President of HRC US David Salters says that the organization will regroup, analyze and see where they can improve for the next NTT INDYCAR SERIES events at The Thermal Club and the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach following a tough season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St Petersburg presented by RP Funding on Sunday where their best result was a fifth-place finish for the Honda-powered No.26 Gainbridge Dallara driven by Colton Herta.
David Salters commented saying:
Not a great day in the office. Sometimes racing is like that. We’ll regroup, analyze and see where we can improve.”
HRC had four of their cars in the top-ten with Colton Herta ending the day in fifth place and speaking following the action, the Andretti Global driver said:
So, a top-five finish to start off the year – it’s overall a solid finish. Obviously, we would’ve liked to have finished higher up, but given the circumstances I’m happy with fifth. We’ll try to build on that and improve.
Alex Palou in the No.10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda came from 13th on the grid to finish the race in sixth place and speaking following the action, the defending series champion commented saying:
It’s not an amazing day at the office, but I’m happy finishing two positions better than we did last year. We were struggling at the start of the weekend, so it was an amazing recovery by Chip Ganassi Racing, the #10 car team, Honda and everyone. I’m happy that we finished in the top six. It’s great, a great start. Looking forward now to Thermal, but especially the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.”
Felix Rosenqvist was seventh and speaking following the action he commented saying:
We started on the alternate tire and I’m not sure that was the right strategy. At that point you are not sure if they are going to hold on or not, so you can’t be super aggressive the first stint. Then it seemed like after that a lot of people used their alternate tires. We only had one set and had to stick it out on blacks. We had one little hiccup in the pits, that cost us a little bit. Considering all that we had a pretty solid day, maybe a top five in it. I’m super happy with the whole team effort at Meyer Shank Racing. Brilliant first week together even if it was only P7. We went into the weekend just saying if we get a top ten we are in it and solid points to start out the season.
Scott Dixon in the No.9 PNC Bank Honda was the last Honda-powered driver in the top ten in ninth place and speaking following the action he commented saying:
“It was a bit of a bland day. I thought we had a good situation at the start and then it all kind of closed down to go off-track to make sure that we didn’t hit anybody. There was just no tire degradation so there wasn’t as much racing as I would have liked. Ultimately, I think the PNC Bank crew should have had a fifth, sixth or seventh, so it’s not the absolute best way to start the season.”