Josef Newgarden ruled the streets of St. Pete Sunday afternoon in IndyCar’s season opening race, leading 92 of the 100 laps to secure his third St. Pete win and first street course win for Team Penske after Penske went winless on street courses in 2023.
- Josef Newgarden takes third St. Pete victory
- Rest of race recap
- Full race results/points standings
3 min read
Newgarden converted his pole starting position to an over seven second lead over runner up Pato O’Ward come the checkered flag, with the win only ever looking in doubt when the No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet machine lost three spots on pit road during the first pit stop cycle of the day but quickly gained them back and the lead after the restart.
Newgarden said: “I had a lot of fun today. I think it’s so deserving for the work they (Team Penske) put in. We’ve worked really hard to close the gap. We didn’t have the speed we needed on road and street courses last year, at least on a consistency basis, and today we brought that speed.”
It was Newgarden’s 30th IndyCar Series win, passing Team Penske legend Rick Mears for 13th on the all-time IndyCar Series wins list.
Team Penske and Chevrolet have appeared to have got their street course package back on track, with all three Penske cars finishing in the top five with 2022 St. Pete winner McLaughlin finishing third and two-time St. Pete winner Will Power finishing fourth.
Last year Honda won all five street course races. Sunday saw Andretti Global’s Colton Herta, who won the 2021 edition of the race, be the highest finishing Honda in fifth.
Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward was Newgarden’s closest contender throughout the race, keeping Newgarden within two seconds of him until the final twenty laps where he extended it to an eight second lead while O’Ward had to drive with his rearview mirrors to keep the late charging McLaughlin and Power behind to hold on to the runners up position.
O’Ward said: “I think it’s a very solid foundation to what is going to be a very tight, very competitive rest of the year.”
Power and McLaughlin, on the softer alternate tyre were able to charge down O’Ward despite the No. 5 Arrow McLaren driver being on the harder primary tyre. Power had yet to take the alternate green lined tyre before his final pit stop, so as per IndyCar rules of having to run at least two laps on each tyre compound, Power was forced to take the softer tyre.
Rest of race recap
Josef Newgarden and Felix Rosenqvist led the 27-car field to green with Newgarden comfortably leading the opening stint.
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Marcus Armstrong brought out the first caution of the race on lap 26 when he locked up his No. 11 Ridgeline Honda in turn 10 slamming it into the outside tyre wall, taking himself out of the race.
Sting Ray Robb brought out the second of three cautions on lap 35 when he parked his No. 41 A.J. Foyt Enterprises Chevrolet in the turn one escape road. Christian Lundgaard who had inherited the lead after not pitting during the previous caution due to pitting earlier in the race for a puncture, handed the lead back to Newgarden, who had raced past Rosenqvist and Herta to work back up to second prior to the caution.
Last year’s St. Pete winner Marcus Ericsson had to retire early from the race on lap 53 due to a mechanical failure. Ericsson had been running seventh before the failure.
Romain Grosjean’s late lunge on rookie Linus Lundqvist for 12th place on lap 68 saw the caution fly again as Lundqvist went spinning into the turn 10 outside tyre wall.
Lundqvist’s Chip Ganassi Racing team was able to replace his rear wing but would finish the race three laps down. Grosjean would later retire with gearbox failure after completing his drive through penalty for avoidable contact.
The next event is The $1 Million Challenge, a special, non-points race at 12:30 p.m. ET Sunday, March 24 at The Thermal Club near Palm Springs, California.
Full race results/points standings
- Josef Newgarden 54
- Pato O’Ward 40
- Scott McLaughlin 35
- Will Power 32
- Colton Herta 31
- Alex Palou 28
- Felix Rosenqvist 26
- Alexander Rossi 24
- Scott Dixon 22
- Rinus VeeKay 20
- Santino Ferrucci 19
- Kyle Kirkwood 18
- Callum Ilott 17
- Kyffin Simpson 16
- Pietro Fittapaldi 15
- Graham Rahal 14
- Tom Blomqvist 13
- Agustin Canapino 12
- Jack Harvey 11
- Christian Lundgaard 10
- Christian Rasmussen 9
- Colin Braun 8
- Rinus Lundqvist 7
- Romain Grosjean 6
- Marcus Ericcson 5
- Sting Ray Robb 5
- Marcus Armstrong 5
Featured Image: Josef Newgarden celebrates winning the 2024 GP of St. Pete (Photo by Chris Jones/Penske Entertainment)
