St Petersburg GP – Syndication Server

Team Penske hit with penalties over Push to Pass use; O’Ward declared St. Petersburg winner

The IndyCar Series has disqualified Josef Newgarden from the season-opening race in St. Petersburg which he won handily, disqualified teammate Scott McLaughlin from third and penalized Will Power with the loss of 10 points after determining Team …

Second-place finisher Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren has been promoted to first and awarded the win.

IndyCar’s longstanding practice in its road and street course races is to disable the push-to-pass system, which gives drivers an extra shot of 50hp or so, prior to starts and restarts. The system only becomes active when the series enables the buttons on the steering wheel to command the engines to deliver the extra power.

During last weekend’s event in Long Beach, the series found the three cars from Team Penske were able to bypass that software restriction and use push-to-pass at any time.

“During the Sunday, April 21 warmup session ahead of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, IndyCar discovered the team’s possible rules violation,” the series stated.

“An extensive review of data from the race on the streets of St. Petersburg revealed that Team Penske manipulated the overtake system so that the No. 2, 3 and 12 cars had the ability to use Push to Pass on starts and restarts. According to the IndyCar rulebook, use of overtake is not available during championship races until the car reaches the alternate start-finish line. It was determined that the No. 2 and the No. 3 gained a competitive advantage by using Push to Pass on restarts while the No. 12 did not. Additionally, all three entries have been fined $25,000 and will forfeit all prize money associated with the streets of St. Petersburg race.”

IndyCar president Jay Frye says the push-to-pass issue was rectified before Sunday’s race won by Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon.

“The integrity of the IndyCar Series championship is critical to everything we do,” Frye said. “While the violation went undetected at St. Petersburg, IndyCar discovered the manipulation during Sunday’s warmup in Long Beach and immediately addressed it ensuring all cars were compliant for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. Beginning with this week’s race at Barber Motorsports Park, new technical inspection procedures will be in place to deter this violation.”

Team Penske issued a statement through president Tim Cindric after the matter was made public by the series and blamed a software oversight for the problem and subsequent advantage that was seen when Newgarden streaked away from the field at St. Petersburg to win by more than eight seconds.

“Unfortunately, the push-to-pass software was not removed as it should have been, following recently completed hybrid testing in the Team Penske Indy cars,” Cindric said. “This software allowed for push-to-pass to be deployed during restarts at the St. Petersburg Grand Prix race, when it should not have been permitted.”

Cindric also acknowledged Newgarden and McLaughlin chose to use the illegal access to push-to-pass power, which calls into question whether the unfair advantage was known to exist in advance.

“The No. 2 car driven by Josef Newgarden and the No. 3 car driven by Scott McLaughlin, both deployed push-to-pass on a restart, which violated IndyCar rules,” he added. “Team Penske accepts the penalties applied by IndyCar.”

Chevrolet’s work in the off-season delivers in spades – Newgarden

It’s only one race, but if Team Chevy has this kind of horsepower, torque, and fuel mileage to offer for the rest of the IndyCar season, the General Motors brand will be hard to beat. Josef Newgarden, Pato O’Ward, Scott McLaughlin, and Will Power …

It’s only one race, but if Team Chevy has this kind of horsepower, torque, and fuel mileage to offer for the rest of the IndyCar season, the General Motors brand will be hard to beat.

Josef Newgarden, Pato O’Ward, Scott McLaughlin, and Will Power used their 2.2-liter twin-turbo V6 Chevys to trounce the field throughout Sunday’s 100-lap Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg as they locked out the top four positions, with the winner from Team Penske turning his pole position into a victory that came with the race’s fastest lap and 92 laps in the lead.

“I think we had some deficits last year. There’s no doubt. You can’t hide from that,” Newgarden told RACER. “But we also had some tremendous strengths. We leaned on a huge win at the Indy 500, we were very strong on ovals. I think you’re seeing a good ebb and flow between the manufacturers, which you want to see as a competitor and as a fan.

“For us, we would love to have it easy, but we want a strong competition between the manufacturers, and I think you had that last year. Maybe we were a little bit weak in some parts that we needed to bring up, and I think today, as I assess the race and as I assess the weekend, I think you see a lot of parity.

