'I am very excited to back in St. Petersburg and excited to be on track," said Sato, who has a best finish of fifth in four previous races. "The conditions were not very representative as usual for St. Petersburg, but still the car worked really well and we made good progress during this session. Let's hope this continues and we will work on speed for (qualifying)."
Sebastien Bourdais holds the track record of 1:00.928 in qualifying for the 2003 race sanctioned by CART.
Graham Rahal in the No. 15 National Guard car for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing was second quick (1:02.6122) and Will Power, who has earned the pole in each of the past four years, was third in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske car (1:02.6443). Teammate Helio Castroneves, a three-time winner of the race, was fourth and Simon Pagenaud was fifth in the No. 77 Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Motorsports car.
Five Hondas and an equal number of Chevrolet-powered cars occupied the top 10. The top 19 cars were separated by less than a second.
Rahal, whose victory at St. Petersburg in '08 made him the youngest winner in Indy car history, won the pole the following March.
"Overall, for our first day out I think it was a great day," said Rahal. "For us to be that competitive right off the bat feels awesome. I have to say most of all I am proud of these National Guard guys because it was only 48, maybe 72 hours ago that we had a big trailer fire and our guys did an incredible job getting everything switched back over in Indy. It was a rush, it was absolutely a rush to get down here."
The crew was to have the day off, but everyone reported to the Brownsburg, Ind., headquarters by 6 a.m. to offer assistance.
"I am proud of them and as Dad said last night to them 'through adversity comes a team' and I think we have a great group of people and I think that is going to show this year," added Rahal, referring to team co-owner Bobby Rahal.
In the first session of the season, 2013 race winner James Hinchcliffe was quickest of the 22 drivers at 1:02.9326.
DAY 1 NOTEBOOK:
Live timing and scoring reports from the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg are available on the Internet at racecontrol.indycar.com. The live timing and scoring module provides statistical information, including track segment speeds, lap information and much more.
Feature stories, reports, driver quotes and notes, and photos will be posted on the INDYCAR media web at media.indycar.com. More detailed information, including media advisories and VNF coordinates are also posted on the media web site. Media updates will also be provided on Twitter by following @indycarpr
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Sebastien Bourdais will drive the No. 11 Hydroxycut-KVSH Racing Chevrolet for KVSH Racing this season in the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
Bourdais lives in St. Petersburg - a short 10-minute bike ride from the circuit - and he led the first lap of the 2003 race on the St. Pete circuit.
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ABC will broadcast five Verizon IndyCar Series races beginning with this weekend's Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. The network will also broadcast the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Chevrolet Duel in Detroit at the Raceway at Belle Isle.
Allen Bestwick, Eddie Cheever Jr., and Scott Goodyear will be the announcers. Reporting from the pits will be Jamie Little, Rick DeBruhl and Vince Welch.
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Firestone will award $10,000 to the entrant of the car in pit lane the shortest amount of accumulated time during the race. To be eligible, cars must complete at least 95 percent of the scheduled laps.
The winner will be recognized during pre-race ceremonies of the next race.
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Rookie Jack Hawksworth is making his Verizon IndyCar Series debut at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, but he's done well in his previous races on the streets of St. Petersburg. Hawksworth won his Pro Mazda debut on the 1.8-mile street circuit in 2012 and won his Indy Lights debut here last season.
"It's been good to me here. Would be nice to continue the success," he said.
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Carlos Huertas was confirmed March 27 as driver of the No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing car for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
Huertas, 22, of Colombia, tested at Sebring International Raceway in January and February for Panther Racing as he was seeking to break into the Verizon IndyCar Series season after competing in Formula Renault 3.5 last year.
"It's not ideal; it would have been better to do the (Open) test, but the good thing is nobody has tested here," Huertas said.
Justin Wilson, driving the companion No. 19 Honda-powered Dale Coyne Racing car, was briefing Huertas at the venue. Wilson, entering his third consecutive season with the team and fourth overall, placed sixth in the 2013 championship standings.
"That was one of the main reasons we wanted to come here because he's really fast and good on road courses and ovals," Huertas said. "We need somebody to push me along and I'll listen to all he has to say."
Huertas, who competed in the British Formula Three Championship in 2009-11, is among four drivers who will compete for the first time on the streets of St. Petersburg in the Verizon IndyCar Series.
