ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The first blocks of track for the 2025 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg will hit the pavement Monday as the team races to assemble the 1.8 mile 14-turn street course.

Race promoter Kim Green said he expects the process to build the track will take 15 days this year, and seven days to tear it down.

Far from the original 2004 permit that gave the team 75 days to assemble the track. 

What You Need To Know

  • Teams lay 200-250 giant concrete blocks per day for the St. Pete Grand Prix track

  • The track takes 15 days to build and seven days to tear down

  • Breaking down the track will start on Sunday, March 2, immediately following the final race

  • MORE: The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

Green said the team will start assembling the track on Bay Shore Drive Northeast by Albert Whitted Airport and will work their way toward the busier areas.

They will leave open access points to businesses, including the Dali Museum and Mahaffey Theater, until the last possible moment, roughly three days before the race begins.

“Eventually on the Tuesday night of race week we close up 1st Street and that’s when we really become a racetrack,” Green said. “We’ve done it for a long time, so we’ve been able to fine tune it a bit.”

Using the help of Stepp’s Towing and heavy machinery, they can lay anywhere from 200 to 250 large concrete blocks each day around the edges of the track. After that is complete, it’s on to fencing.

“It’s all panel style... it’s safer, it’s quicker. That allows us to put it up quicker and then take it down,” Green said.

As it has been many years, this is the first race of the 2025 IndyCar series. Driver Kyle Kirkwood says there’s five street courses on the schedule this year, but because the St. Petersburg race is partially on an airport runway, it competes closer to how a road course would. 

The cars are only 2-3 inches off the ground and Kirkwood said this race is one of the smoothest.

“This one is particularly special because you actually come out onto a runway. That acts like a road course in a way because road courses are extremely smooth and street courses — they’re not really built for a car that’s touching the ground at a high speed,” he explained.

Kirkwood said turn 3 is one of the trickiest parts for drivers because of the angle and the speed the car is going when approaching it.

“I would say the scariest part to go through is turn 3,” he said. “It’s a flat out corner and we’re doing about 140 miles an hour. There’s just concrete walls around you and any small mistake will put you into one of those walls and destroy your race and destroy your car, no doubt.”

Special events like the 5K Run on the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Track and the INDYCAR Party in the Park are on Thursday, Feb. 27.

The party will take place from 4 to 7 p.m. at North Straub Park. 

Teams begin assembling the track for the St. Pete Grand Prix. (Spectrum News/Angie Angers)