 |
| Takuma Sato will look to get his second victory from his second pole position of the season |
Sato entered Texas tied with Scott Dixon in the championship but this pole position has given Sato a one-point cushion over Dixon, however, last year's Texas winner will start second. Dixon missed out on his first pole position since the 2017 Indianapolis 500 by 0.0188 seconds. Dixon has five podium finishes through the first eight races of the season. That is Dixon's best start since 2008 when he had six podium finishes through the first eight races. Dixon won at Texas that year and he went onto win his second championship that season. Six of Dixon's 45 victories have come from second on the grid.
Sébastien Bourdais will start third in the DXC Technology 600. It is Bourdais' best starting position at Texas and it is only the third time he has started in the top three on an oval since returning to IndyCar in 2011. He started third at Fontana in 2013 and finished 12th and last year he won pole position at Phoenix and finished 13th. Bourdais won at Texas Motor Speedway in IROC in 2005. He led 52 of 67 laps and held off Mark Martin and Buddy Rice for the victory. Ryan Hunter-Reay joins Bourdais on row two in what is only the third time Hunter-Reay has started in the top five at this track. His finishes when starting in the top five at Texas are ninth and second. Hunter-Reay has won the ninth race of the season on two occasions. He did it in 2012 at Iowa and in 2013 at Milwaukee. Those are the only two times he has finished on the podium in the sixth race of the season.
Simon Pagenaud could become the fifth driver to win the Indianapolis 500 and at Texas Motor Speedway in the same year and he will roll off from fifth position. The other four drivers to achieve it are Arie Luyendyk in 1997, Gil de Ferran in 2003, Scott Dixon in 2008 and Hélio Castroneves in 2009. Luyendyk, Dixon and Castroneves all won the Indianapolis 500 from pole position and led the most laps. Pagenaud won the Indianapolis 500 from pole position and led the most laps two weeks ago. Spencer Pigot will start sixth and it is his fourth top ten start this season. Entering the 2019 season, Pigot had only three top ten starts in his IndyCar career. Last year, Pigot finished ahead of Ed Carpenter in three of the five oval races but Carpenter holds the advantage after the first race.
Josef Newgarden leads the championship and he will start seventh. Three of Newgarden's 12 victories have come from seventh on the grid. The only starting position Newgarden has won from more from is second. He has won five times after starting second. Newgarden is coming off a 19th place finish in the second Belle Isle race. The last time he finished outside the top fifteen was Watkins Glen 2017 when he collided with the end of the pit wall after making a pit stop. Newgarden won the following race at Sonoma after that incident. Newgarden has led a lap in five consecutive races, his longest streak since he led a lap in ten consecutive races from Texas to Sonoma in 2017. James Hinchcliffe will start on the outside of row four. Hinchcliffe has only led two laps this season, both coming at Barber. This is the fewest laps Hinchcliffe has led through the first eight races since his rookie season in 2011 when he did not lead a lap until the 12th race at Mid-Ohio. The only time Hinchcliffe has led a lap after starting eighth was at Milwaukee in 2012 and he led one lap. Hinchcliffe's retirement in the second Belle Isle race was his first retirement of the season.
Graham Rahal starts ninth and joining him on row five will be the driver that broke his record for youngest IndyCar winner, Colton Herta. Will Power won from ninth position at Texas two years ago. Rahal has finished in the top ten in the last three Texas races and he is coming off of a pair of seventh place finishes at Belle Isle. Rahal did not pick up a top five finish in the final nine races last year. He had at least three top five finishes after the Belle Isle doubleheader in each of the previous three seasons. Herta could become the first driver to win multiple races in the state of Texas in one season since A.J. Foyt won both USAC races held at Texas World Speedway in 1979. Herta could join Scott Dixon, Will Power, Dario Franchitti and Gil de Ferran as drivers to win at multiple circuits in the state of Texas.
Alexander Rossi will start 11th, the second time he has started outside the top ten this season and it is the first time Rossi has stated outside the top ten at Texas. The only other time Rossi has started 11th was the 100th Indianapolis 500, which he won. Rossi has six top five finishes through the first eight races, matching the total he had last year but Rossi has a career best seven top ten finishes from the first eight races. Rossi has finished in the top five in the last nine oval races and six of those have been podium finishes. He has finished on the podium in the last three oval races. Zach Veach makes it an all-Andretti Autosport front row. Veach had a pair of eighth place finishes last week at Belle Isle, his first two top ten finishes of the season. In the second Belle Isle race, all four Andretti Autosport car finished in the top ten and it was the first time the team had four top ten finishers in one race since Mid-Ohio 2015 when Justin Wilson finished second, Hunter-Reay finished seventh, Carlos Muñoz finished ninth and Marco Andretti was tenth.
