GP St. Pete is a big car race held every year on city streets in St. Petersburg, Florida. It starts the IndyCar racing season and is a fun event to watch.
A street course is a race track made from normal city streets that are closed for the race. It's harder to drive on because the roads are narrow and have walls close by.
In some car races, instead of all cars starting from a full stop, they start driving slowly together and then speed up when the race begins. This helps keep things safer.
Open wheel cars are special race cars where the wheels stick out on the sides, not covered by the car's body. Because the wheels are outside, if two cars touch, it can cause crashes more easily.
The pole setter is the driver who gets to start the race at the very front because they were the fastest in qualifying. Starting first helps them avoid traffic and accidents.
A general admission ticket means you can go to the race but don’t have a special seat. You can watch from open areas like hills or standing spots.
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The first race of the IndyCar season is a great one.
Let's talk about why you want to watch the GPS St. Pete and how you can enjoy it the most.
This is your pre-race briefing for the Grand Prix of St. Pete in IndyCar.
Hi, I'm IndyCar Dad.
I'm going to help you have as much fun as possible with the races in IndyCar.
This video is going to focus on GPS St. Pete.
I hope you get the most out of your experience, whether you're at the racetrack or watching from home.
I'm going to brief beginners and experts alike with everything I know about GPS St. Pete.
In my opinion, there are three things we're watching during this race.
They are, one, it is the opening round of the IndyCar season.
Anything can happen.
Any possibilities are in front of us.
New drivers, new seats, drama.
Two, St. Pete is typically a pretty chaotic race.
It has a wide straight away and then a turn one, two, three, and then four complex that really has to sift the cars through.
It gets chaotic.
Sometimes there's bumping and banging.
Sometimes the car gets unfortunately knocked out.
It's very, very exciting start of the race.
It happens at 12.30 on Sunday, 12.30 Eastern time.
And you want to watch that.
The third thing that St. Pete offers, it involves a lot of strategy between tires and pit stops and fuel economy and fuel usage.
So there's a lot of strategy going on and IndyCar just recently changed the tire rules.
So that's going to throw everybody's winning strategy of the past out the window.
And it's going to force all of the teams to rethink what they're doing at the GP St. Pete.
All right, it's the opening round.
The GP St. Pete is a great kickoff.
If you're attending it, you can expect a fun festival atmosphere.
There's going to be warm temperatures.
It's a great track to walk around in.
Nothing is too far from each other and it's a great atmosphere.
Also, every driver is going to be hungry for every position.
The St. Pete Road course is a street course.
It's a great place for passing.
It's also an unfortunate place if you make contact with one another.
So generally some cars are going to get knocked out of this race.
It's going to be exciting.
So if you're watching from home, you can expect a bunch of chaos.
It's going to be a chaotic race.
It's also a chaotic broadcast because it's the first one of the season.
And even the commercials won't be the same old, same old.
It's the first part of the season, so maybe we'll get some new commercials.
Otherwise, I'm tired of safe life repaired, safe life replaced.
So, all right, let's talk about which drivers to look for, which ones are in very new places.
My favorite one to talk about this year is going to be Will Power.
Will Power got squeezed out of his ride at Penske, one of the top teams,
and he landed himself into another one of the top teams at Andretti.
Now, I love Will Power.
He's the best qualifier in the history of IndyCar.
He's a two-time champion and he's an intense dude.
This guy has no slouch.
And a lot of people will see Will Power winning a race as a huge redemption arc.
The other thing about Will Power is he's historically very fast at St. Pete.
So, watch Will Power.
Another person to watch is David Maluchus.
David Maluchus is the person that's in Will Power's old car.
So, he's now with Penske, one of the top teams.
He's not a road course or street course specialist, more of a shorter oval guy,
but we're going to see what he can do in this Penske car.
So, where Will Power and David Maluchus end up?
It's going to be interesting.
All right.
Another driver to watch is Romain Grosjean.
