The NTT INDYCAR SERIES makes its season debut at Texas Motor Speedway this Saturday, June 6 at 8 p.m. (ET) on NBC, the first INDYCAR race broadcast on network television in prime time since 2013.
The season was halted March 13 due to the COVID-19 pandemic just before the NTT INDYCAR SERIES season was set to begin in St. Petersburg, Florida. After nearly three months, the wait is over, and open-wheel racing is getting underway in North America
The 24 drivers entered in Saturday night’s event will compete with a condensed schedule. The one-day show will feature a one-hour, 50-minute practice session, with 30 minutes set aside specifically for rookies. That will be followed by a qualifying session where each driver gets one lap to set their time and a race of 200 laps, trimmed from the scheduled 248 laps.
The condensed schedule will force the NTT INDYCAR SERIES stars to adapt to their race cars and the hot racetrack conditions quickly, allowing little room for error, exciting on-track action and many storylines heading into the first of a 14-race NTT INDYCAR SERIES schedule in 2020.
Fast Facts heading to Texas
This will mark the first time that Texas Motor Speedway has served as the NTT INDYCAR SERIES season-opening venue. The Genesys 300 will be the 32nd INDYCAR race at TMS overall, dating to Arie Luyendyk winning the inaugural in 1997.
The Texas INDYCAR race has been run every June since 1997. No driver has competed in every Texas race, but Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan have started 20 races. Both are entered in the Genesys 300.
Due to the delay caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Kanaan seeks to start his 318th consecutive race this weekend, which would extend his Indy car record streak that began in June 2001 at Portland. Dixon has made 258 consecutive starts heading into the weekend, which is the second-longest streak. Andretti Herta Autosport with Marco Andretti & Curb-Agajanian’s Marco Andretti has made 234 consecutive starts, which is the third-longest streak of all time.
The Aeroscreen is a safety innovation for enhanced driver cockpit protection that will make its NTT INDYCAR SERIES race debut at the Genesys 300 on Saturday, June 6. The safety feature is a ballistic, canopy-like windscreen anchored by titanium framework encompassing the cockpit. INDYCAR has mandated its use by all teams at all track disciplines (ovals, permanent road courses and temporary street circuits).
Helio Castroneves won four times at Texas Motor Speedway (2004 Race 2, 2006, 2009 and 2013), the most wins by an Indy car driver at the track. Six past TMS winners are entered in this year’s race: Kanaan (2004 Race 1), Dixon (2008, 2015 and 2018), Will Power (2011 Race 2 and 2017), Ed Carpenter (2014), Graham Rahal (2016) and Josef Newgarden (2019).
Power has won the pole for three of the past seven Texas Motor Speedway races (2013, 2014 and 2015). Other past pole winners entered this year are Dixon (2008), Charlie Kimball (2017), Newgarden (2018) and Takuma Sato (2019). Kanaan won a draw to start first for the second of the 2011 doubleheader races but has never won the pole at Texas.
Six drivers have won the Texas race from the pole: Sam Hornish Jr. (2001 Race 2), Gil de Ferran (2003 Race 2), Castroneves (2004 Race 2), Tomas Scheckter (2005), Dixon (2008) and Ryan Briscoe (2010).
Drivers who have won at Texas have gone on to win the NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship eight times: Hornish (2001 Race 2 and 2002 Race 2), Kanaan (2004 Race 1), Dixon (2008, 2015 and 2018), Dario Franchitti (2011 Race 1) and Newgarden (2019).
Twenty-one drivers entered this weekend have competed in past NTT INDYCAR SERIES events at Texas Motor Speedway. Fourteen drivers have led laps at the track: Dixon 517, Power 432, Kanaan 372, James Hinchcliffe 196, Carpenter 92, Simon Pagenaud 85, Marco Andretti 84, Newgarden 121, Sato 60, Ryan Hunter-Reay 136, Rahal 36, Kimball 27, Alexander Rossi 10 and Marcus Ericsson 2.
Three rookies – Oliver Askew, Alex Palou and Rinus VeeKay – are entered and will make their first NTT INDYCAR SERIES start this weekend at Texas. It will be Palou’s first race on a oval.
Since 2012, the NTT INDYCAR SERIES has averaged nine different race winners per season, including a record-tying 11 winners in 2014. There were seven different winners in the 17 races of 2019.
Comments