This race, normally held mid-March but delayed by the pandemic's effects, is now the climax of the season, and two very familiar faces are battling for the championship.

Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda’s Scott Dixon will be aiming for his sixth crown, while reigning champ Josef Newgarden of Team Penske-Chevrolet is aiming for title No. 3.

When Dixon won the first three races of the season, his inconsistent and occasionally unlucky opposition were aghast. Just how many more could he win in the remaining rounds?

Well, he has added just one since then and in the last four races he has finished 10^th-10^th-9^th-8^th. Those results allowed Newgarden to slash into his lead, reducing it from 117 points to 32, heading into today’s finale. That said, even were the Penske driver to win today and get the bonus two points for leading the most laps, Dixon would only need to finish in the top nine to clinch the title.

However, just to spice the situation with some intrigue, both drivers felt they/their cars underperformed in qualifying, so that Newgarden will line up eighth on the grid, and Dixon 12^th. Both have admitted they will be taking different approaches to the race and it’s worth noting that Newgarden is the defending race winner here, while Dixon has finished second four times but never reached victory lane.

Up front, Newgarden’s teammate Will Power took his fifth pole of the season, and his ninth in 11 years at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg’s 1.8-mile street-plus-runway course. To do that, he had to beat three cars from the resurgent Andretti Autosport-Honda team – Alexander Rossi, Colton Herta and James Hinchcliffe – while Meyer Shank Racing’s Jack Harvey (which has a technical partnership with the Andretti team) will line up fifth.

For a preview, and race facts, click here

Race: Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg
Date: Sunday, Oct. 25, 2020
Start time: 2.32pm local/Eastern Time
Location: Downtown streets of St. Petersburg plus a runway at Albert Whitted Airport

What channel is the IndyCar race on today?

The race is being shown live on NBC, with coverage beginning at 2.30pm (ET) and the field due to get the green flag at 2.32pm.

In addition all IndyCar races air live on network affiliates, Sirius 211, XM 205, indycar.com, indycarradio.com and the IndyCar Mobile app powered by NTT DATA. All practice and qualifying sessions are available on indycar.com, indycarradio.com and the IndyCar Mobile app with qualifying also airing on XM 205.

How the grid lines up for the Firestone GP of St. Pete:

Cla	#	Driver	Team	Time
1	12	Will Power	Team Penske	1'01.036
2	27	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	1'01.173
3	88	Colton Herta	Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport	1'01.181
4	26	James Hinchcliffe	Andretti Autosport	1'01.362
5	60	Jack Harvey	Meyer Shank Racing	1'01.367
6	5	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren SP	1'01.772
7	14	Sébastien Bourdais	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	1'00.810
8	1	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	1'00.867
9	21	Rinus van Kalmthout	Ed Carpenter Racing	1'00.883
10	7	Oliver Askew	Arrow McLaren SP	1'00.977
11	9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	1'01.028
12	22	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	1'01.229
13	30	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1'00.942
14	20	Conor Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing	1'01.160
15	8	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	1'00.961
16	55	Alex Palou	Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh	1'01.163
17	15	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1'01.145
18	18	Santino Ferrucci	Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan	1'01.179
19	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	1'01.173
20	4	Charlie Kimball	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	1'01.242
21	3	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	1'01.640
22	10	Felix Rosenqvist	Chip Ganassi Racing	1'01.522
23	98	Marco Andretti	Andretti Herta Autosport with Marco & Curb-Agajani	1'01.683
24	59	Max Chilton	Carlin	1'21.790
View full results