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Josef Newgarden pits as Kyle Kirkwood enters his pit box during the 2025 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
(Photo: Joe Skibinski/Penske Entertainment)

Upon Further Review: No Alternate Strategy Bliss at St. Petersburg

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Alternate strategies on a road or street circuit can bring about a very jumbled running order in an NTT IndyCar Series race. A driver gets experience running up front with the slimmest of hopes that the strategy will pay off while their sponsors get valuable TV time in front of an international audience.

Many times, this is a result of IndyCar’s rules that dictate tire compound usage on road and street races. There are two different tire compounds for these races: the black-sidewall primary compound tires and the red (on road courses) or green- (on street circuits) sidewall alternate compound tires that are designed to give more grip but with a reduced lifespan.

In a dry-weather race, both compounds must be used for a minimum of two laps. Per the rule book, a driver may enter the pits on the completion of the second lap of a stint to change from one compound to the other, satisfying the requirement. This has led to many drivers starting the race on the undesired compound and pitting early to switch to the preferred tire compound for the balance of the race, whether the softer alternate or the harder primary is preferred.

The two-lap minimum rule also invites teams and drivers to gamble on race strategy. If race control throws a full-course yellow for a first-lap accident, teams that start on the undesired compound will pit at the end of the second lap of the race while the race is neutralized by the full-course yellow. Their gamble just paid off.

Such was the case on Sunday.

Will Power hit the rear of Nolan Siegel‘s car, spinning the Californian and sending both cars into the wall exiting turn 3 while Louis Foster also spun after contact with another car.

Race control brought out the full-course yellow and that was absolutely perfect for all 14 drivers that started the race on the softer, alternate compound tires. Tires that many predicted wouldn’t last an entire stint were now off those cars and the harder, primary compound tires would see out the rest of the race when those drivers hit pit road at the end of the race’s second lap for what was essentially a free pit stop.

Those who started on the primary compound still had to do their stint on the alternate compound tires. Most of those drivers did stints lasting little more than a dozen laps, but their gamble for more yellows failed.

St. Petersburg has typically been a race with multiple full-course yellows. Of the last dozen races in St. Petersburg, only 2022 has run with only one full course yellow for David Malukas hitting the turn 3 wall.

Those starting on the primary tires were hoping for more yellows. They knew the past history of this race just had to work out as it always had. The trend must continue, right?

Wrong.

For the rest of the field starting on the primary compound tires, their races strategically were over the moment Power and Siegel had contact. Those drivers on the primary tires didn’t know that the rest of their race was going to be caution-free, but that comes with the territory.

Scott McLaughlin made the best of his strategy as he ran only 12 laps on his alternate tires in his second stint of the race. Try as he might, though, he couldn’t finish better than fourth. The race’s polesitter was the highest-placed finisher of those that started on the primary tires as Felix Rosenqvist (7th), Graham Rahal (12th), Malukas (13th) and Santino Ferrucci (14th) also ran their alternates for their second stint of the race.

Christian Lundgaard (8th), Alexander Rossi (10th) and Callum Ilott (19th) ran their third stints of the race on the alternate compound tires to varying degrees of success.

One driver’s race deserves its own glance. Pato O’Ward started on the primary compound tires and actually switched to the alternates under the full course yellow. If another full course yellow came out shortly after the restart, O’Ward would, in essence, be on the same strategy as the rest of the drivers that finished near the front as he could get away from the alternates quickly.

However, the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet did not have much luck as O’Ward ran until lap 23 on the alternate compound tires. That was longer than any other driver ran on the alternates, but that was helped by the fact that the caution lasted the first six laps of the race.

Which begs the question, would it have been better to bring O’Ward back in under the yellow to go back onto the primary tires he started on? The sport’s most popular driver was in sixth place when he made the race’s final green-flag pit stop on ;ap 85 and ended up finishing 11th.

Alternate strategies make road and street course racing much more interesting when they converge. When Romain Grosjean and McLaughlin raced for the win at Barber Motorsports Park a few years ago, McLaughlin’s three-stop strategy beat Grosjean’s two-stop strategy by just under 2 seconds.

A durability gap between primary and alternate tires helps make that possible when it’s as wide as a ditch. When that durability gap becomes a chasm, races like St. Petersburg on Sunday can in fact be the result if there are no yellows.

That’s not down to Firestone, either. They’re designing an alternate tire that’s supposed to be different from the primary compound to promote racing variety. Sometimes it’s a home run and sometimes things don’t work out, but don’t judge all street races like St. Petersburg on Sunday because most drivers were on the same strategy.

Instead, remember that at the end of the day, there was little carnage in the race and we still had a small fight for the lead late in the running. Not every tire durability chasm race can be like Detroit 2022.

Christopher DeHarde has covered IndyCar racing and the Road to Indy for various outlets since 2014. In addition to open wheel racing, DeHarde has also covered IMSA and various short track racing events around Indiana. Originally from New Orleans, DeHarde moved to the Indianapolis area in 2017 to further pursue a career as a motorsports writer.