Morning Warm-Up: Texas 2012

Alex Tagliani stole the show in qualifying and took the pole for the Firestone 550 from Texas. Tagliani's pole is the first for Bryan Herta Autosport. He leads a Honda 1-2-3-4 and has Dario Franchitti, Graham Rahal and Scott Dixon right behind him. Four drivers will serve a 10 grid spot penalty for engine changes. Mike Conway will go from 8th to 18th, Takuma Sato goes from 10th to 20th, Simona de Silvestro drops from 23rd to 24th and Josef Newgarden, who did not post a time in qualifying, will start 25th. Newgarden was 3rd fastest in the first practice and 10th in the final practice. Look for him to be on the move. With the penalties, Chevrolets will start 5-6-7-8 with Will Power, James Hinchcliffe, Tony Kanaan and Marco Andretti and Simon Pagenuad and Ryan Briscoe jump into the top ten.

IndyCar has been working with the teams and drivers this weekend with decreasing downforce. During the practice session, a few drivers got their hands crossed up, something normally never seen at Texas. The drivers have had to clearly drive the car more than ever before at Texas.

Looking beyond the race and into the future, tentatively, this very well maybe the last IndyCar race race at Texas Motor Speedway. The track, drivers and IndyCar have different opinions about placement of the catch fence poles and that is just the first of a few issues between Texas and the series. Track president Eddie Gossage is not happy that the Izod IndyCar Series is heading to Houston in October 2013. Gossage feels that a second Texas race would detract from his event and openly voiced that he did not want to see a revival of the Houston race. Thanks to Google Maps, we can find that the distance from Texas Motor Speedway and Reliant Park, location of the Houston Grand Prix, is 285 miles or 4 hours and 53 minutes apart. There has also been a discrepancy between the track and IndyCar over sanctioning fees. If this is the last Texas race, I am sad that the series loses a race that as normally been the best attended race besides Indianapolis. However, certain things like the accident that nearly ended Kenny Bräck life, let alone his career and the most recent banter between the drivers and the track over the catch fence poles has left Texas and it's relationship with the series with a dark cloud hanging above it and it may in fact be time to look go else where. If tonight's race is a great show, I hope the two parties can work something out.