Round 2: PPG 375, Texas Motor Speedway. April 1-2.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Round 2: PPG 375, Texas Motor Speedway. April 1-2.

St. Pete seems like ages ago. Hopefully, after this weekend, things will start to feel like the season is finally underway.

This weekend's race will be the 26th consecutive year Texas Motor Speedway has been on the IndyCar calendar and like last year it will be a single race event.

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On June 7th 1997, the Indy Racing League held the "1997 True Value 500", the 6th round of the fledgling series at Texas Motor Speedway and it was the first night race in the history of AOWR. It was won by Arie Luyendyk, driving a Panoz G-Force-Oldsmobile for Treadway Racing.

From 1998-2004 the track hosted two races per season, with the first race held mid June and the second race held in October. In 2007, the race distance was increased from 500km to 550. In 2011, the 'Firestone Twin 275s' were held, made up of two 275km races, separated by a "halftime", with half points awarded for each race. The grid for the second race was decided by a random draw, which proved so unpopular the twin race format was scrapped the following year. In 2014, the race was further extended to 600km.

In 2001, CART added the "Firestone Firehawk 600" and it was scheduled for April 29th, at TMS and which would have been Round 4 of a 21 race calendar. However, after practice and qualifying the race was cancelled, as drivers reported vertigo like symptoms and vision problems, after sustaining high lateral forces of 5.5G, while driving in excess of 230 mph or 370 km/h on the 24 degree banking. TMS sued CART, after it emerged CART officials had ignored repeated requests to test their cars before the race. This resulted in a legal settlement, estimated to have been around $5–7 million, which CART paid to TMS. Many pundits have cited the law suit and subsequent settlement as a key factor in CART's demise.

In 2020 and 2021 both seasons were affected by the covid pandemic and racing at Texas Motor Speedway was no exception. The start of the 2020 season was postponed and a number of races were cancelled. The 2020 season eventually got underway on June 6, with TMS holding the season opener.

In 2021, rather than having one 600km race, TMS held a double header, the Genysys 300 on Saturday, May 1 and the Xpel 375 on Sunday, May 2 with the race distances in miles rather than kilometers. Last year TMS was moved forward from its usual place in June and holding the second round of the 2022 season, which reverted to a single race event.

Some Trivia:
Driver with the most wins: 5.
Scott Dixon: 2008, 2015, 2018, 2020, 2021.
Team with the most wins: 11.
Team Penske: 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2017, 2019, 2022

Track Layout:



Length: 1.5 Miles (2.4 km)
Turns: 4

Lap record:
Paul Tracy April 28 2001. 0:22.542, 239.552 mph (385.521 kmh)
Team Green,
Reynard 01i-Honda HR-1,
CART FedEx Championship Series.

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Last Year's Race
https://www.indycar.com/news/2022/03/03-20-texas-race

Pole:
Felix Rosenqvist
Arrows McLaren SP
Dallara IR18-Chevrolet Indy V6

Last year's winner:
Josef Newgarden,
Team Penske
Dallara IR18-Chevrolet Indy V6

Laps: 212
Distance: 300 Miles (482.803 Km)
Time: 2:09:29.7270
Average speed: 165.467 Mph (266.293 Km/h)
Fastest lap: Pato O'Ward - Arrows McLaren SP, Lap 63, 23.4930 sec.. 220.661 Mph, (355.119 Km/h)

Cautions: 4
Laps: 12 - 15, 99 - 112, 114 - 127, 129 - 148.

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Practice and Qualifications

Saturday, Apr 1

Practice 1. 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM EDT

Qualifications. 12:15 PM - 1:15 PM EDT

High Line Session. 1:45 PM - 2:15 PM EDT

Final Practice. 2:30 PM - 3:30 PM EDT

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Broadcast:
NBC: April 2, 12:00pm EDT, 4:00pm UTC
Sky Sports F1: 5:00pm BST

[bjohnsonsmith]

Racer.com have this article on aero updates to the IR18's underfloor.


https://racer.com/2023/03/29/indycar...23-texas-aero/

[joeb]

Texas races are always difficult to watch for me. I'm always worried we are one corner away from catastrophe!

