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Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Qualifying Report
St. Petersburg, Florida - March 9, 2024

After a night to sleep on how preseason preparations meshed with Friday's one-hour practice session, the 27 NTT INDYCAR SERIES teams assembled in St. Petersburg for an important Saturday schedule that will set the field for Sunday. Team Penske continued their strong showing at a circuit where they have won 11 of 19 races with Josef Newgarden, Will Power and Scott McLaughlin all finishing the morning practice session inside the top 10. In what proved to be a dramatic qualifying session, Newgarden powered his No. 2 PPG Chevrolet to the NTT P1 Award in the last few seconds of the Firestone Fast Six to secure his first pole position since the 2022 Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix. The .0058 seconds difference between first and second represents the tightest front row since the 2012 Detroit race. Both the No. 12 Verizon Business Cheverolet team of Power and the No. 3 DEX Imaging Chevrolet team of McLaughlin transferred out of the first round but did not make the finals. They will start eighth and ninth, respectively. 

TOP DOGS IN QUALIFYING: Newgarden's pole position is the 12th for Team Penske in the 20-race history of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. The last came from McLaughlin on his way to winning his first NTT INDYCAR SERIES race in 2022. Power holds the all-time pole position mark at St. Petersburg with an impressive eight top starting spots.
 

THEY SAID IT: "Man. I get jacked up every time I show up for an INDYCAR race. It's an elevated level when you start out the year, because you just don't know. You have no idea if you're going to keep coming back in and producing results. It's very difficult. You saw how tight it was, and I didn't know this would come today. I just thought 'Look, let's get through Round 1, let's get through Round 2, and then see what we can make happen in the Fast Six. Just really proud of this team. This is a rockstar team. I love everybody on it. I'm happy to be back. 2024, we're starting right with Team Chevy and PPG. We're here to go after it every weekend."