Paddock Buzz: New Fan A-Rod Loves St. Pete Thrill Ride

Updated Mar. 2, 2025 10:42 p.m. ET

INDYCAR

Alex Rodriguez will always remember the day he became an NTT INDYCAR SERIES fan. Rodriguez rode in the Fastest Seat in Sports to begin the 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding on Sunday, March 2.

“I'll never underestimate any race car driver ever again,” Rodriguez said. “This is my first time, but it certainly wouldn't be my last time. I think they got a new fan with me. It is awesome.”

Rodriguez is one of the most prolific sluggers in the history of Major League Baseball and a current FOX Sports MLB studio analyst. The Florida resident is a 14-time MLB All-Star and a 2009 World Series champion with the New York Yankees. The 22-year veteran ranks fifth on the all-time home run list with 696 and has hit more grand slams than any other MLB player in history.

Those accolades had nothing on speeding around the 14-turn, 1.8-mile track at a high rate of speed, with former INDYCAR SERIES driver Davey Hamilton driving the two-seat race car.

“I've never experienced anything like that, and I played for almost half a century in the big leagues,” Rodriguez said. “Very exciting. Very nerve-wracking.

“I said like five or 10 Hail Mary’s. I thought it was going to be it; I had a good run when it lasted.”

Rodriguez, a three-time MLB Most Valuable Player, also is the chairman and chief executive officer of A-Rod Corp, an investment firm he founded in 1995 that backs world-class startups and partners with leading global companies across real estate, sports and entertainment.

Could he be back at an NTT INDYCAR SERIES race in the future?

“I'm now a fan, and I know what Netflix has done for other sports, but I think for me, Pato (O’Ward) showed me all the things,” Rodriguez said. “He told me there was like 70 people working on one car. I didn't realize the cars were over a million dollars. I didn't realize the amount of engineers and it's a real sport, but it's almost like chess.

“This is a real thinking person sport. And then what Davey Hamilton did out there, I've never experienced anything like that in my life. I'm going to be a fan. I'm going to try to get to Indianapolis now.”

Ericsson Back to Form

Marcus Ericsson needed his sixth-place finish in Sunday’s season opener. The Andretti Global driver is coming off one of the most disappointing seasons of his racing career after finishing 15th in the final standings, his lowest result since his rookie season in 2019.

Ericsson never turned a wheel wrong all weekend on the streets of St. Petersburg and capitalized on the speed in his No. 28 Bryant Honda.

“It was a really solid weekend,” Ericsson said. “We were in the top seven every single session. So, I think that shows that we had just a really solid, clean weekend. I've not tapped the wall once and just a super-clean weekend and exactly what we talked about this winter. We need to get back to the consistency as being my strength and in the car solid drives, no mistakes, good results.

“I think this weekend felt like back to sort of normal Marcus and just a good booster, as well, for the whole 28 crew because we put in a lot of work in the offseason and felt like we really executed that way.”

Ericsson finished sixth in points in his final three seasons with Chip Ganassi Racing (2021-23). He won four races in span of 50 starts. The season is early, but Ericsson believes he could have returned to that form.

“Competition is as high as ever, but I feel like we have other tools,” he said. “You need to have the consistency. That's the key. And that's why I've been successful before in INDYCAR is because I've been consistently in the top 10 every weekend, and we can have that back. The thing with that is, if you're always there in the top 10, top eight, you're going to have your days when you win, as well, because you put yourself in a position to win.”

“It's when you have those ups and downs every weekend. You just lose momentum. You get under pressure to deliver. It's just a bad spiral. So, I think this is really promising.”

Kirkwood Happy with Best St. Pete Finish

Kyle Kirkwood continues to shine brighter at his home race in St. Petersburg.

The improvement is noticeable. Kirkwood, a native of Jupiter, Florida, has climbed from an 18th-place finish as a rookie driver in 2022 to 15th in 2023, 10th last season and fifth Sunday in the No. 27 Chili’s Honda for Andretti Global.

“I'm happy with it,” he said. “It's a good finish. I've been working on getting top fives, but every top five that I get now, it's making me more eager to win. So, it's not the best feeling in the world, but it's a better feeling than I've come out of this event with.

“So, I guess we'll take that as a positive but at the same time racing, you're never satisfied unless you're winning. So, we'll keep working at it.”

Shwartzman Content with Debut Finish

Robert Shwartzman and PREMA Racing made their NTT INDYCAR SERIES debut this weekend. Callum Ilott is Shwartzman’s teammate and brings 38 career starts with him as the “experienced” member of the team.

Ilott finished 19th and Shwartzman 20th in their Chevrolet-powered cars.

To finish one spot and less than a second behind his teammate should signal a good day for Shwartzman.

“We didn't have any high expectations,” Shwartzman said. “So, in a sense, we did our best today. We take what we can take.”

Shwartzman, 25, started 18th and completed all 100 laps. Finishing mid-pack in a 27-car field is an adjustment for a talented driver who came through the European junior open-wheel ranks and won the 2019 FIA Formula 3 Championship for PREMA.

“We definitely have a lot of work to do, a lot of improvement to do, but overall, it was interesting,” he said. “Generally, you need to understand a bit more how tire works, how car works, how the whole series works. Unfortunately, we had some issues also with the radio. So, communication was not great, and that was also quite interfering with our strategy because I could not always understand what is the plan.

“So again, it was a bit hectic, thrown out into in the ocean, and obviously, yeah, there is a lot of sharks that are been here, like, for so many years, and they know stuff. So, it's very difficult. It was very difficult to compete. But again, it's just a starting point. I really hope that this race is going to be the worst for us this season, and we're just going to do better.”

Odds and Ends

The last time a reigning NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion won the season opener was Dario Franchitti in 2011. Ironically, that was the season Franchitti won his third consecutive championship – a feat Alex Palou is trying to accomplish this season for Chip Ganassi Racing. Franchitti also drove the No. 10 Honda for Ganassi that season.

Scott Dixon is 0-for-21 at St. Petersburg during his illustrious career. However, Sunday’s runner-up result was the fifth podium finish in the last nine St. Petersburg starts for the six-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion. He has finished eighth or better at St. Petersburg every year since 2016.

Josef Newgarden finished third in his No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet Sunday for his first top-10 finish at St. Petersburg since placing runner-up in 2021.

Rinus VeeKay’s wife, Carmen, won her second professional boxing bout Saturday night in Mexico. She flew to Florida Sunday afternoon.

Speaking of fights, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver Graham Rahal is good friends with St. Louis Blues defensman Colton Parayko, who also represented Canada in the recent 4 Nations Face-Off tournament. Rahal watched as Parayko got in an early skirmish with Columbus Blue Jackets player JT Miller, representing the United States, in the 4-Nations Face Off on Feb. 15. Rahal, a Columbus native, is a big Blue Jackets fan so he was conflicted watching the two battle and exchanged texts with Parayko after the game.