The IndyCar hybrid powertrain continues to be a talking point around the series, eight months after its initial introduction halfway through the 2024 season.

Drivers have largely adjusted to the new driving controls, and teams are still adjusting to the added costs the high-tech system has brought to each entry.

As he approaches 150 race starts and is in the middle of his 10th season in IndyCar, Alexander Rossi talked about what he feels are the pros and cons of the hybrid system in its current form.

“I have a list of cons,” said Rossi with a smile, implying that he was only half joking. “The pros are [the car now] starts itself. You can start yourself.

“The biggest thing is, I truly believe this, this isn’t a marketing PR line, it lays the foundation for future manufacturers to come into the sport.

“It’s no secret that the car market, the automotive market, the world market, in terms of automobiles has changed over the past decade.

“With the current format of engine that we have, it also makes perfect sense that a manufacturer wouldn’t want to necessarily come in and try and catch up to 10-plus years of development of an existing power train, right?”

Not attractive, but impressive

Largely, the hybrid system has not brought about much in the way of visible differences to an outside observer.

Lap times are very similar, the added weight nearly canceling the added power, and there is no discernable sound difference either.

But there are many new components under the side pods and inside the bellhousing that work together and allowed the hybrid system to function with minimal flaws during its first few events.

The technical achievement of the electrified power system is the main area where many see the series has moved forward.

It is this area that Rossi believes will benefit the series in the long run, with reliability from the outset combined with the promise of more visible power delivery in the future standing out.  

“The hybrid, while it might not be that attractive in its current guise, I think in terms of what we’ve done from a reliability standpoint is pretty impressive. What we did last year in terms of implementing a hybrid mid-season and the honestly lack of failures – .

“You’re going to have failures in race cars in every capacity. There wasn’t mass hybrid failures in the championship season. That was a huge win.

“You bring that forward to this year, and because the reliability has been so robust, we can start to incrementally increase the performance, increase the load and duty cycle on it throughout a lap and get more power, which we already saw at St. Pete. At St. Pete, it was already a much more effective tool than it had been at any point in 2024.

“While I think the list of pros now from a performance standpoint is short, I think it’s going to grow. I think for the long-term future health of the series, it doesn’t matter what the cons are at this point because it’s pretty clear that manufacturers want hybrids to be involved.”

Rossi has logged five top 10 finishes since the hybrid was introduced, including a 10th place run with his new team Ed Carpenter Racing in the opening round of the 2025 season.

This May, he will look to use the hybrid system to continue his top 5 streak at the Indianapolis 500 that stretches back to 2022.

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Devlin DeFrancesco’s livery for the upcoming Indianapolis 500 will be decided by an online vote.

The 25-year-old driver will have primary sponsorship from Dogecoin for the event, with the cryptocurrency group dictating the look for the #30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda this year.

DeFrancesco has been a supporter of Dogecoin for multiple seasons, but this is the first time it will serve as a major sponsor for him in the Indy 500.

“Super excited to have Dogecoin with me for the Indy 500!!” said DeFrancesco on social media. “My journey with Dogecoin started in 2020!! Excited to see what the future holds!

“I first invested in Dogecoin in 2020 and drove everyone crazy, telling anyone who would listen that they needed to own it. It’s not only my favorite crypto, but the plan to become a global currency and drive payment adoption is awesome.

“I’m pumped to be part of the community and an ambassador for the vision.”

There are three livery choices available for fans to choose from. Each has a brightly colored theme, and has the sponsor’s Shiba Inu mascot located in multiple locations across the car.

“Blaze” is the title of the first option, with yellow, orange, pink, and purple cascading down the car with blended transitions.

The second option features light purple and light blue, reminiscent of 1980’s styling. The “Turbowave” option has hard lines between the two colors in a more traditional layout.

The third option, titled “BananaBoost,” is similar to the second option but features bright yellow instead of purple and is paired with light blue.

Fans looking to vote on the designs will need to navigate to the dedicated indycar.dogecoin.com website and choose their favorite.

Results will be announced next week on March 26, giving the team enough time to properly prepare the car design ahead of Indy 500 running.

Open testing for the Indy 500 takes place on April 23-24, and the race itself takes place the following month on May 25.

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The NTT IndyCar Series has announced a date for the first running on the new Grand Prix of Arlington street event, which will take place in one year’s time.

It was previously announced that the new event would take place in early 2026, but the race weekend has now been solidified as taking place 13-15 March.

