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With lightning and rain in the area, Verizon IndyCar Series officials were forced to cancel qualifying for the Grand Prix of Louisiana. As a result, the field was set by entrant points.

Grand Prix of St. Petersburg winner Juan Pablo Montoya will lead the field as he started second last week, and was able to get the lead late in the race virtue the final set of pit stops.

“We were lucky, but at the same time that’s why you need the points, when you have days like this, it will pay off,” he commented. “You know, we try something a little different for qualifying, and we made a mistake there with the set up, but it is what it is. I think our car was actually pretty good. I didn’t get to run the entire practice session in the morning. Like I put new tires on my fast lap I got, the red flag came out, and on the lap I was actually up to the point I was running I was on pace with Simon (Pagenaud), and Simon was P3 or whatever he was, so I thought we had a pretty good car.”

Team Penske will sweep the front row for the event as St. Petersburg pole sitter Will Power will join Montoya on the front row virtue of finishing second two weeks ago. Power was fourth quickest in morning practice.

“You hate to start an inaugural race with a rain-shortened qualifying session, but you have to give credit to INDYCAR,” Power commented. “They did everything they could to get qualifying in. I was fairly happy with the Verizon Chevy in the wet and would’ve liked to finish all the rounds. We will start the race from a great spot, though, and we will deal with whatever Mother Nature throws our way tomorrow.”

Tony Kanaan, who led practice on Friday, will start from the third spot in his ride for Chip Ganassi Racing, among the Penske sandwich. Penske takes four of the top-five spots as Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud will round out the top-five.

“The No. 10 NTT DATA Chevrolet has just been so good all weekend here and it’s disappointing that we weren’t able to continue with qualifying to see what it could do in the rain,” Kanaan said. “I’ve had some luck in the past driving in the rain on race day and I expect that’s probably what it will look like tomorrow, so I’m ready to go. We’ll still start third tomorrow which isn’t bad at all, but I really wanted that pole position here and I felt like we had a really good shot at it.”

Sebastien Bourdais will start sixth, followed by Ryan Hunter-Reay, Jack Hawksworth, Luca Flippi and Marco Andretti. Scott Dixon, who led Saturday morning’s practice, will start from the 15th spot.

“It’s really a shame we didn’t get qualifying in today,” Dixon said. “The weather just hasn’t been cooperative for us this weekend here at NOLA. Our Brita car was fast though. We paced the practice session and were in a position to advance in the limited qualifying session we ran so I guess we did the best we could today. Hopefully the weather is better for tomorrow and we can get the race in for the fans.”

With weather in the area for Sunday afternoon, INDYCAR officials announced today that the start of the race has been moved up to 2:30 pm EST.

For the first time in the series history, the Verizon IndyCar Series is set to tackle the NOLA Motorsports Park road course. The 2.74-mile, 13 turn road course should prove to be an excellent event for both drivers and fans, based on the speeds shown through pre-season testing.

Team Penske enters the weekend with momentum on their side, having swept four of the top-five spots at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Juan Pablo Montoya led the way, scoring the victory in the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. It marks his second victory since returning to open-wheel competition, following his win last year at Pocono Raceway. The Colombian expressed excitement for this weekend’s event, based on how impressed he was of the facility at the test.

“The grip level is amazingly high, especially with the new aero kits,” he commented. “I can’t wait to see what it’s like on the ‘red’ Firestone tires. It’s going to be very interesting with everyone flying around. I’m very proud of how my No. 2 Verizon Chevy team came out of the gate strong this season. It’s only been one race, but compared to how we struggled last year at the start it’s a night-and-day difference. It’s just the difference a year makes. We are working just as hard and we haven’t made any radical changes to the team. It just comes down to experience.”

In Team Penske’s quest for their 176 IndyCar vicftory, it may be Will Power leading the way. Power is the reigning series champion, was quickest during testing, and showed the best speed during the St. Petersburg weekend. However, he finished runner-up to Montoya after losing time during the final pit stop exchange.

“You have to acknowledge what an amazing job Chevrolet and all of the engineers at Team Penske have done in the off-season,” he said. “They have a lot to be proud of with the way we performed as a team at St. Pete. There is no reason to think that it won’t carry over to NOLA this weekend, not only because of the testing we did there in the off-season, but we have typically run very well at the new venues over the last couple of years. NOLA is wicked fast and what it takes to get around that place really suits my driving style. The grip is very tight and it should promote great racing.”

There’s also a chance for Helio Castroneves to get his first win of the year, or possibly Simon Pagenaud, who joined the organization over the off-season.

The rest of the competitors will be trying to stop the domination from Team Penske, and the biggest defense could come from Chip Ganassi Racing. Tony Kanaan broke up the all Team Penske sweep, finishing third at St. Petersburg. It marked his sixth podium finish in the last eight races, dating back to last season.

“It was great to start the new season with NTT Data Chip Ganassi Racing with a podium finish in St. Pete and be able to break up the Penske cars from sweeping those top four spots,” he said. “It obviously isn’t a win, but we’ll take the third-place finish and use it to build on. We’ve had some really good test days at NOLA Motorsports Park and we’ve been able to get solid data with all four cars running and testing different things. It’ll be a lot of fun getting out onto a new track and seeing what all the teams can do when we’re starting from a more equal playing field with track experience.”

