Josef Newgarden in the No.2 PPG Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet put on a dominant display at the 2024 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St Petersburg presented by RP Funding on Sunday.
The Tennessee native started the race from pole position and led 92 of the 100 lap race.
Newgarden came home 7.9121s ahead of Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward to claim his third St Pete victory and his 30th career victory surpassing Penske legend Rick Mears and passed 4,000 career laps led.
Speaking following the race, Newgarden said:
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. Just really thankful to the No. 2 PPG Chevy team for the effort they’ve put in to start the year. I should say the entire off-season to get to this point. It’s been a big process for us to try and come back and be better in areas that we were weak last year, and I touched on it earlier in the weekend, but Chevrolet has done a tremendous job for us. They’re a huge part of the equation. They’re a big lift for us coming into this weekend, and I think on the team side, we’ve also lifted our game and cleaned up a lot of areas where we were maybe not at the level we needed to be.”
Scott McLaughlin in the No.3 Dex Imaging Chevrolet who won here in 2022 started the race from ninth place and through to complete a double podium for Team Penske coming home in third place.
Speaking following the action he said:
Great day for the DEX Imaging Chevy. We were really super strong, but I’m really proud of the whole team. The 2 getting the win. Well done to those guys and girls on the team. And then you’ve got with us in third and (Will in) fourth. Me and Will (Power) were pretty bummed after qualifying yesterday. We really had cars to put in the Fast Six. Glad we were able to bring it up to the front and get both podiums. We’re getting close to one-two-three podium for the Penske team, so we’re strong for that.”
Will Power in the No.12 Verizon Business Chevrolet started the race from eighth place and came home in fourth place completing a Chevrolet 1,2,3,4.
Speaking following the action, Power said:
“We kind of expected to be strong with the No. 12 Verizon Business Chevy. Lot of improvements in the offseason, the Chevy engine is really good and there was a lot of work also on the car. So, it was fun at the end and obviously we could push him. A lot of fuel save there at the beginning and the yellow fell at an unfortunate time which made it a bit more of a follow the leader sort of race. If it was extended by 10 laps like it used to be, then you would have a very big fuel window for the race.”