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“I would say there was more parity than last year here. I think Honda looked pretty strong at this event for the [2023] opener [which it won]. I think this weekend we looked even in a lot of respects, but we certainly have strength on our side that we can lean on now. This is one example right now, one data point. Let’s keep going a couple more rounds.”

Although Chevrolet won last year’s Manufacturers’ championship, its rivals at Honda took the higher-profile Drivers’ championship, and it’s here where the Bowtie’s teams and drivers decided it was time for the car company to double down and try to rectify the situation. Based on Sunday’s performance, Team Chevy was listening.

“I’ve got to say, Chevrolet, they work hard every off-season,” Newgarden added. “They worked really hard this off-season. We were hard on ourselves. It’s not just them. We had to really improve our side on the chassis, and we were hard on them, too. We said, ‘We’ve got to make all of these things better,’ and they delivered in spades.

“You ask for the menu, and you don’t get the whole menu [of improvements]. They somehow gave us the whole menu. It’s pretty cool. They did a great job, and it makes me very encouraged for 2024.”

Simpson comes in sneaky fast in IndyCar debut at St. Petersburg

Kyffin Simpson was the top rookie performer on Sunday in St. Petersburg. And while his run to 14th at the finish might not stand out as praiseworthy, the fact that he avoided the kind of mistakes to took out veterans and newcomers alike during the …

But the part of the teenager’s IndyCar debut that was hardest to ignore was the blistering lap he fired in towards the end of the race which placed his No. 4 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda second on the day, only behind race-winner Josef Newgarden.

On lap 64, the Team Penske driver clocked a 1m00.6795s lap during his dominating performance, and on lap 88, the kid from the Cayman Islands threw down a 1m00.8779 to show he’s got serious speed to offer.

“It was a great first day,” Simpson told RACER after improving nine positions. “All this weekend, I haven’t been so comfortable in the car, but in the race, I just felt like having lots of consistent laps was going to help me, and I just kept going and getting comfortable with the track. I felt like that all helped a lot. And then by the end, when we got on the alternate [tires], I felt so much confidence to just push and push. I was really happy with the strategy and just having that ability to really push it to the end.”

Simpson’s No. 4 program was loaded with debut experiences as Danielle Shepherd had a successful first event as an IndyCar race engineer, as did Chris Wheeler, who called race strategy for the program after spending more than a decade as a spotter.

“That’s what we were hoping for,” Shepherd said. “We came into it and said, ‘Be good and get your first one under your belt and finish strong.’ And he did that; highest finishing rookie. He has a lot of experience elsewhere, so now we need to build that experience up here.”

Wheeler had a simple plan for Simpson that turned out to be the perfect strategy across the 100-lap contest.

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“There’s a lot of people on pit lane that have been doing this for a lot longer than I have, that would have loved to have Mike O’Gara and Sebastien Bourdais up there helping me,” he said. “It was just one of those things where we thought there’s gonna be some desperation going on, and I think we saw that from a few cars. I had a feeling that it wasn’t going to be a fully-loaded yellow race, like we’ve seen the last couple years. And we just decided, ‘Hey, let’s just keep it basic. Let’s keep it simple. We don’t need to be anything extra here. It’s literally race one of 18 — race one of an IndyCar career. Let’s keep it basic.’

“Kyffin did a great job and did everything we asked of him. Hauled the car from 23rd to 14th and put in the fastest lap of the race, only behind the guy who won. We’re super impressed.”

Simpson’s endurance racing experience was helpful on Sunday as he managed risks when necessary and turned up the speed when the time was right.

“It was pretty tough, especially on the start,” he said. “Colin Braun and I went side by side, all the way from Turn 5 through Turn 9, and it was really tight all through that section at the start, just trying to keep it out of the wall. When I was pushing it at the end, and the tires started to get a little hot, I started to make some mistakes, so then I just had to remind myself to calm down. I had Chris on the radio telling me to calm down and just bring it home. The goal for today was just to finish all the laps, and that’s what we did.”

Wheeler was understandably proud to see how far the reconfigured team has come during the offseason and wants to get back to work once the second event of the year at The Thermal Club later this month.

“A lot of this goes back to all the questions that we’ve heard in the offseason about going to five cars, having some rookies, and we just went to five cars and this rookie driver went from P23 to P14,” he added. “I think that says volumes for all the people that Chip Ganassi Racing that really bought into this program and have dedicated so much to the five cars over the last four or five months. Honestly, I’m kind of bummed that it’s over. I wish we were here doing a doubleheader so we could go again tomorrow with Kyffin, but I’ll have to wait ’til Thermal.”

