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2013 St. Pete: Barracuda Racing IndyCar Race Preview
Fast Facts
• Driver: Alex Tagliani
• Car: No. 98 Barracuda Racing
• Primary sponsor: Barracuda Networks
• Event title: Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg
• Location: Streets of St. Petersburg, FL
• Track: 14-turn, 1.8-mile temporary street circuit
• 2013 event counter: The Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is the 1st race (of 19) for the IZOD IndyCar Series
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Practice sessions: Friday, March 22 from 11:10-11:55 a.m. and 2:40-3:25 p.m. EST; Saturday, March 23 from 10:25-11:10 a.m.
Qualifying: Saturday, March 23 from 2:05-3:15 p.m. EST
Race: Sunday, March 24 - Pre-race activities starting at 11:50 a.m. EST with an estimated green flag at 12:40 p.m. (110 laps)
Broadcast Information
Race broadcast (TV): Sunday, March 24 from 12-3 p.m. EST on NBC Sports Network
Race broadcast (radio): IMS Radio Network, XM 211 and Sirius 211
Driver Quote: Alex Tagliani
I'm very excited to start the season. It's been a long winter but I've watched the Barracuda Racing team work hard on preparing a very competitive race car.
This is my second year with the same group of people and stability is very important in this sport. You can only showcase your talent when you have a good crew and car behind you, and to get to that point there's a lot of work. The car gets developed and evolves based on driver input and what the engineer feels, so the type of relationship I have with my engineer Todd Malloy, is important. We're still going to be a one-car team but we have an advantage: I can look at my own data from last year and that will be very helpful.
We also have new livery this year. The No. 98 has already turned a lot of heads at the Barber test and we had some amazing comments. With an attractive, competitive race car, I think as a group, we feel that we can have a very good season.
St. Pete is a great place to start the year. It's a fun place with a fantastic street course. Hopefully the weather will cope with us and the fans should have a good time.
One other exciting part of this race weekend is that I'll be driving with the Wish For Our Heroes sticker on my helmet. Recently, I had the chance to meet Charlie Lemon, one of the guys who's protecting our country and a tremendous young person that required some help from the Wish For Our Heroes foundation. I decided to donate one of my helmets to raise money for what the foundation did for him and for others. I can't wait to see him again in pit lane and run a solid race in St. Pete.
PaddockTalk Perspective
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