Round 9: DXC Technology 600, Texas Motor Speedway, June 6-8.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Round 9: DXC Technology 600, Texas Motor Speedway, June 6-8.

With the IndyCar Grand Prix, having been just a month a go, the races are now coming thick and fast.

This will be the 22nd consecutive year, that Texas Motor Speedway has held this event. 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 but the event was not without incident.

During the race, the electronic timing and scoring equipment malfunctioned in the pit area, causing unexpected scoring errors. Billy Boat was placed as the race leader and took the checkered flag as the winner. Arie Luyendyk, who felt he had been robbed of the win, stormed victory lane, where he was lunged at by Boat's team owner, A. J. Foyt. Quickly the fight broke up. The next morning, it was determined that Luyendyk actually was the official winner. Foyt refused to return the trophy. Luyendyk received a replacement, and the "official" trophy years later, presented to him by track president Eddie Gossage. Since then it has been a perennial event on the IndyCar series calendar.

From 1998-2004, the track hosted a second race in October and in 2007, the race distance was increased from 500 to 550 km. 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 600 kilometers.

In 2001, CART added the "Firestone Firehawk 600" at TMS for April 29th, to their 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 reason for CART's eventual demise.

Some Trivia:
Driver with the most wins, 4.
Hélio Castroneves: 2004, 2006, 2009, 2013.
Team with the most wins, 8.
Team Penske: 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013.

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 km/h)
Team Green,
Reynard 01i-Honda HR-1 V8t,
CART FedEx Championship Series.

-

Last Year's Race:
At the start, polesitter Josef Newgarden lead teammates Simon Pagenaud and Power, with Alexander Rossi moving up three places to fifth behind Robert Wickens who was already putting the pressure on Power. However, the first full-course yellow came out as Matheus Leist's, car dramatically caught fire, forcing to rapidly exit the cockpit at Turn 3. Behind the top six were Dixon, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Sebastien Bourdais and Takuma Sato.

On the Lap 14 restart, Pagenaud tried to go around the outside of Newgarden, lost momentum and had to cede second place to Power. Six laps later, Dixon moved past Kanaan for sixth after a strong run out of Turn 2. Zach Veach got past Sato and soon got around Bourdais and onto teammate Hunter-Reay's tail. Up front, Rossi got around the outside of Wickens to grab fourth place on Lap 24.

A.J. Foyt Enterprise night got worse sill, as Kanaan pitted on Lap 27 complaining of a right-rear issue, possibly suspension, as he had brushed the wall at Turn 2.

At the front, Newgarden was holding around a 1 second lead over Power, who was running just three-tenths of a second ahead of Pagenaud, whose mirrors were filled with Rossi’s car. Pagenaud and Rossi got around Power on Laps 43 and 44 respectively and just a little further back, Veach found a way through the rest of the top 10 drivers, jumping to sixth.

Bourdais was the first of the top 10 runners to stop on Lap 55, who now with fresh rubber, was lapping at 217mph, 6mph faster than the leaders. Newgarden came in leaving Pagenaud, Rossi and Wickens running in the top three, the latter having just gotten around Power who was struggling with a lack of grip from his front tyres.

Pagenaud and Power pitted on Lap 63, with Dixon stopping two laps later and Rossi pitting at the end of Lap 67. Following the round of pitstops, Pagenaud took the lead by 2.5sec over Newgarden with Power a further 1.6 seconds back with Wickens 3 seconds behind and being chased by Dixon, Rossi, Hunter-Reay, Bourdais, Sato and Marco Andretti.

Wickens caught up with Power, going around 5mph faster, as all three Penskes appeared committed to either nursing their tyres or saving fuel. He passed Power on the front straight to take third and then got around Newgarden. On lap 95, Wickens took the lead going around the outside of Pagenaud. A few laps later there were further issues for Team Penske, as Newgarden had to pit early with blistering on the front right tyre. Power lost two places to Dixon and Rossi, dropping to fifth.

