FORT WORTH, Texas — IndyCar put in a “factory shift” Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway, starting the day when the garage opened at 5 a.m. local time and ending at 2:30 p.m. before turning the track over to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
Just a short time after Arrow McLaren’s Felix Rosenqvist won his second straight pole at the 1.54-mile, high-banked oval, the full field of 28 cars completed in high-line practice. That was an effort to help “rubber in” the upper groove for Sunday’s PPG 375 to provide two lanes of grip.
The only incident during the high-line practice that was split into two groups was when Conor Daly’s No. 20 Chevrolet ran high into Turn 4 before spinning across the frontstretch. Daly’s car slid through the grass, returned to the asphalt, did a complete spin and luckily did not make any contact with the wall.
He drove the car into the pits for a quick inspection by his team and continued practice.
“Honestly, we were struggling a little bit and when we hit the bump hitting Turn 4, I hadn’t really had a moment before, but it snapped pretty aggressively,” Daly recalled. “Not ideal. I know my way around correcting a spin, it seems like. I drove NASCAR last weekend and that helped a little bit and I drove in the dirt in USAC midgets.
“Not ideal. Not what we wanted to have happen. All three of our cars need mechanical grip. This race can change a lot and I’m confident the team can figure some things out before tomorrow.”
After the two-group high-line session, it was a one-hour final practice that was contested without incident.
Five-time Texas Motor Speedway winner Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing was the fastest driver in race trim at 222.378 mph in the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda. Defending PPG 375 winner Josef Newgarden of Team Penske was second fast at 221.792 mph in the No. 2 PPG Chevrolet.
Takuma Sato of Chip Ganassi Racing was third at 220.992 mph in the No. 11 Honda. Scott McLaughlin of Team Penske was fourth at 220.866 mph with Andretti Autosport driver Colton Herta rounding out the top five at 220.807 mph in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda.
IndyCar has increased the downforce levels with an extra 200 to 300 pounds of additional downforce from last year’s aerodynamic package. That is an attempt to make the racing closer and provide a better race.
Scott Dixon. (Penske Entertainment/James Black)
Dixon was the second-fastest driver in qualifications and will be on the outside of row one when Sunday’s race begins at 12:30 p.m. (ET) with the NBC telecast beginning at noon.
“I think it has been pretty good for all of the Ganassi cars,” Dixon said after the final practice. “It’s probably a simpler configuration than what we normally have on an oval. Today was pretty straightforward.
“It was nice to get some high-line practice in as well. We would have liked to have been one step better in qualifying, but it’s nice to start on the front row. We had some pretty big shifts and changes in the final practice session. It was good to see what the tire deg would be and it’s a lot less deg than we expected to see.”
Dixon believes the aerodynamic settings have actually proven to be “too efficient” giving teams little variance on adjustment to the car.
“The car is pretty good,” Dixon said. “The option of the downforce gives you more road to use in Turns 1 and 2. It will depend on if people start to use and overuse the bottom line. In the last practice, quite a few people were using the high line. The only downside I would say with the additions we have are all very efficient. It would be better if we had some stuff to take off and put on that enables people to choose if they want to be flat at the end of a stint or don’t.
“All of the stuff on the car is very efficient. We’re getting a ton of downforce to the drag effect. The deg will definitely be a lot less than we saw last year.”
Rosenqvist is confident heading into Sunday’s race after winning the pole for the second year in a row at Texas.
“We had a good run here last year starting off on the pole and we started off on the same setup today and we built from that,” Rosenqvist said. “The other cars on the team were good as well, so we are super stoked. This is one of my favorite tracks. Naturally, I’ve always been OK here. It’s the first oval that made sense to me.
“I don’t think the results I have here really represent what I’m capable of. Some luck would be nice.”
Rosenqvist has raced well at Texas but has never scored a victory on the high-banked oval.
“I think we are due for a really good show, but you never know how spicy you can go in the second lane,” Rosenqvist said. “I guess we will find out on Sunday.”
Keyword: Rosenqvist, Dixon & Daly Review IndyCar Practice In Texas