Roger Diez
The NTT IndyCar series kicked off its 2025 season at St. Petersburg last weekend with new broadcast partner FOX. All practice and qualifying session aired on FS1 and FS2, with Will Buxton anchoring the broadcasts. Former drivers Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe provided color commentary, and I found the commentators to be knowledgeable and engaging. In the race, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou demonstrated why he has won three championships in the last four years with a combination of tire strategy and brilliant driving. Teammate Scott Dixon executed a late-race pass on Penske pilot Josef Newgarden to score the first Ganassi 1-2 since Mid-Ohio in July 2003. Polesitter Scott McLaughlin finished fourth behind teammate Newgarden. The new natural-rubber alternate tires proved to be more durable than the teams had feared, with careful tire management minimizing the falloff. The series will return to action on March 23 at the private Thermal track in Colorado.
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In a move reminiscent of changes made to Watkins Glen (elimination of the “Boot”) and Sonoma (the “Chute” cutoff bypassing the Carousel), Austin’s Circuit of the Americas track has been shortened from 3.41 to 2.3 miles for NASCAR. Halfway through the esses, the new configuration turns left at turn 6, cutting off the remainder of the esses and the turn 11 hairpin leading to the back straight. Sunday’s race was lengthened from 68 to 95 laps to compensate for the shorter track length.
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I’m not sure if the new configuration was the cause, but the last 15 laps gave us some of the best Cup road-racing ever. Kyle Busch led a tight three-car battle, which became four cars when Busch’s older tires fell off and he held up Christopher Bell and William Byron as Tyler Reddick caught and joined the lead group. Busch’s tires finally gave up the ghost and he faded to an eventual fifth-place finish. Bell, Byron, and Reddick battled nose to tail to the checker in the final laps, with Bell holding off a charging Byron to take back-to-back victories. Chase Elliott had the drive of the race, coming from dead last after a lap 1, turn 1 spin to a fourth-place finish. After the race, Austin Cindric was docked 50 points and fined $50,000 for intentionally wrecking Ty Dillon on the front straight, and Kyle Larson’s lost wheel will cost his jackman and front tire changer two-race suspension.
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This weekend, NASCAR is at Phoenix International Raceway, a flat one-mile oval with a dogleg. Joey Logano leads all active drivers with four wins there, including last season’s championship race. Busch and Denny Hamlin each have two Phoenix wins with Bell, Byron, Larson, Elliott, Chastain, and Chase Briscoe with one victory apiece. Saturday’s Cup practice and qualifying air on Prime with practice at 11:05 a.m. and qualifying at 12:10 p.m. Sunday’s race broadcast begins at 12:30 p.m. on FS1.
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There are 37 entries for Sunday’s Shiners Children’s 500, among them the first woman on a Cup grid since Danica Patrick’s 2018 Daytona 500 appearance. Indy car and sports car veteran Katherine Legge will make her first NASCAR Cup start this weekend in the No. 78 Camaro for Live Fast Motorsports. She has five Xfinity races on her resume, four on road courses and one oval start at Richmond. Legge is no stranger to ovals, though, having set the fastest qualifying lap by a woman at the Indy 500, 231.070 mph in 2023. She is one of only nine women to have raced in the Indy 500 and has a varied career in Champ Car, IndyCar, IMSA, Formula E, Lemans Series, and more. She also spent 2005 as a Formula 1 test driver for Minardi.