IndyCar wraps up grueling stretch in Texas
The most grueling stretch of the NTT IndyCar Series schedule is nearly over. After a whirlwind month of May and a double-dip in Detroit, the open-wheel traveling circus makes one last pit stop before enjoying a well-deserved break.
But this final stop is not to be taken lightly. Historically, the high banks of Texas Motor Speedway have served as some of the most treacherous turns in the series. Two years ago, the race devolved in a Wild West wreck-fest that ended with only eight of the 22 cars that started the race still on track. Last year’s race, the first in the universal aero kit era, didn’t deliver quite as much carnage but still caught out a handful of drivers.
With temperatures expected to hit the high 90s on race day, tire degradation and the havoc it could wreak might well develop into the biggest storyline. That seems like a good place to start as we take a look at a few of the biggest storylines to watch as the second half of IndyCar’s Texas-two step unfolds Saturday night in the DXC Technology 600 at Texas Motor Speedway. The series raced in March in Austin.
❚ I think tire falloff and new blood could shake things up. Tire degradation blossomed into one of the bigger storylines in Detroit last weekend, and the same could be true at Texas, said new Carlin Racing driver Conor Daly.
“The tire is super, super different for this weekend, which will be interesting,” said Daly, who is replacing Max Chilton in the No. 59 Gallagher Chevrolet. “I mean the way they plan to have the tire wearing — not awesome, but we’ll see. … (Tire falloff) is cool on road courses, because it really makes you strategize and makes the race super exciting, but at Texas that’s not as fun. At Texas, you’re just trying to survive.”
Adding a little more intrigue to the mix is four rookies (Felix Rosenqvist, Santino Ferrucci, Marcus Ericsson and Colton Herta) will be making their TMS debuts. While they’ll surely be warned about the chaos the speedway invites, talking about it and surviving it for 248 laps at 220 mph are vastly different.
❚ I think it’s time to start talking seriously about the championship. Scott Dixon capped his news conference after his redemptive victory Sunday in Dual 2 in Detroit by breathing a small sigh of relief that he had avoided falling further behind in the title chase.
At this point in the season, Dixon said, if you look at the standings and see you’re more than 100 points behind, your title hopes might already be sunk.
Given he’s a five-time champion, let’s assume Dixon knows what he’s talking about and focus in on the seven drivers who are within 100 points of Josef Newgarden (316 points) heading to Texas.
On the back of his dominance at Long Beach and three straight top-five finishes, Alexander Rossi sits just 15 points back of his American rival.
Meanwhile, 500 winner Simon Pagenaud (-25) breathed a huge sigh of relief when Newgarden lost control of his car Sunday in Detroit.
“We got lucky today,” said Pagenaud, who finished 17th after an early-race incident ruined his day. “Unfortunately, Scott Dixon made up for his mistake (Saturday), but he always does that. He’ll be there in the end.”
To Pagenaud’s point, the Iceman recovered from a rare error in Saturday’s race and nearly trimmed his points deficit in half with a victory Sunday. Entering the day, he trailed by 93 points; by day’s end, his deficit was down to 52.
Rounding out the top five is Takuma Sato. Back-to-back third-place finishes in the 500 and Detroit Dual 1 have the Rahal Letterman Lanigan driver 61 points back of Newgarden and in the thick of the title hunt.
On the periphery of the championship chase sit former champs Will Power (-84) and Ryan Hunter-Reay (-97).
❚ I think all three Team Penske drivers will be contenders this weekend. Before I reveal my pick, let’s take a minute to appreciate just how dominant Penske has been on ovals lately. Dating to 2017, The Captain’s cars have won nine of the 13 oval races and put at least one driver on the podium in all but one.
“I think our oval program is one of the best in the paddock, and honestly, we have a really good platform for Texas,” Pagenaud said.
The 500 winner boasts ample reason to be confident. He’s been outstanding at Texas since arriving at Penske in 2015, scoring three top-five finishes in four tries, including a career-best runner-up run last year.
Newgarden has struggled mightily at Texas throughout his career. In seven starts, the championship leader has never finished on the lead lap and owns just one top-10 finish to go along with three straight DNFs from 2015-17. Despite the rough resume, Newgarden remains a contender. Remember, he didn’t bring a sterling resume to Detroit either, yet he nearly escaped with a weekend sweep after conquering Dual 1 on Saturday and taking the pole Sunday.
That said, my pick to ascend the podium is Will Power, arguably the best oval driver in the series. Four of those aforementioned nine Penske oval victories belong to Power, including three on the superspeedways of Indianapolis (2018), Texas (2017) and Pocono (2017). As always, Power is the No. 1 threat to secure pole position — something he’s done three times at Texas — which will put him in prime position to avoid any early-race carnage. What’s more, Power’s track record says he’ll score a victory soon. He remains winless on the season, an oddity for him this late into the campaign. The last time the Australian hadn’t won by June 8 was 2013.
He’s due.