Newgarden crushes IndyCar field for St. Petersburg win

The art of extreme fuel saving was on display during Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, which was won by polesitter Josef Newgarden. The art of extreme entertainment conservation was also deployed over 100 laps where not much happened …

The art of extreme fuel saving was on display during Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, which was won by polesitter Josef Newgarden.

The art of extreme entertainment conservation was also deployed over 100 laps where not much happened at the season-opening IndyCar race as most drivers spent the afternoon following each other and making a limited number of passing attempts while they engaged the throttle pedal as infrequently as possible.

Despite the long stretches of boredom, Newgarden and Team Penske used the event to show how far the organization has come since the end of the 2023 season. Newgarden led 92 laps and ran away and hid from Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward to win by 7.9s. Teammate Scott McLaughlin was third, 8.4s back from Newgarden, and the Penske trio was completed by Will Power, who rounded home 9.0s arrears.

Together, the quartet delivered a statement of Chevrolet’s intent for the season as the Bowtie went 1-2-3-4 to start the defense of its manufacturers’ championship.

“It did feel comfortable today,” Newgarden said. “I had a lot of fun. Early on in the race, I said I was going. I’m not going to wait around. It’s been a process for us to come back and be better in areas we needed. We cleaned up our game and worked at the level we need to be.”

Andretti Global’s Colton Herta was the top Honda representative on the day, leading one lap on the way to fifth, many corners behind with a 10.2s deficit to the winner.

Elsewhere, Meyer Shank Racing front-row starter Felix Rosenqvist fell to seventh at the finish after enduring a slow pit stop and small drivetrain issues. A.J. Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci was solid on his way to 11th, and among the many rookies, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyffin Simpson was clean from start to finish and was rewarded with the second-fastest race lap and 14th at the finish line.

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The race opened with a mostly clean run through the first few corners; Christian Lundgaard was the only driver to suffer when contact from behind cut his right-rear tire and sent the Dane to pit lane for a replacement, which dropped him to last.

Once the field was settled, the 27 drivers went into fuel-saving mode for the remainder of the first stint. Newgarden held a gap over Rosenqvist that sat in the 1.5s range, and behind him, Herta ran a steady 4.0s behind the leader.

The first caution of the race flew on lap 27 when Ganassi’s Marcus Armstrong slid into the barriers and broke his rear suspension while running 10th. The crash prompted the field—minus Lundgaard — to head to the pits.

A slow pit-box exit for Newgarden allowed Rosenqvist and Herta to jump ahead and take the restart behind Lundgaard on lap 31 and Newgarden pounced on Herta—O’Ward and McLaughlin also followed through—as Rosenqvist was held up behind Lundgaard.

Newgarden motored past Rosenqvist on lap 33 to take second on the road and O’Ward took third as Rosenqvist fell to fourth. McLaughlin and Herta completed the top six.

The next caution was needed on lap 35 because of Sting Ray Robb pulling off in Turn 1. He climbed from the car and pointed to the right-front corner as the AMR Safety Team approached. Lundgaard pitted under caution and resumed at the back of the field as Newgarden reclaimed the lead.

The lap 38 restart set another fuel-saving stint in motion and by the halfway point, Newgarden held 1.2s over O’Ward, 2.2s over Rosenqvist, 3.8s over McLaughlin, 4.7s over Herta, and 6.4s over Andretti’s Marcus Ericsson as the leaders were 100 percent successful in their attempts to not pass each other.

Ericsson’s strong run met its end on lap 53 as he pitted and the Andretti crew removed the engine cover. By lap 65 we had the first takers for final pit stops; Newgarden came in at the end of the lap after building 3.6s over O’Ward. Herta stayed out to stop at the end of lap 66 and jumped Rosenqvist and McLaughlin to claim third behind Newgarden and O’Ward.

Contact between @RGrosjean and @L_Lundqvist76 sends the No. 8 into the tire barrier.

