At first glance, some might say that the pole-winner for Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is a shock. After all, Scott McLaughlin had a very unremarkable rookie season with Team Penske, finishing fourteenth in points. He finished eleventh at St. Petersburg last season. He didn’t have any disastrous races, but never raised eyebrows either. But he arrived from V-8 Super Cars with a ton of hype, causing a lot of the IndyCar media to practically hand him a championship trophy.
A Surprise on Pole?
Posted in IndyCar on February 26, 2022 by OilpressureWelcome to Day Two at St. Petersburg
Posted in IndyCar on February 26, 2022 by Oilpressure
Good morning from a very sunny and warm Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. About the only negative about this event is the parking. We’ve been lucky enough to find free parking on the street, but it requires a lot of walking. Mrs. Olipressure moves a little more slowly these days, so it took us a while to get inside the track.
St. Petersburg: Day-One Wrap-up
Posted in IndyCar on February 25, 2022 by Oilpressure
Practice One for Race One is now in the books. All the offseason testing is now obsolete information. Who was quickest? Andretti Autosport’s Romain Grosjean. Many have been saying that the pressure is on Grosjean, because he is now with a good team and he will be running all of the races. Well, if he was under pressure this afternoon, he didn’t show it. Grosjean turned the fastest lap of the session with a time of 1:01.0525.
A Somber Moment on a Glorious Day
Posted in IndyCar on February 25, 2022 by Oilpressure
This afternoon, Susan and I attended a memorial service for a legend at IndyCar race tracks that most people had never heard of – Honda’s TE McHale. I would be lying if I said I knew TE McHale. I never met the man, but I knew who he was when I saw him.
Good Morning From St. Petersburg
Posted in IndyCar on February 25, 2022 by Oilpressure
Good morning from the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. At the risk of sounding like I’m gloating, the weather could not be better. It is currently 79° on the way to a projected high of 85°. And of course, there is not a cloud in the sky. That’s a far cry from what we left behind in Nashville…ice and 34°. I’ll finish the gloating with a photo taken from my seat in the Media Center, overlooking the track as it heads into Turn Ten.
St. Petersburg Preview
Posted in IndyCar on February 25, 2022 by Oilpressure
By the time you read this on Friday morning, Susan and I are probably scurrying around our hotel room in order to get to the track at a relatively early hour. As I mentioned here a couple of weeks ago, this was sort of a last minute decision to come down here for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Consequently, we had to book a hotel about thirty-five minutes to the northwest in Clearwater. We could have stayed in some of the remaining rooms in St. Petersburg, but I wasn’t too keen on shelling out between $400 and $800 per night. So we’ll just deal with a slightly longer daily commute. Besides, I’m not really complaining about having to stay in Clearwater, FL in February.
Yet, Another Championship Prediction
Posted in IndyCar on February 23, 2022 by Oilpressure
As the NTT IndyCar Series is on the cusp of a new season, I suppose it’s time to predict who will win the 2022 championship. This is a fun, but pointless, exercise. We can look at trends on who was the last driver to successfully defend their title the following year (Dario Franchitti, who won consecutive titles in 2009, 2010 and 2011) and who has been agonizingly close.
Oilpressure 