Two-race format at Texas could make for one wild night
There’s always been a touch of insanity when it’s come to IZOD IndyCar Series racing at Texas Motor Speedway. Even though we’ve long been used to the constant side-by-side action and the heart-stopping near-misses that go with it, you get a sense that this shouldn’t be happening with open-wheel machines at 220+ miles per hour.
On Saturday, all those feelings of dread and excitement will be doubled. The Firestone Twin 275s — the first “twin” doubleheader in American open-wheel racing since 1981 — will feature a pair of 114-lap races that each pay out half the points and half the money (full details here). Considering the already aggressive flavor of IndyCar racing at Texas, the fact that a 228-lap, 550-kilometer outing has been split into, essentially, two extended sprint races, is likely to only extend it further.
But there’s still plenty of unknown elements that go along with this twin format. KV Racing Technology-Lotus driver Tony Kanaan, who heads to the Metroplex coming off a fourth-place run at the Indy 500 last month, believes that different strategies will be at work.
“You’ll see people trying to be a little bit more aggressive as far as setups,” Kanaan said this week. “Instead of race setup, maybe they will try for qualifying setup to see and then they can change the car after that.”
Also adding to the degree of difficulty will be the increased traffic from the second-biggest field of the IndyCar season. 30 cars are on the entry list for Texas, including cars for part-timers Paul Tracy, Davey Hamilton, Ed Carpenter, Jay Howard and Wade Cunningham.
But perhaps the biggest obstacle will come from — you guessed it — the double-file restarts. At Indy, multiple drivers were vocal about the potential consequences of the new rule at the Brickyard. But on race day, the restarts managed to produce some thrilling moments and, outside of one incident involving an over-eager E.J. Viso, went off without a hitch.
That said, Texas is a different animal with a shorter distance (1.5 miles), high-banked corners and a legitimate second groove. Will this allow drivers to get away with the restarts safely again or will it help create the big accidents that many dreaded going into the 500?
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Hildebrand injured in promotional event
J.R. Hildebrand’s suffered a left knee injury yesterday while taking part in an obstacle course run against Team Penske’s Ryan Briscoe and Will Power at TMS.
Sources are telling ESPN.com’s Terry Blount that Hildebrand tore his ACL after hitting it against a wooden hurdle in the final part of the course. The promotional event featured Olympic sprinter Michael Johnson as instructor for the drivers.
However, Hildebrand is expected to compete in Saturday night’s race.
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Kanaan back on the dirt
Speaking of Kanaan, the former series champion strapped into a Late Model dirt car once again last night for Tony Stewart’s “Prelude to the Dream” charity race at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway. Unfortunately, Kanaan ran into trouble after losing a wheel on Lap 19 and wound up 27th in the 30-lap feature, which was won by NASCAR’s Clint Bowyer.
This year’s event raised money for four children’s hospitals in Charlotte, Atlanta, Dallas and St. Louis. Kanaan was on Team Dallas, who came up third in the team standings and earned 20 percent of the net proceeds from the pay-per-view broadcast for their hospital.
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SSM soldiers on
Shortly after losing chief engineer Allen McDonald to Andretti Autosport, Sam Schmidt’s team has brought in Todd Malloy to take over duties on the No. 77 car of Alex Tagliani for this weekend’s event. McDonald has took over the engineering for Andretti’s No. 27 car, driven by Mike Conway.
“Since [Malloy] was part of the engineering group (Nos. 77, 98 and 99 teams) working together at Indy, it will help the transition,” said Schmidt. “At the same time, Allen was part of the founding group of this team; so much of the continuity that has built up over the last 18 months will be lost. Instead of work happening intuitively, we will have to learn to work together as we go.”
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All quotes were taken from INDYCAR press releases and teleconferences.
