Texas Starting Grid and Race Thread

[marcus]

Race 6 of 17 Bombardier Learjet 500 Texas Motor Speedway






Weekend schedule: (ET)

Practice 1 Thu Jun 9 :: 3 - 4:30 p.m.

Practice 2 Thu Jun 9 :: 5:45 - 6:45 p.m.

Qualifications Thu Jun 9 :: 8:30 p.m.

Practice 3 Fri Jun 10 :: 3 - 4 p.m.

Final Practice Fri Jun 10 :: 8 - 8:30 p.m.

Bombardier Learjet 500 Sat Jun 11 :: 8:45 p.m.


Weekend weather forcast:

Thursday:
Plenty of sun. Highs in the low 90s and lows in the low 70s

Friday:
Times of sun and clouds. Highs in the mid 90s and lows in the low 70s.

Saturday:
Plenty of sun. Highs in the low 90s and lows in the low 70s.



TV

US: Race Live 8:30 p.m. (EDT), ESPN

UK: Race Live 1:30 a.m. (GMT), Sky Sports 2

Australia: Race Live 10.30am (Eastern) Sunday ESPN (Foxtel,Austar)

Canada: (Delayed) 12:30am (ET) Sat night/Sun morn (TSN) (Only 1.5 hours)


Radio: IMS


Website: www.texasmotorspeedway.com


First IRL race: 1997

Total IRL races: 15

Defending champion: Tony Kanaan

Race distance: 200 laps/300 miles

[marcus]

TEXAS STARTING GRID


1. Tomas Schekter 213.847 (7th Career Pole)

50th Career IRL Start

2. Tomas Enge 212.861 (1st time starting 2nd)
Career Best Qualifying
7th Career IRL Start

3. Danica Patrick 212.661 (1st time starting 3rd)

6th Career IRL Start

4. Sam Hornish Jnr 212.049 (10th time starting 4th)

74th Career IRL Start

5. Vitor Meira 212.041 (3rd time starting 5th)

35th Career IRL Start

6. Dario Franchitti 212.034 (2nd time starting 6th)

26th Career IRL Start

7. Buddy Rice 211.792 (2nd time starting 7th)

39th Career IRL Start

8. Dan Wheldon 211.718 (3rd time starting 8th)

38th Career IRL Start

9. Darren Manning 211.712 (1st time starting 9th)

20th Career IRL Start

10. Helio Castroneves 211.702 (5th time starting 10th)

53rd Career IRL Start

11. Bryan Herta 211.278 (3rd time starting 11th)

33rd Career IRL Start

12. Ryan Briscoe 211.159 (1st time starting 12th)

6th Career IRL Start

13. Tony Kanaan 210.838 (1st time starting 13th)

39th Career IRL Start

14. Kosuke Matsuura 210.709 (2nd time starting 14th)

22nd Career IRL Start

15. Scott Dixon 210.465 (1st time starting 15th)

37th Career IRL Start

16. Scott Sharp 209.751 (6th time starting 16th)

104th Career IRL Start

17. Jimmy Kite 208.887 (2nd time starting 17th)

25th Career IRL Start (I dont think that picture is Jimmy ?)

18. Roger Yasukawa 208.750 (4th time starting 18th)

24th Career IRL Start

19. Ed Carpenter 208.250 (4th time starting 19th)

24th Career IRL Start

20. Alex Barron 208.066 (1st time starting 20th)

48th Career IRL Start

21. Patrick Carpentier 207.441 (1st time starting 21st)

6th Career IRL Start

22. AJ Foyt IV No Time (2nd time starting 22nd)

38th Career IRL Start

[marcus]

a very interesting grid line up there.

congrats to Tomas Schekter on taking Pole position for his 50th IRL event.

I hope he can stay P1 until the end of it

[rustyfan]

Good to see Danica up there as well

[climb]

I really hope this Chevy drivers performance goes further beyond the quals.

[Kicking-back]

Panther-Panther-Patrick is an interesting top three!

[N I Tram]

The Chevy looked good at Indy, so this isn't a total surprise. I wouldn't mess with Danica judging by the photo - this chick's got claws!

[luke]

Suprised to see Enge up there. I can see Hornish winning, has never been know for qualifying up there and has been know to start a bit down, and he looks to have the pace to be starting where he is.
Patrick looking very good in 3rd.

[Tim Northcutt]

'Bout time Tomas got the monkey off his back!!!

Good job, Scheckter...and Panther Racing!!!

Danica needs more time on the high banks...she was never in the hunt....but she'll get there...give her time...

Great race!!!

Now it's on to the short track at Richmond....also a great place for action...

[Bob Riebe]

Originally Posted by Tim Northcutt

'Bout time Tomas got the monkey off his back!!!

Good job, Scheckter...and Panther Racing!!!

Danica needs more time on the high banks...she was never in the hunt....but she'll get there...give her time...

Great race!!!

Now it's on to the short track at Richmond....also a great place for action...

To play the devils advocate, Patrick would not have been in the hunt at Indy but for the odd--crash your way to the front--episode.

