IndyCar
2022 NTT INDYCAR SERIES Season Preview
ST. PETERSBURG, FL (Pittsburgh Racing Now) – The 2022 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season kicks off with this weekend’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. This is the 18th year of the event, whose 1.8-mile, 14-turn, temporary street course uses part of the Albert Whitted Airport and city streets. The three-day event generates $48-million dollars annually in economic impact for the St. Petersburg area a.
Colton Herta is the defending race winner. Previous winners entered in the event include Josef Newgarden (2019 & 2020), Will Power (2014 & 2010), Helio Castroneves (2006, 2007 & 2012) and Graham Rahal (2008).
Chip Ganassi Racing enters 2022 as the team to beat. CGR is going for their third straight season Championship after Alex Palou won his first in 2021 and teammate Scott Dixon won his sixth in 2020.
CGR is no stranger to winning multiple titles in a row. Jimmy Vasser, Alex Zanardi and Juan Pablo Montoya reeled off four straight titles from 1996 thru 1999. Dixon and Dario Franchitti also took home four straight Championships from 2008 thru 2011. Zanardi and Franchitti are the only CGR drivers to capture back-to-back titles and Palou is looking to join that elite company.
Dixon finished fourth in last year’s title battle with teammate Marcus Ericsson finishing in sixth place. Dixon took home a race win and Ericsson picked up his first career win and added another victory in the inaugural Music City Grand Prix. Palou visited three victory lane three times, giving CGR 6-wins in 17-events and three drivers in the Top 6 in the Championship.
“It’s been a good progression for me in my three years in INDYCAR, just getting better and better,” said Ericsson. “Last year was really a breakthrough year for me with a couple of wins and another podium and a very solid season.”
The fourth member of the CGR squad, Jimmie Johnson, is running the full-season in 2022 after only running the road and street course races in 2021. Johnson’s steep learning curve was marked by gradual progress as he began to get more familiar with the race car and the racetracks. Johnson is looking forward to returning to race tracks with some familiarity.
“I feel like last year, Detroit there was Race 1 and 2 and a huge improvement from day-to-day so experiencing that first-hand I know that this year is going to be so much better,” said Johnson, who has a documentary film crew following him around this weekend.
Herta and Andretti Autosport could be primed to challenge CGR for the top spot. Herta tied Palou for the series-high in wins with three but finished 5th in the Championship standing.
Alexander Rossi returns to the No. 27 Honda for Andretti and looks to regain Championship contender form after going winless the past two seasons.
Andretti has added Romain Grosjean to the team. Grosjean replaces Ryan Hunter-Reay in the DHL Honda. Grosjean, like Johnson, will also benefit by going back to racetracks for the second time.
The Team Penske trio of Josef Newgarden, Will Power and Scott McLaughlin return for 2022. Newgarden finished 2nd in the 2021 Championship standings and will be looking to add a third title to his considerable resume. The only thing missing from JoNew’s resume is an Indy 500 win.
Power’s 2021 season could be characterized as blindingly fast at times coupled with bad luck (Detroit Race 1) and some not-so-stellar driving.
McLaughlin, like Grosjean and Johnson, visited many of the race tracks for the first time in 2021 and looks to take the next step in his development. McLaughlin showed flashes of what could be with a best showing of second in the first Texas race.
Another team with significant changes on and off track is Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. RLL is in the finishing stages of building a new team headquarters in Indiana. RLL has added Jack Harvey and Christian Lundgaard to the driver roster to be teammates with Graham Rahal.
Meyer Shank Racing is expanding to two full-time cars with 4-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves being joined by Simon Pagenaud in the two-car squad. Castroneves ran a limited schedule in 2021 and Pagenaud finished 8th in the Championship in his last season with Penske.
Arrow McLaren SP is seeking some consistency. Pato O’Ward is unquestionably one of the series rising stars who has been blinding fast…..at times. O’Ward’s teammate Felix Rosenqvist had a dismal 2021, finishing 21st in the title fight. Rosenqvist struggled finding a set-up that fit his driving style but with Craig Hampson atop his pit box in 2022, expect to see improvement.