The event looks set to have a typical road course weekend format, which includes cars on track for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Drivers will navigate a 2.73-mile street course that weaves around the Dallas Cowboys NFL stadium and the Texas Rangers baseball venue, which sit next to each other squarely between the large cities of Dallas and Fort Worth.

A layout for the track was previously announced, with slick promotion materials showing off the backdrop that will be recognizable to a wide range of sports fans in the US.

“As someone who calls this area ‘home,’ I’m super excited to see the NTT IndyCar Series coming to DFW,” said Santino Ferrucci, a Dallas-area resident.

“The course layout is really unique and will let us reach top speeds, making the racing incredibly exciting for all the fans.”

The race being placed on the third weekend of March means that it is likely to be the second race on the 2026 IndyCar schedule, two weeks after the normal timeframe for the series’ traditional first round on the streets of St. Petersburg.

The street course also effectively takes over from the Texas Motor Speedway oval, which is only 23 miles away and lost its IndyCar race dates beginning with the 2024 season.

Other race dates on the 2026 IndyCar calendar have not yet been confirmed, although it is almost certain that the 110th Indianapolis 500 will take place on May 24, 2026, Memorial Day weekend.

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Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has announced that Takuma Sato will attempt to qualify for this year’s Indianapolis 500 in the team’s #75 entry.

Sato has contested every Indy 500 since 2010, including the past couple seasons as he has wound down his full time IndyCar career.

He continues to race in the biggest event on the calendar, and will do so again this year in an attempt to qualify for his 16th race.

“I’m very excited to return to the 109th Indy 500 with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing,” said Sato.

“Once again, a heartfelt thank you to Bobby [Rahal], Mike [Lanigan], David [Letterman], and the entire organization for this incredible opportunity. I’m also deeply grateful for the continued support from AMADA as the primary sponsor, alongside Panasonic Automotive Systems, Niterra, Deloitte Tohmatsu, NAC, Honda, HRC, and all our loyal sponsors.

“The new #75 car carries over RLL’s historic design with a refreshed and dynamic new livery – it looks absolutely stunning.

“Last year was an incredible experience, reconnecting with the team, and this year, even more familiar faces have joined the effort, which makes this moment even more special and gives me great confidence. I can’t wait to get to work.”

Sato has won the Indy 500 twice, once with Andretti Autosport in 2017 and a second time in 2020 while driving for RLL.

This year will be the seventh time the veteran Japanese driver has raced the famous race with RLL and the odds of him picking up a third win look good, but for the latest odds, fans should look on sport betting VulkanSpiele for great deals.

The 48-year-old will have backing from Amada America, and his car will look similar to last year’s livery which he took to a 14th place result.

Sato’s entry makes for 34 confirmed entries for this year’s Indy 500, which means that qualifying bumping will take place once again.

The added drama brings an extra level of entertainment to qualifying weekend, during which one driver will be sent home without having a chance to start the race.

The 109th Indianapolis 500 takes place on May 25, with television coverage being provided by FOX.

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This past weekend FOX produced its first IndyCar broadcast of a new partnership, televising the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and showcasing Alex Palou’s jumpstart on the 2025 season.

The broadcast was the culmination of an offseason filled with heavy investment by the network, which included the production and wide distribution of multiple high-quality commercials featuring the sport’s top drivers.

Though there was a lot of work that led up to the first race of the year, the early races of the season can be seen as a precursor to the Indianapolis 500 in late May.

IndyCar’s marquee event traditionally draws five or more times the television audience, and fans regular fill over 300,000 seats to watch the race in person at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Speaking during the St. Pete weekend, FOX Sports CEO Eric Shanks talked about plans already in motion for the Indy 500. He also gave a preview of the ambitions he has towards increasing the prevalence of wagering on the outcome, building on the model used in horse racing.

“We are going to blow the doors off of Indy,” said Shanks. “We’re going to bring everything that FOX has to bear.

“We have personalities that we probably haven’t announced yet, but there will be an enormous amount of FOX personalities and non-FOX personalities doing everything that you could imagine there. We’re going to be cross-promoting with our other sports, and I think we have a two and a half hour pre-race show that day.

“The other thing with the 500 that I’m working on really hard with these guys is I really want to turn the Indy 500 into more of a Kentucky Derby day from a wagering standpoint.

“It’s hard to understand how to wager on motorsports. You just kind of don’t get it, but on Kentucky Derby day even if you don’t know anything about horseracing, you put down an exacta or a trifecta, you got win, place, show.

