IndyCar: Saturday Morning Report from St Petersburg

Good morning from St. Petersburg for day two of running the NTT INDYCAR Series and the INDY NXT series.   The weather should be the same as yesterday, sunny and in the low 80s.

Friday afternoon’s practice session was pretty windy for the drivers.  During the 75-minute session, a cloud cover kept the atmosphere comfortable.  We did see a fair number of rain tires prepared for the weekend, just in case, but I don’t think we will see any precipitation today.

It is interesting to see where the rookies ended up in the weekend’s first practice session.  Marcus Armstrong, the driver of the #11 Chip Ganassi Racing entry, was the fastest of the four rookies in ninth position.  The young  Kiwi is interested in running the Indianapolis 500 but is not running the ovals this season.  Veteran Takuma Sato will run the ovals in the #11.

Agustin Canapino, the driver of the #78 Juncos Hollinger entry, ended up in  19th position at the end of the session.  The 33-year-old Argentine was impressive for his first time on an IndyCar track.

Sting Ray Robb, the #51 Dale Coyne Racing driver with RWR, had a 24th position.   The young American did an excellent job of keeping his machine off the walls during the 75 minutes.

Benjamin Pedersen, the #55 AJ Foyt Racing driver, held the last position.  After a red flag early in the session for an off-course excursion in Turn 4, the young driver kept running his laps.  He ran on the new green alternative tire, the replacement on the street courses this season for the red tire.

Practice is scheduled for today at 10 am ET.   Qualifying will start at 2:15 pm and will be live streamed on Peacock.

Lucille Dust reporting live from St Petersburg, FL