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.
If you want to get caught up with some of your favorite drivers before the green flag drops in St. Petersburg, FL check out some funny Indycar videos.
Indycar drivers were asked questions for Indycar Test Drive. Find out some interesting facts and see which driver can name the most Indy 500 winners and Indycar past champs.
The Indycar season officially starts in two weeks, but the Indycars were on track testing on February 10th and the 11th at Phoenix International Raceway.
Twenty one Indycar drivers took to the track for four 3 hour sessions during the weekend. Each driver was limited to 6 sets of tires over the two days. They ran over 5000 laps in their 12 hours on track during Friday and Saturday afternoon and night. JR Hildebrand, running in his first full Indycar season since 2012, led the way with a best lap of 193.234. Second fastest for the weekend was his teammate and car owner Ed Carpenter and third quickest was Penske's newest driver Josef Newgarden.
Josef Newgarden and Dale Coyne's Sebastien Bourdais were the only two drivers in the Top Ten in all four sessions.
Two days of on-track testing for 21 Verizon IndyCar Series drivers and teams were literally like day and night. https://t.co/HzYpNRJzPZ
