u2019s Christian Lundgaard.<\/p>\n

DIVEBOMB debriefs the key stories from IndyCar\u2019s opening day of running\u2026<\/p>\n

Mixed fortunes in all-car session<\/p>\n

There were two brief red flag stoppages early on in the 40-minute all-car running: first for debris from rookie Dennis Hauger\u2019s No.19 Dale Coyne Racing machine, then for a fortunately harmless spin for Ed Carpenter Racing\u2019s Alexander Rossi in Turn 4.<\/p>\n

There was a bigger moment for Josef Newgarden at the half-hour mark, kicking off his year with a high-speed slide into Turn 13. The dirt off-track scrubbed much of the speed, meaning the Penske driver escaped without any major damage or contact with the tyre barrier.<\/p>\n

\"Credit:<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say it\u2019s more setup-related for us,\u201d Newgarden said of his spin. \u201cWe tried something different on our car and I just got loose to the corner. It\u2019s as simple as that. Nothing on the track. It wasn\u2019t anything track-related.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOur cars looked relatively quick. Obviously Scottie was quick up front and David looked good. There\u2019s enough to draw from for us at Team Penske that would be positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Contrasting Newgarden\u2019s fortunes, teammate and two-time St. Pete pole-sitter and former winner McLaughlin headed the all-car time sheets by 0.1149s. Palou, an impressive Malukas, Ericsson and CGR\u2019s Scott Dixon rounded out the initial session\u2019s top five.<\/p>\n

Dixon crashes in CGR-led group<\/p>\n

The first group segment featured a heavy crash for another big-hitter as Dixon found the Turn 8 wall. The six-time champion had a moment entering the corner before striking the concrete almost nose-first, significantly damaging the front-left corner. Malukas then only narrowly avoided collecting the stricken car as he slotted through a precariously narrow gap.<\/p>\n

\u201cA frustrating one,\u201d Dixon told FOX. \u201cThe typical MO for that corner is you clip the inside. For me, I got loose on entry and tried to save it and kind of got into a bit of an overcorrection. Luckily, it killed a lot of speed before it got to the wall. Sometimes you can tub the car and destroy it so hopefully it\u2019s not too bad. Car was really fast in that first portion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CGR camp otherwise dominated in the first group, headed by Kyffin Simpson on a 01:01.1782s lap, ahead of teammate Palou and CGR technical ally Marcus Armstrong. Rasmussen, Malukas and Lundgaard sat over three-tenths back inside the top six, with seventh-place finisher (in a 14-car group) Graham Rahal a hefty 0.9233s adrift.<\/p>\n

\"Credit:<\/p>\n

McLaughlin dominates opening day<\/p>\n

A fifth red flag of practice was caused early in Group 2 by Louis Foster, who misjudged his braking into Turn 13, wedging his No.45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing car into the tyre barrier and damaging the front wing and left-front corner, curtailing his session.<\/p>\n

McLaughlin ultimately delivered the headline practice time with a 01:01.1020s lap on the softer alternate tyres. Rosenqvist, Kirkwood and Ericsson were each within one-tenth of the Penske driver; Juncos Hollinger Racing (JHR) debutant Rinus VeeKay and Arrow McLaren\u2019s Pato O\u2019Ward were the only other drivers within half-a-second at over four-tenths behind.<\/p>\n

\u201cDecent first day,\u201d McLaughlin said. \u201cObviously being P1 is a great start. The [car] was straight away fast and felt good and comfortable. It\u2019s the start of a long season and it was nice to have a smooth session to start. We\u2019ll keep pressing and see how we go.\u201d<\/p>\n

What other results stand out?<\/p>\n

Dale Coyne Racing (DCR)\u2019s Dennis Hauger was the lead rookie in 17th overall, with Mick Schumacher, who was 20th in the all-car session, 23rd overall for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing – ahead of AJ Foyt Racing\u2019s Caio Collet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The top 21 (ECR\u2019s Alexander Rossi 21st) was split by less than one second on the 1.8-mile track, with crashed Foster joining Schumacher, Collet and slowest-overall Sting Ray Robb outside that threshold. JHR\u2019s Robb was 1.1760s adrift of McLaughlin\u2019s lead time.<\/p>\n

Will Power was 18th as his new Andretti teammates populated the top five, though he suffered a lock-up that confined him to only 11th in his group. Returning with DCR after being announced late in the off-season, Romain Grosjean impressed in 13th after his year of absence, splitting O\u2019Ward and Newgarden in the final order.<\/p>\n

\"Credit:<\/p>\n

\u201cFelt good to be back in the car,\u201d said Grosjean, 2023 St. Pete pole-sitter. \u201cWe had a bit of a radio issue, which didn\u2019t help us out there. IndyCar is very competitive and it\u2019s very tough to be fast and those tracks don\u2019t let you make a mistake, which is the beauty of it but also very stressful. It took a little bit of getting back into it but I\u2019m happy to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tyre talk & other lessons<\/p>\n

New for 2026, drivers are mandated to run two stints on the red-sidewalled alternate tyres on street courses, which has led to arguments of whether it restricts or enhances strategy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I am in favour of double red tyres on the street course,\u201d Grosjean said. \u201cI think that\u2019s going to open strategy [and] open a bit more scratching your head on how you drive the car. That\u2019s something that we have done a lot in Europe: tyre management. Also in endurance. I\u2019m hoping I can use that to my advantage, being an old man with a bit of experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

The early signs are that the softer tyres may be the preferable race tyre in St. Pete anyway.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, definitely I think the grip level was pretty solid,\u201d Newgarden said. \u201cIf it gets sunny on Sunday, that will be different. It\u2019s always so hard to predict. I think the red looks like it\u2019s going to be a better tyre throughout. But we might get to Sunday and not feel that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Credit:<\/p>\n

Heading into qualifying on Saturday, there is also a looming threat of rain, which adds an extra dimension to a street track challenging at the best of times.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it rains, you\u2019ve got to look out for the paint a bit here,\u201d Newgarden said. \u201cThe paint takes a lot of rubber throughout the weekend, especially the front straightaway. It\u2019s probably the most difficult part, to navigate the grip level in Turn 1 braking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Practice 2 commences at 9:30 ET (14:30 GMT) on Saturday, before qualifying at 16:30 ET (21:30 GMT), following a 200-lap NASCAR Truck Series race earlier in the afternoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Team Penske\u2019s Scott McLaughlin has finished quickest in an incident-marred opening practice session of the 2026 IndyCar season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-172246","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\/172246","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=172246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}