Texas Wrap Up

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Indycar photo by Chris Jones

Just a few more thoughts on the PPG 375:

Excitement for the Indianapolis 500 went up several notches after yesterday’s race. Texas and IMS are different tracks, but Indycar seems to have found the right aero package. Josef newgarden said in the post race press conference that he would like to see a little less downforce. He would also like for the cars o be able t run the third line, but doesn’t want a three wide pack race.

Repaving Texas Motor Speedway is under discussion.I hope it doesn’t happen. There will be no chance of having another race like we saw yesterday. Leave it alone.

Sources at the track say attendance was much improved from a year ago. The crowd still looked pretty puny on television, but I understand it was a doublke digit increase from 2022. Still a long way to go. A race like we saw Sunday may help attendance, but the key is heavy promotion, which there was not.

Consistency

Six drivers have finished in the top 10 in both races. Pato O’Ward, Callum Ilott, David Malukas, Scott Dixon, Marcus Ericsson,and Alex Palou. Dixon is the only one of these drivers with more than five years of experience.

Dixon’s fifth place finish was his 194th top five, putting him ahead of Mario Andretti. In 370 starts, Dixon has finished in the top five 52% of the time.

A special shout out to Augustin Canapino. Some people were leery of a 33 year old rookie who had never been in a single seat race car before, but he has two 12th place finishes in the young season including his first oval. I can’t wait to see what he does at IMS.

Playing Chess

It was fun watching the different strategy calls during the third and fourth cautions yesterday. Newgarden came for tires and fuel, then came in to top off just before the race returned to green. Brilliant. That extra stop may have been the difference in the race.

Hot Seat Update

Jack Harvey finished 18th, highest of the Rahal cars and was running at the finish. The entire team had a miserable weekend, but Harvey fared the best.

Felix Rosenqvist as not had the start to the season he needs. He won the pole on Saturday for the second year in a row at Texas, but didn’t lead a lap until just before halfway. Rosenvist crashed on lap 179, ending his day. he has two DNFs this season.

Romain Grosjean had a repeat of his St. Pete day. In contention, but crashed late in the race. Grosjean needs a good result in the next two races before the series gets to IMS.

Point Standings

2 thoughts on “Texas Wrap Up”

  1. I was pleased with the crowd, with so much working against it – the Women’s Final Four was in Dallas, Taylor Swift had three shows this weekend at the Cowboy’s stadium, it was 11:00 on Palm Sunday (yes, that matters in the south) and a scary weather forecast that came true about an hour after the race. A better time slot with fewer local distractions could’ve made a big difference. Hopefully, two good races in a row will carry over to next year.

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    1. Couldn’t tell from TV. Last year the race was uo agaichurch and U if Texas in the NCAA tournament. Glad you enjoyed it. I thought it was a cool track too.

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