After four straight road/street courses to start the 2010 season, the IZOD IndyCar Series is ready to run its first oval race of 2010 with tomorrow’s Road Runner Turbo Indy 300 at Kansas Speedway.
The Target Chip Ganassi Racing team has ruled the 1.5-mile oval for the last three seasons, with victories from current Panther Racing driver Dan Wheldon in 2007 and 2008, and Scott Dixon in 2009. But so far this season, Dixon and teammate Dario Franchitti have been shut out of the win column, with Team Penske (Will Power at Sao Paulo and St. Petersburg; Helio Castroneves at Barber Motorsports Park) and Andretti Autosport (Ryan Hunter-Reay at Long Beach) triumphing during the early-season stretch.
There’s plenty of intrigue this weekend in Kansas. With this being the first oval race, teams like AA and Dreyer and Reinbold Racing (among others) will be keen on showing that their oval program is as good as their road/street work was in the first four events. Not only that, Kansas will mark the debut of the league’s oval sub-championship that will play out within the overall series title fight.
Here’s your event schedule for the weekend. Since this weekend is a two-day job, it’s pretty straightforward:
Today
IZOD IndyCar Series practice: 11 a.m.-Noon, 2-3 p.m. ET.
IZOD IndyCar Series qualifying: 5-6:30 p.m. ET (IndyCar.com).
Tomorrow
IZOD IndyCar Series — Road Runner Turbo Indy 300: 1:30 p.m. ET (ABC, IMS Radio Network, Sirius 211, XM 145, IndyCar.com)
Don’t forget to check out the video below to hear some of the drivers talk about Saturday’s 300-miler. Video credit goes to the IRL.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=
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