Andretti Autosport Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Preview

“I enjoy St. Petersburg each year. It welcomes us with Florida’s typical warm weather after a long winter and has great restaurants, very enthusiastic fans, cool street-course scenery, lots of energy and excitement and, of course, it’s a challenging track that I love — so it’s the perfect venue for the opening race. I only had a single day of the road course testing this pre-season, which is a quite challenging for me especially with new environment I have, but the test went well and we leaned a lot. I can’t wait to get behind the wheel in my first race with Andretti Autosport.”

“It’s important for us to get a good start in St. Pete this weekend — it will set the tone for the season and we want a strong, positive tone. I’ve been working hard through the offseason, both physically and mentally, and I’m ready to get the year started. I always look forward to the opening weekend; St. Pete is a great place to kick off the year. It’s a great setting, the weather is perfect and it’s a track that leads to good racing.”

“There’s no better place to kickoff the Verizon IndyCar Series season than the streets of St. Pete. Not only is it one of my favorite street courses, it is essentially my home race, and the perfect place to start the year. We’ve finished runner up in St. Pete on a couple of occasions, so we’re looking for that breakthrough win. This team has worked tirelessly over the offseason, but now it’s time to put all that hard work to the test. We’ll be working hard this weekend to rebound from last season and get the DHL Honda into victory lane.”

“This offseason has been anything but calm, however it has only fueled the excitement to get back into my race car. I am in a completely different space from where I was 12 months ago after finding my new home in the Verizon IndyCar Series. There is a lot of optimism in the team and we are all looking to come out of the box with momentum on our side. Having NAPA AUTO PARTS on the car for the season opener is fitting considering the relationship that we’ve built, and also because I feel like it’s the best looking car on the grid. We are ready to go, St. Pete can’t get here soon enough.”

“I can’t wait to see the green flag at St. Pete. I’ve been waiting for that the whole winter break. I feel ready for it and I love that track. I’ve had pretty good success in the past there with podiums in USF2000 and ProMazda. I love the course, I love street courses, and I love the city and fans there. It’s very exciting.”

“I can’t wait to get on track at St. Pete. We’ve been working hard towards this race during this offseason. I haven’t raced since the season finale in September, and I’ve been itching to get the offseason over. It’ll be great to see our training and testing pay off. St. Pete is one of my favorite tracks as the circuit is really fun to drive. The set-up of the track leads to good racing, and it’s a physical place to start the year.”

“I’m really excited to go to St. Pete. I’ve gone there to watch the IndyCar and Indy Lights races, but I’ve never driven the course, so it will be a learning experience for me. The goal is to go out on the track and learn the course. I’ve watched plenty of videos, so I’m definitely going to be prepared. I think it’s going to be fun driving through the streets of St. Pete and hopefully we can bring a great result from that.”

“We’re ready for St. Pete, and I think it’s going to be an awesome weekend. It’s an awesome place to get the season going, right there in downtown St. Pete. The city has character, the course is right on the water, and it’s located near George M. Steinbrenner Field where the New York Yankees train, so it couldn’t be a better backdrop. It’s going to be a great race.”