Newgarden Dominates IndyCar Season Opener at St. Petersburg
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — As season openers go, this couldn’t have gone much more smoothly for Josef Newgarden.
Two-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Newgarden won the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding on Sunday, driving the No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet to a 7.9121-second victory over the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet of runner-up Pato O’Ward.
On a sun-splashed afternoon and in front of a capacity crowd that included Grammy Award-winning Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Jon Bon Jovi and rock icon and reality television star Bret Michaels, Newgarden led 92 of 100 laps after capturing the NTT P1 Award on Saturday, earning his 30th career INDYCAR SERIES victory. That broke a tie with Team Penske legend Rick Mears for 13th on the all-time win list. Nashville native Newgarden also turned the quickest lap of the race.
“I had a lot of fun today,” Newgarden said. “I think it’s so deserving for the work they (Team Penske) put in. We’ve worked really hard to close the gap. We didn’t have the speed we needed on road and street courses last year, at least on a consistency basis, and today we brought that speed. We had the execution, as always.”
Team Penske won five races last year but just one outside of an oval, Scott McLaughlin’s victory on the natural road course at Barber Motorsports Park.
The victory Sunday was the pinnacle of an outstanding opening weekend for Team Penske on the 14-turn, 1.8-mile temporary street circuit. McLaughlin finished third in the No. 3 DEX Imaging Chevrolet, while two-time series champion Will Power placed fourth in the No. 12 Verizon Business Team Penske Chevrolet to give the legendary team three of the top four finishing spots.
Colton Herta rounded out the top five in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda fielded by Andretti Global. Two-time and reigning series champion Alex Palou climbed from 13th at the start to finish sixth in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
“I think it's a very solid foundation to what is going to be a very tight, very competitive rest of the year,” O’Ward said. “I think the Penskes were just too strong for us today.”
Newgarden led from the drop of the green flag and started to ease away from the rest of the 27-car field. His gap evaporated on Lap 27 when Marcus Armstrong locked under braking in Turn 10, sending his No. 11 Ridgeline Lubricants Chip Ganassi Racing Honda into the Turn 10 wall and triggering the first of three caution periods in the race.
Christian Lundgaard took the lead during the caution period when he didn’t pit due to an early stop to replace a flat tire on his No. 45 Hy-Vee Honda fielded by Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Lundgaard kept the top spot, with Newgarden second, from the restart on Lap 29 until Lundgaard pitted at the end of Lap 36 under the second caution.
Newgarden faced little challenge from closest pursuers O’Ward, Felix Rosenqvist in the No. 60 AutoNation/SiriusXM of Meyer Shank Racing and McLaughlin on the restart on Lap 38. He stayed out front, slowly building his lead, until making his final stop at the end of Lap 65 and handing the lead to Herta.
Herta was out front for only one lap before pitting, cycling Newgarden back to the lead for good on Lap 67.
The field got one more chance to jump Newgarden on a restart when Linus Lundqvist backed into the tire barrier in Turn 10 on Lap 69 after a nudge from Romain Grosjean in the No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Chevrolet. Grosjean received a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact.
But as he did in the two prior restarts, Newgarden rocketed away from O’Ward and Herta when the green flag flew on Lap 72. The deck shuffled a bit over the final 29 laps, as McLaughlin, Power and Palou were particularly fast in gaining positions in the running order.
Just like the rest of the race, Newgarden was in his own world of speed in the final run to the finish and cruised to victory.
“I feel very relaxed right now,” Newgarden said. “I was really excited initially, and then it kind of calmed down those last 10 laps. We can move on from here and at least enjoy this first victory.”
