St. Petersburg Preview
And just like that, the offseason is over. Although fans love to complain about the length of the IndyCar offseason, the past six months have seemed to fly by. Of course, I’m old and when you get up to be my age – time just gallops on by.
The NTT IndyCar Series begins another season this weekend with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. This has become one of those events that IndyCar fans should circle on their calendar each year. Now that I am officially retired from my day job, we would be there in a heartbeat under normal circumstances. This year, however, Susan and I are going on a ten-day cruise sailing out of Miami in less than two weeks. This was booked a year ago to celebrate my retirement about six weeks ago. The cruise is not cheap, and my retirement budget did not have room for the cruise and St. Petersburg both, so we will not be in attendance for the race this year.
We have been to this race twice – in 2019 and again in 2022. If the money holds up and Susan is still in good health, we may try to make it again in 2027. It’s that much fun.
Aside from the obvious benefit of trading snow and ice for palm trees and balmy temperatures; this has become one of the more exciting street races on the schedule. It’s hard to beat starting the season by watching the entire field funnel into Turn One at the end of the runway. If the make it through Turn one, chances are they won’t make it back around to the start/finish line without an incident.
Some tracks produce fluke winners from time to time. That doesn’t happen at St. Petersburg. The list of winners over the years reads like a Who’s Who in IndyCar. Was Marcus Ericsson a fluke, when he assumed the lead just as Pato O’ Ward had a hiccup on the final lap? It’s hard to call an Indianapolis 500 winner a fluke. What about when Sébastien Bourdais won back-to-back in 2017-18? Yes he was driving for Dale Coyne both seasons, but can you really call a four-time champion a fluke? Maybe the only fluke winner was more of a surprise than anything, when Graham Rahal won as an 18 year-old in his IndyCar debut after coming over from Champ Car in 2008. It’s hard to believe that was 18 years ago. Talk about time galloping on by…
As usual, there are lots of changes as the new season gets underway this weekend. Most importantly, Honda and Chevy are both staying for the long haul – each signing contracts earlier this month to remain in the series at least through the end of the decade. Firestone has developed a new construction for all alternate tires going forward. Starting in St. Petersburg, the green-wall tires made from the guayule shrub will no longer be in the series. They had been reserved for street races only, since they debuted in Nashville in 2021. Now all alternate tires will carry the more visually appealing red sidewall, as Firestone introduces the ENLITEN Technology. I cannot begin to explain how they differ from the guayule green tires, but it has a lot to do with recycled materials and soybean oil.
Speaking of alternates, what was an experiment in a couple of races will now be standard operating procedure. Teams will be required to run two sets of alternate tires. This reminds me of when the designated hitter was introduced to the American League in 1973. It removed a lot of strategy from the game. Baseball purists claimed it dumbed the game down. To me, this takes some of the strategy out or racing. It was fine when they had to run at least two green laps with each tire, before choosing which is the better tire on a given weekend. Now everyone has to do two stints on the reds. A lot of strategy will go out the window before the races even start. To me, that’s a shame.
Then there was the non-event of announcing the details of the new IndyCar Officiating Board (IOB) that will be in place for this weekend. If you recall, after the two embarrassing incidents of rules infractions involving Team Penske. The outcry from fans and other teams demanded a totally independent entity be in charge of anything involving enforcement of the rule book. The series went to great lengths to recruit three individuals to overhaul the current system.
Earlier this week, we learned that after further review, no overhaul was deemed necessary and just a few tweaks here and there was all that needed to be done. Kyle Novak is still the race director and Vice-President of IndyCar officiating. Former drivers Arie Luyendyk and Max Papis will continue in their roles as Chief Stewards, although I’m not sure how you can have two “chiefs”. Kevin “Rocket” Blanch will also continue as IndyCar’s Technical Director.
Fans were irate on social media when this was announced, expressing their shock and dismay that nothing had changed when wholesale changes were promised last summer. My only shock was that fans were so surprised. Did they really expect anything to change? Yes, this independent group is one more layer separated from Penske Entertainment – but that’s just window dressing.
For the past sixteen years in my day job, I was in the contract world. From 2017 to 2019, I was employed by three different companies – yet my desk, office and phone number never changed. My corporate e-mail was the only thing that changed. I also answered to the same Executive Director in all that time. The only thing that changed was who was contracted to employ me. She wrote the checks to whoever my employer was at the time. I had a corporate supervisor at whichever company I worked for, but I didn’t really listen to them. I listened to the Executive Director who was paying them to employ me. If I was to be fired, the Executive Director made that call – not my corporate supervisor. It’s the same thing here. Blanch and Novak now answer to the IOB, but who do you think is paying the IOB? Penske Entertainment. If they want something to go a certain way, it will. If not, they will make sure the person who prevented it from happening will suffer the consequences. Is anyone really surprised that this is how it ended up?
