By: Ashley McCubbin 

The off-season is finally over for the NTT IndyCar Series as they will kick their season off in Florida this weekend, with over 15 drivers having a legitimate shot at taking home the checkered flag.

Chip Ganassi Racing proved they were fast last season in topping the standings with Alex Palou and Scott Dixon.

Palou became a two-time series champion with five victories and 10 podiums, but would not be your best bet for Florida with an average finish of 10th in four appearances.

Dixon, meanwhile, has six titles to his name through the past 21 years, and could get his first win at St. Petersburg. After all, he has an average finish of 7.6 – best of drivers entered in the event – across 19 starts with six runner-ups. Oh, and he won the season finale in 2023.

The runner-up for the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey? Scott McLaughlin, which seems fitting as he placed right behind Dixon in the season standings in third. Unlike his counterpart, he has a win at St. Petersburg which happened in 2022.

While Team Penske won the event in 2022, it was CGR last season picking up the win with Marcus Ericsson to back-up his 8.8 average finish across five appearances. The only challenge to that will be seeing how he does with a different team, as he made the switch to Andretti Global in the off-season.

Team Penske could continue the trend, though, with Will Power, as his average finish of 7.8 is the second-best of drivers entered into the event. He was also fourth in the season finale for the 2023 season at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

Patricio O’Ward ranks next on the average finish discussion, with a 8.8 across four appearances, including a runner-up last season after pacing 23 laps. He enters the season with a fresh contract following a fourth-place finish in the 2023 standings with seven podiums.

Josef Newgarden followed O’Ward in the season standings, placing fifth with the second most wins (four) of all drivers in the field. While he captured the checkered flag in 2019 and 2020 on the streets of St. Petersburg, he has failed to score a top-15 in the most recent pair of events.

Callum Illott put himself on a lot of people’s radar with a fifth-place finish in the season finale at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, with it being announced on Wednesday he will be behind the wheel of an Arrow McLaren entry for this coming weekend. Although he was 19th in his first trip to St. Petersburg in 2022, he was up front last season en route to fifth.

His teammate Alexander Rossi hopes to carry forward the momentum he has following a fourth in the 2023 season finale. He has recently found his way around the streets of Florida, turning three straight finishes of 20th or worse into a fourth last year.

Colton Herta may have fallen off your radar recently, considering he only placed 10th in the 2023 standings as the highest scored Andretti Global car. Shocking, right? This could be the place to start the rebound, as Herta entered himself a checkered flag at St. Petersburg in 2021 and has an average finish of 8.8 across five appearances.

Christian Lundgaard proved he can navigate a street course, picking up his first career IndyCar win last season on the streets of Toronto. It has not translated to the similar success in Florida, with previous finishes of 11th and ninth in the Sunshine state.