Let's Talk Texas Motor Speedway and IndyCar

KevinWI

KevinWI

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Texas used to be one of the most exciting tracks on the IndyCar circuit. It used to be the IRL's equivalent of a restrictor plate track where the drivers could run flat-out around the whole track.

After Dan Wheldon was killed at Las Vegas, they took downforce out of the car, and now the drivers have to lift off in the turns.

Last year's Texas race was okay, but this year's was pretty terrible, in terms of competition. It was easily the worse race of the year so far, and very little passing. Ryan Hunter-Reay said that it was impossible to pass, even slower lapped cars. There were only five official lead changes. This is coming after an Indy 500 where there was a record 68 lead changes. The first race at Detroit and the Brazil race had more lead changes and they were road courses.

Does IndyCar need to change the aero kit used at Texas to make the races more exciting, or should safety remain the top priority?
 
It would be cost prohibited but on the1.5 triovals only sale infield tickets, and run with no fences.

I prefer the safety enhancements. Places like Texas and Michigan are killers for open wheel cars. Not just Wheldon, to many near amputations.
 
I disagree about Michigan. Roger Penske designed Michigan and Fontana with IndyCars in mind. They aren't as steeply banked as the NASCAR triovals like Texas and Atlanta.
 
Texas used to be one of the most exciting tracks on the IndyCar circuit.
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I remember they were side-by-side all the way around the track with a lot of lead changes. Didn't Indycar cancel a race at Texas some time ago when the cornering forces became too high? I was wondering what changed.
 
Zerkfitting said:
I remember they were side-by-side all the way around the track with a lot of lead changes. Didn't Indycar cancel a race at Texas some time ago when the cornering forces became too high? I was wondering what changed.
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the drivers lobbied for a tire that would fall off quickly is what happened. They didn't want pack racing, and I can't blame them, they aren't Nascars. Changes to the cars took away much of the ground effects also. In other words they slowed the cars down.
 
IndyCar might need to start thinking about an enclosed ****pit like NHRA did for their top fuel dragsters if they're gonna keep racing at tracks like Texas.
 
the drivers lobbied for a tire that would fall off quickly is what happened. They didn't want pack racing, and I can't blame them, they aren't Nascars. Changes to the cars took away much of the ground effects also. In other words they slowed the cars down.
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Thanks for the explanation. I remember how close they were and I was feeling intense, I can't imagine how the drivers felt.
 
like Nascar, F1, it took the death of a driver before they did anything about it. no kidding it had to be white knuckles. I have read drivers comments after the race. Carpenter said it is the toughest oval they run on now. Much harder to drive it with little Aero, and slick tires, hard to pass also.
 
Zerkfitting said:
I remember they were side-by-side all the way around the track with a lot of lead changes. Didn't Indycar cancel a race at Texas some time ago when the cornering forces became too high? I was wondering what changed.
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That was CART you are thinking of, which was what the IRL split away from in '96. CART cars were much bigger and had 900 hp turbocharged engines. G forces were very high, in excess of 5 lateral G's the entire way around the track. Obviously, fighter pilots, space shuttle astronauts and NHRA drag racers have much higher G's than that, but not for hours and hours. They said at the time that a car was turning 70% of the time while racing at Texas, due to the trioval design. After the weekend's practice sessions, drivers complained about not being able to see straight or walk straight after climbing out of the car. Several reported they felt sick. Tony Kanaan later said the edges of his vision were blacking out after a few minutes of flat-out racing and he was afraid to race side-by-side. Maurico Gugelmin crashed in practice and the onboard telemetry equipment recorded 66Gs on impact with the wall.

Despite the drivers complaining about this all weekend, CART didn't do anything about it until Sunday morning, when fans were already arriving at the track. There was talk about running the infield road course, or putting a some sort of widget on the rear wing to take downforce out of the cars and slow them down, but it was too late, this meeting between CART, owners and drivers was happening like 2 hours before the scheduled green flag and it was too late to do anything but cancel.

CART ended up canceling the race. It was a major fiasco and, in my opinion, the final insult to dying carcass of CART. Eddie Gossage ended up suing CART over the mess, and a lot of fingers were pointed.

Different series, different cars, those cars were a lot faster than the current IRL car, but it is a pretty good example of open-wheel racing's long troubled history with these NASCAR-style triovals.
 
StandOnIt said:
like Nascar, F1, it took the death of a driver before they did anything about it. no kidding it had to be white knuckles. I have read drivers comments after the race. Carpenter said it is the toughest oval they run on now. Much harder to drive it with little Aero, and slick tires, hard to pass also.
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I was one of the guys championing them to take aero out of the car at places like Texas. I don't like restrictor plate tracks or flat-out racing. I think drivers should have to lift and brake to show skill. However, I will admit I was wrong about Texas. It is now seemingly impossible to pass and the races are boring.
 
first race at Texas with that setup, way too soon to throw the baby out with the bath water IMO. Showed me that Helio can drive a loose race car. That is one of my biggest bitches about open wheel and motorsports all across the board. Back in the day there wasn't huge tires and Aero out the yazoo, traction control, funny steering wheels, it was more of a pure motor sport event. To me speed is retaliative to a point in ANY motor sport event. Yeah I don't want to watch them creep around, but I also don't like to see them flying around stuck to the track. Motor sports with long distance used to be part of the deal also, mechanical failures played more of a part. Not so much now, speed is where it is at..or not. Take out the funny wheel, and the goofy spoilers sticking out there for all to hit, make them widen the ****pit and put a shifter in there. let them run the engines they want, restrict the tire width. flat bottom, no down force. The real drivers will come to the top.
 
I'd rather they not bring pack racing back. That's just asking for another death.

Not every race is going to be spectacular. When tire management is so important like it was last weekend the cream rises to the top, and I think that's why Helio dominated.

In any case I think the four remaining ovals will all put on a better "show" than Texas did so I'm looking forward to those.
 
It's tough announcing a race, but I thought they got the fact that Penske beat them with the setup. I think they missed the biggest fact that Helio only pitted 3 times to others four or five times. Helio hung on to it and did his part, but Penske was brilliant. All the creme came to the top. The communication with Helio that I heard keeping him focused and saving his tires, letting drivers go instead of racing them, was his key to the win.
 
StandOnIt said:
http://motorsportstalk.nbcsports.co...ormula-safer-but-slightly-overdone-from-2012/
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So they took another 6% of downforce out of the car from Texas last year. Cars still have drastically less aero than years past. 2012 was exciting, but only because Graham Rahal hit the wall while leading and Justin Wilson won, only to find out that he had the Indianapolis aero package on the car. That means an illegal exciting 2012 race and a boring 2013 race. I say, they put more aero back in the car for next year at Texas.
 
So for two years in a row, the winner at Texas had rules violations with aerodynamics? This isn't good. Granted, Helio's isn't as bad as Justin Wilson's, but still not good.
 
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