McLaughlin P1 in IndyCar practice at St. Petersburg, Dixon crashes at Turn 9

The 2026 IndyCar season kicked off with Scott McLaughlin as the fastest in the first practice for the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and with Scott Dixon crashing into the concrete wall at Turn 9. McLaughlin recorded a 1:01.1020 in the Team Penske Chevrolet on the 1.8-mile street course, while Dixon lost the final minutes of the session with front-end damage to his Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.

Dixon into the wall at Turn 9

Dixon was running on alternate tires on his first fast lap of Group 1 when the car lost grip at the turn entry. What followed was an overcorrection that sent him nearly head-on into the outside barrier, an impact that tore the nose off the car and damaged the left-front suspension. David Malukas was running right behind and had to squeeze between the wall and Dixon's stopped car to avoid a secondary impact. "I heard him coming," Dixon said. "He just had enough room to get by on the outside, because if not, it would have been a serious problem for him too."

Photo By Penske Entertainment

The team will repair the nose, wing, and part of the front suspension for Saturday, but the monocoque remained intact and Dixon will continue with the same car, albeit with less information than the others. "Normally when you hit in that area, you're flat out and the impact is very hard," he explained. "This time the car slid quite a bit before reaching the wall, so it lost speed." On a 14-turn street circuit where drivers need every practice lap to fine-tune braking points and trajectories, starting Saturday with that deficit is a concrete disadvantage heading into qualifying.

McLaughlin sets the pace

McLaughlin, who has already won the pole here in 2022 and 2025, was fast from the start of the 85-minute session and improved his time when the group split. His advantage over Felix Rosenqvist, second with a 1:01.1660 in the Meyer Shank Racing Honda #60, was 0.064 seconds. Kyle Kirkwood (third, 1:01.1777), Kyffin Simpson (fourth, 1:01.1782), and Marcus Ericsson (fifth, 1:01.1967) were all within the same tenth of a second — Andretti Global was the only team with two cars in the top five. Alex Palou, the four-time series champion and winner of this race in 2025, finished sixth with a 1:01.2614.

The fact that the top five were separated by less than 0.10 seconds in the first practice of the year gives an idea of what's to come this weekend. The gap from first to the 21st car was less than one second, with 25 cars on track.

Photo By Penske Entertainment

Among the debutants, Dennis Hauger was the fastest in 17th place with a 1:01.8680 in the Dale Coyne Racing Honda #19. Hauger, the 2025 Indy NXT champion, finished 0.76 seconds behind McLaughlin, a reasonable deficit for a first taste of the category. Mick Schumacher posted the 23rd fastest time with a 1:02.1707 in the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda #47. In addition to Dixon, Josef Newgarden and Louis Foster brushed the barriers and caused red flags during the session.

Saturday's practice will be at 9:30 a.m. ET, followed by qualifying at 4:30 p.m. The race is on Sunday at noon.