2023 Grand Prix of St Petersburg: 3 Things To Look For

The Firestone Grand Prix of St Petersburg presented by RP Funding will be the 20th INDYCAR SERIES race on the streets of St. Petersburg, dating to 2003. Scott McLaughlin won the 2022 race after starting from the pole position. Paul Tracy won the inaugural race on Feb. 23, 2003, under CART sanction, while Sebastien Bourdais started from the pole that year.

Here are three things to look for in 2023…

Can anyone dethrone the kings? 

Chip Ganassi Racing and Team Penske have won the past 10 titles with Scott Dixon, Will Power and Josef Newgarden combining for eight of them.

So, who breaks the streak? It’s best to look Arrow McLaren, where Alexander Rossi (No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet), Felix Rosenqvist (No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet) and Pato O’Ward (No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet) are employed, or Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta (No. 26 Gainbridge Honda).

Those four drivers were the highest-placed drivers in the championship who didn’t drive for Team Penske or Chip Ganassi in 2022. Herta, O’Ward and Rossi are the only three in that group to find victory last season.

Just remember, if you come for the kings, you better not miss.

Power Plays Poles at Will. 

Will Power is the greatest qualifier in modern INDYCAR SERIES history, as his 68 career poles are the all-time series record.

The tale of Power’s qualifying success can best be told through the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, where he has won nine of the last 13 poles.

The only drivers to score a pole in the last 10 years in St. Petersburg not named Will Power are Takuma Sato in 2014, Robert Wickens in 2018, Colton Herta in 2021 and Scott McLaughlin last season. In total, Team Penske has won the pole position in 11 of the past 16 St. Petersburg races.

Power has scored at least one pole position in each season since 2009, including five NTT P1 Awards last year. It’s a sure bet that the reigning series champion will add to his record this season, and don’t be surprised if it starts during NTT P1 Award qualifying Saturday afternoon.

Dixon seeks his first win on the streets of St. Petersburg. 

Who wouldn’t take Scott Dixon’s resume as an NTT INDYCAR SERIES driver?

He has six NTT INDYCAR SERIES championships, which trails only the seven INDYCAR SERIES titles collected by A.J. Foyt. His 53 wins rank second on the all-time INDYCAR SERIES victory list, behind Foyt’s 67, but Dixon has never won at St. Petersburg.

Still, he has been successful on the streets of the Florida Gulf Coast city.

Dixon has four runner-up finishes at the circuit and has an average finish of 7.88 in his 18 previous starts. He has finished in the top 10 in his last seven starts.

Grand Prix of St Petersburg Key Stats

• The St. Petersburg INDYCAR SERIES race has been run every year since 2003 except for 2004. No driver has competed in every St. Petersburg race, but Scott Dixon has started 18 consecutive races.
• The 27-car field for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding is the largest NTT INDYCAR SERIES field at St. Petersburg. The previous high for the race was 26 in 2008, 2012 and 2022.
• Helio Castroneves (2006, 2007 and 2012), Will Power (2010 and 2014) and Josef Newgarden (2019-2020) are the only entered drivers to win at St. Petersburg more than once. Six past winners are entered: Castroneves, Power, Newgarden, Graham Rahal (2008), Colton Herta (2021) and McLaughlin.
• For the first time since 2015, Team Penske’s Will Power arrives at the season opener as the defending NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion. The two-time champion made history in 2022 as he became INDYCAR’s all-time qualifying king by winning his record-setting 68th pole in September at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, where he also clinched the title. He will look for more history by becoming the first to repeat champion since Dario Franchitti won three in a row from 2009-11.
• Team Penske has won at St. Petersburg 11 times, including seven of the last 11 races with Castroneves (2012), Power (2014), Juan Pablo Montoya (2015-16), Newgarden (2019-2020) and McLaughlin (2022).
• Four drivers have won the race from the pole – Castroneves (2007), Power (2010), Herta (2021) and McLaughlin (2022). The St. Petersburg winner has qualified fourth in four of the last 10 seasons.
• Dixon is expected to make his 369th INDYCAR SERIES start, tying A.J. Foyt for fourth on the all-time list.
• Dixon has made 305 consecutive starts heading into the weekend, which is the second-longest streak in INDYCAR SERIES history.
• Simon Pagenaud is scheduled to make his 200^th INDYCAR SERIES start.
• Rookies Marcus Armstrong, Agustin Canapino, Benjamin Pedersen and Sting Ray Robb will make their NTT INDYCAR SERIES debuts at St. Petersburg.
• The NTT INDYCAR SERIES’ 100% Renewable Race Fuel will make its competition debut in St. Petersburg. Created by Shell, this new product consists of a blend of second-generation ethanol derived from sugarcane waste and other biofuels to create a fuel that is 100% comprised of feedstocks categorized as renewable under the applicable regulatory frameworks. The fuel will enable a 60% life cycle greenhouse gas emissions reduction compared to fossil-based gasoline.
• As with all street courses on the 2023 schedule, the Firestone Firehawk alternate tire will be made with sustainable, domestically sourced guayule rubber. For the 2023 season, Firestone will supply more than 1,900 tires using a sidewall material made exclusively with rubber derived from the guayule woody desert shrub grown on the company’s own farm in Eloy, Arizona. The initiative builds on the 2022 competitive debut of guayule race tires at the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix in Nashville last August.