They don’t say that the NTT IndyCar Series drivers have nerves of steel for nothing. These gladiators will strap into the cockpits for the first time since February on Saturday night at the Texas Motor Speedway in a race full of unknowns.

With only 1-hour and 20 minutes of on track activity for the veterans of the sport on Saturday afternoon, this has drivers on edge thinking about the Genesys 300 (8 p.m. ET, NBC, INDYCAR Radio Network).

I mean, think about it. No one has been in the car in four months. The last race was almost nine months ago. They’re essentially going from zero to 220 mph from what Colton Herta says.

The Aeroscreen is new and barely anyone has turned many laps on an oval with it. The temperatures are going to be in the mid 90’s on Saturday, so how well will the Aeroscreen allow venting and air flow inside of these race cars. Then, the race will start at 7 p.m. locally, how well will the Aeroscreen due with glaring?

Then, you have four rookies in the field, three of which having never raced an Indy Car before. Some not even turning any laps in their lives around the 1.5-mile track.

“I’m nervous,” said Graham Rahal. “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.”

Now, factor in a new tire with lap limits and you get a wild day/night for these teams and drivers alike. Firestone is limiting the amount of laps per stint to 35. By comparison, the stints were around 65 laps last year. So, you’re adding more pit stops to what surely is going to be a weary pit crew and lower laps on each set of tires. In turn, that could lead to less tire fall off compared to last year and in turn could lead to closer racing than what they drivers would have wanted.

“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 Scott 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.

“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.”

See, 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 often 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.

The Andretti drivers say that they expect the tire fall off to still remain which in turn creates even more strategy calls because the pit windows are smaller and no one said you had to push the limit to the 35th lap of a run. You could short pit it if tires do have some fall off and like we’ve seen in the past, newer tires compared to older tires could have a difference in measurement of seconds.

“Well, on the stint length, I think folks will get creative with it,” said 2014 Indy 500 champion Ryan Hunter-Reay. “It depends, right; if you’ve got a car that’s hooked up and it’s good on the long run you’re going to be pretty disappointed in the fact that it’s limited to a half a stint. But if you’re good on the short run and you start to see some weakness on the long, then you’re going to be happy about this approach.

“It just depends when we get there. There’s so many unknowns at the moment. Most of us, including myself, haven’t been on the oval yet with the Aeroscreen, cooling, weight distribution, difference in COP, center of pressure, aerodynamics and stuff like that. Just so many unknowns. We’re just kind of taking it one step at a time, and like I said, though, I think we’ll see some folks getting a little bit creative with their approach.”

James Hinchcliffe agrees.

“It’s definitely going to be a very interesting race from a strategy standpoint just because we still have a lot to figure out,” said the fan favorite. “You’re definitely going to be changing the kind of philosophy of your setup, to not have to look after tires for twice the distance. That’s kind of what’s dictated success at Texas the last few years, and it sort of goes out the window, so if anything it might actually widen the number of cars that are going to be competitive over what is now a stint.”

Marco Andretti says that restarts are going to be a little sketchy with drivers having more grip on new tires, but once the run goes on, the racing will be like it normally is.

“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.”

So, while the tires are a bit of an unknown, the tire and pit strategy are going to be key. I mean, teams only get nine sets for the entire weekend, 10 for the four rookie drivers. That includes practice.

So, if you count backwards, the final pit window would take place from Lap 165 on. If that final stint stays green, the guys that pit early will have a quicker burst of speed, but fall off as the run goes on. The guys that pit later will lose time to the guys with newer tires, but gain time when it counts in the end. Pit too soon, you’re a sitting duck. Pit too late, you don’t have enough time to catch up. There’s a happy medium. But, you have to manage your tires too. You have to lay a set at the end in case for a late race caution which changes everything.

Then, the second to last stint would be Lap 130 on. Then, it would be Lap 95 on, then Lap 60, then Lap 25. That would get you six sets of tires with three more for practice. That doesn’t count any other yellow flags though, where it would be wise to pit under caution then having to come down on green flag sequences. You can’t afford to not pit under caution because not doing so and having to pit under green while most others don’t, well you’ll surely lose at least a lap in the process.

That’s why with practice, you’re going to want to run a couple of sets at least to see how much fall off they have and adjust setups accordingly, but you’re also going to want to have at the very least six sets of fresh Firestone tires in your pit box for race time as well.

While some don’t envy the rookies, I don’t envy the strategists either.