On new tyres, Newgarden started slicing up the field but now two laps down, while Dixon and Rossi got around a faltering Pagenaud on Lap 114 as his right-front tires began to blister. He stopped on Lap 119 and Power did likewise, with Dixon coming in a couple of laps later. In contrast, Wickens and Rossi were able to continue on to Laps 126 and 127 before stopping and although they lost the lead to Dixon, they were now well ahead of Pagenaud and Power who’d dropped to sixth and eighth, as the Penske’s heavily reduced pace at the end of the previous stint.

With 140 of the 248 laps completed, Dixon led Rossi, who had just passed Wickens for second place, as the Canadian got stuck behind a backmarker. Newgarden had to drop out of fourth plce for his third stop as his tyres started blistering again.

On Lap 154, Dixon’s lead was now 10 seconds over Rossi, followed by Wickens, Bourdais, Pagenaud, Hinchcliffe, Hunter-Reay, Sato, Power and Rahal. Sato stopped on Lap 156, leaving only eight cars on the lead lap, which became seven as Bourdais pitted on Lap 166. As he rejoined he got in the way of Pagenaud, allowing Hinchcliffe to move into fourth.

On Lap 173, Wickens dived into the gap between Ed Carpenter’s car and the white line that defines the track boundary. It unsettled the Wickens' car and the tail swung out collecting Ed Carpenter's car and the pair of them headed backward up the track and into thewall. Carpenter fully admitted he was at fault for squeezing Wickens. This brought out the second full-course yellow.

Dixon, Rossi, Hinchcliffe, Pagenaud and Hunter-Reay, the only drivers left on the lead lap, all stopped. Rossi then came in but the refueler struggled to get the fuel into the car and Rossi dropped down the order. However, Hunter-Reay had to stop again, allowing Rossi back up to fourth.

On lap 194, Hunter-Reay passed Hinchcliffe, around the outside into Turn 1 to move into third. Rossi caught up with Hinchcliffe nd managed to pass both him and Hunter-Reay in one move, down the front straight on Lap 198. In the meantime, Veach and Jones were notified they’d be given a drive-through penalty for jumping the restart.

The yellow flew again on Lap 205. Power had moved up onto the tail of Hunter-Reay, with the car moving up the track in the wake, just where Claman De Melo had put his car, having just rocketed past Rahal. Power collided with the Claman De Melo and both were out on the spot. Power was issued with a post-race penalty.

The frontrunners took the opportunity to make their final stops, with Dixon, Pagenaud, Rossi, Hinchcliffe, Hunter-Reay and Rahal emerging in that order. The restart saw Pagenaud try to threaten Dixon but it didn’t work and he soon dropped back from the leader and had to defend from Rossi. In the mean time, Newgarden was served a drive-through penalty for jumping the restart. He would finish 14th, four laps down.

Rossi twice drew alongside Pagenaud on the outside, along the front straight but couldn’t make the move stick at Turn 1. Pagenaud’s defense was faultless, trying to break the tow and moving down to the inside line, forcing Rossi to test the outside line but to no avail.

Dixon let his lead dwindle over the closing laps behind the backmarkers but still won by 4.3 seconds over Pagenaud, who scored his first podium finish of the year.

Rossi took third ahead of Hinchcliffe, Hunter-Reay, Rahal, Sato, Bourdais, Jones, and Charlie Kimball who scored Carlin-Chevrolet’s second straight top-10 finish, albeit one lap down.


Pole:
Josef Newgarden, two-lap average time of 46.996 seconds, 220.613 mph, (355.042 km/h)
Team Penske
Dallara IR18-Chevrolet Indy V6

Last year's winner:
Scott Dixon,
Chip Ganassi Racing.
Dallara IR18-Honda HI18TT V6 Indy

Laps: 248
Distance: 372 Miles (598.676 Km)
Time: 2:00:53
Average speed: 177.250 Mph (285.256 km/h)

Cautions: 3
Laps: 29

Race broadcast: NBCSN, 8:00pm ET.

[NaBUru38]

This race is must see.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

This race is must see.

I was thinking the opposite, it is really hard for me to watch! Not because it isn't exciting, but because it looks completely dangerous!

