St. Pete in Threes

I spent the looong IndyCar off-season becoming an addicted, crazed hockey fan. So what better way to start off this year's blog than with a little hockey infused into it? Hockey always honors "three stars of the game," and I feel this is a good approach for a blog that is often a struggle for me to maintain (due to a busy schedule). Thus, for 2016 I'm debuting the three stars of the race, followed by three stories of the race. I like to keep things simple. By focusing on three stars, too, I'm trying to remain positive and upbeat rather than critical--something I think we can all do a lot more. Without further ado, here are the three stars of St. Pete:

#1 Star: Juan Pablo Montoya
As noted in previous blogs, I am not a Montoya fan. But you can't deny he drove the wheels off of his car Sunday--literally. Team Penske was the class of the field all weekend, and Montoya separated himself from his teammates with an impressive drive. He passed Simon Pagenaud on a restart and never looked back. Then we learned after the race that he had been driving with a steering issue, unable to turn cleanly. Love him or hate him, I can't deny that he's a skilled driver, and finishing with a 2.3 second advantage over Pagenaud in a malfunctioning car just proves that. He will once again be the one to beat for the championship this year.

#2 Star: Conor Daly
The ABC announcers were clearly in love with Daly, as they fawned over him for much of the race. Daly is a young American star, and he led 15 laps in his first race as a full-time driver--in a Dale Coyne car, no less. Granted, many of those laps were under caution and he was off-strategy from the other race leaders, but he held his own with Team Penske when the green flag flew. A slow final pit stop and some unfortunate contact with debris doomed Daly's day, resulting in a 13th place finish. However, I think he showed us the racing chops we knew were there all along. I'm excited to see how he progresses this year.

#3 Star: Ryan Hunter-Reay
Speaking of drivers holding their own with Team Penske, Ryan Hunter-Reay broke up the Penske podium party by passing Helio Castroneves with three laps to go. He was also the top Honda in the field and led three laps. Don't count out the 2012 champion--he's won it all before and has now started 2016 in good form.

Honorable mention: Mikhail Aleshin, impressively staying out of trouble and finishing fifth after more than a year away from IndyCar.

Three Stories of the Race

#1 Story: Out of Power
I was stunned to learn, upon waking up Sunday morning and losing a much-needed hour of sleep, that Will Power would not be starting the race. Will apparently suffered a mild concussion after crashing in practice Friday. It's quite incredible that he was able to capture the pole position despite feeling nauseous and out of sorts Saturday. A lot of people criticized IndyCar for not recognizing the symptoms of a concussion, and perhaps some of this criticism is justified. But Tim Cindric explained that he thought Will just had the flu, especially after other crew members had also been ill. The medical community is just beginning to understand and fully study the effects of concussions, so it's no wonder that it took awhile to diagnose. It had to be serious to keep Will out of the car. Props to Oriol Servia for once again stepping in at the last minute, in less than ideal circumstances.

#2 Story: Honda Hops Back
Though Chevy captured the top five qualifying spots and three out of the top five finishing spots, it felt like Honda started to level the playing field. Team Penske is in a class all its own, so I'm not sure if we can even count them. RHR, Daly, Aleshin, Takuma Sato, and Carlos Munoz all finished in the top ten, and Marco Andretti and Graham Rahal were competitive much of the day. (Andretti was a victim of his own overeagerness, and Rahal was the unlucky recipient of a Munoz love-tap.) The aero kits offer no distinguishing qualities anymore, but that may be okay if it gives the field some parity and unpredictability. It was at least pleasant that we didn't have flying winglets all over the place this year.

#3 Story: #IndyRivals
Remarkably, Rahal and Munoz were able to resolve their disagreement civilly. Munoz punted Rahal on lap 57, which led to a multi-car wreck that resembled an interstate highway traffic jam. The crash ruined the day for a lot of drivers, including James Hinchcliffe, who had finally gotten back on the lead lap. To his credit, Munoz accepted responsibility and vowed to learn from the mistake. Most aggravating of all, even though he was assessed a penalty, he still finished higher than Rahal and Hinchcliffe, who were innocent victims of his reckless driving. But the stage is set now for more IndyRivals drama this year, even without Tristan Vautier in the field.

Notice I mentioned very little about ABC's coverage, though that seems to be the dominant topic of conversation on other blogs and comments. I've learned to accept ABC for what it is. They are not NBCSN and they never will be. I liked the new graphics, and I appreciated Allen Bestwick's effort despite being under the weather. He's a good play-by-play guy. See, I'm trying to be more positive this year.

All in all, St. Pete was an enjoyable first race of the year, with plenty of talking points and stories to watch for the rest of the year. It was a marked improvement from last year's St. Pete race. Unfortunately now we must wait three more weeks for the next race. Lucky for me there's lots of hockey to watch in the meantime.