Written by Dan Jones
INDYCAR. IS. BACK.
No you're not dreaming. 168 days after the chequered flag fell at Nashville Superspeedway to close out the 2024 season, drivers are ready to start their engines, the pre-race ceremonies will re-commence, and yet another incredible season of on-track racing will begin this Sunday as the show commences on the Streets of St. Petersburg in the first of 17 rounds that play host to the 2025 season.
What has happened in the off-season?
Being the first race of the season, it's only right we go through team-by-team and recap what has been a wild six months of off-season and the key changes that each team have made coming into 2025.
Team Penske are the only team with complete continuity from 2024, as they retain their line-up of Scott McLaughlin, Will Power and double-defending Indianapolis 500, champion Josef Newgarden.
Chip Ganassi Racing were effectively forced to downsize to three cars due to the new charter agreement implemented in the off-season. They retain six-time champion, Scott Dixon, and double-defending series champion, Álex Palou - who aims to become the first driver to do a three-peat of championships since Dario Franchitti between 2009 and 2011. Kyffin Simpson rounds out the three-car line-up as he moves from the No.4 entry to the No.8 entry.
Andretti Global keep their three-car line-up of Colton Herta, Kyle Kirkwood and Marcus Ericsson, and we'll once again see Marco Andretti at the Indianapolis 500. The major change at the team comes in the leadership position, as Michael Andretti, founder of the team, steps away from his day-to-day role and moves into an advisory position. Dan Towriss takes the helm as CEO, as his TWG Global group takes ownership stake in the team.
Arrow McLaren retain Pato O'Ward for a sixth season in the team, with Nolan Siegel embarking on his first full-season in the series, after signing for McLaren mid-way through last year. Christian Lundgaard makes the move from Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in the No.7 to replace Alexander Rossi. Gavin Ward was also removed from his team principal post, and has been replaced by 2013 Indianapolis 500 winner, Tony Kanaan. Kyle Larson will once again attempt 'the Double' in May.
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing signed defending Indy NXT Champion, Louis Foster, to replace Lundgaard in the No.45. Graham Rahal unsurprisingly returns to the team, with the three-car line-up being completed by Devlin DeFrancesco who returns to the series after a year out in the No.30 entry.
Meyer Shank Racing formed an alliance with Chip Ganassi Racing in the off-season, after ending their previous alliance with Andretti. With the alliance forming, Marcus Armstrong, as well as his key engineering personnel moved across in the No.66 entry alongside Felix Rosenqvist, who continues for a second season with the team. A key sponsor left the team during the off-season, so the previously striking purple cars have now become white and blue. Part-owner of the team, Hélio Castroneves will continue the 'Drive for Five' in May.
A.J. Foyt Racing had a blockbuster signing in David Malukas for the No.4 entry in the off-season, which many believe will later lead to a Team Penske seat, as the two operations continue their alliance. The team moved all it's operations to Indianapolis in the off-season, after previously splitting it's work with a shop in Houston, Texas. Santino Ferrucci continues for a third season with the team in one of the most exciting driver line-ups in the series.
Juncos Hollinger Racing signed Sting Ray Robb, after he was caught unaware that Foyt had signed Malukas to replace him. Robb joins his third team in three seasons and will be paired with Conor Daly who signed full-time with the team after impressing as a substitute late in 2024, which saw him claim the team's first podium in Milwaukee.
Ed Carpenter Racing may have had the biggest change of anybody in the off-season. New investment sees striking new yellow and blue liveries and a new logo for the team. Christian Rasmussen moves over from the No.20 to the No.21, with Alexander Rossi signing for the team on a multi-year deal after his departure from Arrow McLaren. Ed Carpenter will drop back to an Indy 500-only role.
Dale Coyne Racing saw nine drivers in their two entries last year, but that shouldn't be the case in 2025. The team signed Indy NXT vice-champion, Jacob Abel, in the No.51 entry for the full-season, as he'll be paired with Rinus VeeKay after his shock departure from Ed Carpenter Racing.
PREMA Racing will become the 11th team in the paddock and will make their IndyCar debut in St. Petersburg. They signed Callum Ilott, who had two full seasons experience with Juncos Hollinger Racing, alongside Robert Shwartzman, who will make his IndyCar debut after having great success with the team on the road to F1.
What are the key storylines for 2025?
As is always the case in IndyCar, there are plenty of stories to look out for across the course of the season.
Most importantly will of course be the title fight. Álex Palou aims to join a very exclusive club of drivers to win three IndyCar championships in a row, whilst teammate, Scott Dixon, continues his quest to join A.J. Foyt at the top of the IndyCar record books by claiming a seventh championship.
The championship spoils have been exclusively shared by Ganassi and Penske since 2012, and that could well likely be the case in 2025. Scott McLaughlin is my championship favourite after a really strong showing in 2024, but you can never discount Josef Newgarden and Will Power.
Newgarden and Power have their own storylines to follow in 2025. Not only is Newgarden aiming to become the first driver to claim three Indianapolis 500's in a row, but he also must bounce back from a difficult 2024 season, where he slumped to eighth in the championship. Power, on the other hand, enters a crucial contract year with the team and with many tipping Malukas to replace him, Power has to show early doors why Roger Penske should continue to back the two-time champion.
Colton Herta finished a career-best second in the standings last season, but 2025 could spell his last season of IndyCar for the foreseeable future, with Cadillac heavily interested in the Californian for their F1 project in 2026. Herta does have a superlicense on the line though, and is required to finish at least fourth in the standings to gain the necessary points.
