Following a long day of running at Texas Motor Speedway, most of the field of 27 drivers are still uncertain if they are going to be able to race side-by-side on Sunday.
In the upper groove of the turns, a traction compound has been applied multiple times over the past few years in an effort to assist NASCAR in running two cars wide through the turns.
That compound, however, has the opposite effect on IndyCar’s Firestone tires, and leaves drivers relegated to just one lane on the inside of the corners.
On Saturday afternoon, the series allowed some drivers an extra 30 minutes to run on the traction compound and try to work in a layer of fresh rubber to keep that area of the track from being so treacherous.
But drivers, including the series’ veterans, are skeptical that the extra efforts will do much good in the race on Sunday. Even after the extra running, the upper lane had less grip than the bottom groove.
“Look, the effort is fantastic,” said Castroneves, speaking to Motorsport Week on Saturday. “Definitely what we need to go. But I don’t think the execution is going to be what we wanted. There’re several things that we could do, but we can debate that here all the time.
“I think a quick solution would be to take power away, like BoP [Balance of Power]. It’s not going to be a pack race, because the track is very slippery. But it would be interesting to have that scenario and see how it goes.
“I guarantee if you take away 10 MPH – not a lot, 10 MPH – I guarantee at least for the first ten laps it would be nice. And then as the tire goes away it will be fine.
“Once they changed the track, it’s been a little difficult. There’s hope. I don’t think we should eliminate that possibility yet [by abandoning the annual IndyCar race at Texas]. As long as we can work together, there’s hope to come back. Texas has always been fun, so it’ll be fun.”
The contract IndyCar has with Texas Motor Speedway ends this year, and there has been talk that the series may move to a different oval and leave behind the track it has visited every year since 1997.
But drivers are keen to keep working towards a solution, even if this year’s race is a mostly single-file race once again.
Josef Newgarden, who will be starting on the third row, was similarly skeptical that this year’s race will be any different despite the efforts to fix the situation.
“We’ll see,” said Newgarden. “I think it’s good we’re doing it. We’re just trying to check the box and see if there’s something there to be had. So I think from that standpoint it’s great.
“We don’t know. We’ll have to see if it makes a difference or not.”
The XPEL 375 will be run on Sunday just before noon, and will be the real test to see if drivers feel comfortable attempting passes on the traction compound.
