Big names looking a long way up the grid at St. Petersburg

It’s an annual tradition at St. Petersburg.

IndyCar’s long off-season gets filled with big changes among teams and small fortunes being spent on making the cars – and entire organizations – faster, and without fail, far too many of those teams and drivers miss the mark by a mile in qualifying.

ECR’s Alexander Rossi rolls off 25th and last. Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden, a former winner of the race, will start 23rd while teammate Scott McLaughlin sits on the pole. Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Rinus VeeKay, among the fastest drivers in practice, was relegated to 19th. Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon was left in 16th. Andretti Global’s official street course ace Kyle Kirkwood was 15th, two positions behind teammate Will Power, another street racing expert.

Arrow McLaren was plenty surprised to leave qualifying with its best performer rising no higher than eighth with Pato O’Ward; teammate Christian Lundgaard was 12th.

“That was a very difficult qualifying session and a tough way to start the season,” said Rossi, who was quick earlier in the day. “We are at a bit of a loss after we had a strong Practice 2. We have a lot of work to do tomorrow but we will be ready.”

Like Rossi, Lundgaard had pace that suggested he’d be a force in qualifying.

"It was a bit of a disappointing qualifying,” he said. “We were expecting more after our P1 and P2 results. I think it was a question in my mind if we had what it really took on the Firestone red tires. Just judging off of P1, we didn't really seem to be there on the alternates. It's frustrating but at the end of the day, points are scored tomorrow, so we'll keep our heads down and figure out the strategy for the race."