“I think something that is pretty big on my radar is consistency,” O’Ward told Pittsburgh Racing Now. “I feel like our good races were great. Our bad races were horrendous. That’s what we need to bring up and that will help us overall in the Championship.”
“I’m really psyched,” said Rosenqvist. “I just want to get out there. I feel like we worked really hard in the off-season.”
Dale Coyne Racing returns with new drivers and a new partner. Takuma Sato moves over to DCR with Rick Ware Racing after spending the last few seasons with RLL Racing. Rookie David Malukas moves up from IndyLights and joins DCR in partnership with HVM.
Conor Daly is full-time in 2022 driving for Ed Carpenter Racing where he will team once again with Rinus VeeKay and Carpenter, who will run the Indianapolis 500.
“It’s crazy to think the last time I was full-time with one team was 2017, life changes a lot in five years,” reflected Daly, who brings new partners Bitnile and Earnity into the series in 2022. “I think there is a lot of exciting things going on with Earnity, a new app that you can download, it’s crypto-trading that you have access to and you can follow me on it.”
A.J. Foyt Racing also has a couple of new drivers who will join returning veteran Dalton Kellett, who will be back in the No. 4 K-Line Insulators USA Chevy. 2021 IndyLights Champion Kyle Kirkwood will be behind the wheel of the No. 14 ROKiT Chevy and Tatiana Calderon will be behind the wheel of the No. 11 ROKiT Chevy on the road and street courses.
Juncos Hollinger Racing is back for 2022 and will campaign Callum Ilott in the No. 77 Chevrolet.
Watching the NTT INDYCAR SERIES will be easier for some folks this year as a majority of races will be on NBC Network TV with a couple on USA Network as the NBC Sports Network (NBC-SN) has been shuttered.
All races will be broadcast by the INDYCAR Radio Network on SiriusXM Satellite Radio Channel 160.
INDIANAPOLIS, IN (July 2, 2026) – Six-time Series Champion Scott Dixon is leaving Chip Ganassi Racing following the conclusion of the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series Season the team announced in a statement Thursday before the series races at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Complex this weekend.
MADISON, IL (Sunday, June 7, 2026) – The king of World Wide Technology Raceway has returned to his throne.
Josef Newgarden won for the sixth time in 11 starts at the 1.25-mile oval just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, enduring two rain delays during the race Sunday night to win a feverish, fascinating Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline. The victory was Newgarden’s second this season, as he also won in March at the 1-mile Phoenix Raceway oval.
SEE: Race Results
The two-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion has captured 15 of his 34 career victories on ovals shorter than 1.5 miles. This win came as he was still recovering from a lower leg injury suffered two weeks ago in the 110th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge.
“Great job to the group,” Newgarden said. “Just a methodical night. We had a good car to start. It wasn’t perfect, but it really came to us just when we needed it. It was a track position day.”
Newgarden, who started eighth, drove his No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet to victory by .6613 of a second over the No. 28 Delaware Life Honda of fellow Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericsson, who still managed a season-best finish. Christian Rasmussen finished a season-best third in the No. 21 Splenda Chevrolet of ECR.
Rinus VeeKay continued the trend of season-best finishes by ending up fourth in the No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet, with Scott McLaughlin rounding out the top five in the No. 3 DEX Team Penske Chevrolet that featured a throwback livery honoring the 2009 Indianapolis 500-winning car driven by Helio Castroneves.
Newgarden took the lead for good on Lap 221 after a spirited duel with Rasmussen that began almost immediately after a restart on Lap 212. Rasmussen dove under Newgarden in Turn 1 for the lead on Lap 215, but Newgarden drove past Rasmussen in Turn 3 for the top spot on Lap 219.
One lap later, Rasmussen again drove under Newgarden for the lead in Turn 1, one of his race-high 38 on-track passes. But Newgarden countered again in Turn 3 one lap later for a lead he would not surrender. It was the most decisive of an event-record 268 passes for position in this frantic race.
Ericsson sped under Rasmussen for second in Turn 3 on Lap 225 and set his sights on Newgarden. But one lap later, a plume of smoke trailed from the No. 4 Combitrans Amazonia Chevrolet fielded by A.J. Foyt Enterprises for Caio Collet, who was enjoying the best race of his rookie season by leading seven laps and running consistently in the top five in the second half of the race.