“How can we figure out how to get that type of broad attention around an event that honestly kind of feels a lot like horseracing that day? That kind of stuff we’re working on as well and hopefully have an announcement in the near future.”

Wagers on races are already available to the public in the US, with fans in many states being able to put money on the winner of the most popular motorsports events right from their phone.

It seems that Shanks and FOX would like to have more focus put on the wagers available, however, in order to draw in people that are not necessarily fans of IndyCar.

The 109th running of the Indianapolis 500 takes place on May 25, with Josef Newgarden looking to become the first driver in history to win the event in three consecutive years.

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Indianapolis Motor Speedway has pulled back the curtain on the ticket design for this year’s upcoming Indianapolis 500.

The tickets will prominently feature last year’s winner Josef Newgarden, which is a tradition that has been in place for many years.

Fans will notice attention to detail on the new ticket design, specifically the numerous references to Newgarden’s back-to-back accomplishment, which is stylized as ‘BACK 2 BACK’ and highlights his car number.

There are double images of the driver’s #2 Team Penske Chevy, two images of his victory lane celebrations, and a list of all six instances of a driver earning consecutive victories in the history of the Indy 500.

No driver has won the famous race three times in a row.

“It’s very cool to be here in the Indianapolis International Airport,” Newgarden said at an event unveiling the design.

“Indiana and Tennessee are my two homes, so the fact we have the Indianapolis 500 in Indiana and the [NTT IndyCar Series] championship finale in Tennessee is a great parallel. To top it all off is seeing this beautiful ticket from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Indy 500. It’s an incredible-looking ticket.

“To see my likeness on there, to see our team represented, it’s a very special feeling. You don’t know if that day will ever come when you drive into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

“The fact we’ve been able to pull it off twice, back to back, and that it’s been celebrated on this ticket, I’m super, super thankful.”

IMS still produces and mails out physical tickets for the marquee event, famously inside light blue envelopes, which allows fans to keep souvenirs of their attendance each year.

The 109^th running of the Indianapolis 500 takes place Sunday, May 25.

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FOX Sports has released viewership numbers for the opening round of the 2025 IndyCar season, showing a sizeable increase over last year’s event.

According to the network, Sunday’s race from St. Petersburg averaged 1.417 million viewers and peaked at more than 1.8 million.

The race reached approximately 45% more people than last year’s season-opening round, which reached 975,000 through broadcast partner NBC.

The 1.417 million figure ranks it very highly among the series’ historic television viewership numbers, and makes it the most watched IndyCar event outside of the Indianapolis 500 since 2011.

For comparison, the 2024 Indy 500 averaged over five million viewers. The marquee event is an outlier, however, and the other races from 2024 averaged just 637,000 viewers per event.

There was a lot of interest in the television ratings for the first race of the series’ new partnership with FOX Sports.

FOX has invested considerable resources in IndyCar over the past few months, including producing multiple high-quality commercials that have been run during the Superbowl and played often on all of FOX sports’ other broadcasts over the past few months.

The network also brought in well-known commentator Will Buxton to be the lead presenter, hoping to bring in new viewership from multiple different areas.

At least for the first event, it appears that the extra investment has worked. Many fans tuned in to watch Alex Palou secure the early advantage as he tries to win his third consecutive championship.

The network will continue to monitor viewership closely to see if interest in the series continues throughout the year.

Every race of the 2025 IndyCar season will be broadcast on the network’s main FOX channel, which helps make it accessible to anyone who wants to tune in.

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Scott Dixon finished in second place for the opening round of IndyCar’s 2025 season, but he was still unhappy after the race was over.

The veteran revealed after his podium celebrations were complete that he had run nearly the entire race with no radio communication.

Instead of managing the 100-lap event through constant communication with his engineer, Dixon was forced to use his vast experience to manage his own race while sitting behind the wheel.

With only one early caution period to dictate strategy, he simply waited until his car was nearly out of fuel to complete each pit stop. He discovered that pitting one or two laps early would have gained him precious seconds and potentially fight for the win.

“Yeah, no radio for the entire race,” said Dixon. “It was kind of tough just to see what we were doing, mileage-wise. Once the first caution happened, it was going to be a strict kind of two-stopper.

“Kind of worked on the warm-up laps and kind of for the first 10 and that was about it, but ultimately cost us the race, with not coming in when I should have.

