Josef Newgarden's busy Indycar offseason came to an end in St. Petersburg, Florida.
His move to a much bigger team than he had at Ed Carpenter Racing and his move from Indianapolis to Charlotte to be closer to the Penske shop had to be quite an adjustment.
Expectations are high for one of Indycar's brightest stars as he begins this new phase of his career with Indycar's super team.
Josef was not in the first three weekend practices, but managed to get the car stronger for qualifying and started in 4th in Row 2 alongside James Hinchcliffe. Fourth was the highest he would run all day despite having a competitive car. He did not pit early and when a yellow came out during the pit window he ended up losing a lot of positions. He ran the rest of the race around tenth place. He ended the day finishing eighth, his best finish ever at the GP of St. Pete.
The 2017 Indycar season started off on the beautiful, sunny streets of St. Petersburg, Florida. In typical fashion, Penske's Will Power started from the pole (his 7th pole in the last 8 races at St. Pete!). An incident in Turn 3 on the opening lap involving drivers, Carlos Munoz, Graham Rahal, JR Hildebrand, and Charlie Kimball allowed Power to lead the first four laps, but as soon as it went green James Hinchcliffe took the lead. Hinchcliffe maintained the lead until a yellow came out again on lap 26 during a pit stop cycle. The drivers that had not pitted yet were at a disadvantage and Simon Pagenaud found himself in front after having been in ninth for the first part of the race. Sebastien Bourdais, also benefitted from the yellow and by lap 37 he was in the lead where he remained for most of the rest of the race. Winning his first race driving for the Dale Coyne Racing team.
Top Ten
1. Sebastien Bourdais: A great win in his first ride with the Dale Coyne Racing Team since 2011. 2. Simon Pagenaud: The reigning Indycar champ led 13 laps and started the season strong. 3. Scott Dixon: Caught out by the first caution Dixie once again showed his racing skill battling back to finish 3rd.
4. Ryan Hunter-Reay: His 4th top 5 in the last 6 races at St. Pete.
5. Takuma Sato: A great finish in his first race for Andretti Autosport. 6. Helio Castroneves: His lowest finish in the last 6 races at St. Pete. 7. Marco Andretti: A solid start to his season with Bryan Herta on his radio. His highest finish since Iowa in 2015. 8. Josef Newgarden: Couldn't recover from getting caught out by the first yellow, but got his highest finish ever at St. Pete driving his first race for Team Penske. 9. James Hinchcliffe: Had a very strong car but got caught out by the first yellow.
10. Ed Jones: A good start to his Indycar career for the 2016 Indy Lights Champion.
Different Teams: 5 ( Penske 3, Andretti Autosport 3, Schmidt Peterson 1, Dale Coyne Racing 1, Ganassi .)
Different Countries: 7 (France 2, New Zealand, USA 3, Japan, Brazil, Canada, United Arab Emirates)
FUN FACTS
Average Speed: 95.391 mph
Time: 2 hour 4 1/2 Minutes
2 Cautions for 8 Laps
Lead Changes: 8 among 5 drivers (Sebastien Bourdais, James Hinchcliffe, Simon Pagenaud, Will Power, Takuma Sato)
Best Lap: 104.384 mph by Scott Dixon on lap 82
THOUGHTS:
Will Power overcame a pit infraction on Lap 16 to run strong all race, only to have his race end on Lap 99 due to mechanical problems. He finished 19th.
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
At St Pete, 24 Drivers, Representing 12 countries will begin the quest for the 2015 Indycar championship.
The countries of Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, England, France, Italy, Japan, Monaco, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the United States will all have drivers in the race.
The field will include:
Four rookies. Gabby Chaves (2014 Indy Lights Champ) Stefano Coletti Francesco Dracone Sage Karam (2013 Indy Lights Champ)
Four former GP of St. Pete winners Helio Castroneves (3) James Hinchcliffe Graham Rahal Will Power (2)
With the new aero kits it will be interesting to see how the 12 Chevys stack up against the 12 Hondas.
Sage Karam will start the season opening Grand Prix of St. Pete driving for Chip Ganassi Racing this weekend. He won at St. Pete in the USF 2000 series in 2010 and has also raced there in the ProMazda and Indylights series.
Hopefully enough funding will be found that this super talented 20 year old can run the entire season after spending a year as Ganassi's Developmental driver and doing a great job running in some sports car races for Ganassi.
Meanwhile, the young, American driver has kept busy promoting Indycar leading up to the start of the season.
Sage celebrated at Mardi Gras on a float with several others drivers to promote the inaugural GP of Nola.
He also certainly enjoyed himself (and made quite a good showing) at the football combines at Lucas Oil Stadium in February.
we hope you like the
videos as much as we do.
After injuring his hand in a crash while testing at Barber Motorsports Park in March, he didn't get in as much testing as he hoped. However after such a great showing at the Indy 500 last year in his first Indycar race, and with driving such a cool looking car for St. Pete, we're watching for him to do great things this weekend.
Josef Newgarden started last for the GP of St. Pete and stayed in the back for a long, long time. Alex was almost ready to stop watching the race. Little did she know it was tire strategy. He used his black tires first (which he wasn't very fast on) and then had his grippier red tires left (which he was much better on) for the rest of the race.
As Josef moved up thru the field there was much smiling, cheering and jumping up and down from Alex and although ABC did not interview Josef after the race, always a disappointment, Alex was thrilled to find this post race interview from the Sarah Fisher Hartman racing team.
With a good finish after his first race with a new engineer and new chief mechanic, Alex can't wait to see how Josef does the rest of the season! First Indycar win?...or two?
Will Power continued his winning streak from last season to three races by winning the GP of St. Pete by holding of Ryan Hunter Reay and teammate Helio Castroneves for his 22nd career win.
Scott Dixon and Simon Pagenaud rounded out the top five. (Mikhail Aleshin was the highest rookie finishing in 12th)
It was great seeing the cars back in action and with only two cautions (back to back) after the first 75 laps were run under green, it was a lot of good racing.
Love hearing Paul Page announcing again, check out this highlight video to hear him.
A few of the reasons
why the GP of St. Pete was so awesome:
·The top ten included drivers from 7 different
teams and 7 different countries
·To keep it interesting there were 5 Chevys and 5
Hondas in the top 10
·It was cool to see Dario Franchitti back at the
track helping the Ganassi drivers (but boy we really miss watching him drive)
·It was great to see A.J. Foyt smiling as his
driver (Takuma Sato) led the first 26 laps of the race
·It was Will Powers 22nd career Indycar win tying him for 19th on the all-time win list with Tony Bettenhausen and Emerson Fittipaldi.
·Josef Newgarden started last and got off to a
slow start but it was exciting watching him move up 13 spots to finish 9th
Other Stuff:
*Juan Pablo Montoya finished 15th in
his first race back in an Indycar in more than a decade
·It’s going to take us a while to get used to the
team changes and new car paint schemes, like Bourdais is driving Kanaan’s car
and Kanaan is driving Dario’s car and Dario isn’t driving a car at all.
·Will Power gave his fellow racers an ‘accordion
lesson’ they won’t soon forget. But everyone knows restarts can be tricky.
·We saw Tricky made his rounds in St. Pete and
tweeted lots of cool selfies with drivers and VIPs over the weekend….way to go
Tricky!
·Great to see Kurt Busch win at Martinsville,
can’t wait to see him driving in the Indy 500!!!
Don’t miss the next Indycar race, the Toyota Grand Prix of
Long Beach on April 13th!
