Written by Dan Jones
After six months of no competitive on-track action, IndyCar finally returned, kicking off the 2025 season on the Streets of St. Petersburg, which saw Álex Palou victorious on the St. Petersburg streets for the first time. Dan unpicks all the major winner and losers from this weekend's action.
Winner: Chip Ganassi Racing
The Streets of St. Petersburg had been a bizarre anomaly in the success of Chip Ganassi Racing in recent years and decades. IndyCar's most dominant team in recent decades had only ever been in victory lane twice in the 22 year history of the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, in 2011 and 2023 - and even the latter was in particularly fortuitous circumstances. Neither of those victories had come in the hands of Álex Palou and Scott Dixon.
So what better way than to lay down a gauntlet with the pair finishing one-two in IndyCar's season opener, the team's first since Mid-Ohio 2023. Palou was superb once again and reminded any doubters why he is the first driver in 14 years seeking a three-peat of championships. It's a drive we've become accustomed to seeing with Palou, quietly finding his way to the front and never looking back, but it never fails to take your breath away.
Dixon on the other hand was "pretty pissed off" at failing to claim his first victory on the Floridian streets, a radio issue causing him to be undercut by Palou and see the win fall out of his grasp. Dixon may be disappointed, but it also reminds people that he is certainly not past his best and cannot be overlooked for the title. Dixon has tended to start seasons slowly before picking up momentum late on in the season, although it was not victory, it puts Dixon in very good stead for the season ahead.
Winner: Josef Newgarden
Just 12 months ago, this race seemed to signify a refreshed and refined Josef Newgarden as he dominated the opposition on his way to victory lane. The subsequent, controversial disqualification that same six weeks later started a downward spiral that would signify the course of a horrid 2024 for the double-defending Indianapolis 500 champion.
And this weekend was exactly the weekend that Newgarden missed in 2024. Qualifying a fairly average 10th, Newgarden's No.2 stand executed the correct strategy, elevating the American into second place, following a fantastic move on Scott Dixon, before major fuel concerns on the final lap forced Newgarden to relinquish second to Dixon on the final lap.
This was a big weekend for Newgarden to get through. Asked multiple times across the weekend if the events of 2024 were a bigger motivation for him, Newgarden had a clear stance of "no." It feels like a weekend where Newgarden got the absolute maximum at his disposal, and there were few weekends you could pick that out in 2024. It's an excellent way to kick off a season where he needs to re-find his form.
Winner: Rinus VeeKay
Just a few months ago, Rinus VeeKay's IndyCar future looked in severe doubt after he was suddenly dropped by Ed Carpenter Racing. He found a new home in the series' smallest team, Dale Coyne Racing, a team that had been through extreme turmoil throughout the course of 2024, and needed a clear driver lead, and VeeKay stepped up to the mark fantastically in the season opener.
VeeKay came straight out of the blocks in qualifying, reaching the Fast 12, a feat that none of the nine Dale Coyne Racing drivers in 2024 achieved, including beating the likes of Pato O'Ward and Will Power in his qualifying group. It could have been a flash in the pan, but VeeKay had a quietly mature drive in the race finishing in ninth place, the teams best finish since David Malukas claimed at Portland in 2023.
The Dutchman is already providing that stability that the team were crying for heading into 2025 and sets an excellent benchmark for the team going forward. For a driver who looked destined to be out of a seat coming into the new year, a ninth place finish is a near-remarkable result.
Winner: FOX Sports
After millions of dollars had been invested into promoting FOX Sports' coverage of the series, including three adverts at the Super Bowl, it was essential that FOX's coverage would be strong, and more importantly, that ratings where a significant increase on what they were with NBC.
And a 45% increase on St. Petersburg viewership figures from last year is an excellent start to the FOX-IndyCar relationship with a total of 1.4 million viewers - the most direct for a race outside the Indianapolis 500 since 2011. Albeit, numbers are virtually identical to that of the 2022 race.
