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I think I’ve used this line before, but our long nightmare is over. The 2024 season for the NTT IndyCar Series, officially gets underway today. I usually despise change, but I welcome all of the changes we are going to see regarding drivers at new teams, cars with new liveries and a general sense of newness that each season-opener brings this weekend at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

Three months from now, the series will be at Road America. By then we will know, who is having an outstanding season, and who has struggled. There will be some drivers having a surprise breakout season, while others will be mired in disappointment. It’s that way every year, but the faces and names change. Three months from now, we are likely to see a driver let go due to poor results. By Road Americas last season, Conor Daly had already lost his ride and we also had a string indication that Jack Harvey was hanging by a thread at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLLR). Harvey was finally put out of his misery in August, with three races to go.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure we were going to see Harvey in an Indy car again. I’ve always liked Harvey, and I’ve always felt he was not given enough credit for his driving abilities. I’m happy that he has resurfaced at Dale Coyne Racing, where he will be in the car for fourteen races this season, including this weekend. Former IMSA champion Colin Braun will join Harvey this weekend in the other Dale Coyne car. Braun will be making his IndyCar debut this weekend, and will also race at the exhibition race at Thermal Club in two weeks. Beyond that, it’s a little unclear if and when Braun will race again, as he is still competing fulltime in IMSA this season.

The previous occupants of the Dale Coyne cars have taken their services elsewhere. Sting Ray Robb will be in AJ Foyt’s No. 41 for the full season, and will join Santino Ferrucci. Apparently, Robb is bringing a substantial budget that can cover his own car and part of Ferrucci’s No. 14. The infusion of cash and the new partnership with Penske could spell a very special season for Foyt’s team, which sometimes shows up at the season-opener on a shoestring budget. Not this year.

David Malukas also left Dale Coyne for the seat at Arrow McLaren that was previously occupied by Felix Rosenqvist, who is now in Simon Pagenaud’s seat at Meyer Shank Racing (MSR). Malukas recently followed the path of Formula One’s Lance Stroll and IndyCar’s Rinus VeeKay, by having a cycling accident that required surgery. Malukas is out for St. Petersburg, and will be replaced by Callum Ilott, who parted ways with Juncos Hollinger Racing (JHR) in the offseason. Ilott was replaced by Romain Grosjean at JHR. Grosjean was replaced by Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericsson at Andretti Global. Tom Blomqvist replaces Helio Castroneves at MSR. Do you need a scorecard to keep up?

Grosjean’s old sponsor at Andretti, DHL, moved to Ganassi and will be on the car of two-time series champion Alex Palou. Ganassi will be fielding five fulltime cars this season. Besides Palou and Scott Dixon, they will also have Marcus Armstrong, and rookies Linus Lundqvist and Kyffin Simpson. That will give Chip Ganassi three Indianapolis 500 rookies to watch over in May.

RLLR welcomes Pietro Fittipaldi to the No. 30 car, to join Graham Rahal and Christian Lundgaard. Lundgaard is coming off of a season that saw him get his first career win. The hope is that their oval program has improved substantially over last year, when Graham was bumped from the Indianapolis 500 by his teammate, Harvey.

Rookie Christian Rasmussen will drive the non-ovals for Ed Carpenter Racing (ECR), joining fulltime driver Rinus VeeKay. ECR is scaling back to only two cars at all tracks except for the Indianapolis 500. Ed Carpenter will take over from Rasmussen on the ovals, but they will put Rasmussen in a third ECR car for the 500.

Speaking of scaling back, Andretti Global has scaled back from four fulltime cars to three – parting ways with Grosjean and Devlin DeFrancesco; but picking up Ericsson. It appears that DeFrancesco is the odd man out and will be standing without a chair – at least for the start of the season. Some say that he was really showing signs of improvement, but I don’t really see it as some big loss.

Overall, there are eleven fulltime teams. Ten of them saw at least one change in their driver lineup The one that stayed the same is Team Penske. Their lineup of Josef Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin and Will Power is the only team who had the same drivers at St. Petersburg a year ago.

The weather has been tantalizingly warm this week in Nashville, but it is supposed to rain and turn colder this weekend. I now wish we had gone. Susan and I have been to this race twice – in 2019 and in 2022. We had a great time amidst the sun and warm temps both times. When I watch that first practice of the season, I know we will regret not being there. Oh, well…maybe next year.

Speaking of practice, that first practice on the 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary street-circuit will roll off this afternoon at 2:45 pm EST. Like all practices and qualifying, you can catch them live or archived on Peacock. Practice Two will start at an early 9:35 am EST on Saturday morning. Qualifying will begin at 2:10 EST. Don’t forget that we switch to Daylight Saving Time on Sunday morning. The Morning Warmup will commence at 9:10 am EDT, while the race broadcast on Big NBC starts at Noon EDT, with a 12:15 green flag.

Since I’ve not mentioned it before, I am picking Josef Newgarden to win the championship this year. The reigning Indianapolis 500 winner won the championship in 2017 and 2019, and has been in the running every year since. I can’t see Newgarden going more than five years without a title, especially in a season that has seven ovals – his favorite. But Newgarden won’t win this weekend. Many are picking his teammate, McLaughlin, to win at St. Petersburg – since he won there two years ago. Others are picking Pato O’Ward, since last year’s win slipped through his fingers through no fault of his own. I am picking a driver that has never won at St. Petersburg and is therefore being overlooked this weekend – Scott Dixon.

I am really looking forward to this opener, after one of the craziest off-seasons we’ve seen in years. Let’s get this thing started!

George Phillips

This entry was posted on March 8, 2024 at 4:03 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.