Ed Carpenter will start 13th, ending a three-year streak of starting 14th at Texas. Carpenter could become the third American driver to have multiple victories at Texas Motor Speedway. Sam Hornish, Jr. won at the track three times and Scott Sharp won at the track twice. Graham Rahal won from 13th at Texas three years ago. Marcus Ericsson's second oval start will come from 14th position, one spot worse than where Ericsson started in the Indianapolis 500 last month. Marcus Ericsson's podium finish was the first for a Swedish driver since Kenny Bräck finished second at Motegi on April 13, 2003. It was the first podium finish for a Swede in an American race since Bräck finished third at Laguna Seca on June 9, 2002.
Will Power will start 15th and this is the third consecutive race he has started outside the top ten. Power had not started outside the top ten in three consecutive races since 2008 when he started outside the top ten in five consecutive races from Iowa to Mid-Ohio. Power has won twice when starting outside the top ten but both those have come on street courses. He won at Long Beach from 12th but that was after serving a ten-spot grid penalty for an engine change and he won from 16th in the first Belle Isle race in 2014. Power's third place finish in the second Belle Isle race was the first time he was the top Team Penske driver this season. Power had been the top Penske qualifier in the first five races this season before Pagenaud won pole position for the Indianapolis 500 and Josef Newgarden started on the front row for each Belle Isle race. Ten IndyCar races have been won from 15th on the grid, the most recent being the 2015 Indianapolis 500 with Juan Pablo Montoya.
Felix Rosenqvist joins Power on row eighth. Last week at Belle Isle, Rosenqvist started and finished fourth in the first race and it was the first time Rosenqvist has started in the top ten in his IndyCar career and not finish worse than his starting position.
Charlie Kimball starts 17th for the third race of his season. Kimball has been the top Carlin qualifier in all three of his appearances. Kimball has been running at the finish of 15 consecutive starts but only six of those races have seen Kimball finish on the lead lap. The only one of those six lead lap finishes to occur on an oval was in last year's Indianapolis 500. Santino Ferrucci joins Kimball on row nine. Ferrucci is the third rookie in as many years that Dale Coyne Racing has entered at Texas. In the prior two seasons, each rookie finished 17th at Texas and those rookies were Ed Jones and Zachary Claman De Melo. In fact, Carlos Huertas finished 17th in his Texas debut in 2014, making it three consecutive rookies to drive for Dale Coyne Racing at Texas to finish 17th.
Conor Daly makes his second start of 2019 with Carlin and he will start 19th with the man that replaced him at A.J. Foyt Racing, Matheus Leist next to him on row ten. Daly will be driving for his sixth team in his IndyCar career having previously driven for A.J. Foyt Racing, Dale Coyne Racing, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, Harding Racing and Andretti Autosport. Daly raced for Carlin in the 2011 GP3 Series season. Daly scored 10 points that season with his best finish being fifth at Spa-Francorchamps. Leist completed only five laps in last year's Texas race after suffering a fire. It is the fewest laps completed in his brief IndyCar career.
The final row of the grid will feature Marco Andretti and Tony Kanaan. Andretti had save his car after a moment of oversteer on his second qualifying lap. He was tracking to start in the back half of the top ten prior to the moment. Kanaan brushed the wall exiting turn two on his first qualifying lap and did not complete his run. Andretti has not been the top Andretti Autosport finisher in a race since the 2017 season finale at Sonoma. The last time he was the top Andretti finisher on an oval was Texas 2017 when he finished sixth. Andretti has not had a top five finish on an oval since he finished third at Fontana in 2015.
Tony Kanaan will tie his team owner A.J. Foyt for second all-time in starts with 369 starts. This will be Kanaan's 309th consecutive start. Kanaan's most recent podium finish came at Texas in 2017 when he finished second to Power. A.J. Foyt Racing has not had a top five finish at Texas since Airton Daré finished third in the June 2002 race. This is the 29th time Kanaan has started outside the top twenty in his IndyCar career and this is the sixth time he has started outside the top twenty this season.
NBCSN's coverage of the DXC Technology 600 begins at 8:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 8:45 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 248 laps.
