Round 8: Firestone 600, Texas Motor Speedway, 6th - 7th June 2014

[bjohnsonsmith]

Round 8: Firestone 600, Texas Motor Speedway, 6th - 7th June 2014.

On June 7th 1997, the Indy Racing League held the '1997 True Value 500', the 6th round of the fledgling series at the Texas Motor Speedway, or TMS. It was the first night race in the history of American open wheel racing and was won by Arie Luyendyk, driving for Treadway Racing, in a Panoz, G-Force-Oldsmobile. Since then it has been a perennial event on the IndyCar series calendar and from 1998-2004 the track hosted a second race in October, with the race distance increasing from 500 to 550 km. In 2011, the 'Firestone Twin 275s' was held, consisting of two races of 275km or 114 laps, separated by a "halftime", with half points awarded in each race. The grid for the second race was decided by a random draw, which proved so unpopular the twin race format was scrapped for the following year.

In 2001, CART scheduled the 'Firestone Firehawk 600' at TMS for April 29th but after practice and qualifying, the race was cancelled due to most drivers reporting vertigo-like symptoms and vision problems after sustaining high lateral forces of 5.5G, due to 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 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.

This year's race has been extended to 600 kilometers.

Track Layout:


Length: 1.5 mi (2.4 km)
Turns: 4
Lap record: April 28 2001. 0:22.542, 239.552 mph-385.521 kmh, Paul Tracy, Team Green, Reynard 01i-Honda HRK, Cart FedEx Championship Series.

Last year's winner:
Hélio Castroneves,
Team Penske,
Dallara DW12-Chevrolet.
Laps: 228.342 mi-550.395 km.
Time: 1:52:17.
Average speed: 177.257 mph-285.267 kmh.

TV Coverage:
NBCSN are televising the race, with the Green flag at 8:30pm ET.

[Yannick]

With TMS being the only remaining mainstay IRL venue today (apart from IMS), it is kind of funny that it is Paul Tracy of all people who holds the lap record.

My guess is Team Penske will have this one figured out yet again this year.
Yet, the time zone of this event is so deep in the night in my location that I cannot help not bothering about it.

[NaBUru38]

Indianapolis was pretty much flatout the whole lap. I wonder if will be the same at Texas, of if drivers will struggle to keep the car turning.

[Purist]

Hopefully they have a bit more grip and stability than last, but yes, they don't need to have too much either. It's definitely a tricky spot to find.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Teams can use aero options.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/114292

[Purist]

I hope they have the tire stuff from Practice 1 sorted, or found that persistent piece of debris.

Anyway, Power is on pole, with a fastest lap overall of the event at 23.858sec (224.076-mph).

I'm a bit dubious of some of IndyCar's listed track measurements, and this seems to be another case, like Barber and Detroit. Barber is 2.300 miles, not 2.380. The long course at Belle Isle has been 2.385 miles these last two runnings, not 2.350 miles, which appears to be the course length they will have in 2015. And now, they list Texas as 1.455 miles, which is the first I've seen of that length.

Generally, Texas just gets called as 1.500 miles, but based on various sources, I think it's 1.485 miles around. This probably stems from the extra paving they did after the first Cup race, but before the first IRL race, back during the 1997 season. That added asphalt on the inside of the tri-oval moves the center-line further to the inside, and slightly shortens the measured lap length from an even 1.500 miles.

[bjohnsonsmith]

For the record:

