NTT IndyCar Series Tag

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Josef Newgarden winning the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg was far from the biggest story. Instead, it was television and streaming contracts, two media outlets INDYCAR fans have gone full rage all week. Just as the sport is hitting mass strides, something alters their momentum every time. This time around, it’s the television deals around the world that’s brought a lot of frustrations from the fans. Let’s start off with the biggest piece of the TV puzzle – NBC Sports. Last season, INDYCAR announced INDYCARRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer The season opener of the NTT IndyCar Series saw a lot of action that resulted in six retirements, notably in the first 30 laps that took out some of the heavy favorites in the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in Florida. One of the major storylines heading into the 110-lap contest was the struggles of two-time St. Pete winner Sebastien Bourdais, who was eyeing on a three-peat at the 1.8-mile circuit. His bid for a three-peat was already facing multiple roadblocks. Not only he hadRead 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

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 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 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: 25 Team: Ed Carpenter Racing Years in IndyCar: Three Career Wins: 0 Career Podiums: One Coming off of his first full season of NTT IndyCar Series competition, Spencer Pigot will be looking to build off of a stronger final half of 2018 to start 2019. In the last eight races of 2018, the 2015 Indy Lights presented by CooperRead 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: 28 Team: ARROW Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Years in IndyCar: Rookie Previous Series: Formula One (2014-18) “I wanted to stay in the highest possible category of racing and for me outside of Formula One, that’s IndyCar,” Marcus Ericsson on making the leap across the pond to run the NTT IndyCar Series in 2019. After five seasonsRead More