ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The 2025 IndyCar season kicks off this weekend with the 21st running of the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. It'll be special for a pair of drivers who want to make history on one of the most scenic courses in motor sports.
22-year-old Michigan-native Nolan Allaer moved to the Tampa Bay area with his family when he was three. He remembers going to the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg with his father in 2014. He had no idea he'd become a full-time race car driver.
"I remember looking into the cockpit," Allaer said Friday morning. "You can see over all the cars. You can see the driver’s hands, and I just remember thinking when I was younger 'Wow. How does a human being do that?'”
Allaer's family lived in FishHawk Ranch for 13 years before moving back to Michigan, where Nolan started his racing career. His father was a TV producer for the Tampa Bay Lightning, so Allaer became a Bolts fan and a youth hockey player.
"My entire life was hockey, up until I turned 18," Nolan recalled. "I had no dreams or aspirations of racing at this event. So it’s pretty surreal [to be racing here]."
Allaer stopped by the Lightning locker room this week, where he had a chat with Bolts goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy about his helmet design for this weekend's INDY NXT race (the series just below NTT IndyCar Series).
"We chatted for quite some time, which was crazy. He doesn’t look as crazy when he’s got the mask off," Nolan joked. "He’s actually a really nice, cool, chill guy. It was just very cool to get back and be welcomed by the organization again."
Allaer's helmet and fire suit are inspired by the Lightning's black, "third jersey" design. The green flag for the NXT race drops Sunday at 10:10 a.m.
The green flag for the Grand Prix is scheduled for Sunday, 12:29 p.m. When the main event gets underway, the reigning champion will be driving for a rare form of repeat. Josef Newgarden crossed the finish line first in last year's race, but rules officials decided he violated the series' regulations regarding "push to pass," which allow drivers to boost the power of their cars for a limited amount of time during the race. Pato O'Ward, who crossed the finish line in second place, was awarded the victory after Newgarden was disqualified.
"We got awarded the points and obviously the win. But we want to be winning these races on track. We want to be able to cross the finish line as the lead car," O'Ward explained during Friday's media availability. O'Ward and Newgarden share plenty of mutual respect, and Pato said it's always fun to race against a rival.
"[Josef Newgarden] and I have had so many duels in so many markets, and places, and circuits," O'Ward added with a smile. "I told him 'I can’t wait to kick your a— because you’ve beaten me way too much already.'"
O'Ward wants to become the first back-to-back winner since Newgarden pulled off the feat in 2019 and 2020.
If you're planning on heading to the Grand Prix this weekend we have all the information you need to know on traffic, road closures, and parking.
ABC Action News reporter Michael Paluska heads to Weedon Island, which has a rich history that dates back more than 12,000 years. During that time, it was home to Indigenous populations, a movie studio, an airport, a safe haven for bootleggers during prohibition, and so much more. Today, the preserve protects this wide diversity of natural and cultural resources for current and future generations.
