 |
| In the final days of spring, IndyCar's new season blooms in Texas |
Josef Newgarden enters as the defending IndyCar champion and he is the defending Texas race winner. Newgarden leads Team Penske, which has been the dominant team on ovals in recent years. Since Newgarden joined the team in 2017, Team Penske has won 11 of 16 oval races, including winning five of six oval races in 2017 and four of five races in 2019. Newgarden is attempting to become the first champion to win the season opener of the following season since Dario Franchitti in 2011. Newgarden won last year's season opener at St. Petersburg. The last driver to win consecutive season openers was Sébastien Bourdais at St. Petersburg in 2017 and 2018. Before that, Juan Pablo Montoya won the 2015 and 2016 season openers at St. Petersburg. The last driver to win consecutive season openers at different track was Paul Tracy, who won at St. Petersburg in 2003 and Long Beach in 2004.
Will Power has become an oval master over the last few seasons. Power is responsible for five of Penske's last 11 oval races victories, including at Texas in 2017. Last year was the first time Power started outside the top ten at Texas. He rolled off from 15th on the grid and finished ninth. Power leads all drivers with eight oval victories since the start of the DW12-era in 2012.
Simon Pagenaud picked up his second career oval victory last year in the Indianapolis 500. That victory launched Pagenaud to score the most oval points in 2019. He had 242 points and picked up four top five finishes from the five oval races with his worst finish being sixth at Texas. Pagenaud enters 2020 with 31 consecutive finishes. His last retirement was Long Beach 2018 when he was spun entering turn one on lap one. This is Pagenaud's longest consecutive finishes streak.
While Pagenaud enters with 31 consecutive finishes, Alexander Rossi is the active leader with 42 consecutive finishes, eight away from matching Danica Patrick's record of 50 consecutive finishes. Rossi's last retirement was at Texas in 2017 after an accident in turn four. Rossi has not led a lap since he took the checkered flag at Road America. His most consecutive races without a lap led is eight, which started at Texas 2016 and lasted through the 2017 Grand Prix of Indianapolis.
Ryan Hunter-Reay only led one race last year and it was at Texas. Hunter-Reay led 90 laps before a misplayed pit strategy cost him and knocked him out of contention for victory, dropping him to fifth. It was Hunter-Reay's second consecutive fifth place finish at Texas. Prior to that he had finished outside the top ten in the four prior trips. He is coming off his third winless season over the last four years. His last podium finish on an oval was third at Iowa in 2017.
Scott Dixon has historically been known for slow starts, but in recent years Dixon has improved his jump out of the gate. He has seven top ten finishes in the last eight season openers. He has not won a season opener since 2008, but in the two seasons where Dixon has won the season opener, he has gone on to win the championship. The other season was 2003. Dixon is coming off ten podium finishes in 2019, his most since 2009.
Felix Rosenqvist leads the sophomore class into 2020 after winning the rookie of the year over Colton Herta despite Herta's two victroeis. Rosenqvist did not pick up a top ten finish on an oval last year. The Swede's best result came at Gateway with a 11th place result. He was 12th last in his Texas debut. Herta competed for a top five finish last year at Texas before contact with Dixon took both drivers out of the race. His best oval finish in his rookie year was ninth at Gateway.
Marcus Ericsson joins Dixon and Rosenqvist at Chip Ganassi Racing for his sophomore season. Ericsson was seventh on his Texas debut but that was his third and final top ten finish of the season.
Takuma Sato is the most recent oval winner in IndyCar, and he leads Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing into Texas. Sato and Graham Rahal rounded out the top ten in the championship last year, the first time Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing had multiple top ten championship finishers since 2004. Sato is coming off his best season with two victories and four podium finishes. While winning at Gateway, his average finish in the final seven races was 17th. Rahal has not won a race the last two seasons and he stood on only one podium in each of the last two years. He was third last year at Texas. Only twice has Rahal finished in the top ten of a season opener. One of those was his runner-up finish to Bourdais in the 2018 season opener at St. Petersburg.
Dale Coyne Racing shook up its 2020 driver lineup. Santino Ferrucci slides over to the #18 SealMasters Honda with Álex Palou joining the operation in the #55 Honda after spending 2019 racing in Japan's Super Formula and Super GT series. Ferrucci scored the fourth most oval points in 2019 and he finished fourth at Texas, Pocono and Gateway. Palou makes his oval debut and he will be the first driver to use the #55 since Tristan Vautier in 2013.
Ed Carpenter Racing keeps Ed Carpenter in the #20 Sonax Chevrolet but Rinus VeeKay moves into the #21 Sonax Chevrolet for the full season. VeeKay made 48 starts across the Road to Indy series and five of those were on ovals. In those five starts, VeeKay finished second, fourth, first, third and second. Carpenter is coming off a second-place finish in his most recent start at Gateway. It was his ninth podium finish and he has never had consecutive podium finishes or consecutive top five finishes in his IndyCar career.
Carpenter will share the #20 Chevrolet with Conor Daly in 2020 but Daly will run all the oval races outside of the Indianapolis 500 in Carlin's #59 Chevrolet. Daly made four starts for Carlin in 2019 and he finished 11th, 13th, 11th and sixth in those races.
A.J. Foyt Racing starts the 2020 season in its backyard at Texas Motor Speedway. Charlie Kimball occupies the #4 Tresiba Chevrolet after spending 2019 as a part-time driver. Tony Kanaan returns to the #14 7-Eleven Chevrolet for the oval races. Since 2012, A.J. Foyt Racing has one top ten finish at Texas and the team's last top five finish at the track was third with Airton Daré in 2002.
Andretti Autosport's bottom two drivers, Marco Andretti and Zach Veach, were 16th and 18th in the championship last year respectively. Andretti had five top ten finishes last year, including a tenth at Texas and Gateway. He has not had a top five finish on an oval since he was third at Fontana in 2015. Veach's best finish in 2019 was seventh at Iowa.
The team formerly known as Schmidt Peterson Motorsports traded Honda for Chevrolet and rebadged the organization as Arrow McLaren SP with two new drivers for 2020. Patricio O'Ward takes over the #5 Chevrolet after splitting 2019 between IndyCar, Super Formula and Formula Two. Despite having eight IndyCar starts to his name, O'Ward has yet to start an oval race. He made six oval starts across the Road to Indy and won in Pro Mazda at Indianapolis Raceway Park and at Iowa in Indy Lights. He also finished second in the Freedom 100 and third at Gateway in his other two Indy Lights oval starts.
Oliver Askew makes his IndyCar debut in the #7 Chevrolet for Arrow McLaren SP. Askew won the 2019 Indy Lights championship and he swept the two oval races at Indianapolis and Gateway. He also won at Iowa in U.S. F2000 in 2017. In 48 Road to Indy starts, Askew won 15 times and stood on the podium 31 times.
Meyer Shank Racing expands its IndyCar program to a full-time operation after starting ten races in 2019. Jack Harvey remains the man at the wheel of the #60 AutoNation/SiriusXM Honda. Harvey picked up four top ten finishes last year with his third-place result in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis standing above the rest. While Harvey has made 19 starts over the last three seasons, the only oval he has raced at is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the Indianapolis 500. His last oval start elsewhere was on July 18, 2015 at Iowa in Indy Lights. In six Indy Lights oval starts, Harvey never finished worse than fifth and won the 2015 Freedom 100.
Qualifying will be shown live on NBCSN at 5:00 p.m. ET. NBC's coverage of the Genesys 300 begins at 8:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 8:45 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 200 laps.