“You have a fuel light so you can run — you know when the car is going to run out. I didn’t know if they could hear me, so I was just telling them I’m just go to run to the light and see what happens. Ultimately I think for me, it was just one lap too long.

“We caught that traffic with about five or six cars and lost about two or three seconds on that in lap, so that was a bit of a nightmare.

“Yeah, I don’t know. Car was good. I think pit stops were really good. I think all around, we had good speed. Anytime that we had clean air, we could definitely stretch out, but spent most of the race in dirty air.

“It’s kind of the first time I’ve ever done a whole race without a radio, so that was interesting. Glad we got some good points and a nice one, too, for the team.”

If Dixon had any fewer than 25 years of experience, his dilemma could well have cost him more. Securing a podium despite the situation would make nearly any other driver happy.

But all Dixon could think about was the win that got away.

“I’m pretty pissed off. We had a good race going and we didn’t get it done. So it doesn’t feel good, that’s for sure.”

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The first race of the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season took place on Sunday with the traditional streets of St. Petersburg hosting the exciting series for the 21st time.

In what has become a recurring theme, Alex Palou ran an error-free race that allowed him to claim victory from an eighth place starting position.

Scott Dixon and Josef Newgarden rounded out the podium, with each driver battling through issues that prevented them from taking the top spot for themselves.

READ MORE: IndyCar St. Pete – Full Race Report

The wildest moment of the race took place on the very first lap, with Will Power, Nolan Siegel, and rookie Louis Foster all tangling as they attempted to get through Turn 3. The trio of drivers were all forced to retire on the spot.

Teams did all they could to utilize the softer tire compound Firestone brought this weekend, but it ended up degrading too quickly and few were able to stay on them for longer than 10 laps.

The next race on the IndyCar calendar takes place in three weeks’ time, with a tilt around The Thermal Club on the docket.

The post IndyCar St. Petersburg – Race Results appeared first on Motorsport Week.

The first race of the 2025 IndyCar season took place on Sunday afternoon under picture perfect skies on the shores of St. Petersburg, Florida.

27 drivers took the green flag, including two racing for the series’ newest team PREMA. But only one driver was able to take victory at the end of the 100-lap event.

In what is a recurring theme in IndyCar, Alex Palou was able to put on a clinic and took victory to open the season.

READ MORE: IndyCar St. Pete – Full Race Results

His methodical driving skills allowed him to take care of his tires better than his competitors, and he used the strength that was left in his car to fend off a charging Josef Newgarden in the closing laps despite lapped traffic causing issues.

Despite looking like he was going to challenge for the win in the final 10 laps, Josef Newgarden dropped off the pace dramatically in the final lap.

He revealed after the race that he had fuel miscues, which caused his pit box to call him over the radio with instructions to back way off the pace so he could make it to the finish line.

Newgarden’s sudden ‘emergency mode’ call allowed Scott Dixon to overtake him and claim the second spot on the podium.

Dixon ran the entire race with no radio communication, and he felt that he could have secured the victory himself if he were able to pit at the optimal times.

The fuel miscalculation and radio troubles were the small details that ultimately determined the order of the podium in a close battle.

Early trouble

The race was barely underway before a large incident brought out the full course yellow.

As the field of 27 drivers roared through the first couple turns, track space became a premium and cars began bumping off one another.

By Turn 3, it all came to a head. Nolan Siegel had to check up for traffic ahead and was run into by Will Power.

Both drivers spun into the wall hard, with rookie Louis Foster also spinning amid the chaos as the rest of the field attempted to avoid the chaos.

All three drivers were forced to retire on the spot, having completed zero laps in the 2025 season.

The early caution meant that drivers who started on the soft compound were able to pit on the third lap to get rid of the inferior tires. All but nine drivers took the opportunity, leading to split strategies for the remainder of the race.

Once the green flags flew for a second time, the race continued without interruption for the rest of the event.

A few drivers attempted to make the soft Guayule Firestone tires last 30 laps, splitting the 100-lap race into roughly three equal parts.

That strategy did not work well, however, and they all had to come in again to change tires less than 10 laps later.

Pato O’Ward stayed on the soft tires longer than any other driver, 20 laps on a single stint. It is even more surprising that he was able to climb through the field as quickly as he did.

The young star began the race in 23rd, but worked his way up to 11th by the checkered flag. O’Ward was the most improved driver on the day.

Drivers return to the track in three weeks when the series visits The Thermal Club for a points-paying round at the luxurious club track.

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