Courtesy of the NTT IndyCar Series
Race weekend: Friday, April 23 – Sunday, April 25
Track: Streets of St. Petersburg, 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary street circuit (clockwise) through downtown St. Petersburg, Florida, including a runway of Albert Whitted Airport.
Race distance: 100 laps / 181 miles
Push-to-pass parameters: 150 seconds of total time with a maximum single duration of 15 seconds. The push-to-pass is not available on the initial start or any restart unless it occurs in the final two laps or three minutes of a timed race.
Firestone tire allotment: Six sets primary, four sets alternate. One additional set is available to rookie drivers for use in the Friday afternoon practice session.
Twitter: @GPSTPETE, @INDYCAR, #FirestoneGP, #INDYCAR
Event website: www.gpstpete.com
INDYCAR website: www.indycar.com
2020 race winner: Josef Newgarden, 2:06:12.5948, 85.572 mph
2020 NTT P1 Award winner: Will Power, 1:01.0369, 106.165 mph
Qualifying lap record: Jordan King, 1:00.0476; 107.914 mph, March 10, 2018 (set in Round 1 of qualifying)
NBC Sports race telecasts: Qualifying, 10 p.m. ET Saturday, NBCSN (tape-delayed); Race, noon ET Sunday, NBC (live). Leigh Diffey is the play-by-play announcer for NBC’s coverage of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, alongside analyst Townsend Bell.
Peacock Premium Live Streaming: All NTT INDYCAR SERIES practice sessions and qualifying will stream live on Peacock Premium, NBC’s direct-to-consumer livestreaming product.
INDYCAR Radio Network broadcasts: Mark Jaynes is the chief announcer alongside analyst Davey Hamilton and Nick Yeoman. Jake Query and Michael Young are the turn announcers. The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg race airs live on network affiliates, Sirius 211, XM 205, indycar.com, indycarradio.com and the INDYCAR Mobile app powered by NTT DATA. All NTT INDYCAR SERIES practices and qualifying are available on indycar.com and the INDYCAR Mobile app, with qualifying also airing on XM 205.
At-track schedule (All Times Local/Eastern Time):
Friday, April 23
4:15-5 p.m. – NTT INDYCAR SERIES practice, Peacock Premium
Saturday, April 24
9:45-10:30 a.m. – NTT INDYCAR SERIES practice, Peacock Premium
1:45-3 p.m. – Qualifying for the NTT P1 Award (three rounds of knockout qualifying), Peacock Premium (Live)/NBCSN (Same-day delay, 10 p.m. ET)
Sunday, April 25
9:05-9:35 a.m. – NTT INDYCAR SERIES warmup, Peacock Premium
Noon – NBC Sports on air
12:35 p.m. – “Drivers, start your engines”
12:42 p.m. – Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg (100 laps / 181 miles), NBC (Live)
Race Notes:
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou kicked off the 2021 season with a bang, claiming his first career NTT INDYCAR SERIES victory at Barber Motorsports Park on April 18. The 24-year-old Spaniard outdueled series champions Will Power and Scott Dixon to claim the championship point lead for the first time. Can Palou emulate Dixon by starting a title-winning season with a multi-race win streak?
The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg will be the 18th INDYCAR SERIES race on the streets of St. Petersburg, dating to 2003. Josef Newgarden won last year’s race held on the streets of St. Petersburg, which was the championship-deciding race for the first time. Paul Tracy won the inaugural race on Feb. 23, 2003, under CART sanction, while Sebastien Bourdais started from the pole that year.
The St. Petersburg INDYCAR 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 16 consecutive races. Sebastien Bourdais and Ryan Hunter-Reay competed in the first race in 2003.
Scott Dixon seeks his first win on the streets of St. Petersburg. Dixon’s six NTT INDYCAR SERIES championships trail only the seven INDYCAR SERIES titles collected by A.J. Foyt. Dixon is third on the all-time INDYCAR SERIES victory list with 50 wins but has never won at St. Petersburg. He has four runner-up finishes at the circuit, including in 2019.
Will Power (2010 and 2014), Sebastien Bourdais (2017 and 2018) and Josef Newgarden (2019 and 2020) are the only entered drivers to win at St. Petersburg more than once. Helio Castroneves won three times (2006, 2007, 2012), while Juan Pablo Montoya won in 2015 and 2016. Past winners Power, Bourdais, Newgarden and Graham Rahal (2008) are entered.
Team Penske has won the pole position 10 of the past 14 St. Petersburg races, including nine of the last 11 poles by Power. Past pole winners Bourdais (2003), Rahal (2009) and Takuma Sato (2014) are also entered this weekend.
Two drivers have won the race from the pole – Helio Castroneves (2007) and Will Power (2010). The St. Petersburg winner has qualified fourth in four of the last eight seasons.
Team Penske has won at St. Petersburg 10 times, including six of the last nine races with Castroneves (2012), Power (2014), Montoya (2015-16) and Newgarden (2019-2020).
Dixon has made 273 consecutive starts heading into the weekend, which is the second-longest streak in INDYCAR SERIES history.
Three rookies are entered – Formula One veteran Romain Grosjean, seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson and three-time Australian Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin. Grosjean and Johnson will make attempt to make their first NTT INDYCAR SERIES street course start this weekend at St. Petersburg. Dalton Kellett will also attempt to make his first start at St. Petersburg.
Since 2012, the NTT INDYCAR SERIES has averaged just under nine different race winners per season, including a record-tying 11 winners in 2014. There were seven different winners in the 14 races of 2020 with an equally tight competition projected for the season.
Drivers may engage their “push to pass” for a total of 150 seconds during the race, with a maximum duration of 15 seconds for any one activation. The push-to-pass is not available on the initial start or any restart unless it occurs in the final two laps or three minutes of a timed race. The feature increases the power of the engine by approximately 60 horsepower for 2021.