I believe peoples expectations, exceed her ability, at least at this point.
Time will tell, but today was not unexpected--by probably more than will admit it.

Bob

[rustyfan]

Just finished watching the tape-delayed coverage here in Sweden.. great race, and great to see Scheckter finally pick up that second win

lol, I like his victory celebration as well - "Ah, screw victory lane! I'll make my own, right here at the finish line!"

EDIT - Also, real nice crowd at hand. I wonder if they managed to break the 100k mark or not

[Kicking-back]

Well done to Tomas - a great drive.

Could that be the result that keeps Chevrolet in IndyCar racing.

As for Danica - first time at Texas, a solid drive to a finish - good job.

[luke]

A shame Hornish didn't win but weldon to Scheckter on winning.

Bit of an adverage race though, seemed to be quite a large attendance I expect part of it is down to the fact there's only one race there now.

[Down F0rce]

I'm delighted for Tomas, about time he and panther got a win in!

[GP Racer]

Finally! Great job Tomas! I was beginning to wonder if we'd ever see Tomas translate his speed into a win.

It was great to see Chevy, Toyota, and Honda duking it out all race on equal terms last night. The Chevy has been performing so well that I can't believe Chevy will pull out. A couple of more high profile wins by Scheckter, Enge, or Lazier - great news there - in front of some big crowds will keep them in the IRL IMO.

Danica was not a factor, which is probably only disappointing to one of her new fans, because I think most of us here knew that Texas would be a tough race for her.

Hornish said that he and Tomas teamed up to get in front of Kannan and Sharp there at the end, kind of NASCAR style. Good move, but I'm alittle disappointed that Sam seemed content with second though.

Good race though!

[GP Racer]

Here are the results -


1 Tomas Scheckter 4 Pennzoil Panther
2 Sam Hornish Jr. 6 Marlboro Team Penske
3 Tony Kanaan 11 Team 7-Eleven
4 Scott Sharp 8 Delphi
5 Helio Castroneves 3 Marlboro Team Penske
6 Dan Wheldon 26 Klein Tools/Jim Beam
7 Kosuke Matsuura 55 Panasonic ARTA
8 Dario Franchitti 27 ArcaEx
9 Vitor Meira 17 Rahal Letterman Menards Johns Manville
10 Bryan Herta 7 XM Satellite Radio
11 Scott Dixon 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing
12 Ryan Briscoe 33 Target Chip Ganassi Racing
13 Danica Patrick 16 Rahal Letterman Racing Argent Pioneer
14 Alex Barron 51 Red Bull Cheever Racing
15 Roger Yasukawa 24 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
16 Patrick Carpentier 83 Red Bull Cheever Racing
17 Darren Manning 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing
18 A.J. Foyt IV 14 ABC Supply Co./A.J. Foyt Racing$33,600 12
19 Tomas Enge 2 ROCKSTAR Panther Racing
20 Ed Carpenter 20 Vision Racing
21 Buddy Rice 15 Rahal Letterman Racing Argent Pioneer
22 Jimmy Kite 91 Ethanol Hemelgarn Racing

[infoxicated]

Originally Posted by GP Racer

Hornish said that he and Tomas teamed up to get in front of Kannan and Sharp there at the end, kind of NASCAR style. Good move, but I'm alittle disappointed that Sam seemed content with second though.

I don't think it was a case of him being "content with second", I believe it was more a case of him knowing he had less of a package than Scheckter and working with him to put himself in position to try and snatch it at the end.

That's maturity and racing smarts, not "settling".

[BootsOntheSide]

Great stuff from Tomas to take that win at last - altrhough a lot of his problems ahve been self-made in the past he's reached the stage where a race victory was inevitable,a dn he may well go on form here to take glory on a regular basis.

[GP Racer]

Originally Posted by infoxicated

I don't think it was a case of him being "content with second", I believe it was more a case of him knowing he had less of a package than Scheckter and working with him to put himself in position to try and snatch it at the end.

That's maturity and racing smarts, not "settling".

I agree that settling is probably the wrong word, but from Sam's post race interview, one might think that he almost agreed to let Tomas win the race. I know, it sounds ridiculous, but we all know that Chevy needs a win here, maybe in order to justify staying with the IRL.

Conspiracy theory anyone? *as he walks away innocently*

[infoxicated]

I'd say Toyota and Penske desperately need a win too, so I'm pretty certain you're looking for something that isn't there. This isn't Nascar, remember

[Rich R]

it would probably be better for toyota's image if anyone else but penske could get near the front of a race

[jock25]

Originally Posted by GP Racer

Hornish said that he and Tomas teamed up to get in front of Kannan and Sharp there at the end, kind of NASCAR style. Good move, but I'm alittle disappointed that Sam seemed content with second though.

I managed to watch highlights of the race there and I think Hornish tried as much as he could. On the final lap he was certainly close enough but Scheckter was smart and positioned his car so Sam would have to go high through the final turn.
Scheckter looked like the only car that was able to run high through the final turn and beat people to the stripe through the dog-leg, sticking on that high groove. IMHO Hornish knew he needed the low groove to win in those final laps - Tomas just made sure he was not going to get it.