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Verizon IndyCar Series race director Beaux Barfield won't be solely charged with penalty decisions this season. According to the series rulebook, there will be three stewards (for the season opener it's Barfield, Brian Barnhart and Johnny Unser) in Race Control. Any one of them can call for a review of replays and car data, which is followed by a vote.
The senior steward will determine the severity of the infraction and issue a corresponding penalty if warranted.
INDYCAR president of competition and operations Derrick Walks said he's proposed a rotation of stewards for the 2015 season.
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Ed Carpenter found himself in a new position during Friday's practice sessions for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. The Verizon IndyCar Series owner/driver is sharing the No. 20 Fuzzy's Vodka/Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet with Mike Conway this season, so Carpenter watched his car from the timing stand.
"It was OK on the stand today," Carpenter said. "It's a little hard on days like today because we didn't do the best on track. It was a disappointing day for Mike and the Fuzzy's team. We thought we had some easy things to fix to make the car faster from the first outing this morning. But, in the second session today, the car just didn't improve enough as we wanted. Now we have to work overnight and work on things to get the car better for Mike. We need to do a better job to give Mike what he needs. The red flags can hurt a driver's rhythm during a session but it is the same for everyone. We will have to work on it now."
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Paralyzed race car driver. It's an oxymoron that Michael Johnson uses as an opportunity to educate.
"When you have an injury like this there are people and resources out there to help you live the life you want to live," said Johnson, who uses hand controls to drive the JDC MotorSports car in the Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires. "That's what I'm trying to get out there and having a lot of fun doing it."
Johnson, who is paralyzed from the mid-chest down because of a broken back suffered in a motorcycle race on Aug. 13, 2005, when he was 12 years old, made a new fan in four-time Indianapolis 500 champion A.J. Foyt. They met - along with Verizon IndyCar Series drivers Takuma Sato and Martin Plowman - at the A.J. Foyt Racing transporter as part of an event with the non-profit organization Wheelchairs 4 Kids.
"It's twice as hard for him to compete as the others," said Foyt, who's been involved in quite a few racing incidents of his own during a four-decade career. "His desire to do that says a hell of a lot. I wish him all the luck in the world."
A specialized steering wheel (he uses a lever on the left side of the steering wheel to accelerate) and braking system (pushing against the steering wheel) allows Johnson to compete against other professionals on the middle rung of the Mazda Road to Indy ladder. He was fourth on the time sheet in the first practice session on the 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary street circuit.
"(Foyt's) been in the world of motorsports for a long time and knows what it takes and what kind of obstacles drivers deal with and what kind of accidents can happen," Johnson said. "I'm really proud to have this opportunity to be where I'm at right now with the technology and show what I have. I think it's going to keep evolving from here. "
Johnson, of Flint, Mich., and JDC MotorSports will support Wheelchairs 4 Kids during the entire season with the organization's logo on the No. 54 car.
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Former Indy car driver and current ABC Verizon IndyCar Series analyst Scott Goodyear will be the first motorsports athlete to be inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame. He's already a member of the Canadian Motorsports Hall of Fame.
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If you traveled in a Verizon IndyCar Series car at race speed on the St. Pete circuit across the Sunshine Skyway Bridge spanning Tampa Bay (4.1 miles), the right-rear street course tire would rotate 2,953 times in the 2-minute, 25-second drive.
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Firestone has supplied the same street course tire compound as 2013 for the St. Pete race.
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Purdue University president and former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels took in the sights and sounds of the practice day.
VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES PRACTICE #1
At 10 a.m., the ambient temperature was 71 degrees with a relative humidity of 74 percent. Winds were from the north-northwest at 5 mph. Skies were cloudy. The track temperature was 76 degrees, according to Firestone engineers.
10 a.m. - Session is delayed for track cleanup from previous session.s
10:05 a.m. - GREEN. Session will be for 45 minutes.
10:39 a.m. - RED FLAG: #11 Bourdais is off-course in Turn 4 and in need of assistance. Car is assisted by Holmatro Safety Team and returns to pit lane under its own power and without damage.
10:41 a.m. - GREEN.
11:50 a.m. - CHECKERED.
