‘A daunting track.’ Concern building for IndyCar’s opener at Texas Motor Speedway
IndyCar drivers were scheduled to have eight races under their belt. They should have been in midseason form coming into Texas Motor Speedway next month.
Instead, with the IndyCar season delayed amid the coronavirus pandemic, TMS is now hosting the opening race of the 2020 season. The Genesys 300 is scheduled to run on Saturday, June 6. And that has everyone concerned from drivers to track president Eddie Gossage.
“Most drivers haven’t raced anything since last September,” IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe told Mike Tirico during Tuesday’s Lunch Talk Live on NBCSN.
“We’re going to one of the most daunting places at Texas Motor Speedway. It’s a very difficult track and the margins for error are small and the cost of error are quite high, so it’s going to be a game of patience.”
That concern is shared by Gossage.
Texas prides itself on being a high-banked, high-speed oval track with the IndyCar drivers reaching speeds in excess of 200 mph. However, that becomes a cause for concern with most drivers not having seat time for the last eight months.
Driving an IndyCar doesn’t exactly fall under the “just like riding a bike” category.
IndyCar’s 2019 season concluded Sept. 22 and the 2020 opener scheduled for March 15 was suspended early on during the crisis. Outside of a couple drivers doing an off-season test, the majority will be getting behind the wheel for the first time since the 2019 finale.
Unlike NASCAR’s return to racing on Sunday at Darlington Raceway where drivers did not have practice laps or qualifying, IndyCar drivers will be afforded that opportunity when they come to Texas next month.
It’s necessary given the lengthy delay, but it likely won’t knock all the rust off. Practice is scheduled from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., qualifying starts at 4 p.m. and the race starts at 7:45 p.m.
“There’s pressure that people don’t think about at every race and this one has so many eyes that’ll be focused on it,” Gossage said. “That’s a good thing, but it is the first race of 2020 for IndyCar. The drivers not having any seat time … that’s a concern.
“They’ll have some seat time under their belt, which is important to knock the rust off, but I don’t think they’re going to have enough time to knock all the rust off. A little concerned what kind of race we might wind up seeing with these drivers going 220 mph. Hopefully they are a little bit cautious, a little bit conservative.”
Outside of the drivers returning with limited seat time, the added concern for Gossage and TMS is ensuring the proper sanitization and social distancing measures are taken to prevent a possible spread of coronavirus.
Gossage and IndyCar have put together a detailed plan to prevent an outbreak on the grounds such as utilizing both 64-bay garages in the infield to house 12 teams each and spreading out pit road and crews as much as possible.
Approximately 900 people will have access to the grounds on June 6 and will be required to go through a pre-race scanning process.
“After this race is over, we want everybody to be healthy,” Gossage said. “We don’t want anybody to say, ‘I went to Texas and I got sick.’”
