The streets of St. Petersburg, Florida were the scene of the 2015 inaugural Indy Car event. And to the surprise of nobody it was Team Penske that dominated the street course from opening practice to checked flag. The Captain has put together one of the most dominate team programs in recent memory. Four of the best cars that racing technology can create with a crew of engineers and racing technicians that would make NASA envious, and four drivers who are like the murder’s row of Indy car pilots make this the team to beat. Brazilian Helio Castroneves is in his fifteen season with the Penske organization. At age 39, the Miami, Florida resident has 23 wins, including three Indy 500 victories. His last one was in 2009 and he wants a fourth one badly. Australian Will Power is the defending series champion. The 34-year-old is in his eighth season with Penske and is considered the team’s hotshot with 31 pole position starts, He likes to start first and stay there the whole race. At the Indianapolis 500, however, he has had eight starts, no pole positions, and a best finish of fifth place. He wants an Indy car win to add to his impressive list of records. Then there’s Juan Pablo Montoya, the 39-year-old Colombian who now resides in Miami. In 2000, Montoya came to IMS with team Ganassi and won the Indy 500 in his first start, leading 163. He moved to Formula One for five seasons where his aggressive driving style was criticized. In 2006, he joined NASCAR and raced in the series through 2013. His NASCAR career was disappointing, with only three career wins. He rejoined the Indy Car Series in 2014, hooking up with Team Penske. After a 13 year gap, Montoya started 10th and finished 5th in the 2014 Indy 500. He added a win at the Pocono 500 and seven top five finishes for a successful return to the Indy Car Series. The new man in a Penske car is Simon Pagnaurd. The 30-year-old Frenchman has impressed all the experts in the last three years driving for Schmidt/Peterson/Hamilton Motorsports, driving in the Indy Car series — particularly on the street and road courses where he has four wins in his career. With Penske technology behind him, he will be an even more formidable force to be reckoned with. It’s hard to imagine four better drivers on one team and they could very well dominate the 2015 racing season.
The race itself was fairly predicable. Will Power took the pole with a track record speed and led 80 of the 110 laps. On the 81st lap, Montoya took the lead. On lap 101, Power attempted to pass Montoya on the the tight left hand turn but Montoya cut him off, and in doing so knocked a piece of Power’s front wheel wing off. The Captain doesn’t like his team drivers to hardline each other but in this case both men came through it okay and Montoya went on to take the win — his second as a Penske driver. Power was second, Castroneves was fourth and Pagenaud was fifth. Ganassi driver Tony Kaanan squeezed in a third place, but make no mistake: Team Penske owned the 2015 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. The Chevrolet engine dominated as well. The best Honda finish was a seventh by Ryan Hunter-Reay for Andretti Racing Chevys took seven of the top ten spots. The aero kits got mixed reviews from the drivers. They have added speed to the cars but the also make the cars a bit bulkier, and in the tight road course turns that meant more contact with each other. By the end of the race, there were bits and pieces of the kits all over the track. Hopefully, the drivers will get used to them as the series goes on. The next race is the Grand Prix of Louisiana on April 12, at Avondale on the NOLA Park Circuit.