Photo Credit: IndyCar
Marred by a serious accident and a second straight day of major rainfall, this time with lightning added for good measure, the Firestone 600 at the Texas Motor Speedway was postpone after just 71 laps were completed on Sunday. Since the event failed to reach the halfway point of the scheduled 248 laps, which based on Verizon IndyCar Series would have allowed the race to be declared official, track president Eddie Gossage and league president of competition and operations Jay Frye announced that the event will be completed on Saturday night, August 27th.
Several conflicts in drivers’ schedules and teams’ testing plans for the week ahead prevented the option to try to run the event again on Monday, add to the fact that showers and thunderstorms are also projected for Monday in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas area according to Weather.com. In addition to the bad weather, the Verizon IndyCar Series has a test scheduled for Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin on Wednesday of this upcoming week, two weeks ahead of its official return to the circuit with the Kohler Grand Prix on June 26th. Secondly, Verizon IndyCar Series regulars Scott Dixon, Sebastien Bourdais, and Mikhail Aleshin are all planning on competing next weekend at the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans sports car race in France. Although the race itself does not start until Saturday, qualifying begins on Wednesday and Thursday and all drivers must run laps over those two days in order to be eligible to participate in the race itself.
The current positions at the time of the red flag stoppage on lap 71, will be maintained when action resumes in August with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports’ James Hinchcliffe in the race lead. All tickets accepted this weekend at the gate at Texas Motor Speedway, will be good for the makeup date.
Although action was limited in the opening 71 laps, the race was slowed just before the red flag for rain when Conor Daly spun exiting turn four and made contact with Josef Newgarden, whose Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevrolet rolled onto its side and made heavy contact with the outside wall near the start-finish line. Newgarden was helped out of his car by the Holmatro Safety Crew and was later transferred by helicopter to a Dallas hospital for observation. The Tennessee-native was awake and alert at the time of departure from Texas Motor Speedway, complaining of pain in his right shoulder and wrist. A further update on his current condition from the hospital was not available at the time OnPitRoad.com went to press, however any injuries that maybe have been suffered by Newgarden are not considered life threatening. Daly climbed out of his car under his own power and did not suffer injuries.
