Hunter-Reay, Honda Produce Podium Finish at St. Petersburg
• Hunter-Reay scores third-place finish in IndyCar season opener
• Young guns Daly, Rossi star in rookie runs
• Aleshin, Sato also record top-six finishing positions; contact costs Rahal

Ryan Hunter-Reay opened the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series for Honda with a third-place finish Sunday at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, as the 2012 series champion briefly led, hung tough with the leaders through the 110-lap temporary street circuit contest and avoided dramas that delayed other potential Honda contenders.

Series rookie Conor Daly also starred, as clever pit strategy from his Dale Coyne Racing team moved the young American driver to the front of the field for 15 laps mid-race, then he continued to battle with eventual race winner Juan Pablo Montoya until the final round of scheduled pit stops. Just after exiting the pits, Daly was forced up onto the curbing, damaging a front wing and leading to an unscheduled, additional pit stop for repairs, dropping him off the lead lap and to an unrepresentative 13th-place finish.

Series returnee James Hinchcliffe, Takuma Sato and Graham Rahal were all victims of contact from other competitors to spoil their respective races. Hinchcliffe and Sato were hit from behind on the opening lap, and while Sato was able to recover to finish sixth, Hinchcliffe was caught up in a multi-car collision on Lap 57 that ended his chances of a top-10 result.