Repaved Texas track may be game-changer
The Verizon IndyCar Series heads to Fort Worth for a race on the oval at Texas Motor Speedway this weekend, a week after Graham Rahal swept the doubleheader at Detroit.
Five keys as drivers and teams move toward midseason at the Rainguard Water Sealers 600 (8 p.m. ET Saturday, NBC Sports Network). The Texas learning curve
will be steep: And not just for the new guys. While Dale Coyne Racing replacement driver Tristan Vautier and Harding Racing ’s Gabby Chaves will have a lot of catching up to do in a short amount of time, the series regulars also will be learning on the fly at one of the most treacherous circuits of the season.
Since the series’ visit in August, the track has been repaved and the first and second turns have been reshaped. Teams tested there in April and found their tires weren’t degrading at the rate they had become accustomed to.
TMS is filled with mysteries that need to be solved, James Hinchcliffe said.
“Sadly, there’s not much we can bring back from last season,” said Hinchcliffe, who was edged by Rahal by 0.008 seconds in least year’s shootout. “The key to Texas was tire management, and that’s been the key to the race there since we went there in 2012 with the new car. With the nature of the surface change, that’s really not going to be an issue anymore. We have no idea what passing is going to be like.” Power needs some deja vu: Coming off of a win in the second half of the Detroit doubleheader last season, Will Power had climbed to seventh in points. The victory kicked off the Team Penske star’s sprint up the standings, as he rattled off four wins in six races and rapidly closed on points leader and teammate Simon Pagenaud.
His comeback bid came up short, but there’s reason to think another magical run could be enough to give Power a shot at his second title.
Coming off a third-place finish Sunday, Power is eighth in the championship but only 70 points behind leader Scott Dixon, as opposed to the 117 points he trailed Pagenaud by at this time last year.
Power also has two more races to work with this season. Last year was a 16-race season, and Power missed the first because of a misdiagnosed concussion. There are 17 races this season.
Finally, of the remaining nine circuits, Power has won at six, including Texas (the others are Road America, Exhibition Place, Pocono Raceway, Watkins Glen International and Sonoma Raceway). He has won the pole three of the last four years at Texas.
These preseason favorites need a top-five to remain in
contention: Two former champions, Tony Kanaan (2004) and Ryan Hunter-Reay (2012), occupy the ninth and 13th places, respectively, in the standings and sit 80 and 120 points behind Dixon. Meanwhile, another top championship contender, Hinchcliffe, is 10th and 87 points out.
As Power demonstrated last year, there is time for each to mount a comeback, but that time is quickly running out.
For Hunter-Reay, engine failures and mechanical problems have derailed his climb up the standings, while Kanaan has been able to stay on track but unable to produce elite results. He has one
top-five finish this year and zero podiums.
With the season nearly half over, all three are in dire need of a good result in Texas to keep pace with the drivers ahead of them. Everyone is ready for their
midseason break: One of the biggest points of pride for Rahal coming out of Detroit was that Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing was able to score victories while the team was exhausted.
“I’m really pleased for our guys, for our team,” Rahal said Sunday. “It’s been a brutal last month, every single day going and doing this. We all love it, but it still wears you down. So to get that morale boost is going to mean a lot.”
A few of the drivers, including Rahal, Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato and Dixon — who is nursing a sore left foot from a nasty crash in the Indianapolis 500 — mentioned how grueling the Detroit double was coming off the madness of May. With the race at TMS, one of the most physically and mentally taxing circuits of the series, taking place six days after Detroit, there has been no time for anyone to rest.
But after Texas, there isn’t another race on the schedule for two weeks, when the series heads to Road America. Picking a repeat winner is a
fool’s errand: Seven different tracks, seven different winners. Need we say more? While it would make plenty of sense to pick Rahal — the reigning race champion — to double down at Texas and pick up his third win in a row, it seems unlikely, given the parity this season has offered.
Dixon and Helio Castroneves, the pair leading the championship, appear poised to end their winless stretches. Dixon is a twotime winner at Texas and has four podiums this season. While Dixon hasn’t won since last season at Watkins Glen (a stretch of nine races), Castroneves’ drought has lasted much longer.
The Team Penske star and four-time Texas champion hasn’t won a race in more than three years, spanning 51 races. Obviously, he’s long past due, but he has been within striking distance all season.
Castroneves is 8-for-8 in top-10 finishes this year, so he’ll be in the hunt this weekend.
Maybe Saturday is the day Castroneves finally breaks through.
“It’s been a brutal last month. ... We all love it, but it still wears you down. So to get that morale boost is going to mean a lot.” Driver Graham Rahal, referring to his two wins last weekend