Kyffin Simpson was the best finisher among the five series rookies in the field, placing 14th in the No. 4 Journie Rewards Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
The next event is The $1 Million Challenge, a special, non-points race at 12:30 p.m. ET Sunday, March 24 at The Thermal Club near Palm Springs, California (NBC, Peacock, INDYCAR Radio Network)
RESULTS
Pos SP Car Driver C/E/T Lap Laps Down Time Down Pit Stops Elapsed Time Avg Speed Running / Reason Out Pts Total Pts Standings
1 1 2 Newgarden, Josef D/C/F 100 0 --.---- 2 01:51:29.5954 96.867 Running 54 54 1
2 3 5 O'Ward, Pato D/C/F 100 0 7.9121 2 01:51:37.5075 96.752 Running 40 40 2
3 9 3 McLaughlin, Scott D/C/F 100 0 8.4577 2 01:51:38.0531 96.745 Running 35 35 3
4 8 12 Power, Will D/C/F 100 0 9.0559 2 01:51:38.6513 96.736 Running 32 32 4
5 4 26 Herta, Colton D/H/F 100 0 10.2578 2 01:51:39.8532 96.719 Running 31 31 5
6 13 10 Palou, Alex D/H/F 100 0 11.8036 2 01:51:41.3990 96.696 Running 28 28 6
7 2 60 Rosenqvist, Felix D/H/F 100 0 14.4044 2 01:51:43.9998 96.659 Running 26 26 7
8 15 7 Rossi, Alexander D/C/F 100 0 15.7853 2 01:51:45.3807 96.639 Running 24 24 8
9 11 9 Dixon, Scott D/H/F 100 0 16.2964 2 01:51:45.8918 96.631 Running 22 22 9
10 7 21 VeeKay, Rinus D/C/F 100 0 18.8346 2 01:51:48.4300 96.595 Running 20 20 10
11 14 14 Ferrucci, Santino D/C/F 100 0 23.0437 2 01:51:52.6391 96.534 Running 19 19 11
12 18 27 Kirkwood, Kyle D/H/F 100 0 24.5876 2 01:51:54.1830 96.512 Running 18 18 12
13 16 6 Ilott, Callum D/C/F 100 0 28.7113 2 01:51:58.3067 96.453 Running 17 17 13
14 23 4 Simpson, Kyffin (R) D/H/F 100 0 29.5662 2 01:51:59.1616 96.441 Running 16 16 14
15 26 30 Fittipaldi, Pietro D/H/F 100 0 32.8175 2 01:52:02.4129 96.394 Running 15 15 15
16 22 15 Rahal, Graham D/H/F 100 0 34.6955 3 01:52:04.2909 96.367 Running 14 14 16
17 17 66 Blomqvist, Tom (R) D/H/F 100 0 40.4726 2 01:52:10.0680 96.284 Running 13 13 17
18 20 78 Canapino, Agustin D/C/F 100 0 42.1247 2 01:52:11.7201 96.261 Running 12 12 18
19 27 18 Harvey, Jack D/H/F 100 0 49.3453 2 01:52:18.9407 96.158 Running 11 11 19
20 12 45 Lundgaard, Christian D/H/F 100 0 58.7347 3 01:52:28.3301 96.024 Running 11 11 20
21 21 20 Rasmussen, Christian (R) D/C/F 99 1 - 2 01:52:21.5301 95.159 Running 9 9 21
22 25 51 Braun, Colin (R) D/H/F 99 1 - 2 01:52:27.0026 95.082 Running 8 8 22
23 19 8 Lundqvist, Linus (R) D/H/F 97 3 - 2 01:52:27.7687 93.151 Running 7 7 23
24 5 77 Grosjean, Romain D/C/F 82 18 - 2 01:33:29.4950 94.725 Mechanical 6 6 24
25 6 28 Ericsson, Marcus D/H/F 52 48 - 1 00:59:35.2774 94.247 Mechanical 5 5 25
26 24 41 Robb, Sting Ray D/C/F 33 67 - 1 00:37:17.3009 95.579 Off course 5 5 26
27 10 11 Armstrong, Marcus D/H/F 25 75 - 0 00:26:07.8934 103.323 Contact 5 5 27
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