Round 1: revised calendar. Genesys 300 at Texas Motor Speedway, June 6.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Round 1: revised calendar. Genesys 300 at Texas Motor Speedway, June 6.

After a very long wait, the 2020 season opener will finally take place this Saturday, with the Genesys 300 at Texas Motor Speedway. Saturday's race would have been Round 9, of the 2020 season, before the calendar was revised due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As a further measure because of the Covid-19 virus, IndyCar will run a condensed schedule with practice,
qualifying and the race itself all taking place on Saturday. The event will be conducted without fans in attendance and the race length reduced to 200 laps, or 300 miles (482.803 km).

However, before the green flag flies, there were a number of major developments in the off season. The most significant has been the Covid-19 pandemic, which has greatly affected the 2020 IndyCar season, with a number of races being dropped from the calendar. A revised calendar is now in place, with the 104th running of the Indianapolis 500 taking place on August 23. Fortunately no teams have been adversly affected by the virus.

Apart from the Covid-19 pandemic, there was the sale of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the NTT IndyCar series and IMS Productions, by long term owners Hulman and Company to the Penske Corporation.

There were also major changes regarding some of the teams and drivers. McLaren Racing and Schmidt Peterson Motorsports announced a partnership, competing as Arrow McLaren Racing SP, which lead to the unexpected dismissal of popular Canadian driver and 6 times race winner,
James Hinchcliffe, who had been with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports since 2014. Another surprise was long time campaigner Dale Coyne, who let go of former 4 time in a row Champ Car driver's champion, Sebastien Bourdais and announcing a partnership with Super Formula Championship entrant Team Goh, to run Álex Palou for the full season. Meyer Shank Racing announced a full season program with Jack Harvey. Andretti Autosport announced they would field a fifth entry for Colton Herta, in partnership with Mike Harding and George Michael Steinbrenner IV, formerly of Harding Steinbrenner Racing, now competing as Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport.

This year's race will also see the debut of the Aeroscreen cockpit safety device, built by Red Bull Advanced Technologies, that underwent extensive testing during the off season.

Race History:
This will be the 24th consecutive year 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. 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 demise.

Some Trivia:
Driver with the most wins, 4.
Hélio Castroneves: 2004, 2006, 2009, 2013.
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's Race:
This year I haven't written any race reports, as it is quite time consuming. However, I have included a link that will take you to the motorsport.com website, which has the relevant race report.

https://www.motorsport.com/indycar/n...Bvalue%5D=2243

Pole:
Takuma Sato, two-lap time of 47.0738 sec. Average speed 220.250 mph, (354.458 km/h)
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Dallara IR18-Honda HI19R Indy V6

Last year's winner:
Josef Newgarden,
Team Penske
Dallara IR18-Chevy IndyCar V6

Laps: 248
Distance: 372 Miles (598.676 Km)
Time: 1:55:09
Average speed: 186.084 Mph (299.473 km/h)
Fastest lap: Takuma Sato, RLLR, lap 69. 23.5657 sec, 219.981 mph (354.025 km/h)

Cautions: 3
Laps 22: 135-142, 219-225, 229-235

Race broadcast: NBC, 8:00pm ET.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Scott Dixon is unhappy with the 35 lap limit for tires.

https://www.motorsport.com/indycar/n...tints/4800135/

[Nikki Katz]

Shame that there’s no nasr, though Texas would be a daunting place to run your first ever oval. Hope it’s a safe race.

[The Fat Clerk]

The Practice, Qualifying & Race are all being shown live on Sky Sports, on Saturday / Sunday, can't wait, already got the beer and crisps in

[S griffin]

Glad to have some more racing back. Always have enjoyed Indycar. Don’t have Sky, so sadly can’t watch it, but I’ll try to follow it as best I can.

Unfortunately for the Indycar stars of tomorrow, there will no Indy Lights this season.

I agree with Scott Dixon, there is no need for the lap limit on the tyres. If it ain’t broke

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Glad to have some more racing back. Always have enjoyed Indycar. Don’t have Sky, so sadly can’t watch it, but I’ll try to follow it as best I can.

Unfortunately for the Indycar stars of tomorrow, there will no Indy Lights this season.

I agree with Scott Dixon, there is no need for the lap limit on the tyres. If it ain’t broke

It's not a question of if it ain't broke. This is about tyre wear and the effect the aeroscreen will have altering the car's center of gravity and weight, therefore increasing front-right tyre wear. Plus there was the blistering in 2018.

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, it has halted Firestone’s production and development process, with regards to the aeroscreen. However, Dixon thinks IndyCar are being too cautious.

[broadrun96]

I'm tired of the driver experts on stuff they usually are full of it on and ONLY want the rule changed because they think they can benefit in a longer run. Get your degree, build tires, test, deal with limited new production and zero testing, then open your pie hole. Until then, you drive the car and they'll make the tires.

[tux]

Although i understand the reasons it now renders the race a series of 35 lap sprints, perhaps they could have checked the tyre wear throughout practice and then make a decision? Anyways it’s just good to have motorsport back.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

I'm tired of the driver experts on stuff they usually are full of it on and ONLY want the rule changed because they think they can benefit in a longer run. Get your degree, build tires, test, deal with limited new production and zero testing, then open your pie hole. Until then, you drive the car and they'll make the tires.

Tyre development does require driver input. They are the ones who do the tyre testing and ultimately race on them.

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

I'm tired of the driver experts on stuff they usually are full of it on and ONLY want the rule changed because they think they can benefit in a longer run. Get your degree, build tires, test, deal with limited new production and zero testing, then open your pie hole. Until then, you drive the car and they'll make the tires.

Yeah, 321 Indycar/CART starts over 20 years and a five time champ.

