A viewer’s guide to IndyCar: Five storylines to watch in the 2023 season and St. Pete opener

With the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series season set to begin today, a viewer’s guide to key storylines when the green flag drops on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida (12:30 p.m. ET, NBC and Peacock):

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida – Hate sells.

It’s the key to any rivalry in racing. If you want to gain new fans and keep their attention, your stars regularly need to lock horns and occasionally throw fire at each other when the cameras and recorders are running.

Petty vs. Pearson. Lewis vs. Max.

Josef vs. Simon?

As the NTT IndyCar Series prepares to launch a new docuseries (“100 Days to Indy”) squarely aimed at capturing the zeitgeist the way that Netflix’s “Drive to Survive” did for Formula One, the biggest question is how real can it get for a series that has very affable and appealing stars but often has lacked the feuding that has fueled the growth of NASCAR and Formula One.

There are some budding rivalries among IndyCar’s diverse driver lineup. But its collection of stars also can be chummy in public and often decline to take the gloves off during the periods with peak eyeballs when the audience demands drama to stem from the on-track scuffles that stoke emotions in every race.

Conor Daly has encouraged aggression of access from the CW/VICE docuseries that will follow IndyCar though the 107th Indy 500.

“I told the producers and the director, ‘Really get in our faces right after the races,’” Daly said. “That’s kind of when we really will be honest about what happened or who did what to who. There are really a lot of us, for sure, who do get along. On track a lot of those friendships go out the window. Talk about that! Talk about who you trust and talk about who you don’t. I think that’s something people would really want to