Saturday, June 6, 2020

First Impressions: Texas 2020

1. Season is over folk. After one race, Scott Dixon has assured himself his sixth IndyCar championship and it all came with a Texas thrashing. Dixon was fastest off the truck, lost out on pole position by spot but had the best handling car. Josef Newgarden might have led from the jump but Dixon's car had the better balance. When clear of Newgarden, Dixon pulled away.

Outside of some difficult in traffic, Dixon was unchallenged tonight. Felix Rosenqvist was the second-best car and closed in on Dixon while in traffic. Unfortunately, a Ganassi 1-2 vanished with 12 laps to go when Rosenqvist caught the James Hinchcliffe in turns one and turn two. In desperation to keep touch with Dixon and possibly pull out his first career victory, Rosenqvist went to the high line, but due to track conditions, Rosenqivst spun into the barrier. His night was over and Dixon was in the clear.

This was not an ideal race, a one-day show, with tire stint limits and an upper line that was not suitable for racing. Add to it that in the final three lap dash the lapped cars were kept between Dixon and Pagenaud, basically handing Dixon the trophy, but this was Dixon's night. For 300 miles, Dixon was the class of the field and it was another record night.

This is Dixon's 18th season with a victory, matching A.J. Foyt's record. Dixon's previous Texas victories came in 2008, 2015 and 2018. He won the championship in all those seasons. This is the third time Dixon has won the season opener. The other two years were 2003 and 2008, Dixon's first two championship seasons.

Season is over folk. Dixon has it in the bag.

2. Many can poo-poo Felix Rosenqvist's move but it was his only shot. If he falls in land, he finishes second. Nothing wrong with that but it was his one shot and while all arrows pointed to that move failing, he went for it. It backfired, it cost Rosenqvist dearly and in one corner this season went from a terrific to a terrible start.

3. Team Penske got two podium finishers because of Rosenqvist's misfortune. Simon Pagenaud and Josef Newgarden were in the top five all night but neither were touching Dixon. Newgarden had worse tire wear than his teammate and he struggled. Penske saw similar tire issues in 2018. There are some tracks where the team gets the balance wrong. Tonight it didn't catch them out.

4. Zach Veach was great and he needed a great day. He was in the top five all night and matched his best career finish.

5. Ed Carpenter made big jumps on pit stops and it got him a top five finish. After finishing second at Gateway last year, this is the first time Carpenter has had consecutive top five finishes in his IndyCar career.

6. Conor Daly drove smart and got a sixth place finish out of tonight from 19th on the grid. This was a night he needed and one Carlin needed.

7. Colton Herta had a poor qualifying run and it dropped him to 14th on the grid, but he recovered to finish seventh. Herta made a few moves tonight, which was had to come by.

8. Honda had a minor heart attack at the start of the night when Alexander Rossi, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Graham Rahal all failed to start on the grid. Despite being sent to the rear of the field, this issue and work required to restart the cars, led to drive-through penalties for all three at the start. Likely, Hunter-Reay bounced back and finished eighth and on the lead lap. Hunter-Reay spent the first half a lap down. I feel bad for Hunter-Reay because he was going to start fourth. Tonight could have been much more for him.

9. Oliver Askew was flawless in his debut and he gets a ninth place finish. Askew completed all 200 laps on a track he had never seen before in a race that featured more pit stops than usual when Askew had never done a live pit stop before. This night was set up to break a rookie's confidence and Askew didn't break.

10. Tony Kanaan's final Texas race ended with a top ten finish but it was a long night. He had a pit lane speeding penalty early that put him a lap down. This could have been a better night but it was good start to the farewell tour for Kanaan.

11. Charlie Kimball gave away a top five finish to take fresh tires under the last caution, but after the failure to shuffle lapped cars out of the way, Kimball's gamble did not pay off and he spun on the final lap. He still got classified in 11th but this night could have been much greater and without a wrecked race car.

12. Quick run down through the rest of the field: Patricio O'Ward was 12th and that is all. Will Power suffered a botched pit stop and did not get his right rear tire on. It was a rough night for pit crews. There were many errors on a night with an increased number of pit stops. Marco Andretti started well but just kept falling back and it seemed like it was mostly through pit stops. While Hunter-Reay got back on the lead lap, Rossi didn't and finished 15th. Jack Harvey struggled, but survived, finishing in 16th.

