Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Tag

By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter The Hyatt hotel chain announced they will once again serve as an associate sponsor for Graham Rahal in the Verizon IndyCar Series. Rahal’s No. 15 Honda will feature branding from Hyatt’s loyalty program – World of Hyatt starting at this weekend’s season opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. The World of Hyatt program allows users to earn free nights to be used at any of the company’s 698 properties across 56 countries. “We’re excited to be working with World of Hyatt for a second seasonRead More

By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter General Electric will serve as the sponsor for Scott Dixon in the Verizon IndyCar Series season opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. The four-time Verizon IndyCar Series champion’s No. 9 Honda will feature branding from the Fairfield, Connecticut’s GE Light | LED line of products. The electronic corporation has served as an associate sponsor for CGR since 2012, sponsoring drivers Dario Franchitti and Sage Karam. “With more than a century of engineering game-changing lighting products, we can appreciate the science and physics that go intoRead More

By Conor Daly, Verizon IndyCar Series Driver Welcome to my blog on Tribute Racing! I look forward to sharing the experience of my first full-time Verizon IndyCar Series season with all of you this year. We’re only two races into the season but it’s been very busy with testing, racing and promotional appearances, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I love what I do and I love every part of it. So far the season has been very much up and down. We struggled in practice and qualifyingRead More

By Adam Tate, Managing Editor Manor F1 reserve driver and 2015 GP2 runner up Alexander Rossi took to the wheel of the No. 98 Andretti-Herta Autosport machine for a tough but solid debut in his first IndyCar race during today’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. He finished a lap down in 12th place. A result that perhaps fell somewhat short of expectations, but one that only confirms the quality of Rossi’s talent as a newcomer to IndyCar. A difficult qualifying session saw him struggle on Saturday and start today’s race backRead More

By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter & NASCAR Contributor Conor Daly once again proved why he belongs in the Verizon IndyCar Series despite finishing in 13th in today’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. The 24 year old from Noblesville, Indiana was put in position to win after a fantastic strategy call by his Dale Coyne Racing pit crew to have him pit on lap 13 along with teammate Luca Filippi. He picked up the lead after the yellow flew on lap 46 for Marco Andretti’s spin which forced the leaders to makeRead More

By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter & NASCAR Contributor Juan Pablo Montoya dominated the final half of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg to take his second consecutive win in the season opening event for the Verizon IndyCar Series. Montoya mostly ran in arrears to his Team Penske teammate Simon Pagenaud for the opening 46 laps of the race as the Frenchman pulled out to a sizable lead over the course of the opening stint. Following the first round of green flag pitstops, Pagenaud continued to keep his teammate at bay for theRead More

By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter & NASCAR Contributor Oriol Servia will substitute for Team Penske’s Will Power for today’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Power has been ruled out of today’s race due to a stomach virus. The Aussie was feeling unwell immediately after a brilliant qualifying performance yesterday and skipped the post qualifying press conference as a result. Servia will start from the back of the field as a result, elevating teammate Simon Pagenaud to the top spot. “I feel terrible for Will and just hope he feelsRead More

By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter & NASCAR Contributor Will Power claimed his sixth pole at the Streets of St. Petersburg in the waning seconds of the Firestone Fast Six Session while Team Penske swept the top four spots for the second year in a row, and with a stomach flu no less. Power first broke his own track record in Q1 with a lap of 1:00.5768 and come the second session he made an astonishing lap of 1:00.0658, nearly a half second quicker his track record set a year agoRead More

By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter & NASCAR Contributor Will Power recovered from crashing out of the first practice session to click off the fastest lap of the day in the final seconds of a delayed practice session at the Streets of St. Petersburg. A portion of the racing surface in turn 3 came apart just nine minutes into the session. That brought out the red flag for nearly 45 minutes while the track was repaired. Once the action restarted, 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon led for much of theRead More

By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter & NASCAR Contributor Team Penske’s Simon Pagenaud led a rather uneventful first session for this weekend’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. The Frenchman set fastest lap of the session (1:01.7246s) with 10 minutes remaining in the session. “It’s the first practic eof the year, so it’s nice to start of nicely,” said Pagenaud. “There’s still a lot of work do.” Pagenaud’s lap was just .0624s quicker than the Honda of A.J. Foyt Racing’s Jack Hawsworth. Pagenaud’s teammate and three time St. Pete winner Helio Castroneves wasRead More