IndyCar opens 2022 season with super rare appearance

Here we are in the month of February, and the 2022 IndyCar season has already gotten underway following Sunday’s race in St. Petersburg.

The 2022 IndyCar season got underway this past Sunday, February 27 on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, a race that was won by Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin, giving him his first career victory.

Not only did this make the 2022 season the first season to actually start as initially scheduled since 2019, but it made it the first season since 2004 to start in the month of February.

The 2004 season started on Sunday, February 29, so prior to the 2022 season, no season had started in the traditional 28-day second month since the 2003 CART season began on Sunday, February 23.

Notably, the Indy Racing League did start in January in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000. But before then, the most recent season to start prior to the month of March was the 1971 USAC Championship Car season, which began on Sunday, February 28.

The only unfortunate aspect of this year’s schedule is the fact that there are three weeks between races until mid-May.

The season’s second race is scheduled to take place at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday, March 20, the season’s third race is scheduled to take place on the streets of Long Beach, California on Sunday, April 10, and the season’s fourth race is scheduled to take place on Sunday, May 1 at Barber Motorsports Park.

After that, there are under two weeks to wait until the race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on Saturday, May 14, the first of three races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on this year’s schedule and the first of two races on the road course.

There are a total of 16 races remaining on this year’s 17-race schedule, which runs through Sunday, September 11 with the season finale at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.