IndyCar Category

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer ST. PETERSBURG — Felix Rosenqvist’s debut NTT IndyCar Series race weekend has gone about as well as could be expected for the Swede. After leading one of the Friday practice sessions, the two-time Macau Grand Prix winner ended up qualifying third for Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Rosenqvist’s No. 10 NTT Data Honda advanced out of a chaotic group one that was marred with two red flags. In the second round of qualifying, the Chip Ganassi Racing driver qualified seventh and seemingly failed toRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer ST. PETERSBURG — Two-time defending race winner and St. Petersburg resident Sebastien Bourdais left Friday’s practice for the opening round of the 2019 NTT IndyCar Series season with a bit of frustration ahead of Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. The Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser/Sullivan driver was 11th in the first Friday practice session and 18th in the second practice session and the No. 18 Sealmaster Honda was not handling the way Bourdais wanted it to. “We know what’s not working, we just don’tRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer ST. PETERSBURG — Friday for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg had many interesting happenings across all the INDYCAR system so let’s take a look from the top down. In the NTT IndyCar Series practice sessions, Felix Rosenqvist led the first session in his first race for Chip Ganassi Racing in the No. 10 NTT Data Honda. The Swede was ahead of Ryan Hunter-Reay in the first session but Hunter-Reay’s No. 28 Andretti Autosports DHL Honda led the second session. What’s more odd is thatRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer ST. PETERSBURG — James Davison will return to Dale Coyne Racing in a partnership with three of his main backers from last year’s Indianapolis 500 effort. Jonathan Byrd’s Racing, Hollinger MotorSport and Belardi Auto Racing will partner with Dale Coyne Racing to field the No. 33 entry as the Australian attempts to qualify for the 103rd Running of the Indianapolis 500. This is the 33rd confirmed entry to the 2019 Indianapolis 500. Davison finished 33rd in last year’s 500 in the Byrd-Hollinger-Belardi entry after a technicalRead More

By INDYCAR ST. PETERSBURG, Florida – Taking advantage of racing in their home state, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Spencer Pigot set the pace in practice as the 2019 NTT IndyCar Series season opened at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. FIRESTONE GRAND PRIX OF ST. PETERSBURG: Practice 1 I Practice 2 I Combined practice results Hunter-Reay was fastest overall in Friday’s two practices, turning a lap of 1 minute, 0.8969 of a second (106.409 mph) on the 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary circuit that encompasses city streets and a runway of Albert Whitted Airport. His standard-setting lapRead More

Editor’s note: Motorsports Tribune will be previewing the NTT IndyCar Series season for the full-time drivers in the series leading into the 2019 season opener at St. Petersburg on March 10. Age: 27 Team: Chip Ganassi Racing Years in Indy car: Rookie Career Wins: 0 Career Podiums: 0 Felix Rosenqvist is the most talented European racer to come race in America full time since Nigel Mansell. Now that you’ve picked your jaw up off the floor, let’s examine this flamethrower of a hot take. Rosenqvist has won four championships during his racing career: 2008 FormulaRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer Editor’s note: Motorsports Tribune will be previewing the NTT IndyCar Series season for the full-time drivers in the series leading into the 2019 season opener at St. Petersburg on March 10. Age: 18 Team: Harding-Steinbrenner Racing Years in Indy car: Rookie Career Wins: 0 Career Podiums: 0 Instead of a two car team, Colton Herta will be the lone standard-bearer for Harding-Steinbrenner Racing. The first NTT IndyCar Series driver born in the 2000s, Herta comes into 2019 off of a lone race at Sonoma last year for the team and finishingRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer Carlin announced today that 2018 Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires champion Pato O’Ward will join the team in a 13 race deal for the 2019 NTT IndyCar Series season. O’Ward previously was slated to compete full time for Harding-Steinbrenner Racing but that deal fell through only a month before the season began. This deal will see O’Ward compete in the races fellow Carlin driver Charlie Kimball will sit out and the Mexican will also race for Carlin in the 103rd Indianapolis 500 in a thirdRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Editor’s note: Motorsports Tribune will be previewing the NTT IndyCar Series season for the full-time drivers in the series leading into the 2019 season opener at St. Petersburg on March 10. Age: 31 Team: Andretti Herta Autosport Years in IndyCar: 13 Career Wins: 2 Career Podiums: 20 Marco Andretti’s 2018 campaign was a step in the right direction after changes were made that saw him move from his father Michael Andretti’s main team to Bryan Herta’s single-car alliance, and results showed. More importantly, it allowed Marco to focus onRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Editor’s note: Motorsports Tribune will be previewing the NTT Data IndyCar Series season for the full-time drivers in the series leading into the 2019 season opener at St. Petersburg. Age: 32 Team: Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Years in IndyCar: Eight Career Wins: Six Career Podiums: 16 If James Hinchcliffe’s 2018 results were in a line graph, the resulting image would almost resemble a heart rate monitor with all of the highs and lows that the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports driver experienced last season. Things got off toRead More