But what everyone really cares about this weekend is the action on the track, and the drivers and teams creating it. We know that PREMA will not be on the grid this weekend, and probably not as the two-car team we knew last year. If they are able to put anything together in the first half of the season, most seem to think it will be a one-car effort that we will not see until sometime in May.
That means 25 cars will be on the grid this weekend and for the first few races of the season, unless teams run an extra car for selected races or a team like Dreyer & Reinbold may enter a car away from the Indianapolis 500. We’ll see.
Few teams have no driver changes for 2026. Chip Ganassi Racing, Meyer Shank Racing, Arrow McLaren and Ed Carpenter Racing will all field the same driver line-up as last year. The most talked about driver change is undoubtedly Will Power, who moved from Team Penske to Andretti Global. David Malukas moves to Team Penske to take Power’s spot, while Power moves into the seat formerly occupied by Colton Herta – who is currently running F2 for the season.
Caio Collet joins AJ Foyt Racing, replacing the departed Malukas. Rahal Letterman Lanigan welcomes Mick Schumacher in place of the long-suffering Devlin De Francesco. Dale Coyne welcomes back Romain Grosjean, while rookie Dennis Hauger joins the team with help from Andretti Global.
Rinus VeeKay left what I thought was a good situation at Coyne, for Juncos Hollinger Racing to be teammates with Sting Ray Robb, who will be with a team for a second year for the first time ever.
As far as liveries go – the Andretti Global cars get a refresh with black trim on the front and rear of the cars, with the various sponsor colors in the center portion of the cars. The DHL car of Alex Palou will feature a lot more yellow and less red than last year’s championship winning car. Maybe the best looking car on the grid belongs to Kyffin Simpson. His Sunoco Special features more yellow than the Mark Donohue cars of the early 70s, but less than the 1973 Penske Eagle. It is a good looking car that would catch anyone’s eye, but it will be even more special to old-timers like myself that recall those iconic liveries from over 50 years ago.
Every season has interesting storylines headed into it, and this season is no exception. To me, the biggest storyline is watching the Will Power Revenge Tour, as the veteran driver is very motivated to prove to his previous employer that they made a mistake by not re-signing him early in the process last season. By the time they made a half-hearted effort to keep him – it was too late.
I am also curious to watch the progress of Ed Carpenter Racing this season, although Curt Cavin reports that the official name of the team is simply ECR, which officially stands for nothing. Please.
Regardless, it was over a year ago that ECR took on a new partner with a major influx of cash. Year Two is when you expect to see such an investment pay off. Alexander Rossi was the fastest at Phoenix last week, and Christian Rasmussen is coming off of a breakout season that saw him earn his first win last year at Milwaukee. A lot is expected of both drivers. I think Rossi is headed for a resurgence this season.
Arrow McLaren has been uncharacteristically quiet this offseason. Tony Kanaan is coming into his own as the Team Principal. They had no driver changes and Kyle Moyer has now had a chance to settle in, after being fired mid-season by Team Penske. I think we will see that quiet confidence produce results on the track. I’m not sure if Nolan Siegel can do enough to be retained for 2027, but I expect big things from Pato O’ Ward and Christian Lundgaard for this season.
The wildcard for 2026 is Team Penske. Will they have another implosion this season, or rise above all that happened last season and get back to form. All eyes are on Josef Newgarden. If things go south early this year, he may start looking around the paddock for other opportunities. How many drivers voluntarily leave Team Penske?
And then there is Alex Palou, who has made a mockery out of the rest of the paddock. Will his dominance continue and have the championship all but decided by the end of June, or will he hit some bad luck and prove that he is indeed mortal. I’m not saying I wish any bad luck on the three-time champion and reigning Indianapolis 500 winner; but if he runs away with another championship – it’s not a good look, and ratings will suffer.
Practice One begins this afternoon at 1:30 pm EST on FS2. Saturday’s practice will take place at 9:30 am EST on FS1, while qualifying starts at 4:30 pm on FS2. Sunday’s Morning Warm-up will begin at 9:00 am EST on FS1. Race coverage begins on Big FOX at Noon EST.
My pick to win the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series championship? Alex Palou.
But I think it will be closer than last year, much closer. First of all, I don’t think Palou will start the season off with a win at St. Petersburg like he did last year. Whether he encounters bad luck and gets caught up in someone else’s accident or is simply off the pace all weekend, but he will not win this weekend.
That honor will go to a quasi-teammate – Felix Rosenqvist. The MSR cars are going to make some noise this year, and it will start this weekend. We’ll see.
George Phillips
Oilpressure 
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