Romain Grosjean, also known as the Phoenix, is a Formula 1 racer.
He came to IndyCar and he did three seasons before.
There's a lot of bumping and banging and some of them didn't really rub the other drivers the right way.
In a lot of cases, sometimes even feuding with his teammate.
And Romain was out of the series last year, but he's back in this year.
So, where Romain Grosjean goes, excitement happens in a good or a bad way.
So, he'll be someone to watch.
And the final person to watch is a guy named Mick Schumacher.
If that name sounds sort of familiar, that's because his dad was Michael Schumacher,
the eight-time Formula 1 world champion, arguably the best driver in the modern era.
So, Mick is his son.
He spent some time in Formula 1 as well.
He was Formula 2 champion and he graduated up to Formula 1, but with a terrible team and that ended.
So, he's kind of on a redemption arc himself over here at IndyCar driving fast cars again.
So, it's going to be very exciting.
So, all right, let's talk about the start.
The start is my favorite part of St. Pete.
Do not be late for this race.
Turn one and two are as busy as any corner all season long.
It's the start of a new race.
It's the start of a new season.
Drivers are in new cars and it's an all-new ballgame.
They say you can't win a championship in the first corner.
You can lose a championship in the first corner and St. Pete is the type of place that will take it away from you.
The race, I think I found out, starts at 12.29.
So, have your popcorn ready and be in your seat.
All right, now I'm going to talk to like beginners or people that have never watched the IndyCar before.
So, if you've never seen a race that has a rolling start, I will explain how it works to you.
So, a rolling start, like in Formula 1, you do a standing start.
The drivers all line up and the lights go out and they all leave at the same time.
But a rolling start works differently.
They use it in IndyCar because standing starts are more dangerous with this many cars on track.
So, a rolling start lets them have a safe start with this with 25 cars.
So, and the way it works is the pole sitter, meaning the number one qualifier, starts in the best position, the number one position.
And he will bring the cars through the final corner in formation.
He does this by getting next to the guy in the number two position and slowing down.
So, these cars will be coming around that last corner slowly.
There's cones that will designate the beginning and the end of a start zone.
Somewhere in that start zone, the pole sitter gets to jump on the gas.
He decides when.
Everyone else is trying to figure out when he's going to do it because as soon as he jumps, they want to jump.
And that starts the race.
If they, unless they really screwed up, in which case the starter will wave a yellow flag and make them do a do-over.
So, unless they really screws it up, the pole sitter gets to jump the field.
And this will help him get to turn one faster.
Now, not everybody's a good pole sitter and some people are really good at anticipating when he's going to jump.
So, anything can happen.
But all of these cars are going to be charging down to that first corner.
Watch for drivers to pull out of line to try to make a pass of the guy in front of them.
Watch for drivers to pull out of line.
Stop that guy from passing them.
Chaos into turn one.
So, turn one is going to be a right-hand turn.
So, cars on the inside are going to try to get to that apex faster to make the pass.
But turn two comes up immediately afterwards and it's a left-hand turn.
So, if that driver doesn't get clear of the other car, he's going to find himself on the outside for the next corner.
And then, guess what?
Turn three turns right again.
So, all the snaking and weaving and cars with open wheels, if they bump into each other, bad things can happen.
Very, very exciting start.
So, look for that.
Run up to the green flag.
Look for the pole setter to get his jump and then see how it all happens right behind him.
So, all right.
So, one thing that can happen at St. Pete is bad things can happen at St. Pete.
So, it's not uncommon for early part of a race for there to be some sort of accident.
Then accident will bring a caution, which means a yellow flag.
The yellow flag waves and everybody drives slow so the safety teams can go out there and see if the drivers are okay
and to get all the crashed equipment off the track.
So, it's at this time when teams will have to decide on their pit strategy.
Sometimes early in a race, and this might be one of those races, the teams want to change tires almost immediately.
If that happens, some cars are going to come into the pits.
Other cars might stay out.
