Note: This new feature at INDYCAR.com will go beyond the time sheets to identify trends and developing stories after the opening day of practice at every NTT INDYCAR SERIES event.
A new day in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES offered new things to watch.
These three stood out in Friday’s practice in the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding, and there is surely more to consume as the weekend progresses.
FOX Sports Begins INDYCAR Coverage
For starters, Friday felt like the first day of spring, with Florida sunshine in abundance. We’ll take that in heaps, please.
FOX Sports took a strong first step into this sport with its coverage of practice. As the host, Will Buxton exuded his vast knowledge of the series, as expected, and the booth pairing of Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe felt familiar as it has in recent years. Jamie Little effortlessly returned to the sport, Kevin Lee nailed not only his pit reporting but also the INDY NXT by Firestone hosting while broadcasting newbie Jack Harvey offered several interesting tidbits from pit road, including a quip about Christian Lundgaard finally getting his U.S. driver’s license.
The look at the new on-screen graphics package included a terrific addition: The aeroscreen display, which includes the distance to the approaching corner. Not only is it informative, it is easy to read.
Also worth noting was FOX Sports’ first INDY NXT by Firestone show, the series’ first cable presentation of its kind. It had nice synergy with the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, with last year’s series champion, Louis Foster, interviewed as a connector. It stands to reason that the broadcast team will increasingly introduce this crop of drivers, so expect to learn more about Friday’s pacesetter, Dennis Hauger, a Norwegian driving for Andretti Global, among others.
For Day 1, it was a solid overall debut.
Good Starts for Several Drivers
Chew on the speed chart casually as we’re only 80 minutes into a 17-race season. Expect significant shifting between now and the end of Saturday’s qualifying session for the NTT P1 Award.
Oh, sure, the usual suspects will be in the mix, from two-time defending series champion Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing to Team Penske’s trio (Scott McLaughlin, Will Power and Josef Newgarden) to reigning St. Petersburg winner Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren.
There was a lot to like from Andretti Global, which dominated the final street race of 2024 (at Toronto, with Colton Herta and Kyle Kirkwood finishing first and second). Kirkwood topped Friday’s chart with Herta fourth and Ericsson, who needs a bounce-back season, sixth. Ericsson won the 2023 race in St. Petersburg, so it’s fair to expect a good performance from him Sunday.
Drivers used only the primary Firestone Firehawk tire compound in the first part of Friday’s practice, and the speedsters were predictable: Palou, Newgarden, Power, McLaughlin and Kirkwood ranking one through five. But series sophomore Christian Rasmussen and new Ed Carpenter Racing teammate Alexander Rossi were an impressive sixth and ninth, respectively, and Nolan Siegel opened his first full season with Arrow McLaren in the 10th position, just .047 of a second behind O’Ward.
Let’s see what Saturday brings.
Testing the Track’s Limits
Turn 3 offered a stern warning to several of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES drivers: Tread lightly.
The latter is a play on words as drivers found Firestone’s alternate tires to have more grip than those offered a year ago, and that’s tied to intentionally trying to create more differentiation between the compounds. More grip and a heavier back end of the car due to the addition of the hybrid system likely were factors in several drivers going for adventurous rides in the fast third turn.
The Meyer Shank Racing duo of Felix Rosenqvist and Marcus Armstrong had nearly identical spins in that location without contact, with Armstrong sliding within inches of the outside wall. On the broadcast, Townsend Bell rightly noted that it was “statistically impossible” that team cars would create so much excitement in the same location on the same day and do no damage. They won’t always be so fortunate.
McLaughlin needed some of that luck. The New Zealander blamed himself for overcooking the corner, and the car scooted hard into the unforgiving wall. The impact broke the left front suspension, which folded seconds later as the car traveled down that short straight. The incident occurred just hours after McLaughlin, who has finished third in the standings each of the past two seasons, confirmed a contract extension with Team Penske.
Saturday offers another chance to learn and improve. Practice 2 commences at 10:15 a.m. ET on FS2, the FOX Sports app and the INDYCAR Radio Network. Qualifying at 2:30 p.m. shifts to FS1, the FOX Sports app and the INDYCAR Radio Network. We’ll be watching.