The NTT IndyCar Series concluded the 2020 season Sunday afternoon on the streets of St. Petersburg for the Firestone Grand Prix. The championship came down to Scott Dixon and Josef Newgarden. Supercars star Scott McLaughlin made his IndyCar Series debut for Team Penske.
Will Power won the pole with a lap time of 1:01.037 at 106.165 mph, and Alexander Rossi qualified second with a lap time of 1:01.173 at 105.929 mph.
Will Power led the first five laps before losing the lead to Alexander Rossi. Rossi led 31 laps before the caution came for a crash at turn four by Will Power, who was visibly upset with himself.
A few cars went to pit road during the caution, but many of them pitted around lap 30. Rossi continued to lead when the race resumed on lap 40.
The restart lasted only a lap before Santino Ferrucci crashed at turn two to bring out the second caution. No one came to pit road during the caution.
Rossi led the field for the restart on lap 46. Just as the race got going again, Scott McLaughlin and Rinus VeeKay crashed at turn one to put the race under caution for the third time.
During the caution, two drivers went to pit road while everyone else stayed out. Rossi continued to lead when the race resumed on lap 52. Rossi led fourteen more laps before teams began to make their scheduled pit stops. Rossi came to pit road on lap 66, leaving James Hinchcliffe as the new leader.
He led a couple of laps before pitting on lap 68. Colton Herta was now the new leader. Herta did his stint as leader before pitting handing the lead over to Graham Rahal.
The caution came out during the scheduled pit stops when Alexander Rossi got loose entering turn four and crashed. His season would come to an end, finishing in 21st place.
During the caution, Rahal and two others went to pit road with Colton Herta resuming the lead. Just as the race got back underway on lap 74, the race went back under caution for the fifth time for an accident at turn five by Marco Andretti. During the caution, Oliver Askew was the only driver to pit.
Alex Palou was now the leader when the race resumed on lap 79. Josef Newgarden passed both Palou and Herta for the lead at turn one. Oliver Askew would visit the tire barrier at turn ten to bring out the sixth caution.
Askew’s day was done, and he would finish in 16th place. During this latest caution, the pace car was low on fuel and had to pit, leaving Newgarden in charge of the field.
The race resumed with fifteen laps to go. Newgarden was in control and led the last fifteen laps to win the race by 4.14 seconds over Pato O’Ward. Scott Dixon finished third to win the 2020 NTT IndyCar Series championship.
The rest of the top ten finishers were Sebastien Bourdais fourth, Ryan Hunter-Reay fifth, Simon Pagenaud sixth, Marcus Ericsson seventh, Charlie Kimbell eighth, Graham Rahal ninth, and Takuma Sato tenth. There were six cautions for 26 laps and six lead changes.
Alexander Rossi led the most laps at 61, Josef Newgarden led 21 laps, Colton Herta led nine laps, Will Power with four laps, Graham Rahal and James Hinchcliffe each led two laps, and Alex Palou led one.
