Not many people in this world would be envious of the tall task laid at the hands of the four NTT IndyCar Series rookie drivers for this weekend’s Genesys 300 (8 p.m. ET, NBC, INDYCAR Radio Network).

While being a rookie is one thing, these four have a large disadvantage ahead of them — more than any other rookie class that’s ever entered the series before.

See, when Alex Palou, Rinus VeeKay, Pato O’Ward and Oliver Askew strap into their cars on Saturday afternoon, this will be their first time turning important laps at Texas. While a few of these guys have tested here before, some haven’t. Plus, the Road to Indy Series doesn’t race on the fast high banked 1.5-mile Texas oval, meaning that a couple of these guys will be turning their first ever laps on the track on Saturday.

On top of that, they will have very limited amounts of on track time in general as the rookies get less than an hour of extra track time to themselves then a couple of hours of practice in an all skate session after. From there, it’s qualifying then racing.

Imagine making your first career start, on a high speed oval, with no seat time since February, in the heat of Texas in June, with an Aeroscreen and tire compound that’s totally unpredictable in a race that several veteran drivers have said that they’re nervous for.

“I’m nervous,” Rahal noted about himself heading to Texas. “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.”

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

James Hinchcliffe said that he wouldn’t want to be in the shoes of the rookies this weekend but feels like they’re a good group and can adapt quickly.

“I certainly don’t envy their position,” said Hinchcliffe. “But I think it’s a good crop of rookies. They’re all accomplished drivers. They’re all intelligent guys, and they’re in this sport and at this level for a reason. So I’d like to think that the approach for them is going to be, hey, this is our first-ever race in an INDYCAR for some of them. Obviously I know Pato has done a couple, but for all of them that are racing at Texas for the first time, it’s a long game. You’ve got to be patient. Obviously the safety element is heightened here and the danger factor is heightened here, but I think the teams will prep the drivers appropriately. I think the guys are smart enough, they’ve got good heads on their shoulders.

“And so will you give them a little extra room in the first stint? Yeah, probably, but at the end of the day, they’re all professionals, and like I said, they’ve made it here for a reason. I’m happy for them that they got that extra session to start off, and that was something that actually I think came from the drivers, the non-rookies really pushed for that session for those guys, so it was nice to see that that was added, and yeah, we’re all kind of in — none of us has been on track for a long time, so we’re all going to be a little rusty.”

Defending series champion Josef Newgarden agrees and says that Texas is tough for seasoned veterans, he can’t imagine doing so with such little preparation like these rookies will have.

“Texas is a very difficult racetrack to race in general, whether you’ve been there 20 years or first time,” Newgarden said. “It’s a daunting track to get right. Typically we have five races or so to sort out our stuff, kind of get ourselves in the right frame of mind, have a general base before we go to a track like that.

“I think for the veterans it will be a tough race to get thrust into. From the rookie side, it’s going to be extremely difficult.”

Newgarden, said that this entire year is going to be tough on the rookies. Testing is basically banned. Any in season development has been halted too. There’s not much you’re going to be able to do in this day and age right now to help your performance. It’s going to kind of be learning on the fly.

“This whole year is going to be tough on rookies with limited track time,” Newgarden continued. “I think Texas will be one of the toughest places to go to right out of the gates, face a big challenge. It will be tough on everybody.

“Probably have to change our mental process a little bit for how we race people. Like you said, I think rookies might have to have some extra care or some extra thought coming up on somebody or racing wheel-to-wheel with one of those guys.”

Larry Foyt agreed with that and said that he feels bad for one of their part time rookie drivers in Dalton Kellett.

“I would say is yeah, it’s tough, but like going into this first oval, I’m glad we’ve got Charlie and Tony, two guys with a lot of experience, even though we haven’t had the car with the Aeroscreen, the windscreen on an oval yet,” Foyt said. “It is a lot of unknowns going into this. But what I would say is we’re all living in some really difficult times right now, and as long as it’s the same for everybody, I’m fine with that.

“You do feel bad for a kid like Dalton (Kellett) who hasn’t had a ton of time in an Indy car, and he’s probably going to have some races where it’s quick weekends, and he’s got to do the best he can and learn how to drive an Indy car as quickly as he can. So that’s going to be tough for him. But it’s tough for everybody. There are other rookies in the series.

“But like I say, I feel a little bad for Dalton because I know some more testing time would have been good for him, but we’re all going to have to do the best we can.”