Will Power’s morning is off to a rough start after crashing shortly after the start of second practice for the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

The Aussie, who is in his first race weekend with Andretti Global, was rolling around the 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary street circuit when he locked up in Turn 10 and clobbered the outside wall, causing significant damage to the right-front of his No. 26 Honda. The incident brought out the red flag just under three minutes after the session began.

“I just feel bad for the team,” Power said. “Just have to try and get it together before qualifying.

“We have actually a lot of time, but to miss this session was a big hit for us considering the session we had yesterday. Yeah, not an ideal start. Yeah, had a lot of issues yesterday that we hopefully resolved, but now we're not going to know until I get to run.”

Power, a two-time winner at St. Petersburg, was dealing with lock-up issues during the first practice session on Friday. Although Saturday morning saw humid conditions leave the track with a narrow dry line to start, the 44-year-old Aussie conceded it was a lock-up.

“Yeah, it was just a lock-up," Power said. "You start it and then you've locked that wheel and you've got to get off to unlock it. It was just poor.

“If it had happened a little earlier, I would have been able to just go straight. But it actually happened, so it was such a light brake pressure too. But like I said, there were tires that were locked a lot yesterday. So, yeah, not ideal."

Here's what led to the damage for Will Power's No. 26 machine in Practice 2: https://t.co/XmGgTqSdDwpic.twitter.com/LyYUgFzzAJ

— INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) February 28, 2026

With qualifying happening at 4:30pm ET later today, following the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race, Power is unsure if a backup car will be required.

“I looked at it, yeah, that's a tough one to get done,” said Power, a two-time IndyCar Series champion and 2018 Indianapolis 500 winner.

“For qualifying, yeah, no problem. But it'd be awesome if we got out. That'd be a big deal for us again just at the end of the session, but I doubt it.

“It's a lot of damage, the floor, all that. So I think you've got to fix that stuff quickly. Yeah, we'll see.”

The other significant crash in the session involved the No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet of Christian Rasmussen. With just over eight minutes remaining before the split group portion of the session, he did a quarter spin in Turn 1 and hit the wall before coming to a stop in Turn 2. The impact was enough to damage the nosecone and leave him climbing out of the car.

A big hit for Christian Rasmussen in St. Pete practice. pic.twitter.com/rjay6Dk0mz

— INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) February 28, 2026

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