The broadcast added some excellent new features, such as the usage of drones and more on-screen display features. The booth clicked excellently in what seemed to be more of a 'relaxed' environment and was a good viewing experience. Things weren't perfect, but it'd always be unrealistic to expect that in the first weekend of coverage. It's an excellent start in many metrics, but with even more potential for things to blossom.
Loser: Will Power
The next few races are some of the most critical in Will Power's career, and for the first one to end in the barrier after three corners is not the start to the season that Power needed. With Power in a contract year, and David Malukas tipped as Power's replacement in the No.12 Penske, the start to the season is absolutely essential for Power, as the team are known for wrapping up contract deals early - teammate Scott McLaughlin's future was secured during the St. Petersburg weekend.
The incident was your typical opening lap St. Petersburg incident. Admittedly, Power was slightly clumsy careering into the back of Nolan Siegel, but nothing more than that. However, in a period where results matter, Power cannot afford more weekends with these sort of results.
Maybe the saving grace for him, on this occasion, is that Foyt and Malukas did not have a good weekend, the Lithuanian-American finishing down in 13th, but Power can only control his own performances, and cannot rely on what Malukas does for his own future. The next few races have become even more important for the two-time champion.
Loser: Colton Herta
This weekend really felt like a 'what could have been' for Colton Herta. There's no secrets that street circuits have always been the Californian's forte, claiming victory on the streets in 2021. And he started the weekend well, qualifying second, and when the caution came out after the opening lap crash, Herta looked in an excellent position after starting on the alternate tyre.
As we have unfortunately become so accustomed to, Herta's strong position would fall away, this time through no fault of his own. A slow pitstop before a fuel error, which forced him to come in for an extra stop to top up meant that Herta finished a lowly 16th on one of the venues that he was the favourite for victory on.
As Herta said on Saturday, "You can't really have that many bad races. Maybe one. If you kind of blow it here, you're putting yourself in a hole for the rest of the year." It wasn't Herta's fault that it was blown, in fact, the maturity he displayed in trying to get something out of the day was commendable, but after the championship favourite won the opening round, Herta has an immense amount of work to do.
Loser: A.J. Foyt Racing
Santino Ferrucci assertively stated pre-season that himself and A.J. Foyt Racing could challenge for a championship in 2025 after a much-improves 2024 season which saw Ferrucci finish in the top ten 11 times. With the onboarding of David Malukas, things only looked on the up for A.J. Foyt Racing. 13th and 14th was not the season opener that they were looking for.
Qualifying was always a sore point, even through the successes of last season, but the pair qualified 17th and 19th respectively, and were both consistently anonymous through Sunday's action, finishing four tenths apart from each other in the final finishing order.
A championship claim can't be taken fully seriously after such an underwhelming performance in the opening round of the season. It does remain unclear on what the departure of Michael Cannon may mean for the team, an individual believed to be highly responsible for the team's upturn in performance. Heading into future rounds, the team must prove Ferrucci's claims with their actions on-track.
Loser: The event
This really wasn't a classic. It's now been consecutive years where the Streets of St. Petersburg have displayed a fairly underwhelming start to the season after six months of off-season, and if the series are trying to bring in a wave of new fans, underwhelming season starts does not bode well for viewer retention.
Yes we were in for a nail-biting finish as Palou was stuck behind Sting Ray Robb with both Newgarden and Dixon in pursuit, however, the first 75 laps had little-to-no action really worth highlighting. There's a few reasons for this, the increased weight of the hybrid will naturally make it more difficult to overtake, particularly on a circuit with not many real overtaking opportunities.
The opening lap incident also took away many of the strategy options, as noted by Palou. "I would say that probably having the tire rule that we had here and that lap 1 incident kind of made the strategy a bit boring. Like you wouldn't see much stuff going on apart from those five, six cars that started on blacks. But if we wouldn't have had that first lap incident, I think it would have been a great show."
Overtaking numbers were significantly down on what they were in 2024, which is a huge disappointment after all the work into promoting the opening race of the season. The Thermal Club, where the series heads next, was also notoriously difficult for overtaking, and that was without the hybrid. It's a critical growth period for the series and they can little-afford races that aren't up to IndyCar's usual high calibre.
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