Other than a couple of offseason test sessions, Oliver Askew had never been in an NTT IndyCar Series race before. Saturday night’s Genesys 300 at the Texas Motor Speedway would serve as the rookie drivers series debut.

On a track and in a situation that no one envied the rookies to be in, They haven’t even been in these race cars since February. They’ve last raced almost nine months ago. Now, they have to do so with a new device (Aeroscreen) and all of that’s uncertainties, a unknown from the tires and have to do so in a new one-day format.

Despite all of that, Askew came away with a top 10 effort. The Florida native finished ninth in his No. 7 Chevrolet.

 “It ended up being a great day for Arrow McLaren SP and the No. 7 team,” a jubilated Askew said. “The whole crew and Chevrolet put a great car under me, and we were able to execute our game plan perfectly. To finish in the top 10 in my first-ever INDYCAR race is more than I could have asked for.

“We are carrying a ton of momentum into the Indy GP, and I think we will only get stronger as a team. This is a great way to begin the partnership between Arrow, McLaren and Schmidt Peterson, and I’m happy we could have a good result after months of preparation. Thank you to everyone at Texas Motor Speedway, INDYCAR, Roger Penske and the state of Texas for making this race happen.”

Askew said on Friday that this opportunity was a dream come true.

“Getting in a car, racing an Indy car, this is a moment I’ve been waiting for since I was 10 or 11 years old when I began to follow the series, began to realize this is what I wanted to do at the end of the day for my professional career,” said Askew on Friday.

He said that he couldn’t have been more excited for this chance and was very relaxed going into it. He raced that way too.

Askew, noted that the team has had great race cars in the past at Texas and says he feet comfort by that.

“I know we’ve had really strong cars here before,” Askew continued. “Arrow McLaren SP has done a really good job rolling off the trailer and being quick right away.

Askew, 23, has quickly rose up the ranks. He spent just one year in USF2000 in 2017 when he won seven times en route to the series championship. He took the Road to Indy scholarship money to Pro Mazda for 2018 and finished third in the standings. The Florida native had enough funding still to move up to an Indy Lights ride last year with Andretti Autosport. Askew, won seven more times en route to a second title in three years in the Road to Indy.

Now, he’s an Indy Car driver.

But, with that, Askew is still very inexperienced. He tried to stay in the right mindset during this long COVID-19 break by using iRacing. While he didn’t learn much in terms of driving style from it, one thing he did learn was crucial for this season though.

“I think it was extremely beneficial for myself especially because I’ve never done a pit stop before, I haven’t been able to hear what the timing stand has to go through, strategy. All of that was very realistic,” Askew noted.

“I think our team took the initiative early on and set a trend by building our own timing stand essentially in the iRacing software. I had all of my strategists and engineers on-call through every race. Towards the end of the season I think most of the drivers had the same thing because they realized that was a huge factor in scoring good results, was strategy through iRacing.

“There wasn’t so much I could take away from the driving side. I think on the ovals a bit more I was able to take away a bit more than the road courses because of the dirty air. It was quite realistic. Being able to race with these guys on track that I’ve been looking up to for so long, each have a different personality, it was cool to see that side.”

Askew, went conservative at he beginning and just stayed in striking distance all night. On a track that was hard to pass on, he still improved 11 spots from start to finish. While he went 2-for-2 on ovals last year in Indy Lights, making his first ever start at Texas can be daunting, so his team is going to give him maybe a slower car than others, but more grip though too.

“Yeah, I think the team has been studying past races here. I’m sure we’re going to be able to start with a conservative approach because it’s my first oval race in an INDYCAR, first speedway race in an Indy car. I have been here before. I have a little leg up on Pato. I’m sure he’s going to learn the track quite quickly.

“With the impound after qualifying, I’m quite happy about that. I’m sure a lot of other drivers are, especially the rookies, because we won’t be trimming out for qualifying. We’re going to be running race downforce. I think that’s pretty close to max.”