Round 2: XPEL 375, Texas Motor Speedway. March 19-20.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Round 2: XPEL 375, Texas Motor Speedway. March 19-20.

This weekend's race will be the 25th consecutive year Texas Motor Speedway has been on the IndyCar calendar. 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" amd 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 settlement as a key factor in CART's demise.

For the last two seasons, racing at Texas Motor Speedway has been affected by the corona virus. The start of the 2020 season was postponed and a number of races were cancelled, with the 2020 season eventually getting underway on June 6 at TMS. Last year, 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; both race distances were in miles rather than kilometers. This year is no exception, with TMS being moved forward from its usual place in June and hosting the second round of the 2022 season. However, this year will be a single race event.

Some Trivia:
Driver with the most wins: 5.
Scott Dixon: 2008, 2015, 2018, 2020, 2021.
Team with the most wins: 10.
Team Penske: 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2017, 2019.

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 V8t,
CART FedEx Championship Series.



Last Year Race 1,

Genysys 300.
https://www.motorsport.com/indycar/n...i-1-2/6500589/

Pole:
Alex Palou,*
Chip Ganassi Racing
Dallara IR18-Honda HI21R Indy-V-6
*Qualifying was canceled due to rain. Consequently the starting grid was set on point standings.

Last year's winner:
Scott Dixon,
Chip Ganassi Racing
Dallara IR18-Honda HI21R Indy-V-6

Laps: 212
Distance: 300 Miles (482.803 Km)
Time: 1:45:51.3417
Average speed: 173.036 Mph (281.958 km/h)
Fastest lap: Marcus Ericsson - Chip Ganassi Racing, 23.6606 sec. Lap 124. 219.098 mph, ( 352.6040517 Km/h)

Cautions: 2
Laps: 56 - 70, 160 -173


Last Year's Race 2,
Xpel 375.
https://www.motorsport.com/indycar/n...texas/6501558/

Pole:
Scott Dixon,*
Chip Ganassi Racing
Dallara IR18-Honda HI21R Indy-V-6
*Qualifying was canceled due to rain. Consequently the starting grid was set on point standings.

Last year's winner:
Pato O'Ward,
Arrow McLaren SP
Dallara IR18-Chevrolet IndyCar V6

Laps: 248
Distance: 375 Miles (603.5 Km)
Time: 2:06:31.1155
Average speed: 169.36 Mph (272.558 km/h)
Fastest lap: Alex Palou - Chip Ganassi Racing, Lap 22 .23.8507 sec, 217.352 mph (349.794 km/h)

Cautions: 3
Laps: 1 - 18, 117 - 126, 190 - 196.

Broadcast:
NBC: March 20, 12:30pm ET, 5:30pm UTC
Sky Sports F1: 5:30pm GMT

[mstets]

Practice: 11 AM ET Saturday March 19


Qualifying: 2 PM ET Saturday March 19


Final Practice: 5 PM ET Saturday March 19

[NaBUru38]

Bad news: ESPN won't air the race in South America, it will be exclusive to Star+.

But that's not all: Star+ has got broadcasting rights for the Uruguayan First Division. Therefore, prices have raised here to US$ 25 per month, that's 12 hours of minimum wage.

I'm already paying cable TV and Netflix. Enough!

[mstets]

Interesting P1 results, though it's hard to judge qualifying pace with all the towing. Ilott in P4 was a surprise. Rahal commented after the session that he thinks the Penskes will be up front in qualifying.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Interesting. Except for Daly, Kellet and Hildebrand, all the other driver's times are up on last year's top practice time of 00:23.5451, 220.173 mph, set by TK.

[bjohnsonsmith]

A special session is to held today to work Firestone rubber into Texas Motor Speedway’s second lane. This comes on the back of PJ1 being used the track surface by NASCAR.


https://racer.com/2022/03/18/special...s-second-lane/

[mstets]

Qualifying results.

[rustyfan]

Nice job Felix!

[bjohnsonsmith]

Congrats to Felix Rosenqvist on his first IndyCar pole.

Chevrolet will be pleased, getting three cars in the top four slots and so should the Captain, with Scott Mclaughlin getting second spot on the front row and Will Power on the second row in fourth.

Scott Dixon, who has won here a record 5 times is in 5th spot and Helio Castroneves, who has won here four times, is 6th. It should be very interesting at the front of the field.



VeeKay, Herta, O'Ward and Palou, are all together in 8,9,10 and 11 spots.

[Hawkwood]

24th, 25th, and 27th for RLL? What on Earth happened there?

[gert]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Congrats to Felix Rosenqvist on his first IndyCar pole.

His second, I believe?

[joeb]

Originally Posted by Hawkwood

24th, 25th, and 27th for RLL? What on Earth happened there?

Wondered the same. Usually Rahal has a decent oval performance

[mstets]

Originally Posted by Hawkwood

24th, 25th, and 27th for RLL? What on Earth happened there?

Hard to imagine how they could have been so far off in qualifying. Lundgaard was 4th quickest in the post qualifying practice with Rahal 7th, but that was surely with tows. Both laps were 3 mph better than they turned in qualifying. Cars are evidently good in traffic but they had better be considering where they start. Harvey crashed in the session and damaged the tub, so will have to start in a spare car which hasn't been on track.

[mstets]

Originally Posted by gert

His second, I believe?

His first pole was in 2019 at the Indianapolis GP.

[mstets]

Relatively minor damage to the tub of Harvey's car as shown in the video here:


https://racer.com/2022/03/19/newgard...it-for-harvey/


I would hardly consider it "destroyed" as Pruett states. I've put destroyed Indycar tubs in dumpsters and would consider Harvey's simply "damaged".

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by gert

His second, I believe?

Indeed, I stand corrected.

[mstets]

Harvey not cleared to race. Ferrucci taking his place in the Hy-Vee car.

[Yannick]

Originally Posted by mstets

Harvey not cleared to race. Ferrucci taking his place in the Hy-Vee car.

That's a bummer for Harvey. The team is lucky they got their reserve driver on site. Here's hoping Ferrucci can do well with that setup.

[bjohnsonsmith]

I missed the start of the race and join it at lap 113 after a caution period.


I thought the race was being shown on Sky Sports F1 but it is being shown on Sky Sports Mix.

Anyway, it's another FCY as Kirkwood goes into the wall.

[bjohnsonsmith]

And another FCY as Rahal and DeFrancesco come together and Castroneves goes into the wall, with nowhere else to go.

[bjohnsonsmith]

That was an incredible pass by Power to take the lead, round the outside.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Blimey, Newgarden pips McLaughlin to take the win on the last lap.

[TheMightyM]

Just got back home to catch the very end of the race.


The seats looks pretty empty and there didn’t appear to be many campers in the infield either.

[mstets]

Quite a performance by Penske and Ganassi teams.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Apparently that was Team Penske's 600th win.