Pos Driver Team/Engine Speed
1. Will Power Penske/Chevy 218.896
2. Josef Newgarden Fisher/Honda 217.835
3. Tony Kanaan Ganassi/Chevy 217.826
4. Juan Pablo Montoya Penske/Chevy 217.724
5. Ed Carpenter Carpenter/Chevy 217.677
6. Simon Pagenaud Schmidt/Honda 217.222
7. Scott Dixon Ganassi/Chevy 217.128
8. Justin Wilson Coyne/Honda 217.007
9. James Hinchcliffe Andretti/Honda 216.967
10. Carlos Munoz Andretti/Honda 216.960
11. Mikhail Aleshin Schmidt/Honda 216.880
12. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti/Honda 216.823
13. Ryan Briscoe Ganassi/Chevy 216.667
14. Helio Castroneves Penske/Chevy 216.591
15. Charlie Kimball Ganassi/Chevy 216.151
16. Takuma Sato Foyt/Honda 216.064
17. Marco Andretti Andretti/Honda 215.697
18. Sebastien Bourdais KV/Chevy 214.407
19. Sebastian Saavedra KV/Chevy 214.156
20. Jack Hawksworth Herta/Honda 214.145
21. Graham Rahal Rahal/Honda 213.292
22. Carlos Huertas Coyne/Honda 212.191

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

Power was just over 1mph faster on an oval to get pole...

[NaBUru38]

1. ED Carpenter
2. WIll Power
3. Juan Montoya
4. Simon Pagenaud
5. Scott Dixon
6. Tony Kanaan
7. Ryan Briscoe
8. Charlie Kimball
9. Mikhail Aleshin
10. Hélio Castroneves
11. Josef Newgarden
12. Graham Rahal

Only 6 cars finished on the lead lap. Hunter-Reay and Marco retired with mechanical issues. Bourdais and Wilson had an accident and retired.

[NaBUru38]

The race was fairly boring, except for the final restart.

ESPN didn't have Andrés Agulla as announcer, and his substitute was terrible, he had no idea about racing and talked about everything but the race.

[bjohnsonsmith]

I completely missed the race as I had a prior commitment, so YouTube will have to do, otherwise here's Autosports's race report full result for the record.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/114338

Results - 248 laps:

Pos Driver Team/Engine Time/Gap
1. Ed Carpenter Carpenter/Chevy 2h01m25.5758s
2. Will Power Penske/Chevy +0.5247s
3. Juan Pablo Montoya Penske/Chevy +0.5771s
4. Simon Pagenaud Schmidt/Honda +1.1514s
5. Scott Dixon Ganassi/Chevy +2.1510s
6. Tony Kanaan Ganassi/Chevy +2.4464s
7. Mikhail Aleshin Schmidt/Honda -1 lap
8. Helio Castroneves Penske/Chevy -1 lap
9. Ryan Briscoe Ganassi/Chevy -1 lap
10. Charlie Kimball Ganassi/Chevy -1 lap
11. Josef Newgarden Fisher/Honda -1 lap
12. Graham Rahal Rahal/Honda -2 laps
13. Carlos Munoz Andretti/Honda -3 laps
14. James Hinchcliffe Andretti/Honda -4 laps
15. Jack Hawksworth Herta/Honda -4 laps
16. Carlos Huertas Coyne/Honda -4 laps
17. Sebastian Saavedra KV/Chevy -4 laps

Retirements:
Takuma Sato Foyt/Honda 238 laps
Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti/Honda 136 laps
Sebastien Bourdais KV/Chevy 118 laps
Justin Wilson Coyne/Honda 118 laps
Marco Andretti Andretti/Honda 3 laps

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

Good run for Aleshin, especially considering it's an oval.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Biscuits In A Red Bull

Good run for Aleshin, especially considering it's an oval.

A good result on paper but the last paragraph of that article says,

''The consequent 30s post-race penalties promoted rookie Mikhail Aleshin to seventh in just his second oval race.''

[Paradise City]

Young Rahal, while racey for a time, is still in bits and pieces. Power has this tendency to flunk it for want of a nail. Good win from Carpenter and Montoya showing a bit of speed. Helio fairly iffy.

The thing that struck me about this race coverage wasn't the race itself but the run-up to the race which was an interminable 50 minutes of platitudes and blather.

All completely unnecessary and a real turn off for a potential new fan to wade through all that and especially arduous if there is an endurance aspect to the race itself.

