IndyCar set for incredibly rare appearance in 2022 opener

The 2022 IndyCar season is scheduled to get underway this afternoon on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida, marking the first February start in nearly two decades.

Following an exciting Saturday afternoon qualifying session, the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is set to get the 17-race 2022 IndyCar season, the first 17-race season since 2019, underway this afternoon on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida.

With today’s 100-lap race around the 14-turn, 1.8-mile (2.897-kilometer) temporary street circuit, IndyCar is set to see its first February start in nearly two decades; this track has not hosted a February race since the 2003 CART season.

The most recent season to begin in February was the 2004 season, which began on Sunday, February 29. Excluding leap years, no season had begun in February since the 2003 CART season started on Sunday, February 23, making the start of the 2022 season the earliest in the last 19 years.

Interestingly enough, on-track competition has actually begun in January before, and January starts have been even more common than February starts.

The Indy Racing League began in the month of January back in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000. Prior to this run of January starts, the sport hadn’t begun a season before March since 1971, when the USAC Championship Car season started on Sunday, February 28.

There is one drawback to this schedule, however, and it’s the fact that races are set to be scarce until the series travels to the Racing Capital of the World in mid-May.

After today, the next race on the calendar is scheduled to take place at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday, March 20, three weeks from today; Texas Motor Speedway hasn’t hosted a March IndyCar race before.

Then three weeks later, the streets of Long Beach, California are scheduled to host the next race on Sunday, April 10. Three weeks after that, Barber Motorsports Park is scheduled to host the next race on Sunday, May 1. In its first 11 races, the track never hosted a race outside of April.

Only after this race are the gaps between races set to shorten, with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course scheduled to host a race on Saturday, May 14 and the 106th running of the Indy 500 scheduled to take place on the track’s oval on Sunday, May 29.

Tune in to NBC at 12:00 p.m. ET this afternoon for the live broadcast of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg from the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida, and make sure you don’t miss this opportunity to start your free trial of FuboTV!