ST. PETERSBURG — A track record that took IndyCar a decade to break lasted only 20 minutes Saturday.
Will Power's record-breaking qualifying run Saturday probably won't be the only time the IndyCar series tops old speeds thanks to its new aero kits, which will make their formal debut in today's season-opening Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
The 110-lap race will be the first real glimpse of how the new body work by manufacturers Honda and Chevrolet, so it's still unclear how the faster cars will affect strategies when the green flag drops.
"It's a guessing game," Team Penske driver Juan Montoya said.
And perhaps a pricey gamble for a series that prides itself on parity.
Last year's 18 IndyCar races featured a record-tying 11 different winners. Compare that to NASCAR (36 races, 13 winners) or Formula One (19 races, three winners).
The close results from 2014 came with two different engines (Honda or Chevy) but the same cars (Dallara). Now the two engine manufacturers have created their own sets of bodywork to try to find speed. Hondas look different than Chevys, and teams with the same manufacturers are trying different ways to attack the same problems.
"We've got a lot of different configurations and iterations and derivatives of things that we can try — which is equal parts exciting and annoying for the engineers," 2013 St. Petersburg winner James Hinchcliffe said. "There's so much to get through, but there's a lot to play with."
The risk comes if one company can't sort through the data quickly enough and falls behind the other, causing the racing to become more predictable and less exciting.
After Friday's first practice, the five quickest cars were all Chevrolets. The six slowest were all Hondas. Though qualifying was tight Saturday, Team Penske had the top four cars, led by Power, the defending Grand Prix and series champion.
"You had such great racing before without the kit," Power said. "I don't think this will make it any better."
But it will make it faster.
Power twice broke the 2003 track record during qualifying, and all but four cars were faster than last year's pole time. Power's best time in a preseason test at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama was a full second quicker than his 2014 pole speed.
The extra speed comes from the extra details in the front and rear wings. Chevy has winglets in the back but a tighter look. Honda's front wing has many layers with a more futuristic design.
"I've never seen as many flaps on a front wing in my entire life," said Jack Hawksworth, driver of AJ Foyt Racing's No. 41 Honda.
Those flaps and winglets carry risks.
The small parts could break off more easily and lead to more debris and cautions. Though the cost is capped at $75,000 per entry, the kits have been years in the making and add an extra expense as sponsorships are at a premium. And different aero kit combinations will work best at different kinds of tracks.
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Explore all your options"I'm kind of putting an investment to the future," Team Penske owner Roger Penske said. "What I don't want to do is change it two years from now."
Penske said the trade-off comes with a greater preseason buzz about the new bodywork. The changes also allow cars to go faster and brake later in the corners, boosting speeds and likely causing track records to fall throughout the year.
"It's phenomenal how much grip it has now," Power said. "It's like nothing I've ever felt."
Drivers have had several test sessions to adjust to that extra grip. The cars demand more upper-body strength for control in the corners and had racers complaining of sore necks because of the extra stress in the early test sessions.
With the physical adjustment over, the only remaining questions involve the cars themselves. Teams couldn't use the alternate (softer) red-walled tires until Saturday's qualifying, so they don't know how long the faster tires will last during a race. Because of limited testing this month, engineers are still deciphering data on how to trim lap times.
"There's more openings for people to try things," said Scott Dixon, a three-time series champion with Chip Ganassi Racing.
And that has drivers unsure of what to expect when the green flag drops.
Nine of the 10 IndyCar winners here have been from the three power teams — Andretti Autosport, Ganassi and Penske. But with so many new variables and to-be-determined strategies, an unlikely driver on a smaller team could be the first to unlock the secrets to more speed or guess the right strategy to claim the first checkered flag of the season.
"Ultimately we're not going to know until (today)," Hinchcliffe said. "And one guy's going to get it right, and 22 others are going to be sitting there being angry that they missed something."
Contact Matt Baker at mbaker@tampabay.com. Follow @MBakerTBTimes.