The NTT IndyCar Series is finally joining the party. Well, they’re one of the first to arrive actually. Their 2020 season will begin on Saturday night in primetime on network NBC at the Texas Motor Speedway. Following a lengthy offseason, one that has spanned nearly nine months, it’s go time.

See, the series was supposed to get going back in March on the streets of St. Pete. Unfortunately, that’s the time when the coronavirus was first making its presence known here in the United States. By time we got to opening day of practice on March 13, all of the other sporting leagues around the world have halted their competition. IndyCar, didn’t think it was right to continue on either, and followed suit.

Now, following several revisions to the schedule, the series is excited to kick off their new year on the 1.5-mile track in Fort Worth.

This race, will somewhat follow the guidelines to how NASCAR got going. There will be no fans in attendance, a one-day show, limited amount of personnel per car and several safety initiatives put in place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What’s a bit different in their aspect though, is that the IndyCar drivers will get a round of practice before their race as well as being able qualify to set the field for the Genesys 300 (8 p.m. ET, NBC, INDYCAR Radio Network) too. The practice aspect, well it’s vastly needed but maybe not quite long enough.

“I think one of the big things for us as a series is the fact that we haven’t raced on an oval since August last year,” second year driver Marcus Ericsson said. “It’s been a very long time. Yes, we had some testing here in the beginning of the year, but it was all on road course.

“I think that’s why it’s good for us as a series to at least have some practice and a qualifying session before going into the race. That for me is the biggest sort of thing.”

More: Fans May Soon Be Able To Return To Races

More: Pack Race Or Not? Drivers Weigh In On Saturday’s Texas Race

The practice session though, or lack there of, has most drivers nervous about this weekend’s race. While they’ll pause to tell you that they’re not complaining, and don’t get me wrong here, they’re not, they do have some concerns about this weekend’s race and how it will race.

Ericsson’s veteran teammate Scott Dixon agreed with that notion, saying that while some may say that NASCAR hasn’t practiced, he also mentioned that they had four races under their belts before the COVID-19 break hit. For IndyCar, no one has been in a car since February and their last race they ran was almost nine months ago. On top of that, the Aeroscreen, which is in place now, is something that no one has many laps in, has never raced in, especially at night, or in this case, from sunset to night fall. Then, they only have one short practice session before the race to get acclimated to everything. A danger aspect is in play here.

“Yeah, so I think some of the other, like NASCAR, if you’re referring to them, they’ve done four or five events before we got to this shutdown,” Dixon said ahead of this weekend’s race. “I think Texas is kind of a different kind of version just for us because there’s a few rookies, some people that have never been to Texas before. Plus it’s the introduction of the Aeroscreen which actually most of the teams I think by the time we get to the race would have previously run in that configuration. Ganassi hasn’t, which is quite rare for us.”

Alexander Rossi agrees with Dixon that the Aeroscreen could pose a bit of problems in a few aspects too.

“I think the bigger question mark that we all have is how the Aeroscreen is going to play a factor in the heat,” Rossi said. “Obviously, Texas is a really hot race. It’s already pretty physically demanding just because of that fact.

“With the screen it’s going to be quite a bit hotter, so is it going to make that big of a difference or not. Again, we haven’t really tested so we don’t really know. Ultimately I think that’s the bigger question mark in terms of physical preparation versus the one-day event. We’ve done similar things in the past before, and ultimately everyone is very prepared. We’ve had a couple extra months now to make sure we’re ready to go come the first race. From that standpoint, I don’t think it’s too big of an issue. It’s, again, just the heat and having the mental capacity to go through all the processes that you’ll do in practice and qualifying and then still have enough bandwidth left come race time.”

Graham Rahal said that not only is he nervous, he feels everyone is and should be.

“I’m nervous,” Rahal noted. “I think everybody is nervous. If you’re not nervous, I’d be concerned about the head that you have on your shoulders because you’re going to probably one of the most intense tracks of the year and you’re going there without testing, you’re going there without much practice, you’re going there without knowing what these tires may bring for us this weekend. You’re going there without knowing what exactly is the Aeroscreen going to do to us on a track like that. I don’t think it’s going to do much. Visually it will be a little bit different, but the weight and all of these sorts of things.

“So a lot of questions to be answered, but at the end of the day it’s the same for every single one of us, and I know that Takuma (Sato) and I and our team are well-prepared. Our guys have worked extremely hard. The engineering corps has never stopped working throughout that process, and I hope that we can come out and be very strong.”