So, if a car at the back of the field stays out and everybody else comes into the pits,
that guy at the back might end up in first place.
For us, everyone else ends up second through 25th place, but with new tires.
Then we have a sitting dock situation.
So, anyway, if there's a yellow flag, the chaos not only happens on track,
but it can then happen in the pits as well and it can happen right after the yellow flag
when some cars stayed out and might have worn out tires, which makes the cars slower.
So, yellows breed yellows, which means if there's one yellow flag,
the chaos that ensues later could result in another yellow flag and it's all very exciting.
So, there you go.
Let's talk about tires because there's an important new tire rule in IndyCar this year for street courses and road courses.
So, in IndyCar, we have two types of tires.
They like to call them primary tires and alternate tires, but the better term for them is hard tires and soft tires.
Officially, hard tires are called primaries, they're black, they're all black, and they're harder,
which means there might not be a sticky, but they last longer.
Then, for street races, there's green, softer tires called alternates.
These tires, think of them as gummy and stickier.
They stick to the track better, but that gumminess wears out quickly.
So, green tires might be faster for the first two laps or the first five laps,
and then they might be slower than black tires for the next ten laps,
and if you run them too long, they might blow up.
So, teams on green tires are going to be very concerned.
And there's a rule this year, the new rule is that each team has to run green tires two times during the race,
which means they're going to make at least three pit stops.
It also means that they're going to try to figure out how long these green tires last before they're slower,
and how to get off of those green tires as quickly as possible.
So, green tires give you blast of speed, and then they go off or they dig.
You'll hear that term a lot, dig, which means degradation, meaning they're getting slower,
they're wearing out, they're losing rubber, and sometimes they'll even get a blister,
which means a chunk of tire is kind of bubbled up and falling off, and sometimes they'll even blow out.
So, watch the broadcast, they'll be talking about those green tires a lot.
The green tires and this new rule are just going to result in even more chaos.
Alright, so we talked about the green tires and how you have to get two sets of them on the car.
Well, an interesting thing about green tires is each team only gets five sets of green tires for the weekend.
Five sets, so let's count down.
Five sets, you have five sets, you want to use one tire for practice just to set the car up for qualifying it for the race,
because you're going to spend time on those green tires, so you want to know how many laps they last.
One sets down, you're down to four.
Qualifying has three sessions.
You use one set to try to get into the top 12 to advance to the next round.
Boom, now you have three.
You use one set to try to get into the fast six to get closer to the front at the start of the race.
Boom, some of the teams are down to two sets now.
Now you've got six cars out there that are going to try to get the pole position.
If they use another set of fresh green tires, boom, and what's left for the race, one new set,
which means they're going to have to, at some point during the race, put on a used set of green tires.
Now that won't be every car, a maximum of six cars will have to do it,
and probably just a few that try to get the pole position will use up a set of green tires that they really could have used in the race.
So that'll be an exciting story.
We're going to find out before the race starts who's got two sets of green tires left and who doesn't.
Very interesting stuff.
So that's sort of tire strategy that's going on at the race.
So as far as strategy goes, there's really three things that will dictate how a car will finish in this race.
One, is the car fast, meaning is the driver doing well?
Has the driver dialed in the car?
Has the crew chief and engineers and damper specialists set up the car to run fast?
Is the car fast?
It's very important to winning race, right?
But it's not the only thing.
The second thing is that tire strategy we talked about.
Are they going to get them on and off the green tires when they need to?
Or are they going to leave them out there with some blistered old tires that are going to cause a wreck or really slow lap times?
And the third thing is fuel strategy.
In races past, some of the drivers got an advantage by not using as much fuel by being a little lighter on the throttle.
And they would do one less pit stop and still finish the race.
That probably won't happen this year because of the new tire rules.
But still, it'll be something to watch out for.
Scott Dixon in particular, he was an expert at fuel saving.
And he won quite a few races by being the most efficient driver out there with the gas.
So the team that nails all three of these things, gets a fast car, does the right tire strategy, does the right fuel strategy,
and makes no mistakes, is going to win this race.
