{"id":31844,"date":"2020-10-24T12:53:32","date_gmt":"2020-10-24T17:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=31844"},"modified":"2020-10-24T12:53:59","modified_gmt":"2020-10-24T17:53:59","slug":"five-non-championship-things-to-watch-at-firestone-grand-prix-of-st-petersburg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/24\/five-non-championship-things-to-watch-at-firestone-grand-prix-of-st-petersburg\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Non-Championship Things to Watch at Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy of the NTT IndyCar Series<\/em><\/p>\n

After 1,800 laps over the course of 13 races, the 2020 NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship comes down to a battle between Scott Dixon and Josef Newgarden.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Josef Newgarden at the 2019 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Photo by Chris Owens<\/p><\/div>\n

The two championship protagonists will be the center of this weekend\u2019s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, but there are other stories to watch heading into the season finale on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida.<\/p>\n

Here are five non-championship things to watch for this weekend.<\/p>\n

Power & Glory<\/strong><\/p>\n

When it comes to the streets of St. Petersburg, no team is better than Team Penske.<\/p>\n

The team has nine wins and nine poles at the 1.8-mile temporary street course and boasts one of the circuit\u2019s most successful drivers \u2013 Will Power, who has two wins and eight of the poles in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet.<\/p>\n

Power is motivated to end his season on a high note and finish third in the championship ahead of young stars Colton Herta and Pato O\u2019Ward.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been out of contention for the championship for a few races now, so we are fully focused on just getting more race wins,\u201d Power said. \u201cSt. Pete is such a technical street course, so it can be really fun to race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turn 1 is Poppin’<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re looking to overtake in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, the first turn of the 1.8-mile street circuit at St. Peterburg is one of the corners you\u2019re looking forward to driving.<\/p>\n

The corner, which turns right off the long and wide Albert Whitted Airport runway, leads into a tight section of downtown St. Petersburg streets. It has been the location of more than 500 on-track passes in the history of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, but it\u2019s also a place where attempts to pass have gone wrong and ended potential winning days.<\/p>\n

\u201cSt. Pete has been recognized so well for the season opener for a long time, so it feels a little different when you realized that it will be our last race of the season,\u201d said two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato. \u201cNevertheless, St. Pete has been one of the greatest tracks and we all love it, so I am very happy to go back there. Needless to say, but we are so much looking forward to this challenging street race. Yes, it will add an element of unpredictability as it\u2019s the nature of the street course race, but that\u2019s all good for the show.\u201d<\/p>\n

R is for Rookie (and Rinus)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ed Carpenter Racing\u2019s Rinus VeeKay has all but locked up the NTT INDYCAR SERIES Rookie of the Year Award.<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old Dutchman only needs to start the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg to claim the rookie title over Alex Palou of Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh and Oliver Askew of Arrow McLaren SP.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be so nice to come back to St. Petersburg,\u201d VeeKay said. \u201cWe are finally returning after being there earlier this year, but we were not able to race. Hopefully, I can secure my Rookie of the Year title; it will be a very nice achievement. I am really looking forward to the race. First street course race of the season as the last race, that’s very cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

McLaughlin’s Debut<\/strong><\/p>\n

Virgin Australia Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin will make his highly anticipated NTT INDYCAR SERIES debut at St. Petersburg as he weighs his options for the next stage of his racing career.<\/p>\n

The New Zealand native, who wrapped up his third straight title for DJR Team Penske in the Australian touring car series, impressed in three preseason tests with Team Penske\u2019s INDYCAR squad, including finishing in the top three at the series Open Test at Circuit of the Americas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m super pumped to finally get a crack at my first INDYCAR race,\u201d McLaughlin said. \u201cFeels like it\u2019s been years since I was part of spring training, but due to COVID-19, we had to hold off. But hey, sometimes the best things are definitely worth the wait. It\u2019s a dream come true to be running an INDYCAR race for Team Penske and Roger (Penske), especially coming off of such a successful Supercars season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been trying to get to know my team as well as possible virtually for a few months now, so it\u2019s been great being able to see everyone in person and work with them. I spent some time last week running in the simulator as much as I could and spent some time at the race shop, as well, to prepare for this weekend. It was a quick turnaround from Bathurst since I flew to Charlotte immediately after, so I\u2019ve definitely been moving at a fast but really exciting pace just to get to this weekend. The Shell V-Power Nitro+ Chevy team is such a talented group, so I feel like I\u2019m going to be a quick study and learn a lot really fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ending the Year on a High<\/strong><\/p>\n

Of the seven drivers who won races in 2019, only Alexander Rossi hasn\u2019t visited Victory Lane in 2020, meaning the Andretti Autosport driver will have to win at St. Petersburg to extend his streak of seasons with at least one win to five years.<\/p>\n

Rossi has history on his side.<\/p>\n

In his four previous starts at St. Petersburg, Rossi has an average finish of 7.75 and led laps in the last two races, where he finished third and fifth, respectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am so thankful that we get to have this event as our season finale, and hopefully we can continue our run of podiums to finish out the year,\u201d said Rossi, who has finished on the podium in the last four consecutive races. \u201cIf all the stars align, I know we can get a win before it\u2019s all said and done.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy of the NTT IndyCar Series After 1,800 laps over the course of 13 races, the 2020 NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship comes down to a battle between Scott Dixon and Josef Newgarden. The two championship protagonists will be the center of this weekend\u2019s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, but there are other stories to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":31846,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[97,22,672],"class_list":["post-31844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indycar","tag-firestone-grand-prix-of-st-petersburg","tag-indycar","tag-ntt-indycar-series"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/16C3397-1-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1704","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-8hC","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31844"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31847,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31844\/revisions\/31847"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}