INDYCAR opens 2027 season at St. Petersburg on March 7
NXTbets Pro | Published On: July 23, 2026
St. Petersburg Grand Prix
Green Savoree Racing Promotions set the 2027 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on Thursday, and the event will again put downtown St. Petersburg on the INDYCAR calendar for a full three-day weekend. The race is scheduled for March 5-7, 2027, and it will mark the 23rd edition of the event on the streets of downtown St. Petersburg. The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is traditionally the NTT INDYCAR SERIES season opener, and that role will continue in 2027 when the series begins its season with the race on Sunday, March 7, 2027. The NTT INDYCAR SERIES will headline the weekend, keeping the event in the same place it has held in the sport for years as the first major stop of the year. The race is presented by RP Funding.
The St. Petersburg event has grown into one of the most recognizable street races on the schedule because of its setting and its place on the calendar. The temporary circuit measures 1.8 miles and includes 14 turns, with the layout wrapping around Pioneer Park, the Duke Energy Center for the Arts and The Dalí Museum. The course also extends onto the runway at Albert Whitted Airport, running along Tampa Bay and St. Petersburg Harbor and Marina. That mix of city streets and airport pavement gives the race its own identity, and it has helped make the Grand Prix a fixture for the series. Organizers said the 2026 event was their best yet, pointing to strong attendance over all three days. That momentum gives the 2027 edition a strong base as the event heads back to the same downtown route and again opens the INDYCAR season at a place that has long carried that responsibility.
INDYCAR season opener
The 2027 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg will once again serve as the NTT INDYCAR SERIES season opener, and that gives the race added weight beyond the weekend itself. Opening races carry extra attention, and St. Petersburg has become the series’ preferred launch point because it delivers a street course, a city backdrop and a clear early-season test in one stop. Alex Palou won the 2026 Grand Prix for the second straight year on March 1, 2026, keeping the event tied to a championship-caliber standard at the front of the field. His victory came on the same street circuit that will welcome the field again in 2027. The race has also continued to define the start of the season, with the Grand Prix weekend setting the tone for the first chapter of the year. In 2027, the series will return to the same place and the same role, with the main INDYCAR race on Sunday, March 7, 2027, after the weekend opens on Friday, March 5, 2027. The schedule keeps the series in the spotlight from the first green flag of the year. It also gives fans and teams an early read on the competitive order, which is one reason the opener remains one of the most important dates on the calendar.
The 2027 announcement also keeps the St. Petersburg event tied to a larger stretch of growth around the venue. The race weekend has become more than a single headline event, and organizers have built it as a full motorsports showcase around the downtown circuit. Tickets for the 2027 event are scheduled to go on sale in the fall, giving fans a next step after the new schedule was released. The race’s place as the opener should also maintain its appeal for teams and drivers, because it comes with the usual pressure of starting fast and the added challenge of a street circuit right away. That combination has helped the Grand Prix stay central to the series identity. It will do so again in 2027, with the event set to begin the INDYCAR season and to anchor the early calendar before the championship settles into its full rhythm.
Truck Series return
The NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series will return to St. Petersburg for its second appearance in 2027, giving the Grand Prix weekend another major racing series alongside INDYCAR. The Truck Series race is scheduled for Saturday, March 6, 2027, and it will follow its first street-race appearance at the 2026 event. That debut added a new layer to the St. Petersburg weekend, and the series now comes back after a successful first run on the temporary downtown circuit. Layne Riggs won the first Truck Series street race on the course on February 28, 2026, giving the event a first winner in a race format the series had not used there before. The return of the Truck Series keeps the 2027 weekend broader than the traditional INDYCAR opener and gives the downtown event another national platform. With the trucks on Saturday and INDYCAR on Sunday, the weekend will again build toward a two-day racing finish after opening on Friday, March 5, 2027. That structure gives the event a strong central rhythm and extends the action across the three-day schedule. For St. Petersburg, it also reinforces the Grand Prix as a destination that can host more than one series and still keep the spotlight on the same compact street circuit that runs through the heart of downtown.