The No. 77 has been assessed a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact.#INDYCAR // #FirestoneGP pic.twitter.com/IuQJLeWB2y

— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) March 10, 2024

McLaughlin took the position from Rosenqvist and on lap 69, Ganassi’s Linus Lundqvist—just like teammate Armstrong—crashed at Turn 10, but this wasn’t a solo incident. A hit from behind by Romain Grosjean sent the rookie into the barriers, which broke his rear wing and stalled the car. Running 13th at the time of the hit, Lundqvist was refired and he drove to the pits for repairs. Grosjean, who inherited 13th, was given a drive-through penalty which dropped him to 21st. A transmission issue later in the run parked Grosjean for the rest of the race.

The lap 73 restart saw the leaders hold station with Newgarden in front of O’Ward, but a sliding Herta surrendered third to McLaughlin and then fourth to Power. Lap 76 saw a pass for sixth as Palou demoted Rosenqvist.

The remainder of the race went without changes up front as Newgarden cruised to the win.

RESULTS

Garcia does the USF2000 double in St. Petersburg

A sweep of The Andersen Companies Grand Prix of St. Petersburg has catapulted 14-year-old Max Garcia, from Coconut Grove, Fla., into an early lead in the quest for this year’s USF2000 Presented by Continental Tire title chase and a scholarship valued at $458,400 to progress onto the next level of the USF Pro Championships ladder in 2025. Pabst Racing’s Garcia executed a bold pass for the lead just before the midway point in this afternoon’s second race of the weekend and maintained his advantage to the finish.

Pabst Racing teammate Sam Corry, from Cornelius, N.C., also slipped past early leader Evagoras Papasavvas (Jay Howard Driver Development), from Loveland, Ohio, for second place to ensure a reversal of their finishing positions from yesterday’s opening race of the season.

Garcia once again started at the front of the pack after claiming his second Continental Tire Pole Award, but for the second successive day found himself behind after the first corner as Papasavvas, a second-place finisher also in 2023, used his prior experience to fine effect by slipping into the lead.

Canadian Nico Christodoulou also made a fast getaway for VRD Racing, jumping from sixth to third at the start, although he was unable to hold that position for long as Corry, who had started second, made his way back into third on lap three.

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Garcia heaped the pressure on Papasavvas in the early laps, prior to a full-course caution due to an incident farther back in the field, although as the leaders began their ninth lap, Garcia made a fully committed lunge under braking for Turn 1 and was able to wrest away the advantage.

The resulting loss of momentum also allowed Corry to clip through into second, which is where he remained.

The race ultimately finished behind the safety car following an incident in Turn 4 with just a couple of laps remaining after Ayrton Houk, from McCordsville, Ind., was forced to abruptly slow when the fire extinguisher in his DC Autosport Tatuus unexpectedly discharged. Even more unfortunately, Brazilian Lucas Fecury was caught unawares in his DEForce entry and also forced out of the race.

Up front, the two Pabst cars completed another excellent weekend for the Oconomowoc, Wis.-based squad by claiming a one-two finish. Papasavvas remained in third, while Elliot Cox, from Indianapolis, Ind., completed a strong weekend by taking fourth once more for the Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Development team.

“I was jumped at the start but got by him full-send on a restart,” Garcia said. “We got into the lead and never really looked back after that. The red flag was a bit stressful, just waiting there, but once we got back to racing, the car was fast. Big thanks again to Pabst Racing.”

Christodoulou ended the day in fifth, just ahead of Exclusive Autosport’s Thomas Schrage, from Bethel, Ohio, who overcame some difficulties in yesterday’s race to charge impressively from 17th on the grid to sixth.

Australian Quinn Armstrong (DEForce Racing) finished seventh again as Joey Brienza (Exclusive Autosport), from Golden, Colo., Hudson Schwartz (Pabst Racing) from Arlington, Va., and a second Australian, Xavier Kokai (VRD Racing), rounded out the top 10.

Schwartz pocketed the Tilton Hard Charger Award after moving up from 22nd on the grid following an accident yesterday, as team owner Augie Pabst claimed yet another PFC Award.

The series next will return to NOLA Motorsports Park in Avondale, La., the scene of last week’s Spring Training preseason test, for a tripleheader race weekend on April 5-7.

RESULTS

Jones, Lazare sweep IMSA VP Challenge weekend in St. Pete

The wins felt so nice they decided to do it twice. Jagger Jones and Jesse Lazare completed the sweep of rounds three and four in the Le Mans Prototype 3 (P3) and Grand Sport X (GSX) classes of the VP Racing SportsCar Challenge at the Grand Prix of …

The wins felt so nice they decided to do it twice.