They should start the broadcast at the opening ceremony, play some prerecorded interviews of the drivers during the interlude whilst the drivers get in their cars and start the pace lap. 50 minutes of jibberish is not necessary. For the fan that wants more they can avail of videos on the Indycar website.

That's what I liked about the Eurosport days. You basically arrived at the pace lap and you where ready to go!

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Paradise City

Young Rahal, while racey for a time, is still in bits and pieces. Power has this tendency to flunk it for want of a nail. Good win from Carpenter and Montoya showing a bit of speed. Helio fairly iffy.

The thing that struck me about this race coverage wasn't the race itself but the run-up to the race which was an interminable 50 minutes of platitudes and blather.

All completely unnecessary and a real turn off for a potential new fan to wade through all that and especially arduous if there is an endurance aspect to the race itself.

They should start the broadcast at the opening ceremony, play some prerecorded interviews of the drivers during the interlude whilst the drivers get in their cars and start the pace lap. 50 minutes of jibberish is not necessary. For the fan that wants more they can avail of videos on the Indycar website.

That's what I liked about the Eurosport days. You basically arrived at the pace lap and you where ready to go!

I completely missed the race and the 50 minutes of platitudes and blather but I personally like a prelude and liked the format used in the '90s with Paul Page. It wasn't overly long, with a re-cap of the previous race, maybe a look back at the race a year ago, some driver and team boss interviews and occaisionally a look at some of the technical aspects.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

A good result on paper but the last paragraph of that article says,

''The consequent 30s post-race penalties promoted rookie Mikhail Aleshin to seventh in just his second oval race.''

Sorry, I didn't read that. I'm saving my free Autosport views, you see

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Biscuits In A Red Bull

Sorry, I didn't read that. I'm saving my free Autosport views, you see

Those free views are a bit of a pain but if you set up a username and login it gives you a few more free views before you have to clear the browser cache.

[rwintle]

I watched the whole thing, although i think I dozed off for a couple of dozen laps in the middle somewhere.

I did like that last pit call for Power - I would never have guessed that with so few laps to go, changing tires would allow him to charge all the way back to second.

I'd love to know what Power was saying to Dixon at the end... he looked pretty animated, but was fairly calm in the interview right afterwards.

[DS"]

I've watched the highlights on Indy's YT-account and I couldn't help but notice the sparse crowd at TMS. If it wouldn't mean losing another oval, I'd suggest to stop racing Texas.

[NaBUru38]

What? I copied the official results, how could they change them?

[FordCosworthPanoz]

Originally Posted by DS"

I've watched the highlights on Indy's YT-account and I couldn't help but notice the sparse crowd at TMS. If it wouldn't mean losing another oval, I'd suggest to stop racing Texas.

The bore of a race certainly won't do anything to help the crowd next year.

[BootsOntheSide]

A silly mistake costing Power yet again, although he did some decent damage limitation at the end. Glad to see Ed take a win - say what you want but he can run a tidy team and he can drive the ovals pretty well. But what a disaster for Andretti Autosport, in contrast to how quick they've been at Indy the last 2 years.

[Paradise City]

They all seem to be corralled into one or two grandstands with the rest of the track empty. I don't know how that weighs up to previous years. NASCAR go there, so I didn't expect anything else other than for it to look empty. They should continue to go - they should protect their track diversity.

[JHamilton]

I thought this was a pretty good race, although I just happened to come across it. I didn't realize there was a race this weekend as there was no cross promotion between the networks at Detroit.

[FordCosworthPanoz]

Originally Posted by Paradise City

They all seem to be corralled into one or two grandstands with the rest of the track empty. I don't know how that weighs up to previous years. NASCAR go there, so I didn't expect anything else other than for it to look empty. They should continue to go - they should protect their track diversity.

They used to do really well. The 2005 race got about 100,000 spectators. Although the days of NASCAR getting 200,000 at TMS are gone as well. It's such an awful track for stock cars and now without the high downforce package an awful track for Indycar. Less cornering than Atlanta and longer straights making passing harder and races more stretched out.