[broadrun96]

Yeah, it's never a fun watch. Iowa is much better for the speeds and darting high and low lines, and Texas has one line and a maybe

[bjohnsonsmith]

NASCAR have been applying over the years, the PJ1 traction compound to the upper lane of the TMS track surface. It's created that dark part of the track and has more or less ruined it, with the racing suffering as a result.

This article about TMS is worth a read.

https://www.autoracing1.com/pl/378691

[joeb]

McLaren 1,3,5 at Texas!

[bjohnsonsmith]

Qualifying result

Felix Rosenqvist repeats last season and gets pole for a second time. 5 time winner Dixon is in P2. Otherwise an excellent result for McLaren, can they convert this into a win? Great to see Sato in the Fast 6.

A 28 car field charging round TMS, that should make for an interesting race.

[Adam43]

Sting in 23rd. Easing into it. Only needs to be 3mph quicker and he’d be on pole., but saw where Rachael was an thought I want to be next to you.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by Adam43

Sting in 23rd. Easing into it. Only needs to be 3mph quicker and he’d be on pole., but saw where Rachael was an thought I want to be next to you.

Gotta be a huge learning curve for a rookie in this series, given the depth and experience of the top runners. But for Canapino to be midpack has to be a great feeling.

[Adam43]

*Rahal not Rachael!

Yes. It is a pretty decent field. Lots of experience too.

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Broadcast:
NBC: March 20, 12:00pm EDT, 4:00pm UTC
Sky Sports F1: 5:00pm BST

Guess I missed it

Good stuff as always!

Like others said, this is a hard watch for me, but I'll still give it a go. Might be a replay depending on what today brings as it's gonna be another gorgeous spring day in GA.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

Guess I missed it

Good stuff as always!

Like others said, this is a hard watch for me, but I'll still give it a go. Might be a replay depending on what today brings as it's gonna be another gorgeous spring day in GA.

Oops....

[bjohnsonsmith]

Sato hits the wall at Turn 2. FCY.

[bjohnsonsmith]

A coming together on pit road, looked like Rossi and Kirkwood?

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

Guess I missed it

Good stuff as always!

Like others said, this is a hard watch for me, but I'll still give it a go. Might be a replay depending on what today brings as it's gonna be another gorgeous spring day in GA.

Missed the list 150 layoffs laps cause it's beautiful out. Great market and good beer, got home and holy sht only 6 running well? Guess I'll need to catch up from the start instead of jumping in at 115 pm

[bjohnsonsmith]

Rosenqvist put it into the wall at Turn 4. Not the way he wanted his race to go today, having got Pole. FCY

[broadrun96]

Pato screwed by his teammate, no chance of winning now without someone wrecking for yellow to help him

[broadrun96]

I stand corrected, Pato said screw all y'all, pit box and rest of the field I'm going

Damn, Sting Ray thrown in to the inside wall from the high side

[bjohnsonsmith]

The complection of the race has completely changed after that restart but there is another FCY, as Sting Ray Robb hits the wall.

[broadrun96]

Pato is in an Indy car, everyone else is in a Lights car today

And another Rahal moment in the wall, and Devlin too

Ok, Devlin moment and Rahal caught in the back up the track path from Devlin. Lucky to catch him there and not higher up the track

[bjohnsonsmith]

4th FCY, Rahal and DeFrancesco.

[broadrun96]

The field reset is just rough, long time not racing after cleanup

[bjohnsonsmith]

Ro Gro into the wall.

The race result is under review.

[broadrun96]

If Newgarden doesn't thank Grosjean he's an ass, he was getting passed next lap by Pato. Yellows screwed the guy who lapped the field in green racing but that's Texas

[broadrun96]

NBC must not watch the video, only Hinch actually looks at the video. Grosjean didn't touch at all Townsend, the wash caught him out