The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg marked the competition debut of aerodynamic bodywork kits designed, manufactured and supplied by Chevrolet and Honda. In the first event, it looked as though Chevrolet has the upper-hand, sweeping the top six spots. Honda has gone back to the drawing board slightly, receiving approval from IndyCar to strengthen their kits in the front nose area a little more so they don’t break easily. It’ll be interesting to see whether Honda can close the gap this weekend. That charge will be led by Ryan Hunter-Reay, who finished seventh at St. Petersburg for Andretti Autosport.

“We are coming off a positive test (at NOLA) a few weeks ago and are looking forward to the inaugural Grand Prix of Louisiana,” Hunter-Reay said. “The weather could play a major factor, and it’s something we are keeping an eye on as we consider setup options. Wet conditions will be extremely tricky at this particular track… but sometimes big risk equals big rewards.”

While these drivers enter the weekend with momentum on their sides, there are other drivers that are wishing they had it. Dale Coyne Racing tops that chart after both Francesco Dracone and Carlos Huertas failed to finish the season opener due to mechanical issues related to steering.

“I tested there for two days and I like the layout of the circuit,” Huertas said. “It will be interesting to see how much overtaking this circuit is going to provide and the tire wear should come into play in the race. I hope to have a good weekend and that my 2015 really starts in NOLA.”

Dracone was one of four rookies in the field at St. Petersburg, and none of those rookies had a good showing. Gabby Chaves topped the list finishing 17th, followed by Sage Karam and Stefano Coletti finishing 19th and 20th, respectively. Karam wasn’t originally scheduled to run this weekend’s event, however it was added to his schedule at Chip Ganassi Racing.

“We did a lot of off-season testing with the aero kits at NOLA, so I feel I’m much more prepared for a track like this than St. Petersburg,” Karam expressed. “I’ve turned a lot of laps and miles at the track so far so I’m feeling pretty good about it. I think the race is going to be good. NOLA is a fast track and you’re going to see a lot of mistakes, and in turn a lot of passing opportunities. It’s a very physical track as well. The fans in Louisiana are going to get to see some raw speed with this layout. I would watch for passing in Turns 1 and 10.”

CFH Racing announced on Tuesday, April 7 that JR Hildebrand will drive the No. 6 Preferred Freezer Services CFH Racing Chevrolet for the Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis on May 9 and the 99^th Running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 24.

The 27-year-old will be making his fifth Indianapolis 500 start, and his first start in the Augie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis. The 2009 Indy Lights Champion was named the 2011 Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year after finsihing second. In four races at IMS, he has two top-10 starts and two top-10 finishes.

“We are definitely looking forward to having Preferred Freezer Services back on the car,” Hildebrand said. “We had a lot of fun with them in 2014 and we will be rolling the polar bear back out into the garage area this year! Even though we were a one-off entry last year, we were very fast and had a really easy month. Preferred Freezer Services was a big part of that, they are a great group to work with and it’s going to make this year that much more exciting.”

The California native becomes the third driver in CFH Racing’s line-up for the Indianapolis 500, joining Josef Newgarden and Ed Carpenter.

“It was really great working with Ed last year at the 500 and I did a little bit of testing in the off-season with Josef, we got along really well,” Hildebrand said. “I expect the relationship that the three of us have to be potent and for us to have great communication. That’s such a huge piece, particularly at the 500, where there is so much practice, qualifying is so intense and we’ll have the new aero kits. You need every last ounce of speed you can get out of the cars for both qualifying and race day and we can all work together to reach that goal.”

Last year, all three drivers qualified in the top nine, with Carpenter winning the pole award for the second straight season.

While Hildebrand has experience on the oval, this year marks his first start on the 2.4 mile, 14-turn road course.

“To have the Grand Prix added onto the 500 program is great,” Hildebrand continued. “Having a race under our belts going into the 500 is a huge difference from a one-off scenario. It can be tough sometimes when you have guys who haven’t done pit stops as a group during a race and you don’t have that chemistry yet. It will be great for my team of guys to have a warm-up heading into the oval race and great for me to get back in a car on a road course.”

Preferred Freezer Services “offers the most modern, state-of-the-art, full service temperature-controlled warehouses in the United States”. The company, based out of New Jersey, previously partnered with ECR to field a car for Hildebrand in last year’s Indianapolis 500.

“Preferred Freezer Systems is leading the way in their industry and we hope to set the pace for the Month of May,” Carpenter said. “JR is a driver that we want to work with and it’s great to be able to team up with both JR and Preferred Freezer Services again for the Indy 500 and now the Grand Prix of Indianapolis.”

“We are extremely excited to have the opportunity to work with CFH Racing during the Month of May,” Trut Edwards, President of Central Security & Communications, added. “Ed has been a good friend for over 15 years and delivers great value in our partnership. Last year was fantastic; we feel that we can build on it with two races at IMS and JR behind the wheel. It is overwhelming to realize we are partnering with three American drivers on Memorial Day for the greatest race in the world.”