Race Preview: 2023 St. Pete

The Arrow McLaren IndyCar Team is kicking off its season-opening event on the streets of St. Petersburg, Fla. this weekend to start its campaign for the 2023 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season.

Pato O'Ward, Felix Rosenqvist and Alexander Rossi will complete the three full-time lineup for Arrow McLaren. The first session for all drivers will be on Friday, March 3 at 3 p.m. ET, before practice and qualifying on Saturday and finishing Sunday with a warm-up session prior to the 100-lap race.

Read what the Arrow McLaren drivers and Racing Director Gavin Ward have to say before Sunday's first event in 2023. Tune in for the race on Sunday, March 5 at 12:30 p.m. ET on NBC.

Key info

"It's been a long offseason; a lot of hard work and development have gone on the last few months. I've always loved driving around St. Petersburg. It's a great circuit with a great atmosphere and food. And it's the first time in the season we get to see fans back at the race track. Everyone is so excited and pumped as we all are. I can't wait to get out there, and I'm ready to continue building on what the team and I have been building the last few years."

"I'm just pumped to be back in it! St. Petersburg is the perfect place to open the season, and it's such an NTT INDYCAR SERIES classic at this point. I really like the track; it's one of the most challenging physically so our workout program been intense these last few months. We're ready to step into this new era of the team - exciting times!"

"I'm incredibly excited for the upcoming race in St. Petersburg. It's a track that I really enjoy and have had some good results at in the past. But what makes this race even more special is that it will be my first race with my new team, Arrow McLaren. I'm looking forward to working with the team and seeing what we can achieve together. We've been working hard to prepare for this race, and I'm confident we'll be competitive. It's going to be a great challenge and I can't wait to get started."

Gavin Ward, Racing Director, Arrow McLaren, said:

"Heading to the streets of St. Petersburg for the first race of the 2023 season brings a number of emotions, but we're mostly just excited to get back to what we love to do: going racing. Street courses weren't the strongest venues for us last year, so we've done some extra work on setups and R&D to improve our street course package. It will be interesting to see how we stack up this year. Winning championships in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES is about accumulating consistent top-six finishes, so our goal is to get our three cars up there and get our season off the a strong start."

Session times

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