St. Petersburg, FL (93.7 The Fan) - Team Penske's Josef Newgarden used smooth pit strategy and a fast race car to win Sunday's NTT IndyCar Series seasoning opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. The win was Newgarden's first since 2018 at Road America.
Newgarden started the race on used red alternate Firestone tires and patiently waited for his chance to employ his strategy. Newgarden inherited the lead when the cars in front of him went to pit road and then hammered out four faster laps before coming to pit road for service. Quick work by his crew got him back out front of the leaders.
"It just worked out perfectly," said Newgarden. "We really figured things out on Saturday and this Hitachi Chevrolet was a rocket ship."
Defending Series Champion Scott Dixon pitted one lap before Newgarden and his "Wolfpack" crew got the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda out ahead of Penske's Will Power, who started on the pole, and Dixon's teammate Felix Rosenqvist.
"The PNC Bank car was really fast for the first 15-20-laps," said Dixon. "It seemed like the Penske's got stronger towards the end of the stints, so we have a little work to do there."
Rosenqvist impressed in his debut, putting the No. 10 NTT Honda out front for 31-laps. Rosenqvist surrendered the lead on during the second round of green flag pit stops when Newgarden employed his strategy.
"The NTT Data Honda was really good today," said Rosenqvist. "It's a dream come true to be here and I can't thank my NTT Chip Ganassi Racing Team enough."
Newgarden and Dixon ran 1-2 from lap 55 to lap 79, with Newgarden building over a 9-second lead.
A lap later Dixon and Power made their final pit stops but Rosenqvist stayed out and hit the pits on lap 81. The strategy did not pay off as Newgarden remained out front after the leaders cycled through pit stops.
Dixon whittled away at Newgarden's lead, cutting it to just under 3.5-seconds with 10-laps to go, 2-seconds with 8-laps to go, 1.7-seconds with 7-laps to go but Newgarden had more "push-to-pass" left then Dixon and used it to defend his position, opening up a gap of almost 3-seconds by the end of the race.
Power held on for third while Rosenqvist finished fourth with Andretti Autosport's Alexander Rossi rounding out the Top 5.
The next race for the NTT IndyCar Series is the IndyCar Classic at Circuit Of The Americas in Austin, Texas on March 24th.
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