And that's something we can watch all race long.
That's really great.
Alright, so that's what the race is going to look like.
Let's talk about how to have fun at the race.
So if you've never been to a race or you've never watched a race, or maybe you have a friend that isn't,
here's my old guy IndyCar dad advice on how to enjoy watching an IndyCar race.
I call it pick three drivers.
It doesn't matter who you choose, but I want you and all your friends to pick three drivers,
and you're going to follow those three drivers for this weekend.
If you don't know any of the drivers, go to IndyCar.com,
and you can look at all pictures of them all and read their bios, and pick them from there.
My wife picks drivers because she likes their hair.
Other people pick drivers because of the brands they represent,
and other people pick drivers by where they're from.
So just pick three.
The reason you're picking three is because you're going to follow this person all weekend long.
You'll learn what their car looks like, and you'll learn to see it on track.
The reason you pick three is because if you only pick one driver, oftentimes they get knocked out,
and then you're sunk.
So having backups is really great.
I usually pick one really good driver and some lesser drivers,
and the reason I pick the lesser drivers is it's fun to watch a guy that only finishes 20th to finish 10th,
but it's not that much fun to watch a guy who wins half the races win another race.
So I like to pick them all over the map, and then just follow them.
It's really fun.
The drivers have great personalities.
They got to IndyCar because they're fast.
They also got to IndyCar because they're personable.
People back these people with their money and help them get successful.
So I like the IndyCar drivers.
I like almost every one of them.
I've met almost all of them, and there isn't one I wouldn't cheer for.
My second tip for enjoying the races is use the IndyCar app.
The app is free, and it gives you all sorts of real-time information about the race,
how fast the laps are, who's the fastest, who's in what position everybody's in,
how many laps since the pit, and what tires they're on.
Although that data is a little sketchy.
So if you see them on the broadcast, and they've got green tires on the car,
and apps as black, believe your eyes first.
But this data, lap times, fastest laps, and how many laps since the last pit,
is very, very valuable, and it adds a level of detail to watching the race
that I think is really enjoyable.
The other thing you can see on the app is there'll be like 12 drivers out there
that you can see their in-car cameras, and you can listen to their conversations
with their pit crew through the app.
So really highly recommend the IndyCar app while you're watching the race.
All right, let's talk about people going to the race.
What are you going to bring, right?
Well, St. Pete is unlike a lot of IndyCar races
where you're not allowed to bring in food and drink.
You cannot bring food and drink into St. Pete.
So I think in the past I brought an empty water bottle,
but this isn't a place where you can bring in 18 beers, you know?
There's a lot of food and drink choices in the track, but it gets expensive.
So my advice is eat before you get there.
You know, like a breakfast of like waffles, bacon, and eggs for your kids.
And then to carry a backpack, maybe stash a few small snacks inside there,
and then go to the track.
So leave your rotisserie chicken in a 12 pack of Bud Light at home
because you'll just be feeding into the security guns.
So that's the food sitch.
Here's some other things that you'll want to bring.
I bring a backpack.
It's the easiest way to carry everything around and it leaves my hands free.
But I definitely will bring sunblock.
I'll bring my glasses.
Prescription sunglasses are really nice
because the video boards are far away and all the detail I want to see.
I will carry one of those emergency ponchos like a cheap disposable poncho
just in case it rains.
I find them to be really small and handy to use.
Umbrellas are not really great at the track because you bump into other people
and your water just ends up dripping on the person next to you.
But a poncho is really great.
It directs the water down to the ground.
Take my advice, please.
Ear protection is a must.
I'm an older guy.
I'm 56 years old and I've lost 40% of my hearing
and guess what?
I'll never ever get it back.
And I lost that hearing by doing two things.
Going to the racetrack and riding motorcycles.
Not even loud motorcycles.
Just the wind noise did it.
And both places I could have and should have
and was told to wear ear protection when I was younger
and I didn't.
