the GP of St. Petersburg! Giving Team Penske it's 8th win at the season opening street course.
Will Power suffered a wreck in practice Friday then went out to qualify on Saturday feeling quite ill, and still managed to set a new track record and qualify for his 34th career pole!
Unfortunately, Power was too sick to race on Sunday and was diagnosed with a mild concussion (although after extensive testing they found he didn't have a concussion.) Oriol Servia filled in on very short notice, joking that he had waited 15 years to drive for Roger Penske and he had hoped to have a little practice in the car before the race. Oriol finished 18th.
At the start of the race, Simon Pagenaud led for almost half the race, and then at around lap 57, a multi-car wreck happened and a caution brought strategy into play. After more cautions, the lead gave way to rookie Conor Daly, who then led 15 laps, only to be passed on a restart by Juan Montoya, which ultimately decided the race. A Penske 1-2-3 sweep was broken up when Ryan Hunter-Reay passed Helio Castroneves near the final 5 laps, giving a podium and a great season opener to Honda and Andretti Autosport. Juan Montoya took his 2nd consecutive win at St Pete. Can he repeat his success from last season, but this time win the championship?
The Top Ten
(At the end of the race, there were only 10 drivers on the lead lap.)
1. Juan Montoya: 2nd career St Pete win
2. Simon Pagenaud: Led 48 of 110 laps and almost had the pole.
3. Ryan Hunter-Reay: Highest finishing Honda, American, and Andretti driver
4. Helio Castroneves: His 5th Top 5 in last 5 races at St. Pete
5. Mikael Aleshin: First race since his crash at Fontana in 2014
6. Takuma Sato: Best finish at St Pete since 2011
7. Scott Dixon: A win at St. Pete still eludes him but he finished 15th last year so can an even better start to the season lead to another championship?
8. Carlos Munoz: Gives Andretti Autosport two top-ten finishes to start the year
9. Tony Kanaan: 11th top ten in 12 starts at St Pete.
10. Charlie Kimball: 2nd top ten at St Pete
In the Top Ten
---5 different teams---
-Team Penske (3)
-Andretti Autosport (2)
-Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
-AJ Foyt Racing
-Target Chip Ganassi (3)
---7 different countries represented---
-Colombia (2)
-France
-USA (2)
- Brazil (2)
Russia
Japan
New Zealand
---5 Chevys & 4 Hondas
Race Stuff
2 Cautions (tied record for lowest number at St. Pete)
Tough way to start the season for Will Power, but it will be fun to see if he can make a comeback and still run for the Championship.
Great to see James Hinchcliffe back in an Indycar but hated to see him have trouble on the first lap and never have a chance to contend. (he finished 19th).
Although Conor Daly led 15 laps near mid race, he ended up finishing13th.
and we would be remiss to not mention that our Alexandra's very favorite driver, Josef Newgarden suffered electrical issues and finished.......Last. (it was a very sad day for her).
But, at least he had the fastest lap of the race 104.129 mph on the 42nd lap!
when the green flag drops on the 2016 Indycar Season in St. Petersburg, Florida this Sunday.
Drivers from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, England, France, Italy, Japan, New Zealand and Russia will join 8 Americans on the starting grid.
Four rookies and 7 Indycar champions will be in the field of 22.
Team Penske has all of it's four 2015 drivers returning.
Helio Castroneves, Juan Pablo Montoya, Simon Pagenaud and Will Power.
Ganassi Racing's veterans
Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan and Charlie Kimball will be joined by 2015 F1 driver Max Chilton.
Andretti Autosport will also field three of their drivers from 2015. Marco Andretti, Carlos Munoz and Ryan Hunter Reay. They will be joined by F1 driver Alexander Rossi in a car co-owned by Bryan Herta.
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports will feature
James Hinchcliffe, finally back from his vicious crash at Indy last year,
and Mikhail Aleshin, who previously drove for Schmidt in 2014.
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing will run
Graham Rahal and 2015 Indy Lights Champion Spencer Pigot.
AJ Foyt will feature his 2015 drivers
Takuma Sato and Jack Hawksworth
Dale Coyne Racing has
Conor Daly, finally getting his chance at a full time Indycar ride, and Luca Filippi.
KVSH Racing driver
Sebastien Bourdais will return for 2016
and
the reincarnation of Ed Carpenter Racing is back with
Josef Newgarden in his 5th year in the Indycar Series.
Gotta hand it to Graham Rahal for constantly promoting the race
Yep, my daily reminder again. For those not attending, the @GPSTPETE will air on @ABC @ 12:30 ET THIS SUNDAY! Make sure to tune in! @indycar
Well actually, we could be if we were going to be at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Pete next weekend, because who wouldn't rather be there in person (and not just because it's 35 degrees here in Pennsylvania right now).
So much has happened in the offseason with drivers and teams and testing, and although we have watched it all, we have neglected to post in quite a long time.
But we're back!
So we're excited to see the new crop of 'rookies' this year including Max Chilton and Alexander Rossi from F1. Spencer Pigot was fun to watch on his way to winning the Indylights title in 2015 and Conor Daly was one of our favorites filling in for Hinch last year. That said, we would have really, really loved to see our hometown guy, Sage Karam, in a ride for the full season. Gabby Chaves did good in his rookie year in 2015 and we would've liked to find out just how well he could've done this year. But hopefully we'll at least see both of them at Indy.
Sage Karam and Gabby Chaves signing autographs at Robopong. Sept. 2015
