For as much hype as there is about the highly competitive NTT IndyCar Series, determining the preseason power rankings essentially boils down to two teams — just like every championship for the past decade.

Since Ryan Hunter-Reay’s 2012 championship for Andretti Autosport, the past 10 titles have been won by either Chip Ganassi Racing or team Penske drivers. Between Ganassi’s Scott Dixon (2013, ’15, ’18, ’20) and Penske’s Will Power (2022, ’14) and Josef Newgarden (2017, ’19), three drivers have combined for eight championships.

Ganassi and Penske drivers naturally occupy six of the seven top spots in NBC Sports’ preseason IndyCar power rankings, but there are signs that a new team finally could break the stranglehold.

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It starts with Arrow McLaren, which has added 2016 Indy 500 winner Alexander Rossi to its 1-2 combo of Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist. Andretti is expecting to bounce back with Colton Herta, and 2022 Rookie of the Year Christian Lundgaard of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing seems destined to be the next first-time winner.

Here’s the first edition of NBC Sports’ assessment of the current top 10 drivers in IndyCar entering Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg season opener:

1. Josef Newgarden (second in 2022 points standings)  – The runner-up in the championship the past three years led the circuit in victories last season, and he’s motivated to win a third title and his first Indy 500 this year.

2. Will Power (first in 2022) – He turns 42 this week, and the Team Penske driver just seems to keep getting better, especially after he won his second championship with a new level of consistency.

3. Scott Dixon (third in 2022) – You never can count IndyCar’s Six-Time out, but the Chip Ganassi Racing superstar and No. 9 team will need to solve their qualifying woes to get a seventh championship.

4. Alex Palou (tied fourth in 2022) – With last year’s contract mess behind him, the 2021 champion should head into his likely final season at Chip Ganassi Racing with a clear mind and fast car.

5. Pato O’Ward (seventh in 2022) – This will be a critical season for the Arrow McLaren star as his team adds a third car and tries to rediscover the magic of the 2021 season.

6. Scott McLaughlin (tied fourth in 2022) – He had a major breakthrough with three wins in his second IndyCar season, but he still is competing internally against two tough Penske teammates.

7. Marcus Ericsson (sixth in 2022) – The 2022 Indy 500 winner was in the championship hunt through last year’s finale as he leveled up on ovals. The studious Swede still has gains to make this year.

8. Colton Herta (10th in 2022) – Burned by some brutal mistakes and an off-year for Andretti Autosport, Herta wants to prove that he remains one of the fastest drivers in IndyCar.

9. Christian Lundgaard (14th in 2022) – He made huge strides as last year’s rookie of the year and consistently was among the fastest in preseason spring testing. A win is coming soon for Rahal Letterman Lanigan.

10. Alexander Rossi (eighth in 2022) – The most intriguing new driver-team combination, Rossi starts a new chapter with Arrow McLaren after ending a three-year winless skid last year.

Just missed: Felix Rosenqvist (still winless since 2020 but did well to finish ninth last year and will be driving for his future — again — this year); Graham Rahal (already has said he feels much better entering this season than 2022, which started with dismal results); Rinus VeeKay (let a win slip away at Barber Motorsports Park and seems motivated after a disappointing season).

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Before starting his new drag racing career, Tony Stewart usually has let guys with families hit the runway first following NASCAR races. The Hall of Fame driver who’s now a team owner and part-time television commentator figures it helps them get home and see their kids before bedtime.

It’s a noble gesture, for sure – one he dumped on the tarmac this week.

“I’m getting to the airport first and getting out of there,” Stewart said. “I got bigger fish to fry.”

More accurate: a new career path to start.

The 51-year-old Stewart is embarking on his first season as a full-time NHRA driver, and he’s all in. He will race a Top Alcohol dragster for McPhillips Racing when the season begins next week with the Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway.

“I’m here; it’s where my heart is,” he said.

For Stewart, it’s the latest – and arguably most challenging – lane change for a guy who’s dedicated his life to motorsports. The three-time NASCAR champion also has titles in IndyCar and USAC as well as a fourth in NASCAR as co-owner at Stewart-Haas Racing. Most recently, he claimed the inaugural Superstar Racing Experience title, a summer stock car series he founded in 2021.

“Everything that I did in motorsports pretty much was all in the same bubble, even dirt-track racing, sports-car racing, NASCAR, IndyCar,” Stewart said. “NHRA is off on its own island.”

He calls it “Fantasy Island,” not that surprising considering he met his wife, NHRA Top Fuel dragster Leah Pruett, at an event in 2020. They got engaged in March 2021 and were married later that year.

Now, Pruett is driving her second season for Tony Stewart Racing. Three-time Funny Car champion Matt Hagan also drives for TSR.

Stewart, though, is racing in a lower class. And he doesn’t see himself moving up anytime soon, if at all.

“I’m not ready for it,” he said. “I’ve driven a Top Fuel car 16 runs and every run I make in it, the more I realize that I am not ready to drive a Top Fuel dragster, and I don’t belong in one right now.

“It’s fine to test with it. But those cars are so fast that my brain is so far behind the car that if something happens, I don’t know that I could catch it or be ready for it.”

He has another reason to avoid making the jump.

“The last thing I want to do is have to race against my wife because I like my side of the bed every night,” he quipped.

Stewart made his NHRA Top Alcohol debut in October at the Nevada Nationals, where he advanced to the finals and finished second by .0002 of a second. Stewart’s 271.57 mph pass came up 1 inch short of the victory.

Madison Payne, a college student at Texas Christian University and a third-generation drag racer, edged Stewart in the quarter mile.

“It was good for the sport because Tony is such a big name,” Payne said on racing podcast “Between The Slicks” in January. “But I was so happy I beat him. It would just be so messed up if anybody came into the sport and won their first race. No, it’s not fair.”

That one race weekend was enough to convince Stewart he wanted more. Now, he’s running for a championship and will race 12 of 14 national events; he will miss the Northwest Nationals in Kent, Washington (July 21-23) and the NHRA Nationals in Topeka, Kansas (Aug. 11-13) because of prior engagements.

He also is scheduled to compete in select regional races, beginning this week with the Baby Gators in Gainesville. The NHRA schedule, combined with NASCAR and SRX duties, have him feeling “like a Thanksgiving plate.”

“I have covered every inch of surface that I can put anything else on,” Stewart said.

He put sprint-car racing on hold, and while he had conversations about returning to NASCAR to run the dirt-track event at Bristol Motor Speedway, he shelved that, too.

“I’m just trying to be an average husband; I’m not even trying to set the bar too high,” he said. “I just want to do the right things and have fun with my wife. … If Leah retired tomorrow, I would still be involved in the same capacity than I am right now.

“It has nothing to do with our relationship. She just helped set the hook on getting me addicted to an NHRA.”