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by joeb

I was thinking the opposite, it is really hard for me to watch! Not because it isn't exciting, but because it looks completely dangerous!

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

This race is must see.

I'm with joeb, it's terrible racing without cautions. The cars end up in a long line without much passing. And when they do it's often low and low percentage passes, with wrecks not far behind. Think last year half the field was out by the end from wrecks, for me it's a can't watch weekend. But I'm not an oval racing guy most events, Indy excepted.

[mstets]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

I'm with joeb, it's terrible racing without cautions. The cars end up in a long line without much passing. And when they do it's often low and low percentage passes, with wrecks not far behind. Think last year half the field was out by the end from wrecks, for me it's a can't watch weekend. But I'm not an oval racing guy most events, Indy excepted.

Perhaps you are remembering 2017, which in my memory was a crash-fest. Last year only 5 cars DNF due to contact. 16 of the 22 starters were running at the finish. Interesting to see that all the wrecks happened between laps 9 and 13. Normally expect them in laps 1-2 and the last quarter of the race.



Dixon took all of 7 laps to get to 219.3 mph. It always surprises me that they can get up to speed so quickly. I guess it's partly due to the spec chassis and knowing you have a good setup when you hit the track.

[mstets]

Bourdais quickest of the first 15 qualifiers at 219.746 average. He got a break with total cloud cover during his run.

Kanaan didn't get a time due to wall contact in turn 2.

[mstets]

Seb's time is holding up with 6 cars left, but 3 are Penskes, plus Dixon, Rossi, and Sato.

Sato goes to P1 with a 220.250 average.

Dixon to P2 at 220.162.

Seven different teams represented in the top seven with one car left to qualify.

[mstets]

Sato gets his 9th pole in the series.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Qualifying

1 Takuma Sato, Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Dallara/Honda. 220.250
2 Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 220.162
3 Sebastien Bourdais, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. 219.746
4 Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 219.537
5 Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 219.355
6 Spencer Pigot, Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 219.099
7 Josef Newgarden, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 218.666
8 James Hinchcliffe, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. 218.459
9 Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Dallara/Honda. 218.449
10 Colton Herta, Harding Racing. Dallara/Honda. 218.406
11 Alexander Rossi, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 218.295
12 Zach Veach, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 218.074
13 Ed Carpenter, Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 217.982
14 Marcus Ericsson, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. 217.953
15 Will Power, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 217.899
16 Felix Rosenqvist, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 217.182
17 Charlie Kimball, Carlin. Dallara/Chevrolet. 217.165
18 Santino Ferrucci, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. 217.063
19 Conor Daly, Carlin. Dallara/Chevrolet. 216.175
20 Matheus Leist, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Chevrolet. 215.093
21 Marco Andretti, Andretti Herta. Dallara/Honda. 206.901
22 Tony Kanaan, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Chevrolet. 0.000

[BudLightJaguar]

Sato hit a crewman on his first pitstop. I hope that crewman is OK

[fieldodreams79]

Just tuned in. Under 20 to go. Dixie and Herta come together on a racing incident on the high banks.

[fieldodreams79]

Rossi....

https://twitter.com/Mattzel89/status...084322304?s=19

[fieldodreams79]

Josef wins.

This has got to be one of the toughest 3 wks in motorsports. The 500, Motown Double and then Lone Star craziness. Kudos to all the teams and drivers.

[mstets]

Sato really threw that race away. He wasn't dealing very well when lapping cars, but was never threatened from behind and I'm guessing they could have worked on the car to make it better if he hadn't ruined the first pit stop. Amazing that the tire changer wasn't seriously injured. The car ended up virtually touching the pit wall. I don't understand why we are seeing so many pit lane incidents. Should the pit lane speed limit be decreased, or would that make the drivers somehow more prone to make mistakes? I don't think there was a pit speed limit in the CART era, but I don't remember many incidents of car/crew contact.


As usual, Penske got the strategy right. Nice drives by all the top 8 finishers. Ferrucci was particularly impressive.



