By Roy J. Akers- www.skyviewsports.net
Nearly six months off after the conclusion of the 2024 season did not hurt two-time defending champion Alex Palou. Josef Newgarden, driving the No. 2 Penske machine praised Fox Sports for their storytelling before the race and for kicking off what he believes to be the best racing circuit in the world. Pato O’Ward was awarded the 2024 Indy Car St. Petersburg win after Newgarden vacated his victory for illegally boosting his Penske ride. Newgarden and Team Penske are always a factor in this race and here is how the race unfolds.
The Race- The pole sitter
Opening lap trouble eliminates Will Power, NXT Champion Louis Foster, and Arrow McLaren’s Nolan Siegel. Scott McLaughlin builds his post caution lead to nearly two seconds. The No. 3 driver led the first 30 laps of the race. Drivers radioed to their crew chiefs about tire ware falling off after ten laps. The AJ Foyt cars of David Malukas and Santino Ferrucci run 6/7. Callum IIott improves 17 spots to improve from 27th to 10th. Pato O’Ward is the biggest loser as he had a tire puncture on the opening lap and he was forced to run on short-lasting soft tires far longer than his team wanted and ran at the rear of the field.
The field cycles through their first round of stops on laps 30- 36. McLaughlin’s pit puts Marcus Armstrong into the lead. Most drivers exchange hard for soft tires that are mandatory for at least ten laps to run at some point in the race. The top three during the cycle are Armstrong, Graham Rahal and Colton Herta, with Newgarden fourth. Herta’s brief lead turns into disaster as he pit crew cannot change the right rear tire. The lead once again shuffles to Scott Dixon, Alex Palou and Newgarden with McLaughlin hard charging for the lead and back to third. McLaughlin regains the lead on lap 39 but is racing on the softer tire and will need to pit by lap 53.
Christian Lundgaard takes the lead with Alex Rossi and David Malukas are 1-2-3. Lundgaard holds the lead until lap 68 for their second round of tires and fuel. Drivers started pitting on lap 60 knowing they would be tight on petrol but those not using their ten laps on green stickered soft tires do not want to gamble on being stuck on a worn-out tire compound late in the race. Dixon is only .6 behind Lundgaard. Among the No. 9’s 55 career victories, Dixon has never won in St. Petersburg. Lundgaard goes to the soft on lap 69 and he gambles on using them for up to 31 laps to the finish. No driver wants to take that chance and Dixon takes over the lead.
By lap 73, McLaughlin cycles to the lead but loses it as four drivers take turns over laps 71-73. Palou deftly moves in front of teammate Dixon to move into third. Three-time NTT Indy Card champion Palou takes the lead with Newgarden second, Dixon third, and McLaughlin fourth. Palou (No. 10) quickly stretches his lead to nearly five seconds with a dozen laps to go. You give Palou an inch and at a minimum, he takes a mile. Palou continues his huge lead and Newgarden closes to 3.9 seconds as the No. 10 conserves fuel with a dozen laps to go. Newgarden take advantage and starts shaving over .5 seconds every lap off the Palou lead with ten to go. With ten laps to go, Newgarden has closed to a .08 deficit behind Palou and dropping. Both drivers have push to pass horsepower options remaining.
Sting Ray Robb is a potential spoiler and can hold both drivers up. Dixon has now made this a three-man finish with seven to go. Palou goes around Robb with five to go and Newgarden does the same later in the same lap. Lapped traffic once again comes into play for Palou-Newgarden, and Dixon. Drivers are exhausting their push to pass horsepower boosts. Palou has built his lead over Newgarden to 1.368 with a lap to go. Newgarden’s tires have lost grip and Palou is driving away. Dixon takes second away from Newgarden and Palou wins the series opener. Palou was not surprised about the win. “What an amazing job by everybody,” Palou said. “They gave me everything we needed this weekend to win. I told you yesterday we had a really, really fast car.”