JAMES HINCHCLIFFE (No. 27 United Fiber & Data Honda): "That first session of the season is something everyone is excited about. The track was very green and a lot of guys have something to come and hopefully, that includes us. Hopefully that means we're on the right track for the weekend." (How important is that first session): "We get so little track time and need to use every lap of testing and practice you get, so you can lollygag too much. " (Does last year's win help you today?): "I've been saying that last year is past and we need to focus on 2014, so it doesn't have much to do with last year. It's good to start the 2014 season with a good session. It show we did our job over the offseason. The guys have been working very hard and it's a good way to kick off our relationship with Honda and United Fiber & Data. It's very early days in the weekend and hopefully it means we're starting on the right foot. (What it's like to come back as a defending winner): "I think the biggest thing is just added attention when you come back as a defending winner. Whether you crashed in Turn 1 or won the race. You come in with the same mindset and that's to do the best that you can. I'd love to get another surfboard. It looks pretty good in the living room."
VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES PRACTICE #2:
At 2 p.m., the ambient temperature was 74 degrees with a relative humidity of 69 percent. Winds were from the north at 2 mph. Skies were overcast. The track temperature was 89 degrees, according to Firestone engineers.
2 p.m. - GREEN.
2:07 p.m. - RED FLAG. #17 Saavedra off course in Turn 10 and in need of assistance. Car is restarted by Holmatro Safety Team and returns to pits under its own power and without damage.
2:13 p.m. - GREEN.
2:30 p.m. - RED FLAG. #67 Newgarden off course in Turn 4. Car had an apparent steering issue under braking and car spun into the runoff area. Driver climbs from the car without assistance from Holmatro Safety Team.
2:34 p.m. - GREEN.
2:39 p.m. - RED. #98 Hawksworth makes contact with the tire barrier in Turn 12. Car continues to pit lane under its own power.
2:41 p.m. - GREEN.
3:31 p.m. - CHECKERED.
VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES POST-PRACTICE QUOTES:
TAKUMA SATO (No. 14 ABC Supply A.J. Foyt Racing Honda): "I am very excited to back in St. Petersburg and excited to be on track. The conditions were not very representative as usual for St. Petersburg, but still the car worked really well, and we made good progress during this session. I am happy with the balance and the boys and the team worked really well today. Let's hope this continues and we will work on speed for tomorrow."
JUSTIN WILSON (No. 19 Dale Coyne Racing Honda): "I'm a little frustrated that we lost a bit of performance there in the second session. We just lost a little bit and we didn't put tires on the whole session. We started on used tires and ran on them the whole time, but I think we are better than that. I'd like to think we can get into the top-10, we just have to try to get a bit more front grip out of it. The front feels pretty light everywhere so we'll just keep working on it and try a few things overnight and come back tomorrow."
HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet): "Overall, it was a good job by the Hitachi guys today and it was good to get back out there after a long offseason. We avoided any issues and Mother Nature was messing with us a little bit. We improved a lot over the course of the day and put things together for a good session in the afternoon. That was a much smoother practice and we will continue learning and improving in the Hitachi Chevy as we go along."
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA (No. 2 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet): "Not a bad day today with the No. 2 Verizon Chevy. Obviously we wanted to be a little further up the speed charts, but we knew it was going to be a learning process. This is my first time on this circuit so we had to guess a little bit on the setups. Unfortunately we unloaded pretty far off. In the second sessions we picked up a big understeer. At that point we really quit focusing on speed and just tried to get the car driving better. I learned quickly that there are places on the track where the penalty of missing it is much greater than the gain, so from a track-learning perspective I'm much better off than I was when I got here."
TONY KANAAN (No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet): "We had a very productive day with the Target team although the times might not necessarily show it. Today is the day to make changes and try a lot of different things, and that's what we took advantage of doing. We ran into some traffic and lost some time like everyone else, but that's pretty typical for a street course race. I'm optimistic about tomorrow and gaining more time."
SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet): "I think we are in a better position this afternoon than we were this morning with the Target cars. The times are all pretty tight throughout the field and I think a lot of the other teams took tires at the very end of that session, when we opted not to. We're making progress but we just need to keep working hard and be ready for qualifying tomorrow."
GRAHAM RAHAL (No. 15 National Guard Honda): "Overall for our first day out I think it was a great day. For us to be that competitive right off the bat feels awesome. I've got to say most of all I am proud of these National Guard guys because it was only 48, maybe 72 hours ago that we had a big trailer fire and our guys did an incredible job getting everything switched back over in Indy. It was a rush, it was absolutely a rush to get down here. I am proud of them and as dad said last night to them "through adversity comes a team" and I think we have a great group of people and I think that is going to show this year."
