For the sixth straight year, the IndyCar racing series will start its 2027 season in downtown St. Petersburg. For the second straight year, NASCAR's truck series will join it.
The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is scheduled for March 5-7, when racers will speed through the waterfront streets for the 23rd time.
This will be 17th time overall that IndyCar has started a season in St. Petersburg. Series officials made it official this week when they announced the first eight races of the season, with St. Petersburg's 180-mile contest on March 7.
Once again, a temporary 1.8-mile, 14-turn street circuit will wind around Pioneer Park, the Duke Energy Center for the Arts and The Dalí Museum before extending onto the runway at Albert Whitted Airport. The layout borders Tampa Bay and St. Petersburg Harbor and Marina.
Four-time series champion Alex Palou, who won the race on March 1, leads the season standings. The Spaniard, driving for Chip Ganassi Racing, has five victories and 10 top-five finishes after 13 races with five stops remaining.
“The start to this year’s 2026 season was action-packed, and it’s gratifying to know the stage is set for a return to that frantic pace in 2027,” IndyCar president J. Douglas Boles said. “St. Pete has become an ideal host to begin our season."
A day earlier, NASCAR's trucks will run the OnlyBulls Green Flag 150 after making its debut in the grand prix in 2026.
"The 2026 event was our best yet. Spectator attendance was tremendous on all three days," said Kim Green, co-owner, chairman and CEO of Green Savoree Racing Promotions, organizers of the event. "We look forward to welcoming fans back."
The truck series — the third tier in the popular stock-car league — competed on a street circuit for the first time in 32 years. The winner was current series points leader Layne Riggs.
“It is an amazing place to come and I don’t know why we couldn’t come back next year,” Riggs said in July, after NASCAR confirmed the series would again be part of the grand prix lineup. “… I couldn’t believe how packed the grandstands were and I thought it was one of the best road-course races the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series has ever seen.”
IndyCar announced it will open 2027 racing three straight weekends with the series going to Phoenix Raceway on March 13 and the streets of Arlington in Texas on March 21. This will be the second straight year and only the fifth time in the IndyCar series' 118 years that a season starts with races on three consecutive weekends.
The series takes a break before two races in April at Barber Motorsports Park on April 4 and Long Beach on April 18. Then it's off to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the road course race May 15 and the 111th Indianapolis 500. The final race announced will be June 6 on the streets of Detroit.
Mark Miles, president and chief executive officer of Penske Entertainment, said it’s been another year of growth with 2026 being "proof of concept that our sport is fueled by an expanding presence across marquee events and destinations, and we look forward to carrying that momentum into 2027.”
Tickets for the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg will go on sale in the fall. For the latest information, go online to gpstpete.com.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