Jagger Jones and Jesse Lazare completed the sweep of rounds three and four in the Le Mans Prototype 3 (P3) and Grand Sport X (GSX) classes of the VP Racing SportsCar Challenge at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on Saturday.

Jones made it a priority for the No. 87 FastMD Racing with Remstar Duqueine D08 to open a comfortable gap on the field at the start of the second race of the day, and with each of the two restarts from full-course caution, to make things as easy on himself as possible. It worked following the final restart with just over eight minutes to go in the 45-minute sprint as he finished 3.815s ahead of P3 Bronze Cup winner Miguel Villagomez in the No. 23 Escuderia ABRO Ligier JS P320 and 14.764s ahead of third-place finisher Brian Thienes in the No. 77 Forte Racing Ligier.

“Full sweep of the weekend – it’s awesome,” exclaimed Jones, whose only previous VP Racing Challenge races came in the final 2023 round at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. “It feels so good to be winning races. I think last year was my first year in my career of racing that I didn’t win a race with racing Indy NXT.

“The team got me such a good car – we even got the car way better for the second race, which is almost scary with how fast we’d already been all weekend. I was just taking it easy, making sure I didn’t make any mistakes. That’s all I had to do. … Hopefully I can come back and do some more races with Remstar.”

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While Jones once again proved dominant, Lazare had to work a bit harder behind the wheel of the No. 21 Motorsports in Action McLaren Artura GT4 in the second race. Earning the GSX pole after his win in the first race, Lazare was passed by Jackson Lee in the No. 82 van der Steur Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4 at the start of race two.

Lee led the first 24 laps but Lazare stayed close, stalking Lee, remaining patient but relentless, frequently stepping out of line to remind Lee he was there. He wasn’t able to complete the pass until the final restart when Lee hung back from the P3 class and Lazare got a great start, darting to the lead and then pulling away to win by 3.211s. Gregory Liefooghe overcame an anti-lock brake system issue that had plagued the No. 19 Stephen Cameron Racing BMW M4 GT4 (G82) all weekend and rounded out the top three. Michael Dayton repeated his race one effort as GSX Bronze Cup winner.

“Right from session one we were super fast and I got comfortable real quick,” said Lazare. “I knew Lee was going to be up there with me – he was quick all along. This race he got a really good start, got me on the outside; there was more grip out there. I was waiting for the perfect moment to execute a pass. I got it on the (final) restart and I’m really excited to bring home the second victory today.”

Steven Aghakhani (No. 6 MLT Motorsports Ligier), who swept the P3 races at Daytona in January, retained the class lead after Saturday, 190 points ahead of Villagomez and Thienes. In GSX, Luca Mars (No. 59 KohR Motorsports Ford Mustang GT4) – also a double winner at Daytona – kept the class lead following his finishes of third and fifth on Saturday. He is 120 points ahead of Lazare.

Rounds five and six of the VP Racing Challenge will take place at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, June 7-9.

RESULTS

Newgarden’s last-second stunner claims St. Petersburg IndyCar pole

Josef Newgarden threw down a huge lap as time expired to claim pole position for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, placing the No. 2 Team Penske Chevy first by the tiniest of margins. Newgarden’s 59.5714s lap was a scant 0.0058s faster …

“I get jacked up every time I show up for an IndyCar race,” said Newgarden, who lost out on poles in 2023, but claimed the 17th of his career on Saturday. “I didn’t know this would come today. Just really proud of this team. We’re here to go after it every weekend.”

For Rosenqvist, the dream start with his new team continues after being fastest on Friday, second in the morning practice session, and second in qualifying.

“It’s been a really solid start so far,” he said. “We had the feeling from practice; it’s not often you have that in the first race with a new team.”

Although it wasn’t reproduced in the Fast Six, Rosenqvist set the outright lap record in the Firestone Fast 12 with a tour of 59.2706s, bettering Will Power’s 59.3466s from 2022.

Rosenqvist’s close friend and former teammate Pato O’Ward was close as well but had to settle for third in the No. 5 Chevy after coming up short by 0.082s.

Colton Herta was fourth for Andretti Global with the No. 26 Honda with a 59.8189s, and he was trailed by last year’s pole winner Romain Grosjean, who starred for Juncos Hollinger Racing in fifth thanks to the 1m00.0062s lap he produced with the No. 77 Chevy.

