Andretti Cape opens 2025 with a fresh start in St. Pete
The 2025 INDY NXT by Firestone season kicked off in style with a visit to St. Petersburg, Florida. Beautiful weather greeted the paddock, giving Andretti Cape’s two new drivers a perfect setting to test out their skills.
Ricardo Escotto was quick right out of the gate, setting times inside the top 10 during the first portion of the weekend. The 20-year-old battled through a big moment in qualifying that saw one of the track’s large curbs nearly knock the steering wheel out of his hand, recovering to earn a spot on the fourth row.
When the green flags waved to start the main event, Escotto’s high qualifying position meant his was ahead of the Turn 1 chaos that unfolded behind him. He ran a consistent first half of the race inside the top 10.
On lap 25 Josh Pierson made a late dive down the inside of Escotto at Turn 4, bumping him wide. The young driver expertly kept control of the #3 Frank’s Red Hot car and kept it out of the wall. Escotto battled back and regained the lost positions by time the checkered flags waved, finishing in 10th place.
Seb Murray’s race was even more eventful in all the wrong ways. He started Sunday’s event from the 13th position, and narrowly missed being collected in the first corner crash. Unfortunately, he did collect a small bit of front wing damage early in the race, which got progressively worse as the laps went by.
Murray was running just outside the top 10 in his #2 Dream Racing Dubai entry when the left wing elements completely collapsed, forcing him to make a costly pit stop for a replacement on lap 20. He stayed on the lead lap on account of a well-timed caution and made up a couple positions, but then clipped the wall in Turn 9 while pushing and had to make a second pit stop for a bent suspension. He finished in a disappointing 17th position, three laps down.
The Andretti Cape INDY NXT team has some time to wait before the next race at Barber Motorsports Park, but the team will fill that time with some testing dates and plenty of prep work.
Seb Murray
“It was an unfortunate collision at the start of the race. It was a racing incident in my opinion that took the left portion of my wing off. It felt fine and the lap times were still pretty decent at the start, so I decided to stay out. Then unfortunately it got stuck under my tire so I had no choice but to pit.
“My pace was strong and made my way back up to 14th. I was confident and had the pace to move up, but then clipped the inside wall at Turn 9 and that was the race over. Team did a great job, but finishing P17 on the first weekend - we had the pace to be in the top 10 comfortably. Big thanks to Andretti Cape and everyone else involved. We’ll get some proper points at Barber.”
Ricardo Escotto
“Overall a good weekend for us, being comfortably in the top 10 all weekend. Obviously we want more and are looking forward, but this is the first time I’ve finished a race here in St. Pete so I’m really happy about that. Just really looking forward to the rest of the season and building up on this good weekend.”