Newgarden Dominates The Firestone Grand Prix Of St. Petersburg
St Petersburg, Fl. (March 10th, 2024)
With time expiring in qualifying for the Firestone Grand Prix Of St. Petersburg, Josef Newgarden reached into his bag of tricks and pulled off a magical lap at the last possible second to grab the pole position. He nipped Felix Rosenqvist by the tiniest of margin of .0058 seconds. This would be the closest that the field would get to him such was his command over the streets of St. Petersburg.
Newgarden’s pole capturing lap of 59.5714 was just the beginning of his domination. From the drop of the green flag it seemed as though he was in complete control of the race. Of the 100 circuits around the street course, Newgarden led ninety-two of them. At the end of the race he had built a 7.9 second lead over second place finisher Pato O’Ward. Taking third was his Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin at 8.4 seconds back.
Newgarden would state “It did feel comfortable today. I had a lot of fun. Early on in the race, I said I wasn’t going to wait around. It has been a process for us to come back and be better in areas we needed. We Cleaned up our game and worked at the level we need to be”. Indeed Team Penske showed vast improvement over their 2023 campaign capturing two steps of the podium as well as fourth place when Will Powers crossed the finish line 9 seconds later.
Unlike last years affair, the field kept things clean with the only casualty being Christian Lundgaard who suffered a cut right rear tire when contact was made to his car. The unplanned pit stop dropped him to last place. Twenty-seven laps later the first caution flag flew when Marcus Armstrong slid his car into the barrier breaking the suspension. This triggered the first round of pit stops as nearly the entire field dove into the pits for fresh tires and fuel.
If you were looking for drama, it was during this series of stops that it happened. Newgarden had a slow release from his pit box. This allowed Rosenqvist and Colton Herta to get ahead for the restart just behind Lundgaard who stayed on course due to his early pit stop. At lap 31 when the re-start happened, Newgarden quickly passed Herta with O’Ward and Mclaughlin getting through as well. Two laps later Newgarden had dispatched Rosenqvist and was now in second behind Lundgaard.
It would only be a matter of time for Newgarden to retake the lead as Lundgaard was out of pit stop sequence. This would happen on lap 35 when the caution would fly again when Sting Ray Robb pulled off the course on turn one. At this point, Lundgaard pitted and relinquished the lead to Newgarden.
When the race went green again on lap 38, the field went into fuel conservation mode. At this point, no one was willing to take any risks and the high speed dicing and tight passes that had been the hallmark of this race would not be in the cards today. By the halfway mark, Newgarden had pulled out a 1.2 second lead over O’Ward , followed by Rosenqvist, McLaughlin, Herta and 2023 winner Marcus Ericsson.
Unfortunately, Ericsson’s day would end come to an end as he pitted on lap 53, mechanical issues plagued his car. Shortly after his Andretti crew pulled the engine cover, his day was officially over. By lap 65 the leaders were making their final pit stops. Newgarden, who had built a 3.6 second lead over O’Ward dove in first and was quickly back out. But it was Herta who played his pit stop strategy perfectly with a well timed stop that saw him jump up into third place.
The final incident of the race occurred on lap 69 when Romain Grosjean hit Linus Lundqvist from behind causing the rookie to spin into the barriers of turn ten breaking his rear wing. Lundqvist was able to get his stalled car restarted and limped back to the pits for repairs and finished the race. Grosjean wasn’t so lucky. After the stop and go penalty he incurred for causing the crash, the transmission in his car failed causing him to park the car.
On lap 73 the restart happened and Newgarden proceeded to motor away from O’Ward and the rest of the field. With Herta holding off McLaughlin while trying to hold onto third place he slid, and McLaughlin pounced on the opportunity to grab the final podium spot with Power sneaking past as well to claim fourth place.
IndyCar:
Firestone Grand Prix Of St. Petersburg: