By Addison Burke, Sports Editor

  The IndyCar season officially kicked off this past weekend with a win by Team Penske driver and reigning champion Alex Palou. The race saw big moves across the board, with only four drivers not finishing the race.

St. Petersburg’s street course typically promises thrilling racing, and the 2025 season opener fulfilled that promise. The two practice sessions prior to qualifying did not provide a clear picture as to who would take pole position. Andretti’s Kyle Kirkwood topped practice one with a time of 1:00.44, with Palou just behind at 1:00.60. Practice two also saw Andretti’s Marcus Ericsson lead the way with a time of 1:00.51.

When it came to qualifying, only two big names were unable to make it through to round two. McLaren’s Pato O’Ward and Team Penske’s Will Power were both expected to be pole contenders, but fell short in the group stage.

In round two, two-time Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden only managed 10th place and Palou only reached eighth. The Firestone fast six saw all six drivers manage sub-one minute pace with Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin claiming pole position with a time of 59.46, nearly two tenths of a second ahead of Colton Herta of Andretti racing in second.

The race was action-packed from the start with Power hitting the back of McLaren’s Nolan Siegel on turn three of the opening lap. It was under a full course caution until the start of the seventh lap where racing could finally take place.

McLaughlin still held onto first place at the restart, but behind him there was some change as many drivers chose to come in for a pit stop during the caution.

Street circuits are races of high and fast evolution, so the drivers have to be cognizant of their tires throughout the race. With the early caution, the second batch of pit stops didn’t occur until about 30 laps in. McLaughlin held onto first place through lap 31 and regained first again just a few laps later after taking a pit stop.

Though no other cautions occurred during the race, Meyer Shank’s Marcus Armstrong ended his race during the 46th lap due a rear left tire issue. Armstrong started the race in fourth and was running in the top 10 until his issue.

The race did not see any major action after the withdrawal of Armstrong, but there were major overtakes to get championship contenders into the top five. At lap 66, Palou worked his way up to fourth and continued to push for first in the last third of the race. He came back into the race in fourth after a pit stop around the 70th lap.

Palou made his way up to first after McLaughlin, teammate Scott Dixon and Meyer Shank’s Felix Rosenqvist went in for tire changes. Palou held onto first for the last 25 laps to reach the checkered flag with a three-second gap between him and Dixon in second place, with Palou nearly out of fuel at the end of the race.

This year IndyCar is being broadcast under Fox, and this collaboration has brought about an advancement in the on-screen display. Fans can now gain more information about the drivers, especially when the onboard cameras are used as Fox displays visuals for the speed, throttle and brake and even what turn the driver is going into. This advancement in visuals is a way for new fans to understand more about racing and also make their own inferences on how a driver is doing beyond what is being said by the commentators.

The coveted Indy 500 may still be over two months away, but Indy Car has a jam packed 17-race season this year, leaving motorsports fans excited all year long.