By David Morgan, Associate Editor
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The Thirsty 3’s are on the board first in the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season.
Scott McLaughlin, driving his No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet, jumped to the top of the timing sheet late in Friday’s opening practice session for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg with a lap of one minute, 1.102 seconds around the 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary street circuit.
McLaughlin comes into 2026 looking to rebound from a winless season a year ago and no better place to do so than at St. Petersburg, where the New Zealander won the pole in 2025 and scored his maiden IndyCar win in 2022.
“Decent first day. Obviously being P1 is a great start,” said McLaughlin. “The DEX Chevy was straight away fast, and felt good and comfortable. It’s good for us. It’s the start of a long season and it was nice to have a smooth session to start. We’ll keep pressing on and see how we go.”
Felix Rosenqvist was second fastest overall, followed by Kyle Kirkwood, Kyffin Simpson, Marcus Ericsson, Alex Palou, Marcus Armstrong, Christian Rasmussen, David Malukas, and Christian Lundgaard.
The 90-minute session was broken up into two group runs and one run with all 25-cars involved. McLaughlin set his fast time in Group B in the waning minutes of practice, while Simpson was fastest in Group A. McLaughlin also set the fast time in the full-field run.
Two incidents would slow things down during practice, with Josef Newgarden and Scott Dixon running into trouble around the tricky street course.
Newgarden was the first to have an off-track excursion when his No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet lost control and went for a slide through the grass before making the turn onto the airport runway, coming to rest against the tire barrier.
After a little help from the AMR Safety Team, it was no harm, no foul for Newgarden as he was able to get going again, eventually finishing the session 14th overall.
“I would say it’s more setup-related for us,” Newgarden explained. “We tried something different on our car, and I just got loose to the corner. It’s pretty simple as that. Nothing on the track. It wasn’t anything track-related.”
"The dirt did its job."
Josef Newgarden takes a trip through the grass in St. Pete practice. pic.twitter.com/znUuhV2Jpn
— INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) February 27, 2026
However, the same could not be said for Dixon, whose No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda team will have their hands full getting that car back together before the second practice of the weekend on Saturday morning.
As the six-time IndyCar Series champion headed into Turn 9, his car oversteered on entry, sending him on a collision course with the outside wall, causing heavy damage to the left front and nose of his machine.
Dixon would be seen and released from the IndyCar Medical Unit a short time later.
“Kind of a frustrating one,” Dixon said. “Kind of the typical M.O. for that corner is you clip the inside. For me, I got loose on entry and tried to save it and kind of got into a bit of a correction. Luckily, it killed a lot of the speed before I got to the wall.
“Sometimes you can tub a car and destroy it, so hopefully we’re not too bad. Frustrating for the first practice. Car was really fast in the first portion and then it looks like the CGR cars were really quick in that one too.
Dixon added that he did not think it would be too much of a setback for his team for the remainder of the weekend.
“Obviously, you’ve just got to reset and get going again tomorrow morning. Having good cars here out of the gate was definitely key and then the teammates were doing a good job too, so we’ll be able to learn off of that.”
A big hit and damage for Scott Dixon in St. Petersburg opening practice. 👀 pic.twitter.com/z0p8XEb9hK
— INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) February 27, 2026
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