WILL POWER (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet): "It was a good day for the Verizon Team. We tried to find the right set up, going back and forth with different things, but, overall, I feel real positive about us going back at it again tomorrow."
MIKHAIL ALESHIN (No. 7 SMP Racing Honda): "We took things nice and slow this morning in the first session. I was trying to stay away from the walls and keep our car safe as I learned the track. After a clean morning session I pushed a little more in the afternoon session. We found a nice set-up in the second session. My best lap time that put me in P13 was on used tires, which is very encouraging. It was definitely a good start for us but we have a lot of work to do for sure."
CARLOS HUERTAS (No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda): "I was just learning the circuit and the car. I didn't get a lot of laps in the morning so it was good that it was dry because the race should be dry. I only ran one set of tires so I don't think it was that bad."
RYAN BRISCOE (No. 8 NTT Data Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet): "It's great to be back here in St. Pete. It was a pretty good first day back at the track. We made some good setup changes but we still have some work to do for tomorrow. I think we're on the right track.
MIKE CONWAY (Fuzzy's Vodka/Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet): "We didn't find as much as we wanted between sessions 1 and 2. We are struggling a bit to get the Fuzzy's Chevy where we would like it in terms of time. We tried a lot of things today and we'll study our data and see where we can improve for Saturday. The track wasn't as bad with the grip level. I think we can get better for the qualifying runs. We continue to learn with Ed's team and find the proper settings that I like too. It's the season opener so you would like to come out of the gate well. I know we are working hard to find the best setup."
CHARLIE KIMBALL (No. 83 Novo Nordisk Ganassi Racing Chevrolet): "We had a really good first day. The No. 83 Novolog FlexPen car made a lot of progress and we got some great data from our teammates. I have full confidence that we'll come back tomorrow strong."
JAMES HINCHCLIFFE (No. 27 United Fiber & Data Honda): "Good first day, honestly. The second session was a little bit of a tossup with the weather the way it was. We maybe didn't get as good of read as we would have liked but, at the end of the day, we weren't going the be the guys that did something silly and put the car into the wall trying to win practice. I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned up and I think a good basis to build on for the United Fiber & Data car."
RYAN HUNTER-REAY (No. 28 DHL Honda): "It was an interesting day, just never really got the flow going - it was just chopped up with red flags so we never really got into a rhythm. We should have been fifth or sixth in the second session, so still have some work to do for tomorrow and will hopefully get the DHL car up front."
MARCO ANDRETTI (No. 25 Snapple Honda): "The second session was a lot of (red flags) so by the time we got going we only had about 12 laps on the tires. That's some of (the reason for our finishing position), but we still need to improve on the back end (of the car) right now. If the rain starts tonight, tomorrow will be starting over. Typically every practice you have more and more grip, but the rain will wash that away and we'll start over."
SIMON PAGENAUD (No. 77 Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Motorsports Honda): "Everything went really well today on practice day one. We worked a lot with the Honda engineers to refine our progress on the engine. The drivability is really good and all of the Honda cars are strong. We're getting ready for some rain tomorrow followed by a dry race which will make for an interesting weekend. So far the car is fast in practice. We're trying to tune it to gain a little bit of rotation that would help us release the brake sooner and carry more speed. I'm tuning my driving too. The first race of the year is interesting because we readapt at one of the most difficult street circuits of the entire season. There is a lot to pay attention to with mental preparation after a long break but we're in a good place."
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS (No. 11 Hydroxycut KVSH Racing Chevrolet): "It was good to be back on track with all the other drivers for the first time in six months. The Hydroxycut - KVSH Racing team had a productive morning practice. The afternoon session wasn't as good because of the weather conditions. We weren't as fast as we hoped, but I don't think we are that far off. We will review the data and make some changes for tomorrow morning's practice, then see what we can do in qualifying."
SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA (No. 17 AFS KVAFS Chevrolet): "It was kind of a rough start for the KV AFS team today. Wasn't quite how we wanted to start the weekend, but I think we have now found the right direction to go. We just need to focus on a few small things, which will make a big difference to the car. There is a lot of work to do tonight, but tomorrow is an important day and we need to keep that momentum."
SATURDAY'S SCHEDULE (all times local):
7 a.m.
Garages open
10 - 10:45 a.m.
Verizon IndyCar Series practice
2 - 3:10 p.m.
Verizon IndyCar Series qualifying for Verizon P1 Award (knockout qualifying and Firestone Fast Six)
