It\u2019s back!<\/p>\n
The excitement. The adrenaline. The crowds. The sun. The yachts. And everyone\u2019s favorite sound \u2014 the roar of INDYCAR engines echoing off the buildings in downtown St. Petersburg. A new INDYCAR season officially began last weekend with the\u00a0Firestone Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
INDYCAR is bringing four new circuits to the schedule, with a return to Phoenix, two new street circuits in Arlington, TX and Ontario, and a debut in Washington, D.C., as part of the celebration of 250 years of America. Graham Rahal believes the race in D.C. could become one of the most covered events of the year \u2014 possibly even drawing more global attention than the Indy 500.<\/p>\n
Drivers and fans are also energized by the change to the start of the season, with four races in March instead of just one. Graham added that the condensed schedule will help him \u201cget into a rhythm and do what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Josef Newgarden echoed that sentiment, saying, \u201cI\u2019d much rather have this scenario where we\u2019ve got some cadence going\u2026 it\u2019s good momentum for the series.\u201d<\/p>\n
The offseason also brought major changes to the grid.<\/p>\n
Longtime Team Penske driver Will Power moved to Andretti Global, while David Malukas stepped into Power\u2019s former seat at Penske. Romain Grosjean returned to Dale Coyne Racing, and Mick Schumacher made his INDYCAR debut with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Schumacher, a former Formula 3 and Formula 2 champion, entered the series with high expectations.<\/p>\n
The talk is over. The new season starts here.<\/p>\n
Penske entered qualifying confident in its trio \u2014 a fresh face in Malukas paired with championship veterans. Ganassi arrived with four-time series champion and defending titleholder Alex Palou, alongside six-time champion Scott Dixon. But qualifying quickly showed the established powers wouldn\u2019t have the track to themselves.<\/p>\n
The smaller teams came ready to crash the party.<\/p>\n
Dayle Coyne Racing and Meyer Shank Racing each sent two drivers into the Fast 12, with Rahal Letterman Lanigan also represented. Coyne continued the celebration into the Fast 6, as Romain Grosjean secured sixth and rookie Dennis Hauger stunned the paddock with a third-place effort.<\/p>\n
Scott McLaughlin called Hauger\u2019s performance \u201cvery impressive,\u201d adding, \u201cThis is INDYCAR \u2014 it\u2019s competitive. It\u2019s what makes the sport so awesome, the fact that a lower budget team\u2026 can go out and kill it.\u201d He admitted he was surprised to see both Coyne cars in the Fast 6.<\/p>\n
Malukas, making his first qualifying appearance for Penske, rolled off fifth. Palou scared everyone with his best qualifying result at St. Pete in fourth. The giants were undeterred by the party noise, however. Marcus Ericsson made sure Andretti had a seat at the party on the outside of Row 1, while McLaughlin secured his third career pole position at St. Pete.<\/p>\n
The green flag dropped, and over the radios came the familiar call: \u201cGo, go, go.\u201d The season is back! Drivers hit the gas and rushed through Turn 1 cleanly, fans watching in anticipation \u2014 then came the race\u2019s first trouble.<\/p>\n
On Lap 1, Sting Ray Robb ran into Santino Ferrucci, who collided with rookie Mick Schumacher. Several laps later, Will Power hit the wall, ending his day early. The problems kept coming. Scott Dixon lost a tire coming out of the pits.<\/p>\n
By the midpoint, it was Palou leading again. The crashers weren\u2019t leaving \u2014 Armstrong ran fourth, and both Coyne entries remained inside the top ten.<\/p>\n
The flurry subsided. The race settled, and the green flag waved for the majority of the afternoon.<\/p>\n
Josef Newgarden reminded everyone he\u2019s a champion, climbing 16 positions to finish seventh. Rinus VeeKay, showing well for his new team, jumped 10 spots to take ninth. The gate crashers, Grosjean and his rookie teammate, held their ground with eighth- and 10th-place finishes.<\/p>\n
Arrow McLaren\u2019s Lundgaard, in just his fifth season, secured his 10th career podium. Scott McLaughlin converted his pole into a second-place finish.<\/p>\n
And out front, the biggest giant in the room showed why everyone was wary \u2014 Alex Palou dominated, leading 59 of 100 laps and winning by nearly 13 seconds, the largest margin of victory in the history of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. After the race, Palou summed it up simply: \u201cWe\u2019re back.\u201d<\/p>\n
One race in. Seventeen more. It\u2019s back!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s back! The excitement. The adrenaline. The crowds. The sun. The yachts. And everyone\u2019s favorite sound \u2014 the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-180844","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\/180844","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=180844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}