Other Series PR

Juan Pablo Montoya held off Team Penske teammate and reigning Verizon IndyCar Series champion Will Power over the final 27 laps to win the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg by 0.9930 of a second.

Building on one of the most successful INDYCAR partnerships in recent memory, Team Penske and Hitachi Group announced today that Hitachi will return as a sponsor for all of the team’s cars competing in the Verizon IndyCar Series.

Andretti Autosport confirmed today that Justin Wilson will join its Verizon IndyCar Series program for part of the 2015 season. The 36-year-old veteran driver will pilot the No. 25 Honda for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis as well as the 99th Running of the Indianapolis 500. Wilson has competed in the Verizon IndyCar Series for 11 seasons, totaling seven wins, 26 podium finishes, eight pole positions and 700 laps led.

The following is a medical update on Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires driver Michael Johnson of JDC Motorsports, who made contact with the Turn 3 wall in the opening practice session of the Allied Building Products Grand Prix of St. Petersburg this morning:

“We would have liked to have gotten back on track for the second session to see if we could improve but it didn’t make sense to run in the rain because the weather the rest of the weekend looks good so there was nothing to be gained. I thought the car was decent in the first session but we have a little work to do to make some improvements."

Reigning Verizon IndyCar Series champion Will Power kicked off the "aero era" by recording the quickest lap time in today's initial practice session for the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

The 2015 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg will mark the eighth IndyCar Series race for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLLR) in St. Petersburg. RLL has entered the No. 15 Mi-Jack entry forGraham Rahal. The team prepared Indy cars for Danica Patrick (2005, 2006), Buddy Rice (2005, 2006), Vitor Meira (2005), Jeff Simmons (2007), Scott Sharp (2007), Ryan Hunter-Reay (2008), Takuma Sato (2012), Graham Rahal (2013-2014) and James Jakes (2013) prior to this year.

INDYCAR announced today it has launched the second year of its 'Rivals' advertising campaign, which features drivers including 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series champion Will Power, three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves, defending Indianapolis 500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay, rising young stars Marco Andretti, James Hinchcliffe and Josef Newgarden and several others.

The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg marks the competition debut of aerodynamic bodywork kits designed, manufactured and supplied by Chevrolet and Honda. Cars will be differentiated by their shape on the street course as the manufacturers have designed separate aero kit specifications for road and street course/short ovals and speedways for the Dallara IR-12 chassis. References to the cars will incorporate the name of the corresponding manufacturer.

Fantasy racing has returned to the Verizon IndyCar Series with today's launch of the #INDYRIVALS Fantasy Challenge driven by Firestone. INDYCAR's newest fantasy game allows fans to become Team Manager by fielding a four-driver lineup for each Verizon IndyCar Series race with a stockpile of prizes on the line each week as the stars of the series go wheel-to-wheel for race wins.