13. Graham Rahal was two laps down in 17th. He also experimented with what happens if you go over the 35-lap tire stint limit: a stop-and-go penalty. Thanks Graham!

14. James Hinchcliffe started well, had an issue with an air gun on a pit stop and he lost three laps. I don't know what happened to Marcus Ericsson, but he was running well and then ended up four laps down in 19th.

15. Santino Ferrucci had a rough day. He couldn't find a balance with the car. Ferrucci was hanging on but it went to hell on his final stop when he left before the right rear tire was secured.

This was a rough first day for Rinus VeeKay. VeeKay spun after 11 practice laps, he was not able to qualify and he was a fish out of water tonight. Track conditions made it costly if you ran high and while VeeKay was trying to hang on, he just lost it on the slick surface and he spun into the path of the innocent Álex Palou. Not the night the two rookies wanted.

At least they got to race. Takuma Sato spun in qualifying, and with this being a one-day show, it was going to be monumental for the team to get the car repaired in time for the race. Time was against them and race one ends sees a grand total of zero laps completed for Sato.

16. The tire stint limit was already one strike against this race but the persistence of the PJ1 traction compound in the turns from the NASCAR race last November was the knockout punch. The compound was not compatible with the Firestone tires and a second groove could not develop. It was too risky with the cars skating on the surface. Takuma Sato got in it in qualifying and had an accident that prevented him from starting this race. It was an almost certain death sentence if a car up there. This kept all the cars to the low line for the 300-mile race.

This wasn't left off residue from a NASCAR race two months ago. This was from a race held seven months ago. If the substance can last that long then I don't know how to get rid of it. It has rained over the last seven months but Mother Nature wasn't enough to diminish its affect. I am sure there is another chemical Texas could use in a fighting fire with fire scenario but it shouldn't have come to this for this year's race.

Texas wanted this race to happen on time. It wanted to open the IndyCar season, it wanted the attention and it got put on national television after originally scheduled to be a cable TV race. There has been plenty of upheaval in the last three months due to the pandemic but Texas did nothing to make sure the track was up standard for tonight's race. Even after tonight I am not sure anything will change. If Texas couldn't get the track right for tonight, a date on NBC, what makes us think it will put in any effort in the future for NBCSN races?

Texas has billed itself as the "second home of IndyCar" but during that same time it has been aloof to IndyCar, committing to only one-year contracts, professing it should be the race after the Indianapolis 500 and get a full week off before its race and ridiculing the racing on track early in the DW12-era. While all that has happened, the crowd has shrunk compared to ten to 15 years ago. IndyCar has stuck with Texas but it is an exhausting relationship.

Each year could be the last at Texas but the two parties seem to kiss and make up. That will be the case again this year and come June 2021 we will be back in Texas. I just wonder if IndyCar should move on. The series has returned to Portland, Laguna Seca, Road America and Gateway to enthusiastic crowds. These venues have been accommodating of IndyCar. Texas can live without IndyCar and Texas knows it but IndyCar can also live without Texas. IndyCar just needs the courage to walk away.

17. It is tough to tell if the tire stint was necessary. We didn't hear about many issues after the 35 laps. Newgarden had a vibration and lost some time but we didn't hear if the tires were completely garbage after 35 laps. Some teams got the balance right and got a long run after the tires, like Dixon and Rosenqvist, and Newgarden was one that got it wrong. We have seen it year-after-year at Texas.

It did take the strategy out of the race. The tires didn't fall off enough where stopping 33 laps into a run versus 35 laps was that big of a difference.

If there was a second groove, this race would have been different, and the tire stint might not have mattered.

This was not how the season was supposed to start. This was not how the Texas weekend was to play out. IndyCar got the season started and in 2020 at least we got that box checked off. We got to take what we can get.

18. Hopefully we are back racing in a month on July 4th for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. We cannot be certain. We hope it happens. We hope everything doesn't hit the fan in the next month. Let's hope it isn't another 258 days between races.