And now I'm almost handicapped because of that.
Hearing aids are in my near future.
They're going to cost a lot of money and to be in pain in my butt
because I didn't wear ear protection for very short periods of time.
So you take my advice, wear some ear protection.
I'll stop preaching.
You're going to want your phone while it keys, right?
A power bank is a good idea if your phone's not going to make it through the day.
You definitely want to wear comfortable shoes.
Make sure your girlfriend's in comfortable shoes.
If you're a guy watching this, you're bringing a girl to the races.
The worst thing you can do is let her show up in flip flops
or anything uncomfortable.
You're going to be walking and walking and walking.
So comfortable shoes are a must.
A hat is a really great idea.
Keep the sun off your face.
It's just comfortable that way.
I'm bringing a water bottle.
I can refill it at the track.
There's a few places.
And make sure you have a credit card.
A lot of the places at the track no longer take cash.
So here's some extra things you can do just to kick it up a notch and have a better time.
Noise canceling headphones are a great addition.
They keep everything around you quiet and let you listen to just the broadcast
or just the driver's radio or just your scanner.
I bring a handheld scanner.
I program it with the driver's frequency so I can hear what's going on.
It's usually pretty good.
Sometimes though, honestly, the IndyCar app is just as good.
I'll bring an extra layer of clothing because I'll be there from early morning
until early evening.
So I'll probably actually wear the extra layer of clothing when I get there at 8.30 in the morning
and take it off and put in my backpack.
I like to wear swag on my driver, my favorite driver.
Mainly because if I bump into him, I know he'll be happy to see me because it shows him a fan.
All right.
Go into the Grand Prix of St. Pete.
Here's where to park.
You can park at Tropicana Field.
It costs $30 and they have shuttles go into the track like all the time.
It's totally what I would do if I was there with little kids
because little kids can hop on a shuttle bus and they're happy to sit down and take the ride.
Also, when you're done, the race is over, the shuttle bus will be right there.
There's no long walks involved, which is really good for short legs.
Me personally, I won't have kids with me this weekend.
My kids are on college.
So I will be getting there early, which I wouldn't do with kids.
And I'll park close to the track as I can and try to even find a free space.
But I think Tropicana Field is a really good idea.
If you're attending Friday or Saturday, the parking situation is going to be easier.
Saturday, I'm not sure where the NASCAR truck race, but Friday parking is a cinch.
There's parking garages right near downtown.
You can park on those and not too bad.
So let's talk about where you want to watch the race from.
You might already have your tickets.
You might not.
But if you have a choice of where to sit, I like the grandstands by turn one.
I don't have a seat there this year, but those are a great place because turn one is very exciting.
Also, I recommend grandstand tickets to people who bring kids to the races at St. Pete.
Some races like Middle Ohio, a general admission ticket, put you on a hill.
We have a nice view downward, no matter how small or tall you are.
But St. Pete is very flat.
So if you're not the tallest person, it's very difficult to see ahead of you.
And so that really affects kids.
So I think a grandstand seat is a really good idea if you have kids.
I'm sorry, I know parenting is expensive, trust me.
But it's just one of those deals.
There's not a lot of great spots to watch as a kid at St. Pete with general admission tickets.
So turn one grandstands are my favorite.
Pit lane grandstands are good too.
I like the ones closest to pit exit, which is near turn one.
So PL7 would be my choice.
There are some grandstands at turn 10, I believe.
Not my favorite, but still okay.
There's a good video board over there.
Me, I'm not going to be in the grandstands.
My friend from the military got my tickets.
You might have heard of him.
His name is General Admission, and he's friends with my wallet.
So general admission folks, where are we going to watch?
So if you have GA tickets, there's a number of places you can watch.
I'm going to rank them top to bottom.
Turn one is my favorite general admission place.
There's a small area between the bleachers and the bridge.
And it's an exciting place to watch the race, but it can be overcrowded,
and it can also be hard to see over the barriers.
