The best race at St. Petersburg this weekend was the NASCAR Truck Series

So, the IndyCar season started. Álex Palou won, wow, no way. Everybody else fumbled the ball. The tires sucked; the soft tire lasted like 30 laps and made no difference. There was racing, don’t get me wrong, just none with Palou. What would have been the most interesting headline — Mick Schumacher’s first IndyCar race — has not even happened yet because Sting Ray Robb and Santino Ferrucci continue to waste space on the IndyCar grid and wrecked Mick out on his first lap. Mick’s takeaway was that he has to qualify better so he can stay away from the idiots. Good learning, Mick. Have fun at Phoenix.

MX-5 Cup also raced, and they were fun as always, but nothing remarkable happened. The conditions were pretty wet for the first race, but it mostly just resulted in crashing rather than standout performances. Bobby Gossett stuck it out and won his first MX-5 Cup race, so congratulations to him. Justin Adakonis also got his first win in race 2, congrats to him as well. Earl Bamber did fine. Sébastien Bourdais did not do fine.

The highlight of the St. Petersburg race weekend was the first ever street race of the NASCAR Truck Series. The star studs in the star-studded lineup did make their appearances. Colin Braun finished best of the guests in P9, but he was the one with meaningful NASCAR experience. James “Jimmy Hinch” Hinchcliffe finished right behind him in P10, which was actually the most impressive drive any guest had because he was turned around by Dario Franchitti early on, then turned himself around a couple times, and he still drove through the pack. But — against what probably anybody in the entire world expected — the star of the first ever NASCAR Truck Series street race was the NASCAR Truck Series.

Yes, the regulars came prepared, and they fought it out lap after lap. It was an honest-to-god street race, and it was won in marvelous fashion by Layne Riggs, whom I used to not like, but that is now completely wiped away. He trained in the Ford Racing simulator with Joey Hand for months for this race, and it showed.

I am so, so happy to see how much the increased emphasis on road and street courses has up-skilled all three NASCAR fields.