That triggered the last of four caution periods, with another wrinkle to concern Newgarden and the lead pack. A host of trailing cars entered the pits for fresh Firestone Firehawk tires, while the top eight cars stayed out.
McLaughlin made a spirited charge toward the front on the restart on Lap 234, climbing from ninth to fifth in just four laps. But the Kiwi and the other cars that pitted for tires didn’t have enough traction from the fresher rubber or speed to challenge the top four down the stretch.
Meanwhile, Newgarden maintained a gap of around one-half of a second over Ericsson over the closing 10 laps and never was threatened.
“You’ve got to give a lot of credit to Marcus,” Newgarden said. “I thought he was incredibly strong. I don’t really think there was much between us, so it was a matter of who was going to get position on each other, and that was going to seal the deal. He drove a great race.”
Said Ericsson, seeking his first win since March 2023 at St. Petersburg: “I’m very proud of our performance, but at the same time it’s tough to lead that many laps … I thought we had it at some points, but Josef is the best in the business on these short ovals.”
Two red-flag periods totaling 50 minutes kept strategists’ heads spinning on the pit wall as various permutations and fuel options were considered.
Chip Ganassi Racing rolled the dice earlier in the race by calling NTT P1 Award winner Alex Palou and his teammate Scott Dixon to the pits to top off fuel as soon as the pits opened after the first red flag period, which lasted 38 minutes. The hope was to get enough caution to need one fewer fuel stop than rivals or be out front when a race-ending rain shower arrived.
But neither happened, and Palou paid the price dearly.
The four-time series champion entered the pits on Lap 203, two laps after Dixon had to enter a closed pit for emergency service as his No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda was running out of fuel. Palou’s No. 10 HRC Chip Ganassi Racing Honda sputtered when it entered the pit lane and ran out of fuel, and he was forced to coast to his pit box for a stop made even longer when his engine wouldn’t refire.
Palou’s car restarted, and he returned to the track to finish 17th. The two short oval races this season have been Palou’s Achilles’ heel. He finished 24th after contact in March at Phoenix, and that result and tonight’s disappointing showing are his only finishes outside of the top seven all season.
Reigning series champion Palou’s lead in the standings was trimmed to 49 points over Kyle Kirkwood, who finished sixth in the No. 27 Sam’s Club Honda of Andretti Global.
The next NTT INDYCAR SERIES race is the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America on Sunday, June 21 at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
MADISON, IL (June 6, 2026) – Alex Palou and the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing team are continuing to lay down fast laps when it counts with Palou earning the pole position for Sunday’s NTT IndyCar Series Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway. The pole position is Palou’s fourth straight NTT P1 Pole award.
“It was incredible and so much fun, especially that first lap,” said Palou, who turned a two-lap average speed of 174.353 mph in the No. 10 HRC Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. “The #10 Honda Honda had so much speed. The team I have around me is incredible. My car was on rails today; it was incredible.”
David Malukas starts second in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet after a two-lap average of 173.244 mph. Malukas could only look on in disbelief as Palou knocked him off the pole.
Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood starts third in the No. 27 Sam’s Club Honda following a two-lap average of 173.206 mph.
“ It was a good run for us,” said Kirkwood, the 2025 WWWT Raceway winner. “P3 is a really good starting spot and we can definitely do some great things from there. Last year we won from 10th, so it’s nice to be able to be at the front.”
2026 Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge winner Felix Rosenqvist starts fourth in the No. 60 SiriusXM Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Honda.
Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin will start 5th in the No. 3 Dex Imaging Chevrolet.
Palou’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon starts 7th in the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda and CGR’s Kyffin Simpson will start 14th in the No. 8 Sunoco Honda.
Television coverage of Sunday’s Bommarito Automotive Group 500 begins at 8 PM CT / 9 PM ET on Fox. Complete, flag-to-flag race coverage also will be available on the INDYCAR Radio Network, and SiriusXM INDYCAR Nation (Channel 160).
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