Your NCAA Tournament is likely shattered, the likes of UMBC and Loyola of Chicago storming into the party and altering the decorations into a decor beyond the vision you illustrated with your Sharpie and the printout of that grid you filled, each pick confirming you’d tapped in to your inner Nostradamus. The games began and poof! Reality brought you back to being an armchair point guard. 

So, let’s turn our attention to the next season, shall we? By that, I mean, the season that roared off on the streets of St. Petersburg like Villanova in a glorious fast break. Yes, the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series is off and running. 

I was peering down from my Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network broadcast perch onto the Turn 4 section of the St. Pete street course, and it didn’t take long to realize: Perhaps the changing of the guard is coming more quickly than we realized. 

The NCAA Sweet 16 is infiltrated by the non-traditional teams like Loyola and Kansas State instead of North Carolina and Virginia. In the early stages of the INDYCAR season, the same could be said. Newcomers like Jordan King, Robert Wickens and Matheus Leist were running up front, while proverbial No. 1 seeds from the Penske and Ganassi stables were further back in the field. It’s a madness that promises to create drama throughout the season. 

There are always ebbs and flows in sports. It’s an ongoing evolution that draws us back. The NCAA tourney has become a part of the American sports fabric based on such science, the Sister Jeans and Harold Jensens interweaving their way into our conscious based on the notion that, on any day, the David in all of us can stun Goliath. That same turn is happening with each right and left in INDYCAR. 

Bigger teams may have the money and resources to master every aerodynamic nuance of a race car. They may have the manpower to analyze data that comes back from every lap. Yet, what happens when every team is analyzing the same empty grid, with little more than a Sharpie and their own inner Nostradamus? 

The playing field gets leveled. A new era has dawned in INDYCAR, the 2018 car with the universal aero kit having put one race under its belt. Fans are enthusiastically applauding its sleek and sexy look, but it is more than that. The Etch-a-Sketch has been shaken clean, everyone has started with a fresh canvas.

Yes, tricky weather made for an unorthodox Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg qualifying session, but the race showed that Indy car experience does not automatically equate to new car experience. It was new for all. 

King made a brazen move to take the early lead. When Wickens took it back, the Canadian turned laps that looked like those of a seasoned vet. Leist ran with the leaders at equal pace. Fellow rookie Zach Veach mixed it up with drivers who have been in the series since Veach was in a playpen, all before the Ohioan brought his car home with the highest finish among his rookie peers. 

I’m not saying Ryan Hunter-Reay, Josef Newgarden, Will Power, Scott Dixon and the old guard are lost in the shuffle. It would be naive and irresponsible to say so and, as Sebastian Bourdais proved in Florida, a savvy vet does not have to dominate a race to win it. That said, this is uncharted territory for all. 

The early reports are that the new car drivers more freely. It responds to driver influence in quick and sound fashion, but always, it seems, it is reminding the pilot that their focus best be 100 percent. Turning laps with a tiger by the tail makes for breathtaking spectacles, while at the same time causing the entire grid to be chasing the same elusive formula. It hasn’t always been that way. 

Testing will continue to be paramount, and INDYCAR’s open tests offer equal lab time to all. While there is no substitution for on-track performance in a race situation, it’s often what is learned in tests that can make that tenth of a second difference.

How many times had Michigan practiced the play that gave it the last-needed look to squeak past Houston? A driver must execute when the chance arises, but without the practice, the opportunity may never be seen. While there is still plenty of racing before the INDYCAR Grand Prix and the 102nd Indianapolis 500, upcoming test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway will be as important as ever. And the March 27 and 28 oval testing sessions will stream live on IndyCar.com.

Yes, King and Wickens entered St. Pete short on Indy car experience. They were, however, as long on experience in this car as the rest of the field. That’s what makes the season so intriguing. That’s what will make for May Madness. 

I’m curious to see how long the younger guys can stay in the party they stormed. With all the factors in play, my guess is as long as Villanova and Kentucky – who I’m guessing will play for the national basketball title. 

But, I’m writing them in pencil. 

(Veteran broadcaster Jake Query is a member of the Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network team and offers his musings regularly on IndyCar.com.)