Justin Wilson brought home a win for Dale Coyne Racing at Texas Motor Speedway. He talks about the race.
Justin Wilson charged from 17th on the starting grid to overtake Graham Rahal’s mishandling car on Lap 226 of 228 to win the Firestone 550 at Texas Motor Speedway.
It was the first IZOD IndyCar Series oval victory for Wilson, who led Rahal across the start-finish line by 3.9202 seconds. Ryan Briscoe finished third and James Hinchcliffe was fourth. All four led multiple laps in the fast and furious race.
“It’s just fantastic,” said Wilson, driver of the No. 18 Sonny’s BBQ whose previous best IZOD IndyCar Series oval finish was seventh. “(Team owner) Dale (Coyne) has put so much into making us competitive, so this one is for him and the team. I just can’t believe we managed to pull this off. The car was fantastic, and on the long runs, it just got better and better.”
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It is back to oval track racing for the Chevrolet IndyCar V-6 teams, this time at the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway (TMS). On the IZOD IndyCar schedule since 1997, fans have been treated to competitive racing with close finishes.
“Heading back to an oval means a shift in not only setup for the cars, but the mental approach to the racing for our Chevrolet IndyCar V-6 teams and drivers,” said Chris Berube, Chevrolet Racing Program Manager for the IZOD IndyCar Series. “Having an early-season test to establish a baseline, and then another test to measure the results has provided valuable information to them for this weekend’s race at Texas Motor Speedway. Our Bowtie teams and technical partners are focused and working hard on optimizing the cars to compete for the win.”
Four current Chevy drivers have TMS victories on their resumes. Helio Castroneves has taken Team Penske to the Winner’s Circle three times (2004, 2006 and 2009). His teammates have also scored wins at TMS. Ryan Briscoe won in 2010 and Will Power wore the Texas-sized winner’s cowboy hat in 2011.
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Scott Dixon didn’t know what to expect upon arriving at Texas Motor Speedway for the first IZOD IndyCar Series Open Test on a 1.5-mile oval with the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series chassis powered by the 2.2-liter, turbocharged engine supplied by Chevrolet, Honda and Lotus.
The 6½ hours of available track time, following Rubens Barrichello’s IZOD IndyCar Series oval rookie test, provided the 2008 Texas race winner with gigabytes of information to take into the June 8-9 Firestone 550. It also calmed concerns about the car’s safety on the high-banked racetrack, which is similar to Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
“For the first time coming here you’re open-minded as you try to figure out what the car’s going to be like, and until you get through the first couple of runs you’re not sure what to expect,” said Dixon, who’s fourth in the series’ championship standings after four road/street course races.
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DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 DIET MOUNTAIN DEW/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET met with media and discussed his first NASCAR Sprint Cup career win 12 years ago at Texas, being very close to winning, his suggestion for improving Bristol Motor Speedway, the upcoming race at Kansas, and more.
YOU’VE SOME ON LIKE A HOUSE OF FIRE IN THE LAST FEW WEEKS. YOU’RE SECOND IN POINTS. YOU GOT YOUR FIRST CAREER NASCAR SPRINT CUP WIN HERE AT TEXAS IN 2000. TALK ABOUT COMING TO A PLACE THAT HAS FOND MEMORIES AND ABOUT RUNNING WELL SO FAR THIS YEAR
“Yeah, we’ve had a good season. Everything has been going pretty good and I do enjoy racing at Texas. It’s a mile and a half, like a lot of tracks we run on in the series, but this track’s got some oddities to it and things about it that make it a lot different than most of the other 1.5-miles. The exits, to Turn 2 especially, is a real challenge. And the bumps and stuff are pretty challenging on the bottom of both corners. The entry to (Turn) 1 is really, really loose in the race; or the entry to (Turn) 3, I mean. The entry to (Turn) 1 is always a lot of fun, really fast and just trying to get the car through the middle is a challenge there. But it’s a unique place and what makes it even better I think, is the energy the fans bring here. The fan base here has always been pretty solid, right from the start. And that’s kind of, in my opinion, rare. The further west we go, we really sort of don’t have that gain in the energy of the fan base. But they really enjoy this race track and really enjoy us coming here and it seems to have a lot of NASCAR fans in this area. So, that makes it even funner to be here when you know that there’s a lot of people that are going to come out and support the track. Eddie (Gossage) does an interesting job; kind of out of the box a lot of time with all the things he does. A lot of credit has got to be given to him and his staff for what the track is today and how well the track does.”
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Goodyear Tire Test at Texas Motor Speedway Feb 7th 2012
Jesus is the Answer