Tony Kanaan, who’s raced 20 times at Texas in his career, said even he will be nervous on Saturday.

“I think it’s going to be a nerve-wracking day,” Kanaan said. “We cannot even call it a weekend any more because it’s a single-day event. Everybody has been out of the car for quite a few months. I’ve been out of the car for eight months myself. I never actually driven the car with the windscreen. It will be challenging.”

The popular Brazilian driver did note that he expects all of his fellow competitors to take it easy though and that they should adapt quickly and shouldn’t complain about anything.

“I mean, I think we are professionals,” Kanaan continued. “We’ve been doing this for a long time. We are a different breed. We’re always needing to adapt to something really quick. If you think about it, when you travel 220, 230 miles an hour, nothing even is predictable. You have to adapt to that reaction, you have to adapt to that situation, to that moment. It will be no different this weekend.

“Yeah, there is room for people to say, We need more this, we need more that. Now is not the time for us to actually complain. This is what we got and this is what we get to work with. Be smart about it and do the best you can.”

Another aspect that’s going to be different too is a 35 lap limit on the tires. Firestone and IndyCar are limiting each set of tires to that distance, which is about 30 laps shorter than last year’s race. That means extra strategy calls because Texas has been a track lately that degrades tires really well. Firestone has done a great job in designing a tire to degrade faster in order to eliminate pack racing. So, with that being said, Dixon notes that one aspect that’s really going to separate the winner on Saturday night from everyone else is going to be pit road and getting on and off of it.

“This year I think with some of the rules they’ve implemented with the maximum of 35 laps, it’s definitely going to be interesting to see how that plays out,” said Dixon on that strategy. “We’ll put a lot of emphasis on pit stops, in-laps. Could create other issues. Fielding is going to be short. A lot of pressure on the pit crew guys.

“I think truly coming out of the box this is going to be a really big team effort to make sure you try to cover all bases, to have a good opportunity to win this race. Again, I think it’s more the fact that we’re in an opportunity to get back racing here. That’s what really counts.”

For the race itself, Texas has a known history to produce some of the most thrilling side-by-side moments to a complete snoozefest. It’s a track that’s been hard to figure out. The tires have played a big role in this because if you have minimal fall off over the course of a run, the cars can’t separate from one another and danger ensues. If you degrade too much, it creates single file racing without a lot of action. Throw in the Texas heat factor and you never really know what you’re going to get. So, with minimal practice time and no racing this season at all, a tire lap limit was necessary. Dixon notes that with a limit on laps on a set of tires, you’re not going to see them fall off as much from Lap 1 to Lap 35, so you could see much closer racing all night than we have seen in the last few years, especially as the sun goes down.

“I think, you know, if you got to this level, you’ve got to be pretty well-rounded,” Dixon said of how the other drivers will race on Saturday night. “Yeah, there’s some guys that will have to play catch-up a little bit more in trying to understand it. You hope in those scenarios that you don’t have the big crash.

“It’s kind of the situation, too, of making these stints so short, the tire grip, the possibility of it becoming a pack race again could be interesting, too, which you hope doesn’t happen. Plus the emphasis of having good in-laps because it’s going to carry over so much of your pit stop time, the time you’re on pit road, you don’t want people overextending themselves on pit entry and sliding back up onto the track, which we have had in previous years when that wasn’t something that’s going to be so important. Again, there’s all these possibilities.

“But you hope that it’s not going to be something that occurs. I think the professionalism of all these teams and drivers now I think is very good.”

The Andretti drivers though don’t necessarily think we will see a pack race. They say restarts will be interesting but the race should spread out as the run goes on.

“I think every restart, every time you’re on new tires you’re going to have five to ten laps that will be closer than normal, but I think with the new Turn 1 it’s not like the old Turn 1,” Marco Andretti said. “The old Turn 1 was so easy to just sit outside, where here you can get really pulled right up into the marbles. It’s tough to run a second lane here, which I think has limited pack racing in the last couple of years, along with the tire and the aero.”

His teammate and last year’s runner-up finisher Rossi agreed. “Unfortunately we have absolutely no idea what the tire is, so I don’t know how anyone could say that,” Rossi said of Dixon’s comment about a potential pack race.

Most drivers feel like the race, even with shorter pit windows and less tire fall off, that they will race a little more conservative in order to keep their car in one piece and be there at the end to win. As the night falls though and the race nears completion, we could very well see a pack ending.