Herta leaves Texas 16th in points. He's been competitive most every race this season but doesn't have much to show for it in the results. Hope Haas is paying attention, he looks to be the most talented USA driver to come along in years.

[bjohnsonsmith]

That was another inspired strategy call from Penske, jumping Newgarden to the front, who had spent the first half of the race mostly in the lower part of the top 10. This put him on a four stop strategy. However, he still had Rossi to contend with.

Pole sitter Sato, ruined his chances with a terrible pitstop, while pitting from the lead, hitting but fortunately not injuring tyre changer Chris Welch and the pitwall, before finally stopping in the Andretti Autosport area. He subsequently lost three laps.

Championship contender Dixon's race ended when Colton Herta attempted to go down the inside of Dixon, making contact that put both into the wall and out of the race. That's Dixon's second DNF this season.

Pagenaud, also in contention for the championship was 6th.


Top 6 for the Driver's Championship are:

Josef Newgarden 367
Alexander Rossi 342
Simon Pagenaud 319
Scott Dixon 279
Takuma Sato 272
Will Power 254

1 Josef Newgarden, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 248. 1h55m08.8666s
2 Alexander Rossi,Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 248. 0.8164s
3 Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Dallara/Honda. 248. 1.4928s
4 Santino Ferrucci, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. 248. 1.7266s
5 Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 248. 2.2019s
6 Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 248. 2.8789s
7 Marcus Ericsson, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. 248. 3.9271s
8 Sebastien Bourdais, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. 248. 4.3306s
9 Will Power, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 247. 1 Lap
10 Marco Andretti, Andretti Herta. Dallara/Honda. 247. 1 Lap
11 Conor Daly, Carlin. Dallara/Chevrolet. 247. 1 Lap
12 Felix Rosenqvist, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 246. 2 Laps
13 Ed Carpenter, Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 246. 2 Laps
14 Spencer Pigot, Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 246. 2 Laps
15 Takuma Sato, Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Dallara/Honda. 245. 3 Laps
16 Tony Kanaan, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Chevrolet. 245. 3 Laps
17 Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 228. Contact
18 Colton Herta, Harding Racing. Dallara/Honda. 228. Contact
19 James Hinchcliffe, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. 218. Contact
20 Zach Veach, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 172. Handling
21 Charlie Kimball, Carlin. Dallara/Chevrolet. 86. Mechanical
22 Matheus Leist, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Chevrolet. 73. Handling

[NaBUru38]

How about putting those air pistol cranes for the outside tyre crew, like in F1 and DTM?

[mstets]

Seeing the air guns tossed 10' onto the pavement annoys me. What about nobody over the wall until the car is stopped, and car can't leave until all equipment and personnel are back over the wall? I haven't thought through all the possible ramifications, just throwing it out there.

[Purist]

I'm not sure how the first part of your thought and your proposed rules are necessarily, directly related. If it's faster to throw the air gun, that's what they'll do, rather than run around the car with it.

As for ramifications:
1. Stops become longer with your rules, and it's probably safer for the pit crew to be out on the lane for less time overall.
2. Clearing up the equipment can probably be done faster without the car there.
3. Having all the guys trying to panic scramble over the wall twice with each stop is probably more hazardous and unsafe.
4. Having the guy toss the gun and then have his full attention on carrying the wheel and tire probably reduces errors, thus reducing the likelihood of having to chase a loose wheel, and so the guy is out in the firing line for less time.
5. If all the guys are waiting on the wall, and someone does a Sato, the chances are greater that someone topples off and gets injured.

There may be others, but anyway. So it miay just be the prevailing wisdom that the stops go smoother and faster, with fewer errors and penalites, with the way things are now.

I don't know what the deal is with the recent spate of pit issues. Perhaps there was some sort of light or contrast issue at Indy and Texas. With that deflector in front of the driver's face, could a few of the drivers be having their eyes doing something odd that they're not fully aware of that's making the pit approach a potential problem? I honestly don't know. I do know that they changed the aeroscreen concept because the test drivers noted issues with their eyes having to refocus when they were looking through it or not.