ST. PETE RECAP: Newgarden wins IndyCar opening round with ease, starts 2024 on top

After last year's Indianapolis 500 triumph, many anticipated Josef Newgarden would mount a charge and compete for his third NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship. His oval work matched that expectation, but subpar performances on the summer's road and street courses curtailed that assumption, and he finished 5th in the standings. He even placed outside the top 20 three times in the last four races.

Understandably, many left 2023 wondering if Newgarden could find the pace road and street courses that won him the 2017 and 2019 championships.

We're not wondering anymore.

Newgarden stormed to pole position on Saturday, and led 92 of 100 laps in a dominant showing in the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, winning the first round of the 2024 championship comfortably.

Race Recap

The new rules intended to keep the field more condensed at the start worked well, with the field of 27 cars slicing and dicing into turn one all the way through the field. All but one car made it through — Christian Lundgaard suffered a puncture after apparent contact from Alex Palou.

Through the first stint, Newgarden, on primary tires, was followed by second place starter Felix Rosenqvist, now at Meyer Shank Racing, on alternate tires. Rosenqvist and much of the field went into fuel saving mode, opting to maintain gaps and keep fuel numbers in check.

The first caution occurred at lap 25 when Chip Ganassi Racing's Marcus Armstrong appeared to lock up his car's rear brakes and make contact with the tire barrier and wall at the tricky left-hand turn ten, ending his race early. Lundgaard stayed out and grabbed the lead, holding it until he pitted at the next caution on lap 35 when Sting Ray Robb's car suffered a mechanical failure, parking in the turn one runoff. Newgarden got the lead back, and led the next 30 laps.

Behind him, Rosenqvist and early third place runner Colton Herta couldn't maintain their stellar starting spots. Pato O'Ward and Scott McLaughlin capitalized on tire advantages and pushed their way through to the front.

Rinus VeeKay had a solid day with a refreshed Ed Carpenter Racing, mixing it up with Will Power and many contenders at the front and making impressive overtakes in the back end of the top ten. Alexander Rossi and Alex Palou made charges from the back as well, both pushing into the top ten by the latter stages of the race.

Marcus Ericsson, last year's winner at St. Petersburg, suffered mechanical issues after the halfway point, retiring from the race after 52 laps.

Another caution period occurred with 31 laps to go after new Juncos Hollinger driver Romain Grosjean made contact with Chip Ganassi rookie Linus Lundqvist in turn ten, spinning the young Swede and knocking his rear wing off. The caution came after the field completed a green flag pit cycle, meaning few drivers took the opportunity to pit. Herta, pitting later than Newgarden, led a lap and picked up a bonus championship point.

Newgarden restarted the race well and didn't look back, pulling out a nearly 6 second lead before taking the checkered flag. O'Ward brought his car home second place unable to match Newgarden's pace, matching his finish at St. Pete last year. McLaughlin's charge earned him third place, followed by teammate Power and Herta.

The Team Penske driver, who took many steps to block out distractions this offseason including unfollowing all accounts on Instagram and Twitter, sent a message to the rest of the IndyCar field Sunday.

"I don't want to say it felt easy," Newgarden said. "It felt comfortable today. Really, really comfortable. I sort of told myself before going into the race, I sort of want to let it be, not overstep, and then early on in the race, I'm like, I'm going. I'm not here to wait around. We're going to win this race."

O'Ward couldn't best Newgarden in St. Petersburg, but felt optimism about the team's weekend overall and the platform gives them for a title challenge in 2024.

"I think it's a very solid foundation to what is going to be a very tight, very competitive rest of the year," O'Ward said postrace. "I think the Penskes were just too strong for us today. I think we were all kind of playing the fuel game a little bit, and got to give it to everybody at Chevrolet and my guys over at Arrow McLaren."

Chevrolet finished in the top four spots, and large portions of the race were defined by managing and maintaining fuel numbers.

"For us to start ninth and move our way through to third, for us, it's a win in some ways," McLaughlin said postrace. "I tried to get Pato there, but I had Will sort of breathing down my neck, and it was sort of a championship game in some ways thinking of the points in some ways. You just take what you can get. It's so tight this year in INDYCAR, so you just need to get what you can and get out of here."

Palou, Rosenqvist, Rossi, Dixon and VeeKay rounded out the top ten.

Santino Ferrucci finished 11th in A.J. Foyt's first race as technical partners with Team Penske. Callum Ilott, filling in for the injured David Malukas in Arrow McLaren's No. 6 car, finished 13th. Kyffin Simpson finished 14th in a solid IndyCar debut in Chip Ganassi's new fifth entry, keeping out of troubling and finishing less than 30 seconds back of Newgarden.

Pietro Fittipaldi, back in IndyCar from stints in prototypes and as a Formula One reserve driver, was the race's biggest mover, starting 26th and finishing 15th.

It was a record-setting weekend for the event that celebrated it's 20th edition, with some reports stating merchandise sales were up around 30%, and attendance figures reaching over 100,000 and up measurably from last year.

Championship Picture

Newgarden starts 2024 with maximum points, earning 4 bonus points for starting first, leading the most laps led, and fastest race lap. The rest of the standings match the race results

Herta and Lundgaard earned a bonus point each for leading a lap, which could become valuable as the season enters crunch time.

Standings:
Newgarden 54, O'Ward 40, McLaughlin 35, Power 32, Herta 31, Palou 28, Rosenqvist 26, Rossi 24, Dixon 22, VeeKay 20, Ferrucci 19, Kirkwood 18, Ilott 17, Simpson 16, Fittipaldi 15, Rahal 14, Blomqvist 13, Canapino 12, Lundgaard 11, Harvey 11, Rasmussen 9, Braun 8, Lundqvist 7, Grosjean 6, Ericsson 5, Armstrong 5, Robb 5

Next Race

Thermal Club $1,000,000 Challenge

This non-points event at the swanky and exclusive motorsport community in California offers big purses to the top five, and $1 million to the winner.

Expect all 27 full-time entries to appear, and a unique qualifying and heat race format building up to a 12-car shootout for the prize.

Coverage starts at 12:00 p.m ET, Sunday, March 24 on NBC and Peacock.