Round 1: Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, March 3 -5.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Race Result

That was a somewhat disjointed and chaotic race, with the red flag and the FCYs and in complete contrast to last year's race, which only had one FCY.

Only 12 cars finished on the lead lap.

What a terrible result, for Andretti Autosport. Three drivers make it to the Fast 6, with one getting Pole and all three go out of the race. An indifferent race for Penske, which wasn't helped by Power's penalty and McLaughlin tangling with Grosjean. Otherwise a good start for Ganassi, with 1st and 3rd for Ericsson and Dixon and not too bad a start for Arrow McLaren, though O'Ward was unlucky with the misfire in the plenum chamber, sounds painful. However, still a creditable 2nd place and a good 4th place for Rossi. Good to see Callum Illot and Graham Rahal finish in the top 6.

There's just over a month to go until Texas. There was a similar gap between rounds 1 and 2 last year. IndyCar should look to fill this gap with another race.

[Adam43]

One month. Madness frustrating.

I hope Sting Ray can get over his disappointment of being taken out of contention. He can build on knowing he was the highest classified “off course”. I think that is the first time a driver has achieved that in their debut.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by Adam43

What happened there! O’Ward loses power out of the corner.

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Congrats to Ericsson, not too sure what happened to O'Ward, I thought he had that in the bag.

Gutted for Pato, thought he was going to start off with a win. I am still waiting to hear a full report on what happened to him, but ganassi cars are strong though to the end of a stint, something McLaren and O'ward have struggled with.

Originally Posted by fergus_r

Only 12 of the 27 drivers finished the race on the lead lap.

That is an unheard of number for a street course. Sometimes that happens on short ovals when you can lose laps by putting but this was a different kind of day.

[Adam43]

When your plenum backfires it’s gonna hurt your race.

https://motorsports.nbcsports.com/20...or-pato-oward/

[rustyfan]

Originally Posted by Adam43

When Sting Ray gets some more Indycar miles under his belt you better watch out.

With a name like that I'd love to see him make it to the top!

[rustyfan]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

There's just over a month to go until Texas. There was a similar gap between rounds 1 and 2 last year. IndyCar should look to fill this gap with another race.

Agreed. Now, I'm not exactly sure what the weather is like in Alabama mid-March, but perhaps moving Birmingham to the slot between St Pete and Texas while a new(?) race fills Birmingham's old slot before the Indy 500 could be an idea?

[broadrun96]

It can be dicey, this weekend other than Friday severe weather was great. Next weekend appears good with Friday rains again. But chance of tornados is pretty high around now for the SE

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by rustyfan

Agreed. Now, I'm not exactly sure what the weather is like in Alabama mid-March, but perhaps moving Birmingham to the slot between St Pete and Texas while a new(?) race fills Birmingham's old slot before the Indy 500 could be an idea?

I was thinking with a gap of a month between St. Pete and Texas, this would be a good time for a fly away round. Juncos Hollinger Racing did some exhibition runs last November in Argentina.

https://www.indycar.com/news/2022/10...-jhr-argentina

[rustyfan]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

It can be dicey, this weekend other than Friday severe weather was great. Next weekend appears good with Friday rains again. But chance of tornados is pretty high around now for the SE

Ahh ok. Tornado warnings during the race would be kind of a bummer indeed.

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

I was thinking with a gap of a month between St. Pete and Texas, this would be a good time for a fly away round. Juncos Hollinger Racing did some exhibition runs last November in Argentina.

https://www.indycar.com/news/2022/10...-jhr-argentina

Good point and Autódromo Termas de Rio Hondo looks like a nice track from what I've seen during the MotoGP races there.

[NaBUru38]

The race was certainly enjoyable, with several thrilling moments, though not 100% of the time.

Grosjean and Scotty Mac went all in, and both lost everything. Very funny!

Pedersen should be suspended a race for not slowing down.

[NaBUru38]

Agustin Canapino got an excellent 12th place (same as Gonchi Rodriguez at Detroit 1999). He was completely exhausted.

Post race interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkKDPEf_ZAw

[NaBUru38]

The Argentine tourism promotion agency leader visited St Petersburg to negotiate the Termas de Rio Hondo race for 2024.

https://campeones.com.ar/los-argenti...es-de-indycar/

[joeb]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

Agustin Canapino got an excellent 12th place (same as Gonchi Rodriguez at Detroit 1999). He was completely exhausted.

Post race interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkKDPEf_ZAw

Very impressive to keep the car clean in his first openwheel race! Look forward to watching him progress throughout the season.

Armstrong was the other rookie with a strong showing.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

The Argentine tourism promotion agency leader visited St Petersburg to negotiate the Termas de Rio Hondo race for 2024.

https://campeones.com.ar/los-argenti...es-de-indycar/

I would really like to see this happen. I feel IndyCar is now is a position in which the series can expand and I think a race in Argentina is a logical step.