If asked, why should he be allowed to offer an opinion? He should just say the bedroom keyboard warriors will know better than him.

[fieldodreams79]

Glad to see racing back but if my anxiety levels weren't high enough already, we got to start this at Texas?

[RWill2073]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

I'm tired of the driver experts on stuff they usually are full of it on and ONLY want the rule changed because they think they can benefit in a longer run. Get your degree, build tires, test, deal with limited new production and zero testing, then open your pie hole. Until then, you drive the car and they'll make the tires.

This seems overly negative. Ultimately, they're the ones that have to live with the risks they take. So if they want to push the limits, and extend the laps they put on tires, they should have the input to do so. And if he's saying this because he is better at making them last longer, then the others need to up their game. He's basically just making the same arguments most on here do: less regulation, more freedom, less "spec" racing. We should like this type of sentiment.

[RWill2073]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

Glad to see racing back but if my anxiety levels weren't high enough already, we got to start this at Texas?

Haha, that poster wanting to care about indy 500 needs to watch this. Same feelings of anxiety, tension and nervousness with every two or three wide through corners at incredible speeds. Maybe not the most interesting type of track (oval), but the wildness makes up for it.

Oh, and watch out for Sato

[S griffin]

Originally Posted by RWill2073

This seems overly negative. Ultimately, they're the ones that have to live with the risks they take. So if they want to push the limits, and extend the laps they put on tires, they should have the input to do so. And if he's saying this because he is better at making them last longer, then the others need to up their game. He's basically just making the same arguments most on here do: less regulation, more freedom, less "spec" racing. We should like this type of sentiment.

Exactly. A lot of us want drivers speaking out instead of being robots. After all, as you say they are the ones who know best what conditions out there. If anyone doesn’t agree with what Dixon says, that’s fair enough. He hasn’t said anything outrageous or ridiculous. He’s just offered his own opinion. And there is nothing wrong with that. It’s no more different to what we do on here

[NaBUru38]

Last year, IndyCar races were air in Latin America by Claro, with Jorge Koechlin "un hermano peruano".


Claro has a pay TV service and/or a linear TV channel. That's npot the case in Uruguay or Argentina. Last year, we got the races on a free stream at indycar.com/ways-to-watch. This year it's not clear if we will have it.


Here in Uruguay, the Claro Video OTT is only available for Claro phone subscribers, which I'm not.

[Adam43]

Racing! Woo!

[broadrun96]

The comments were because I actually read what he said and read what the tire engineers said. It's not a matter of not having an opinion or commenting. But he directly said without ANY data, oh and his teams data agreed with the tire guys, to back up his claims the tires would go much further. It's not a matter of not having an opinion at all. It's having an informed opinion and not running your mouth when actually backed data said the tires were getting destroyed at 30-40 laps last year. It's the same tire compound so the same will happen. And Firestone expects it to do so earlier as nothing has been run on the track and there will be minimal track time to rubber in the track.

So it's a legitimate safety concern on the part of Indy car and guys who are paid to develop the tires. THEY and only they should be the ones determining safety conditions. Run your yap after you can demonstrate you aren't full of ****. In this case, the data shows he is. And it's not debated with those who know. Including the fact that the rights have NOT been raced at all and were part of a rest run for the Aeroscreen test, and are literally those tires. They have been in storage since August, they were to make new tires this year but could not. That information is crucial in the decision making process.

[fieldodreams79]

Race broadcast: NBC, 8:00pm ET.

It will be 96F (36C) at broadcast time. Temps gonna be near 100 during the day & will still be in the upper 80s at the checker time...This will be tough on tires as well as drivers/crews for their first race back.

Also, interesting read here; not only does the kid have to hump it from Holland to Mexico then to Texas, the 19 year old rookie gets to debut in IndyCar at Texas.

https://sports.yahoo.com/getting-tex...153023407.html

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

It will be 96F (36C) at broadcast time. Temps gonna be near 100 during the day & will still be in the upper 80s at the checker time...This will be tough on tires as well as drivers/crews for their first race back.

Also, interesting read here; not only does the kid have to hump it from Holland to Mexico then to Texas, the 19 year old rookie gets to debut in IndyCar at Texas.

https://sports.yahoo.com/getting-tex...153023407.html

With the temp at 96F, it's more like a baptism of fire for Rinus VeeKay.

[ScotsBrutesFan]

Quick note for those in the UK, Looks like SkyF1 channel are showing the practice, the Qually and the race, all live Saturday (Race early hours Sunday UK time)

[Adam43]

I wonder what is being shown over here...

NBC 8-10pm. No qualify and no practice unless you buy some other NBC.

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by Adam43

I wonder what is being shown over here...

NBC 8-10pm. No qualify and no practice unless you buy some other NBC.

I've got quali on NBC at 5 PM but practice is in the Gold package.

Practice temp at 1: 94
Quali temp at 5: 95

Hope these guys have been hydrating for a few days!!

[bjohnsonsmith]

For those who like a bit of nostalgia, Tk's car will have the 7-Eleven livery, which sponsored his car from 2003 -2010.

https://www.motorsport.com/indycar/n...-foyt/4801079/

[fieldodreams79]

Found this while looking for a stream of practice...

With IndyCar in primetime, NBC carrying heavy burden: 'We need an Indy 500 level of excitement'

https://www.indystar.com/story/sport...as/3158354001/

No. You don't. You need a solid race, with no big incidents. Quit adding unnecessary pressure on yourselves or the series.

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

For those who like a bit of nostalgia, Tk's car will have the 7-Eleven livery, which sponsored his car from 2003 -2010.

https://www.motorsport.com/indycar/n...-foyt/4801079/

Oh that's pretty neat!!