IndyCar News: Newgarden runs away to easy GP of St. Pete win

Polesitter Josef Newgarden dominated the Firestone GP of St. Petersburg, winning by 7.9 seconds in his #2 Team Penske Chevy.  This was his third win on the 1.8-mile street course.

Chevy-powered cars dominated the race with Pato O’Ward coming home 2nd in his #5 Arrow McLaren Chevy ahead of Penske Teammates Scott McLaughlin and Will Power giving Chevy 1-2-3-4.

Team Penske had all 3 cars in the top 4. Chevy appears to have the superior engine this year as Honda contemplates a possible move to NASCAR, while many of their IndyCar engineers have been moved to their F1 program.

Colton Herta finished 5th in his #26 Andretti Honda ahead of Honda runners Alex Palou and Felix Rosenqvist.

With a record breaking crowd, the race had only 3 yellow flags for nine laps for cars that spun on  track or ended up in the runoffs.

Newgarden led 92 of 100 laps in a race that was less competitive than yesterday’s Saudi Arabian GP F1 race, won by Max Verstappen.

RLL driver Pietro Fittipaldi won the Biggest Mover of the Race Award – he started 26th and finished 15th.

Josef Newgarden

Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden has talked all weekend about his delight in the improvements Chevrolet made in their engine and today he and his teammates reaped the benefits.  

“I don’t want to say it felt easy. It felt comfortable today. Really, really comfortable. I had a lot of fun.”

“Just really thankful to the team for the effort they’ve put in all year. I should say the entire off-season to get to this point. It’s been a big process for us to try and come back and be better in areas that we were weak last year, and I touched on it earlier in the weekend, but Chevrolet has done a tremendous job for us. They’re a huge part of the equation. They’re a big lift for us coming into this weekend, and I think on the team side, we’ve also lifted our game and cleaned up a lot of areas where we were maybe not at the level we needed to be.”

“Obviously we had strength because looking at my teammates, we’re sitting first, third and fourth. I think that’s really encouraging for the rest of the season.”

Pato O’Ward

Another second place finish for Pato O’Ward at St Petersburg this year.  But this one was easier to take than last year.

“A really strong day for us today. I think it’s a very solid foundation to what is going to be a very tight, very competitive rest of the year. I think the Penskes were just too strong for us today. I think we were all kind of playing the fuel game a little bit, and got to give it to everybody at Chevrolet, my guys over at Arrow McLaren.”

“We got down to work in the off-season and we’ve made some gains and really cool to see the top 4 was all Chevrolet. I’m pretty pleased to see that.”

“With the hybrid coming in halfway through the season, you’ve got to be on it. There’s no room for error because you need to leave those Joker cards for mishaps that could happen when you introduce something new.”

Scott McLaughlin

Scott McLaughlin won this race in 2022.   Starting in ninth position, he finished on the podium to bring Roger Penske a third place finish.

“I am really stoked. For us to start ninth and move our way through to third, for us, it’s a win in some ways. I tried to get Pato there, but I had Will sort of breathing down my neck, and it was sort of a championship game in some ways thinking of the points in some ways. You just take what you can get. It’s so tight this year in INDYCAR, so you just need to get what you can and get out of here.”

“I wish I could have got past Colton Herta on the first lap. I got past him on the second restart lap and maybe then I could have attacked Pato a little bit better when the tires were a little bit fresher.’

“But, Colton made it hard, but that’s part of it, and just sort of threw the Dr. Divebomb cap on and just threw it in there. Yeah, it worked out good, and I was more pumped with my start. I think I made it four wide and got through it, so that was a blast.”

“Honestly, I had so much fun out there today. It was just proper racing, thinking on your feet with fuel strategy and where you put the car and how aggressive you were, and that’s what INDYCAR is all about. There’s no prediction, it’s just a wild card, and I enjoy it.”

Nolan Siegel leads every lap of Indy NXT race

Nolan Siegel made a championship statement in the first race of the 2024 INDY NXT by Firestone season.

The 19-year-old HMD Motorsports driver, who started the INDY NXT by Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg from the pole, was never seriously challenged in leading all 45 laps.

Siegel masterfully executed the start of the race, then handled a pair of late restarts to score his third career series victory and third win in the past 11 races. His final margin over Jacob Abel was 1.3959 seconds, but he led by nearly seven seconds before the first caution occurred.

Best of all, Siegel looked the part of the driver signed for four NTT INDYCAR SERIES races this season by Dale Coyne Racing, including the 108th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge, and, of course, a title favorite in this series.

“It feels amazing,” the driver of the No. 39 HMD Motorsports entry said in victory lane. “We’ve worked hard for this. First (series) pole this weekend, led every lap. (I) should have won here last year – I made a mistake and redeemed myself today.

“The car was fantastic; the pace was there. It made it easy to drive. I’m so happy to start the season this way.”

Even Siegel acknowledged what this domination means for the rest of the INDY NXT by Firestone season. Now, the field is chasing him.

“I think it’s definitely making a statement,” he said. “We’re going to be the car to beat this season and I’d like to keep it up front as much as possible all the way throughout the year.”

See results below IndyCar Results….

IndyCar Firestone GP of St. Petersburg Results

Indy NXT Race Results