Checkered Flag
Palou essentially won the race on lap 87 as he outmuscles Dixon late and took advantage of drivers cycling in the pits and saved his best for the last laps. Palou wins for the first time at St. Pete. Palou on what winning the first race does for your season. “It’s massive. It helps, like, showing
everybody in the building that, hey, guys, like all the work that you’ve done means a lot and that we start leading the scoreboard. It doesn’t mean much for the championship yet, but it means a lot for the momentum that we can carry towards the next couple of races.”
Podium Finish- Second Place
Dixon has never won in St. Petersburg and has collected another second-place finish. SCOTT DIXON: “Yeah, I’m pretty pissed off. We had a
good race going and we didn’t get it done. So it doesn’t
feel good, that’s for sure.”
Podium Finish- Third Place
Newgarden, like Dixon, and Palou, got better as the race progressed and looked to make it a last lap pass for the win. Palou said he believed Newgarden was caught in the last cluster of traffic to fall to third.
I mean, we just had fuel miscues today two times. The second one we were just — we had a shift that was unexpected with a lap to go, and we just had to hit the emergency button, which was unfortunate. We kind of started that last lap like half emergency mode, and then they said, you just have to pull the chute here. Like just finish.”
In the Mix
Scott McLaughlin leads all qualifiers- finishes fourth
McLaughlin led the races first 30 laps and briefly later. He was outgunned later in the day and could not make up ground on the podium finishers.
Race Stats
| PETERSBURG, Fla. – Results Sunday of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding NTT INDYCAR SERIES event on the 1.8-mile streets of St. Petersburg circuit, with order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, chassis-engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):1. (8) Alex Palou, Honda, 100, Running 2. (6) Scott Dixon, Honda, 100, Running 3. (10) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 100, Running 4. (1) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 100, Running 5. (9) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 100, Running 6. (7) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 100, Running 7. (3) Felix Rosenqvist, Honda, 100, Running 8. (5) Christian Lundgaard, Chevrolet, 100, Running 9. (12) Rinus VeeKay, Honda, 100, Running 10. (20) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 100, Running 11. (23) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 100, Running 12. (21) Graham Rahal, Honda, 100, Running 13. (17) David Malukas, Chevrolet, 100, Running 14. (19) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 100, Running 15. (24) Christian Rasmussen, Chevrolet, 100, Running 16. (2) Colton Herta, Honda, 100, Running 17. (22) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 100, Running 18. (15) Kyffin Simpson, Honda, 100, Running 19. (27) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 100, Running 20. (18) Robert Shwartzman, Chevrolet, 100, Running 21. (26) Sting Ray Robb, Chevrolet, 99, Running 22. (14) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 99, Running 23. (25) Jacob Abel, Honda, 99, Running 24. (4) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 46, Contact 25. (11) Nolan Siegel, Chevrolet, 0, Contact 26. (13) Will Power, Chevrolet, 0, Contact 27. (16) Louis Foster, Honda, 0, ContactRace Statistics Winner’s average speed: 97.173 mph Time of Race: 1:51:08.5118 Margin of victory: 2.8669 seconds Cautions: 1 for 6 laps Lead changes: 9 among 7 driversLap Leaders: McLaughlin, Scott 1 – 31 Armstrong, Marcus 32 – 34 Herta, Colton 35 Newgarden, Josef 36 – 37 Dixon, Scott 38 McLaughlin, Scott 39 – 45 Lundgaard, Christian 46 – 68 Dixon, Scott 69 – 72 McLaughlin, Scott 73 – 74 Palou, Alex 75 – 100NTT INDYCAR SERIES Point Standings: Palou 51, Dixon 41, McLaughlin 36, Newgarden 36, Kirkwood 30, Ericsson 28, Rosenqvist 26, Lundgaard 25, VeeKay 22, Rossi 20, O’Ward 19, Rahal 18, Malukas 17, Ferrucci 16, Herta 15, Rasmussen 15, Daly 13, Simpson 12, Ilott 11, Shwartzman 10, Robb 9, DeFrancesco 8, Abel 7, Armstrong 7, Siegel 5, Power 5, Foster 5 |
Roy J. Akers covers NTT/NXT Indy Car for www.skyviewsports.net
