Live updates from the Genesys 300: Defending champ Newgarden starting on the pole
The 2020 IndyCar season is officially underway.
Cars hit the track for the first time this year when practice got underway at noon. Tonight’s race is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. and will be televised in prime-time on NBC. Here’s a running list of noteworthy items (which will be updated regularly throughout the day):
Newgarden on the pole
Josef Newgarden couldn’t ask for a better starting position to defend his title at Texas.
The 2019 champion posted the fastest qualifying lap at 215.796 mph. Newgarden was the pole-sitter in 2018, finishing 13th. He won last year’s race starting seventh.
“I don’t want to say I was surprised,” Newgarden said. “It felt like the car was quick. I didn’t know if we had enough to beat [Scott] Dixon; he looked really good in his qual trim. I felt the XPEL car was great. I just tried to do the best I could to stay flat. That’s just all I had to do was keep it pinned around the track. The car was perfect.”
Dixon will start second with a qualifying speed of 215.647 mph followed by Simon Pagenaud at 215.545 mph.
Jack Harvey, driving the No. 60 Honda for Meyer Shank Racing, described the track as a first-time driver following qualifying.
“This is a pretty difficult track to come to with no laps and little track time,” said Harvey, who will start 21st. “I don’t think we had the baseline out of the gate that we thought that we had, which hurt my confidence a bit. We did our fastest lap during that qualifying run so that was a positive. I’m just taking today in stride and taking in each session as a learning experience and hopefully we will have a clean race later tonight.”
Sato crashes
Takuma Sato, driving the No. 30 Honda, had a hard hit during qualifying and his status for the race is in question. Sato hit the wall hard coming out of Turn 1 and his team will only have a few hours to get the car ready to go for tonight’s race at 7 p.m.
Sato was cleared and released from the infield medical center shortly after his wreck.
Sato was the pole-sitter last year at Texas, finishing 15th. His best finish was a fifth-place run in 2011. Sato is best known for winning the Indianapolis 500 in 2017.
Dixon’s fastest
Veteran Scott Dixon, driving the No. 9 Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing, posted the fastest speed during the practice session.
Dixon had a top speed of 215.995 miles per hour, more than one mile per hour faster than the next closest driver. Colton Herta, driving the No. 88 Honda, checked in at 214.491 mph and Pato O’Ward, driving the No. 5 Chevrolet, had the third-fastest at 214.326 mph.
Dixon is a strong favorite going into tonight’s race. He’s a three-time winner at TMS.
“Car felt pretty good,” Dixon said after practice.
Early incidents
It took less than 30 minutes before an accident during the rookie and first-time drivers had a separate practice session.
Rookie Rinus VeeKay, driving the No. 21 Chevrolet for Ed Carpenter Racing, spun out of Turn 4, crashing into the wall. No other cars were involved in the accident. VeeKay was seen and released from the infield medical center.
Less than 30 minutes later, Ed Carpenter, driving the No. 20 Chevrolet for Ed Carpenter Racing, also had issues coming out of Turn 4 running his 15th practice lap. Carpenter skidded across the infield grass but had minimal contact with the wall.
Ryan Hunter-Reay, driving the No. 28 Honda, became the third car to spin out during practice. Hunter-Reay made contact with the wall after getting loose coming out of Turn 2 onto the backstretch.
Kanaan honored
TMS president Eddie Gossage presented a retirement gift to veteran driver Tony Kanaan before Saturday’s action got underway.
Kanaan, a TMS winner who ranks tied for the most top-five finishes in IndyCar history at the track, is in his final full-time season. He’s driving the No. 14 Chevrolet sponsored by Irving-based 7-Eleven.
Gossage said the track will be getting Kanaan custom cowboy boots with his autograph and the speeedway logo.
“What a tough competitor,” Gossage said on social media.
This story was originally published June 6, 2020 at 12:29 PM.
