Scott Dixon wins as 2020 IndyCar season kicks off in Texas

Screened for safety

Re-scheduling TMS as the first round for a series that hasn’t raced since September last year had raised a few eyebrows. Instead of the relative safety of a street track or road course, a bunch of drivers expected to be ring rusty and raring to go after a long hiatus from (real) racing would be let loose on one of the most daunting ovals in the US. Heavily banked at 20 degrees at one end and 24 at the other, this is the circuit that in 2001, during the super-powered Champ Car days, left drivers feeling so sick and dizzy from high g-forces that organisers were forced to cancel the race.

But in a modern era when such fierce IndyCar performance has been pulled back in the interests of safety, of greater concern this time was NASCAR-style ‘pack racing’ as previously seen at TMS, in which drivers run nose to tail and three or even four cars wide to drag each other around in aerodynamic slipstreaming packs. Firestone tyre life on the oval in the heat of a Fort Worth summer was also a worry, leading to a mandated restriction of 35 laps for a stint length – about half of what is usually possible here – while the introduction of a new driver cockpit safety feature threw in another unknown.

While Formula 1 has pioneered the use of the ‘halo’ safety bars, IndyCar has persevered with aero screens that have added significant weight and a new enclosed dimension to American single-seaters. After exhaustive tests, the Texas season opener marked the screens’ competitive debut for a race that started in the evening and ran into darkness, leaving some drivers questioning whether looking through what almost amounts to a full canopy into a low sun would give them a visual impairment. Just to add to the pressure, practice, qualifying and the race itself would be squeezed into just one day to minimise the risks of spreading COVID-19.

Was IndyCar asking for trouble pitching in so many variables at such a circuit for an important and high-profile race at the start of a new era?

Dixon matches a record held by Foyt

Happily, the answer to that question was a defiant ‘no’. The sessions and the race passed without serious incident, as drivers raced hard, fast and safely around the 1.5-mile oval without having to revert to running in packs where the smallest error can trigger catastrophic multi-car accidents.

Penkse’s reigning champion Josef Newgarden took pole position in his Dallara-Chevrolet, but it was Dixon’s Honda-powered Chip Ganassi Racing entry that would dominate, leading 157 of the 200 laps and winning by 4.411 seconds from Penske’s Simon Pagenaud.

New Zealander Dixon is one of those racing drivers who somehow never started an F1 grand prix, despite clear and obvious talent. Instead, he has ploughed a hugely successful furrow in America, winning five IndyCar titles. This victory marked his 47^th in the series, leaving him just five short of Mario Andretti’s 52. He is still 20 wins short of AJ Foyt’s outright record, but Dixon did at least equal one of the Texan legend’s achievements on Saturday, matching his mark for scoring at least one win in 18 different seasons, while extending his own record for victories in consecutive seasons to 16.

“It was such a team effort,” said a delighted Dixon as he lowered his medical mask for a post-race interview. “We had a couple of mistakes there at the start and at points throughout the race, but we recovered. It was awesome. Honda — it was huge, man. The power out there, it was just so fast. Any situation we were in we could just go for it. Huge thanks to everybody involved. Bummed that the fans aren’t here; wish everybody was here to celebrate.”

Solid start for McLaren

Newgarden led 41 laps, but vibration problems dropped him out of contention before he rose back to third behind his team-mate Pagenaud at the end. Dixon did at least face a challenge from his Ganassi team-mate Felix Rosenqvist, as the ex-Formula E driver chased his first IndyCar win. But late in the race the Swede got on the marbles on the outside of Turn 2 as he passed James Hinchcliffe and spun out.

Both Arrow McLaren SP entries made it to the finish at the first time of asking, as the British team embarked on its first full IndyCar campaign since the 1970s. Rookie Oliver Askew finished ninth and Patricio O’Ward 12^th.

The two other rookies on the grid, Rinus VeeKay and Alex Palou, crashed out together on lap 37. VeeKay lost control of his Ed Carpenter Racing entry exiting Turn 2 and collected Palou’s Dale Coyne Dallara. It was also a disappointing start to the season for ex-F1 ace and 2017 Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato, who failed to take the start in his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing entry after crashing in qualifying.

But for IndyCar there must have been sighs of relief all round on Saturday night after a safe and successful first race, even if the fans weren’t there to celebrate Dixon’s win. The teams now have the best part of a month to prepare for the next round of the revised 10-race schedule, at the Indianapolis road course on 4^th July. The big one, the Indianapolis 500, is down to run on 23^rd August.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.