The Verizon IndyCar Series held the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg today.

Results (with starting pos.) for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

1. (4) No. 12 Power, Chevrolet

2. (3) No. 28 Hunter-Reay, Honda

3. (10) No 3. Castroneves, Chevrolet

10. (9) No. 8 NTT DATA Chevrolet (Briscoe)

Details

-This was the first race that Ryan Briscoe and Charlie Kimball completed as teammates.

-Briscoe drove the last three fourths of the race with a damaged front wing

Ryan Briscoe, No. 8 NTT DATA Chevrolet: “It was a pretty tough race just with the tires and our balance wasn’t quite where we needed it to be. Then I didn’t help the situation either running into the back of Montoya exiting the pits and damaging our front wing.  We ran about three fourths of the race with a broken front wing, which really didn’t help us at all.  Despite the issues we faced today though, we were able to hang in there and get a top 10 result to start the season off.  We’re looking forward to even better results with the No. 8 NTT DATA Chevrolet moving forward.”

Qualifying Results

P1 No. 14 Sato, Honda (1:01.868)

P2 No. 10 Team Target Chevrolet (Kanaan), Chevrolet (1:02.163)

P3 No. 28 Hunter-Reay, Honda (1:02.216)

P9 No. 8 NTT DATA Chevrolet (Briscoe) – 1:03.014

Final Practice Results

P1 No. 8 NTT DATA Chevrolet (Briscoe) – 1:02.423

P2 No. 3 Castroneves, Chevrolet (1:02.473)

P3 No. 14 Sato, Honda (1:02.534)

Details

• Ryan Briscoe and the No. 8 NTT DATA Chevrolet finished P1 overall in the three combined practice sessions.
• When Briscoe won the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in 2009 he qualified in the fourth position. 
• The No. 8 team used a different tire strategy than most by starting the qualifying session on reds and staying out on the reds throughout the whole session.

Tom Wurtz, Team Manager: “We had a really good start to the day with Briscoe and the No. 8 NTT DATA car finishing P1 in the final practice session and P1 in all three combined practice sessions.  It’s always good to finish a practice session P1 because it keeps the momentum going for the day. It was definitely disappointing for the NTT DATA Chip Ganassi Racing team to finish P9 because we felt we had a quicker car than that but it just didn’t play into our hand. We’re going to make a few changes tonight and we’ll be ready to go for tomorrow.”

Ryan Briscoe, No. 8 NTT DATA Chevrolet: “We started on the slick tires then went to the red tires and the track just kept getting better and better.  My tires kind of dropped off there at the end and we didn’t have the speed when the track was at its best. We went the safe way expecting there to be a yellow or a red at some point throughout the session and it just never happened. We’ve got the speed but today just didn’t go to plan. We’re still in the top 10 and I’m just excited to get out there tomorrow and be back with the Verizon IndyCar Series.”

Television for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg will include coverage on ABC (3:00 p.m. ET).

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network will have live flag-to-flag coverage and can be heard on Sirius XM channel 211.

Be sure to follow for updates throughout the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on Twitter @CGRTeams.

First Practice Results

P1 No. 27 Hinchcliffe, Honda (01:02.932)

P2 No. 19 Wilson, Honda (01:02.938)

P3 No. 14 Sato, Honda (01:03.060)

P6 No. 8 NTT DATA Chevrolet (Briscoe) – 01:03.206

Second Practice Results

P1 No. 14 Sato, Honda (1:02.561)

P2 No. 15 Rahal, Honda (1:02.611)

P3 No. 2 Power, Chevrolet (1:02.644)

P6 No. 8 NTT DATA Chevrolet (Briscoe) – 1:03.014

Details of the Day

Tom Wurtz, Team Manager: “We had a good first day of practicing, especially with both sessions being incident-free. We’re still fighting with the lack of grip, but we see that at every temporary circuit. We are going to make some changes to the No. 8 NTT DATA Chevrolet tonight to make it go faster tomorrow and pray the weather holds out for us.”

Ryan Briscoe, No. 8 NTT DATA 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.”

Television for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg will include coverage on ABC (3:00 p.m. ET).

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network will have live flag-to-flag coverage and can be heard on Sirius XM channel 211.

Be sure to follow for updates throughout the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on Twitter @CGRTeams.