Andretti Autosport’s Kyle Kirkwood says that this weekend’s NTT INDYCAR SERIES season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St Petersburg presented by RP Funding has to be one of the most exciting moments of his career as he makes his race debut with Andretti Autosport.
Kirkwood, who has proven to be very fast over the course of the off-season commented saying:
This year’s Firestone Grand Prix of St Petersburg has to be one of the most exciting events of my career thus far. Coming into the season off of a couple of very promising tests and being back with Andretti Autosport a year out from our INDY NXT championship are just a couple of the reasons this event is so special. It’s always nice for me to kick off the year at a home-state track – there are more friends, family and local fans. St. Pete is a track I feel like I thrive on and given past results, it’s obviously a track Andretti Autosport thrives on as well.”
Colton Herta in the No.26 Gainbridge Honda is entering his fifth season in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES and looking ahead to the race this weekend he said:
It’s great to be back for the start of another NTT INDYCAR SERIES season! St. Petersburg is a very unique track for us that adds some challenges different from any of the other street circuits we go to. We’ve had some success in St. Pete before and are looking to replicate it with the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda again this year.”
Romain Grosjean in the No.28 DHL Honda enters his second season with Andretti Autosport and is looking forward to the race this weekend which he considers a home race and speaking ahead of the race he said:
I’m very excited for the season opener this weekend in St. Pete and to kick off my second year at Andretti Autosport. The St. Pete race always has good weather, good attendance and good fans, and now that I live in Florida, I consider this my home race. Winter testing went pretty well for us, now we just need to continue the work we’ve already put in place during the offseason and hopefully come away with some good results.”
Devlin DeFrancesco in the No.29 Capstone Honda is looking forward to his sophomore season as an NTT INDYCAR SERIES driver and looking ahead to the race this weekend he said:
“I’m very much looking forward to getting in the No. 29 Capstone Honda for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES opening round on the streets of St. Petersburg. We had quite a successful test in Sebring recently and we learned a lot of things. We know what we need to do on a street circuit like St. Pete and we’re looking forward to getting going. It’s my first time working with Ron Barhorst as my race engineer and we have a strong car and crew, so we will just keep building on everything we learned as a team last season. Excited to see what we’ve got this weekend.”
Andretti Autosport’s Chief Operating Officer Rob Edwards is confident the team can come away from St Pete with a win.
Wow – that was long off-season! We’re excited to get to St. Pete and back racing again. We feel good about the work we have done since Laguna Seca; certainly, testing has gone well at Thermal and Sebring. The competition in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES is always tight and there will be new challenges for 2023, not least of which will be finding clear track with 27 full-time entries. As the depth of the field continues to strengthen, every weekend is about process and details – that will be our focus at St. Pete as we look to get our season started with a ‘W’.”