Practice times are the times drivers get when they drive around the track before the actual race. They help everyone see who is going fast and how the cars are doing.
The Mazda Miata is a small, fun car that is easy to drive and really enjoyable on twisty roads. People like to race it because it's light and handles well, making it a great car for beginners and experts alike. It's also known for being reliable and not too expensive to fix.
The Craftsman Truck Series is a type of car racing where drivers race specially made pickup trucks on tracks. It's a popular racing competition where people watch trucks race fast around a track.
The Indy 500 is a big car race held every year where drivers race around a big oval track to see who is the fastest.
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Hi, it's IndyCar Dad, and this is the IndyCar News in five minutes.
Here's what happened in IndyCar this week.
Everything's about St. Pete this week.
It's an opening race, and teams and drivers are traveling down here.
I'm writing this on Friday evening after practice one, so we'll have some idea of what's happening.
The first part of the news is Prima was a no-show.
I think most people knew this was coming, but they just didn't make it here, so that's
a bad sign.
We can look closely at some practice times.
IndyCar releases like the top practice times, but they're combined times.
So if one of the individual sessions is slower than the other, which they generally are,
because one's on a colder track, then it mass some things.
So we can talk about who is fast in each of the sessions.
In the first session, Scottie Mack was fastest with Polo, Malukas, Ericsson, and Scott Dixon
making the top five.
In the first split group, Kiffin Simpson was actually the fastest, which is kind of interesting.
Then Polo, Marcus Armstrong, so that's three Chip Ganassi kind of cars right up front.
Razrysson and Malukas were fourth and fifth.
In the second split, we had Scott McLaughlin, who's been fast all weekend.
Felix Rosenquist, Kyle Kirkwood, Marcus Ericsson, and Renus VK was in the top five.
So interesting thing there.
Ganassi cars are fast, and Reddy cars are fast, or a couple of them.
Noted absences in the top five, there's no McLaren's.
They haven't showed speed in testing earlier in the season, and the results here aren't
awesome yet.
So we'll see what happens.
And also, the rookies are really struggling.
The best rookie was 17th place, Dennis Hauger, and Mick Schumacher's in 23rd, and Kyle
Klutz in 24th.
So the rookies are not doing well yet.
In fact, ROL is really struggling.
Graham's fastest in 19th, Foster's 22nd, and Mick is 23rd.
So the worst showing by any teams by far.
Hunko's is way better, and Dale Coint's way better, too.
And Will Power isn't quite sorted yet.
He's 18th overall, so hopefully that'll start to gel for him.
All right, so that's practice.
There's some interesting things this weekend.
Some former IndyCar races are in the support races.
Sebastian Borde, who lives near here, will be racing in the Mazda Miata Cup, which is
all bangin' and bustin'.
And then Dario Franchitti and James Hinchcoff will be in the Craftsman Truck Series.
That's all bangin' and bustin'.
So it should be really interesting to see some of the support races.
I was looking forward to the truck qualifying and practice today because it was gonna rain.
But as soon as it started raining during practice, someone crashed and they just shut the whole
practice and qualifying down.
So they announced they're gonna decide what to do.
So we'll see.
Hopefully they don't line up the cars for a race based on season points because that'll
put Franchitti and Hinchcoff way in the back because they haven't run, you know?
So, anyway, in other news, Alex Palau, McLaren, and Chip Ganassi settled all their lawsuits
and all that sort of stuff.
So that's overdone and all that.
In funny news, Fox released a survey done with the drivers and asked them who they were
most likely, most comfortable being racing alongside of.
Scott Dixon won that one.
But then they asked who they were least comfortable racing alongside of.
And Christian Rasmussen was voted least likely.
The funny thing is Roman Grosjean was voted second least likely.
And he didn't even race in the series last year.
So I'll tell you what we're in for this year.
In boring news, the 8,500 ticket design was revealed.
Guess what?
It's got last year's winner on it.
It always does.
And sponsor updates, Palau's Resigned Solo Cup.
Rosenquist is running a Tom Petty car based on the XM thing.
Mixed shoe markers is sponsored by some super expensive carbon fiber bike company.
And Marcus Armstrong signed Remax Real Estate.
So that's pretty good.
Indy cars are going to get some flaps so they don't come off the ground if they spin sideways
at the Indy 500.
So that's a little technical news.
And then on the driver's side here in St. Pete, I've heard there's a few drivers that
are walking around talking to teams looking for 500 rides.
I know Connor Dailey's here because I saw him.
I also heard Linus Lundquist is here.
And I'd love to see him back in a car.
And I also heard that Devlin Di Francesco's here.
So there you go.
That's it for IndyCar news in five minutes.
And we're off to the practice qualifying and racing tomorrow.
And I'm very excited about it.
Thanks.
I'm IndyCar Dad.
You can find me on Instagram where I'll post in more stuff, including reviews of food at
the racetrack.
And then I'm on TikTok for some reason, even though I'm old and it doesn't really make
a lot of sense.
I'm there.
And of course, you can find me on all the podcast networks and on YouTube.
Thank you.
About this episode
The latest IndyCar news focuses on the St. Pete opening race with practice session highlights showing strong performances from Chip Ganassi and Reddy teams, while rookies and McLaren struggle. Notable absences and team challenges are discussed, alongside updates on support races featuring Dario Franchitti and James Hinchcliffe. Legal disputes between Alex Palou, McLaren, and Chip Ganassi have been resolved. Driver survey results reveal Scott Dixon as the most comfortable racer to be alongside. Technical updates include new safety flaps for the Indy 500, and several drivers are seeking rides for the big race. The episode also touches on sponsorships and ticket design.
The IndyCar News in five minutes covers the St. Pete opening practice session insights, rookie struggles, support races, driver comfort, and sponsor updates.