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Andretti’s Marcus Ericsson completed the Fast Six with the No. 28 Honda with a 1m03.5583s run. Just outside the group was an impressive Rinus VeeKay, who captured seventh in the No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevy as his strong from Friday has carried forward.

Big qualifying surprises in the wrong direction were led by defending series champion Alex Palou, who failed to transfer out of the first round and will start 13th, and the misery was compounded as teammates Marcus Armstrong and Scott Dixon were relegated to the wrong side of the Fast Six with Armstrong in 10th and Dixon in 11th as Chip Ganassi’s new five-car team spanned 10th to 23rd.

Arrow McLaren’s Alexander Rossi was also disappointed in his pace and will start 15th. Similar feelings were found with Callum Ilott, who hoped to start better than 16th on his debut for Arrow McLaren, and Andretti’s Kyle Kirkwood, who was behind the curve after crashing in the morning session and will start 18th.

Graham Rahal, who seems to struggle in qualifying for this race every year, was part of Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s largely unfulfilling afternoon after securing 22nd, four spots ahead of new teammate Pietro Fittipaldi in 26th. The third member of the RLL trio, Christian Lundgaard, offered a glimpse of hope in 12th, but was slowest of those in the Fast 12.

Race days starts with a warmup from 9:10-9:40am on Peacock and then the 100-lap race goes green on NBC at 12:30pm ET.

RESULTS

Siegel romps to maiden Indy NXT pole in St. Petersburg

Nolan Siegel’s first career pole in Indy NXT by Firestone came at the right time Saturday. In the first race of the season, Siegel was in the first qualifying group for the Indy NXT by Firestone of St. Petersburg, proving to be the difference amid a …

Nolan Siegel’s first career pole in Indy NXT by Firestone came at the right time Saturday.

In the first race of the season, Siegel was in the first qualifying group for the Indy NXT by Firestone of St. Petersburg, proving to be the difference amid a competitive session.

New for this year, Indy NXT by Firestone competitors were divided into two qualifying groups, and Siegel’s group ran without a caution. The second group had two red flags, including one when the field was on what presumably would have been the fastest laps. That group came up a few tenths short of Siegel’s pace-setting time.

Siegel’s pole-winning and track-record lap around the 14-turn, 1.8-mile temporary street circuit was 1m4.5759s. Jacob Abel was quickest in Group 2, but he didn’t get a chance to finish his final lap due to the crash of series newcomer Callum Hedge in the final set of corners.

Second-year series driver Siegel will go for his third career series victory in the 45-lap race that begins shortly after 10 a.m. ET (Peacock, IndyCar Live, IndyCar Radio Network).

“It’s my first pole in Indy NXT, so it feels really good,” the driver of the No. 39 HMD Motorsports entry said. “Starting 2024 up front is the best way to do it, for sure. Everyone’s worked super hard in the offseason, and HMD did a great job. It’s a nice reward.”

Abel settled for the second starting position in the No. 51 Abel Construction entry. His best qualifying lap was 1m04.5825s.

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Series veteran Abel was pleased with the new format and applauded series officials for trying to present a level playing field for qualifying. Having 21 cars on track would have been a lot for one group, and the format is similar to the one used for years in the NTT IndyCar Series. Drivers were placed in groups based on their best lap times from practice.

“With the format, there’s going to be a little bit of luck involved,” Abel said. “Today we got a little unlucky with all the red flags in our session.

“But we got the most out of our car there, and starting on the front row won’t be too bad.”

Abel led 27 of the 40 laps in last year’s race before finishing third, and he will be seeking his first series win in Sunday’s race. Siegel finished second in last year’s race, won by Danial Frost, and led four laps.

Series rookie Myles Rowe (No. 99 HMD Motorsports with Force Indy) and two-time Indy NXT by Firestone race winner Louis Foster of Andretti Global (No. 26 Copart/Novara Technologies) will start Sunday’s race from the second row. Their best qualifying laps were 1m04.5985s and 1m04.6027s, respectively. Foster led four laps last year as the pole sitter, finishing 14th.

Sunday’s race will be the first of 14 events this year for Indy NXT by Firestone.

