Oilpressure

Assuming you are reading this on Friday morning or afternoon, I am on my way to Texas Motor Speedway. I’ve been looking forward to this trip for a while, because this is a track I’ve never been to. I hope that Texas doesn’t suffer the same fate as new tracks we visit. Fontana, NOLA, Sonoma and Pocono are all tracks that I’ve visited in the past decade that dropped off of the scheduled shortly after we visited.

Susan is not with me on this trip, but that is not due to health reasons. She has been on an upswing since Thanksgiving and could probably go, but this weekend was planned a couple of months ago as a guys trip. She plans on going to Barber at the end of April and the full Month of May schedule. Paul Dalbey, from Fieldof33.com, and I will be driving there together and splitting a hotel room. We will meet in my hometown of Jackson, Tennessee and leaving his car at the home of a friend of mine. Then we start the long boring trek through Memphis, across Arkansas and into Texas – through Dallas and eventually to the track and hotel in Fort Worth.

I’ve wanted to go to this 1.5-mile oval since it opened in 1997. Most IndyCar fans chuckle when they think of that race, because that’s when AJ Foyt slapped Arie Luyendyk outside of Victory Lane. Foyt’s driver, Billy Boat, had been awarded the race win and Luyendyk felt he had won (he had). As Luyendyk shouted his displeasure with race officials toward Victory Lane, Foyt backhanded him a couple of times and knocked him into some shrubbery. It was a comical scene, no one was hurt and it was a heck of a way to kick off IndyCar racing at a new track. Luyendyk was awarded the race win the next day, but to this day – Foyt still has the trophy.

For more than a decade, IndyCar races at Texas were fast and furious. Davey Hamilton severely injured his feet and ankles in a violent crash exiting Turn Two in 2001. Kenny Bräck was seriously injured in a frightening crash on the backstretch in the 2003 season-finale. It is fortunate that the track chose not to sell tickets on the backstretch, because the car got up into the catch-fencing and littered the empty seats with debris.

In an effort to minimize pack-racing at Texas, rule changes to the cars made passing at Texas almost impossible in the late 2000s. The 2009 Texas race was one of the most boring races to watch I can remember. It was a single-file parade with the four “red cars” from Penske and Ganassi up front. Ryan Briscoe led 160 of the 228 laps, but Helio Castroneves won the race after leading only 57 laps. Scott Dixon finished third and never led a lap. But as fast as the Penske cars were, Briscoe and Castroneves found it almost impossible to get around backmarkers due to the aero configuration.

Many of the Texas races for the past decades have been duds, although some have been excellent. The 2016 race saw a violent crash between Conor Daly and Josef Newgarden, who ended up with a broken clavicle. That race ended up being postponed for a couple of months due to rain. By the time it resumed in August, Newgarden’s injuries had healed, but he was not allowed to resume the race. He and Daly spent the night visiting with fans in the stands.

Due to all of the schedule tweaks during the pandemic, the 2020 Texas race ended up being the season-opener. Scott Dixon absolutely dominated a boring race on his way to his sixth IndyCar title. When the race was over, the conversation wasn’t about Dixon’s dominating performance – it was about the PJ1 that had been put on the pavement in the turns for the NASCAR Cup cars the previous fall. While the treatment helped the much heavier Cup cars, it made Indy cars handle like they were on ice. Felix Rosenqvist had been at or near the front all day, but on Lap 190, he got high in Turn Two. His steering went away and he went straight into the SAFER Barrier.

It was no better in 2021, as several drivers had treacherous moments in the turns. It turned the race into another parade that resembled the sleep-inducing 2009 race.

Last year, someone came up with an idea that sounded primitive, but it apparently worked. A few cars, one from each team (except the Foyt team), participated in a thirty-minute practice session that was run at slow enough speeds that cars felt safe, but still fast enough to rubber in the high side. The result was a much more competitive race that saw Josef Newgarden pass teammate Scott McLaughlin at the line on the last lap to take the win.

There is no real pattern for teams or drivers at this race. Over the last twelve IndyCar races at Texas, there have been six different winning teams; Penske Ganassi, ECR, Rahal, Coyne and McLaren. Penske and Ganassi have won four each, while the other teams have won one each.

Curiously omitted from that list is Andretti Autosport. Believe it or not – in the thirty-four IndyCar races run at Texas Motor Speedway, Andretti Autosport has only won once – the 2004 June race won by Tony Kanaan, when they were still known as Andretti-Green. Tomas Schekter and Panther Racing have won at Texas since an Andretti car was seen in Victory Lane at Texas. Although the Andretti cars were fast at the season-opener in St. Petersburg, I’m not sure that any of their drivers will pull off a win on Sunday.

With Ed Carpenter joining the field this weekend, there are twenty-eight cars entered for Sunday’s race. I think Team Penske will win their second in a row at Texas this weekend. I think that narrow loss haunted Scott McLaughlin for most of the season last year. I think he wants this one really bad and will not be stopped. So I’m putting my hex on McLaughlin this weekend. Hopefully, it won’t affect him.

Track activity does not start until early Saturday morning. That’s good, since we probably won’t get to our hotel until about 8:00 or 9:00 tonight. It’s a very condensed schedule. Practice One gets underway at 8:00 am local time (CDT) and will be shown live on Peacock. Qualifying will start at 11:15 am (CDT) Saturday on Peacock, then the Final Practice runs from 12:45 pm until 2:30 pm Saturday afternoon, also on Peacock. Coverage for Sunday’s race begins at 11:00 am (CDT) on Big NBC.

As usual, when I attend races in person – I will post a few times on Saturday and Sunday. You can also follow me on Twitter at @Oilpressureblog for up-to-date photos, videos and comments. Please check back tomorrow morning.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on March 31, 2023 at 4:03 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.