So the video board is also kind of far away,
but it's probably where I will watch the start,
and I'll have my glasses with me to see far away.
So my second favorite spot is the speed zone,
which is an area between turns four and five,
and turns nine and 10 straight away.
They have this good action there.
This turn four has good action.
There's also two separate video boards so you can stay in touch with the race.
My third favorite place is Festival Plaza.
It's right in the middle of the track, and there's a lot going on over there.
There's also a lot of places to sit and lean and things to look at.
You can see a little bit of the track from there.
Even kids have a little bit they can look at.
And there's a big video board where there'll be a lot of people watching.
So it's kind of got a part of your atmosphere in Festival Plaza.
My fourth favorite spot is to turn four.
It has a beer garden.
It's elevated slightly.
It has a good view.
The only problem is it's usually packed.
So drivers break hard at turn four.
There's passing there, and sometimes there's crashing there, so not bad.
My fifth favorite spot in front of the bleach is at turn 10.
There's a general admission area.
Again, it's flat there, so you can't see all that well.
It's not typically a huge place for passes either,
so it's not my immediate favorite spot.
And then Pioneer Park is at the far north end of the track.
There's corners there, but the viewing is not that great,
and there's no video board.
There are food trucks nearby, so not my favorite.
All right, so that's if you're at the track.
My people at the track, but I have some advice too for home viewers.
One, get your snacks in order before the race start.
I think I've said it before, but this is going to be an exciting race start.
So get your snacks ready.
Two, the race is on Fox, so that means it will be broadcast over the air.
If I have compared the streaming signal from my cable provider with the over-the-air picture,
it's night and day difference.
The over-the-air picture is crisp, clear, the sounds fantastic,
has all the channels so it comes through the sound bar and everything,
and it's quicker.
There's usually a delay through the streaming that I don't like.
I like to have the app open, and I like to have the TV open,
and they're not going to be synced up immediately or really great,
but they're a lot closer when you watch over-the-air,
so I like the antenna.
So use that IndyCar app, try to see your drivers on board,
try to see some stats, look at who's doing well,
who's on what tires, and who has pitted last when.
And then if you're looking for IndyCar discussion online to follow,
the Reddit IndyCar subreddit is the best.
So reddit.com's IndyCar community, I think has the best discussion,
people say the funniest things and on Reddit,
and I think it's the liveliest.
So I would have that open as well.
So phone open with the app, laptop open with Reddit, TV on with the antenna,
or you can stream it too,
especially if you can't get Fox via antenna.
So there you go, that's everything I know about the IndyCar GP of St. Pete.
I'll be there if you see me there, say hello, I'm very friendly,
and I'd love to hear that you're one of my 50 or so listeners.
I started this channel now that my kids went up to college,
I hope I can show you how to have a good time at the races.
I'll do a few more of these this season,
and I really appreciate you tuning in.
You can find my podcast on all the podcast networks,
the video version of it's on YouTube,
and I'm active on Instagram,
and last night I started a TikTok, I don't know.
But I appreciate everyone of my followers,
I don't have that many, but I'm trying.
Thanks for watching.
About this episode
The Grand Prix of St. Pete kicks off the IndyCar season with high stakes, chaos, and strategic complexity. Key highlights include the unpredictable opening race dynamics, the challenging street course layout that often leads to collisions, and new tire rules requiring teams to use softer 'green' tires twice, adding fresh strategic layers. Notable drivers to watch are Will Power, David Maluchus, Romain Grosjean, and Mick Schumacher, each bringing unique storylines. The podcast also explains the rolling start procedure and the impact of yellow flags on race strategy, making it accessible for both newcomers and seasoned fans.
Are you ready for the most chaotic race of 2026? St. Pete is not only the opening race of the INDYCAR season, but also often one of the most exciting. With a wild first four turns and a big change to tire strategy, we are heading for a great race.
In this Podcast Indycar Dad tells you his tips for enjoying the race whether you are watching from home or at the track.