RESULTS

Jones, Lazare convert VP Challenge poles to wins in St. Pete

As it begins, so it ends as polesitters Jagger Jones and Jesse Lazare led every lap in their respective classes in race one of Saturday’s IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge doubleheader at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Jones took the Le Mans …

Jones took the Le Mans Prototype 3 (P3) win by 4.637s over Steven Aghakhani, who ran a strong and consistent race in the No. 6 MLT Motorsports Ligier JS P320 following his victory sweep of rounds one and two at Daytona International Speedway in January.

“My first race this year in the car, and to come out with a win was awesome,” said Jones. “I was able to get a lead at the beginning and just managed that gap.

“We have one more race to go, so in about two minutes this is all going to fade out and we’re going to be focused on the next race.”

The No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports Ligier wheeled by second-place starter Jonathan Woolridge fell back to sixth at the start of race and waged a battle with Brian Thienes in the No. 77 Forte Racing Ligier. Less than nine minutes into the race, Woolridge moved to the inside of Thienes as they entered Turn 13 and the two cars made contact, with Thienes limping away with a flat right-rear tire.

After starting fifth, Alex Kirby maneuvered the No. 7 Performance Tech Ligier into third but struggled getting through Grand Sport X (GSX) traffic as Jones and Aghakhani pulled away. On lap 20 of the 31-lap race, Kirby banged wheels with Cody Ware in the No. 51 Rick Ware Racing with Ave Motorsports Ligier as they exited Turn 1, resulting in a spin for Ware. Kirby continued but damage to the Ligier was apparent as he rode the outside wall between Turns 3 and 4. Ware temporarily resumed before he found himself unable to turn the wheel and crashed into the Turn 4 tire barrier. With both cars unable to continue, the first and only full-course caution of the race packed the field back up.

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Wooldridge, who had fallen back as far as eighth following the contact with Thienes, sat in fifth at the restart with 3m40s remaining. As the final laps played out, Wooldridge moved up and found his way to the podium with a third-place finish behind Jones and Aghakhani. Mirco Schultis in the No. 70 MISHUMOTORS Ligier was the P3 Bronze Cup winner, finishing fifth overall.

The restart on the 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary street course erased the lead Lazare had built on Jackson Lee in the No. 82 van der Steur Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 Evo. Lee pulled alongside Lazare, racing side-by-side into Turn 4. Lazare had the preferred line and was able to pull ahead, holding on to take his first win in the VP Racing Challenge.

“That yellow was kind of scary at the end because anything can happen when there’s two or three laps to go,” Lazare said. “Lee made a nice attempt on the outside and I…just held him. I’m sure it’s going to be a good battle going into the next [race] because that was a bit of foreshadowing of what could happen.”

Lazare finished 0.735s ahead of Lee with Luca Mars and the No. 59 KohR Motorsports Ford Mustang GT4 finishing third. Micheal Dayton was the GSX Bronze Cup winner and fourth-place class finisher in the No. 12 Swish Motorsports BMW M4 GT4 (G82).

The second 45-minute race of the day for the VP Racing Challenge starts at 3:45 p.m. ET and will stream live on Peacock.

RESULTS

Herta paces second St. Petersburg IndyCar practice

Andretti Global’s Colton Herta led Saturday morning’s IndyCar practice session with the No. 26 Honda. Herta’s 1m.00.1331s lap was well clear of Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden in the No. 2 Chevy (+0.2541s) and Penske’s Will Power in third with the No. …

“The car’s been good so far,” Herta said. “I felt good that session and we got two really decent runs. Good to feel the car in that environment before qualifying.”

The Chevy brigade continued with Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward in fourth, Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Romain Grosjean in fifth, and Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay in sixth.

Andretti’s Kyle Kirkwood set the fourth-fastest lap about halfway through the session, but clouted the wall with the right-side suspension and headed to pit lane to have bend components changed. His quick lap would get knocked down to seventh by the end of the hour-long window.

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Friday’s fastest driver, Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist, was 11th, while reigning IndyCar champion Alex Palou was a surprise 20th for Chip Ganassi Racing.

Of the 27 drivers, only one failed to participate in the session after Santino Ferrucci’s No. 14 A.J. Foyt Racing Chevy encountered a problem on pit lane and was taken back to the garage.

Up next is qualifying, which starts at 2pm ET and is televised on Peacock’s streaming platform.

RESULTS