IndyCar: St. Petersburg, part two – Let’s try this again

By Asher Fair | Oct 24, 2020

Santino Ferrucci, Dale Coyne Racing, IndyCar (Photo by Brian Cleary/Getty Images) /

Seven and a half months ago, the 2020 IndyCar season was to kick off at the same venue where the season is now scheduled to conclude.

On Friday, March 13, 2020, we were a few hours away from kicking off the 2020 IndyCar season with the opening practice session for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida, the opening venue for America’s premier open-wheel racing series. Tom Brady was still a New England Patriot.

But before cars could hit the track, we suddenly became an unknown amount of time away from opening the new season — if there would even be a 2020 season — since the coronavirus pandemic had caused it to be indefinitely suspended from its initial Sunday, March 15 start date.

Over the next several weeks, race after race at venue after venue were axed from the calendar.

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Now skip ahead nearly seven and a half months.

We’ve seen a June season opener, the first oval season opener since 2008. We’ve seen five doubleheaders, including the first two oval doubleheaders since 2011 and the first three road course doubleheaders in series history.

We’ve seen an August Indianapolis 500, an Indy 500 with exactly 0 of the usual 300,000+ fans in attendance. We’ve seen three trips to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for four races. We’ve seen three races at the exact same track. We’ve seen two Friday races, one of which wasn’t even a night race. We’ve seen a new race winner, seven different race winners and the 20th different two-time Indy 500 winner.

In a season that features only 14 races, the lowest total since 2006 and tied for the lowest since 2001, it feels like we’ve seen it all.

Seven and a half months later, we have seen the season circle back to St. Petersburg, where they are suddenly celebrating a Tampa Bay Lightning Stanley Cup championship, the first since 2004, and a Tampa Bay Rays World Series berth, the first since 2008.

A trip to Tom Brady’s NFL home is now just a short trip northeast across the Howard Frankland Bridge.

So much has changed in those “few hours” until 2020’s opening practice, a practice session that only now is actually just a few minutes away from getting started.

The 100-lap Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg around the 14-turn, 1.8-mile (2.897-kilometer) temporary street circuit on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida was postponed from its regular position as the season opener to a new position as the season finale on Sunday, October 25, and that race weekend is finally upon us — just a “few hours” later.

Had this race opened the season as planned back in mid-March, it would have marked 10 straight seasons of opening the season.

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NBC is set to broadcast the 2020 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg live from the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET this Sunday, October 25. While this is not a doubleheader weekend like we have seen so often throughout 2020, the series is set to see back-to-back races at this venue, as the 2021 calendar revealed that it is back to its usual season-opening slot on Sunday, March 7.