South America in general has a great motorsports heritage, as well as a massive fan base and it would be great to see that reflected in IndyCar, with Juncos Hollinger Racing and a round in Argentina.

[mstets]

What happened to Palou late in the race? I think he was ahead of Rossi but ended up finishing 8th.

[fieldodreams79]

Finished this up late last night. Heck of a race. Some scary, big incidents and hope all are okay but that was fun. Stinks for PatO, but good for Marcus.

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Yeah, I'm watching it late and replayed that a couple times. That was intentional shove, something about him make me feel like Will Power and that move? He gets by hope Will's engine breaks every race lately, Scotty's getting up that list.

Nah. Cold tires. Pushing hard at the end of the race for the win. They both knew two cars couldn't go through that corner side by side but neither driver wanted to coincide it. Scotty Mac locking them up puts it mostly on him, but in the end, nothing sinister, imho. Romain probably could have got him going in to T11...

Originally Posted by Adam43

Sting Ray

Love the attention to our boy. Sting Ray!!

[Teretonga]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

I was thinking with a gap of a month between St. Pete and Texas, this would be a good time for a fly away round. Juncos Hollinger Racing did some exhibition runs last November in Argentina.

https://www.indycar.com/news/2022/10...-jhr-argentina

Go to Monterrey, O'Wards home town. Simple stopover between St Petes and Long Beach....
they have a track in a parkland....

[NaBUru38]

The Termas MotoGP race is typically held in early April, so a February or March IndyCar race would be a bit tight.

I wouldn't be surprised that Termas wants an October race, but then IndyCar wouldn't like it (or Uruguay ) as a season finale. And I'm pretty sure that all parties are uninterested in non-points races.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Teretonga

Go to Monterrey, O'Wards home town. Simple stopover between St Petes and Long Beach....
they have a track in a parkland....

That would also be a good idea. Champ Car raced there, and in 2003 it was the second race of that season, held between St. Pete and Long Beach.

[broadrun96]

Well that's not good, from Racer


"The NTT IndyCar Series launched its season on NBC shortly after the F1 race ended, with the St. Petersburg GP telecast averaging a 0.76 rating and 1.189m viewers. That too was down from last year’s race (0.89, 1.405m) but NBC noted that its Total Audience Delivery (including streaming) of 1.22m...Among the coveted 18-49 aged demographic, NASCAR Cup had 813,000 viewers, followed by F1 with 633K and IndyCar with 216K, although these numbers apply only to the TV telecasts."

Given US ratings deal with 18+, there is some data 13-18 but most stick with 18+, that's a wide margin of the viewers over 50

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Well that's not good, from Racer


"The NTT IndyCar Series launched its season on NBC shortly after the F1 race ended, with the St. Petersburg GP telecast averaging a 0.76 rating and 1.189m viewers. That too was down from last year’s race (0.89, 1.405m) but NBC noted that its Total Audience Delivery (including streaming) of 1.22m...Among the coveted 18-49 aged demographic, NASCAR Cup had 813,000 viewers, followed by F1 with 633K and IndyCar with 216K, although these numbers apply only to the TV telecasts."

Given US ratings deal with 18+, there is some data 13-18 but most stick with 18+, that's a wide margin of the viewers over 50

I assume there's a reason they can't count or don't count streaming services? That's all I've been using for the better part of 6 years now. I assume more than a few people are like me so the numbers are skewed or just missing crucial data?

[Adam43]

It could be that there is a correlation between the discerning viewer and streaming. In which case their stats aren’t helping.

[broadrun96]

It's getting tougher to count streamers as VPNs can distort the easy data collection from some of the things I've read. They can't tell what's actually connecting or testing and then there's no agreed upon way to count things. Indy estimates it but from what I've gathered YouTubeTV, DirecTV Now (or whatever it is called this week) and the rest of those services don't get counted either according to some. It's a weird time to pretend ratings are so certain and reflect engagement. Have to wonder if that's Peacock numbers they use to reflect "total audience engagement" or what

More telling us the insane numbers primetime gets and how much of that is 65 plus. Some of the TV numbers are driven by under 20% of the country, see 37 different NCIS shows. But many of those who make the decisions are of that age as well so...

[NaBUru38]

The different is that Nielsen measures most linear pay TV channels, but only a few streaming services.

NBC could claim that 2 million people watched IndyCar on Peacock, and nobody would know if it's true or not.

[tux]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

I guess you want us to feel sorry for you posting that everywhere you can?? If I didn't like it I would just start going other places than staying a motorsports forum, but that's just me

Ha, im entitled to post my opinion, just like you. Dont like it get me banned.