Pato O'Ward and Arrow McLaren suffered a turbulent 2024, but you can never count out the excitable Mexican from a title charge. McLaren have seen performance in recent years as unsatisfactory and now must prove why they should be considered as one of the top teams in IndyCar, and that will be spearheaded by O'Ward.
The Rookie of the Year battle is always an intriguing one too, and 2025 will see that award played out between Louis Foster, Jacob Abel and Robert Shwartzman. Foster comes off the back of a very dominant title campaign in Indy NXT, with Abel being his closest challenger. The biggest unknown here is Shwartzman and PREMA who have no prior knowledge of the IndyCar scene bar a couple of test days. With such little to go off, it's difficult to understand where PREMA will stack up in the pecking order, leaving the Rookie of the Year award a huge guessing game.
Potentially the biggest storyline though will be of the series' itself. The series signed a crucial agreement with FOX Sports who will become the exclusive home of IndyCar, with all 17 races on network television for the first time. IndyCar will be the only sport in America which is exclusively displayed on network television - a huge step forward for the series' and a huge sign of FOX's intentions.
Their intentions were re-affirmed after adverts featuring Newgarden, Palou and O'Ward were all aired at the Super Bowl, the most significant event of the year for adverts. The initial impressions for FOX have been particularly strong, but will that translate into viewership?
In the booth, the team have signed both James Hinchcliffe and Townsend Bell from NBC, where they will line-up alongside Will Buxton, who will return to play-by-play broadcasting in 2025, as he aims to support IndyCar in it's expansion of the series after his great success with F1TV and on Drive to Survive.
In the pitlane, Jack Harvey will make his broadcasting debut after being unable to find a full-time seat in 2025. He will be joined by Kevin Lee, who similarly to Hinchcliffe and Bell switches over from NBC. This weekend will also see long-time NASCAR on FOX reporter, Jamie Little in pitlane. Georgia Henneberry will join Harvey and Lee later on in the year but is currently on paternity leave.
What to expect from St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg is a notoriously tricky challenge, often regarded as the most difficult race of the year from a physicality standpoint. The 1.8 mile (2.9km) street circuit is renowned for extreme cockpit temperatures, tight barriers and very little margin for error, being the home to some chaotic season openers in recent years.
When the green flag falls on Sunday, all 27 drivers will race down the runway at the Albert Whitted Airport - one of the coolest sights of the year, into a difficult opening corner, where the lanes dramatically decrease from four to one which has lead to several incidents in recent years.
It's single-file through the higher speed sections of Turns 2 and 3 before one of the best overtaking spots on the run down to Turn 4. Turns 5-9 is a fiddly single-file complex, before a tricky braking zone at Turn 10 onto Dan Wheldon Way. A quick chicane at Turns 11 to 12 and a slow speed right-hander at Turns 13 and 14 brings drivers back onto the runway and the best overtaking spot at Turn 1.
Last year's race was dominated by Josef Newgarden who led 92 of 100 laps and had seemed to have won beyond any reasonable doubt. Or so we thought. Six weeks later, Newgarden, and teammate, Scott McLaughlin who had finished third, were both shockingly disqualified for illegal usage of push-to-pass on restarts, which the team claimed had been left on from a post-season test in 2023.
It was a controversy which would outline the course of the 2024 season, but provided Pato O'Ward his first victory in over a season-and-a-half, albeit in slightly peculiar circumstances.
Newgarden has had other success at St. Petersburg though, claiming victories in both 2019 and 2020. Teammate, Power is the other two-time St. Petersburg winner in the 2025 field after successes in 2010 and 2014. Power also incredibly took nine poles in 11 years between 2010 and 2020. All three Penske's have found success at St. Petersburg after Scott McLaughlin won his maiden race here in 2022.
Graham Rahal became IndyCar's youngest-ever winner at the time when he won the race back in 2008, the last American to win the race until Newgarden's success in 2019. Andretti's Colton Herta and Marcus Ericsson are the other active St. Petersburg winners, victorious in 2021 and 2023 respectively.
Incredibly, neither Palou or Dixon have found St. Petersburg success, this venue often being the weakest of the season for both Ganassi drivers, both having a best previous finish of second - which Dixon has achieved four times!
Drivers will contest Sunday's race over 100 laps, with lap times usually around the 60 second mark. Push-to-pass will be in the spotlight after last year's events, with drivers allowed a total of 150 seconds. Different to last year's race, drivers will also have hybrid activation at their deployment.
St. Petersburg was one of several circuits to also have it's tire allotments adjusted, with drivers now receiving five sets of alternates and five sets of primaries. The split practice sessions will also return in 2025, with two ten-minute segments at the end of each practice as the field is split in half to reduce traffic on-track.
The humidity poses a challenge to the driver unlike any other on the calendar, with soaring temperatures inside the cockpit playing a huge physicality role in the first race of the season. Several former Formula One drivers have stated it's a more difficult race than the Singapore Grand Prix.
Timings for the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg
Practice starts at 15:05 local (ET) on Friday in an 80 minute session. Second practice will be at 10:15 on Saturday followed by qualifying at 14:35. Sunday's schedule sees warm-up at 9:02 with the green flag flying to commence the 2024 season at 12:29.
DIVEBOMB will bring you all the latest news and updates throughout the weekend as well as post-race action and analysis. But all that's left to wait for now is cars to be back on track, the pre-race ceremonies to begin and the green flag to commence one of IndyCar's most exciting season in years.
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