Texas 600 Race Re-cap

 The Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway was awesome Congrats Ed Carpenter!

 

Will Power led the most laps, but after a late race penalty for speeding in the pits he was last on the lead lap (6th).  A yellow for Takuma Sato's engine expiring allowed Power to get fresh tires and he made a great charge to the front and almost caught Ed Carpenter.

 

What was exciting:

 

* Marco Andretti flew around the outside of lots of cars on the opening 2 laps...unfortunately his engine blew shortly thereafter

 

* There were a lot of green flag runs meaning lead cars had to deal with lots of lapped traffic.  There were only 6 cars on the lead lap at the end of the race. 

 

* Ed Carpenter won, giving Ed Carpenter Racing its second win for the year (Mike Conway won on the streets of Long Beach) and it was Ed Carpenter's third win of his career!

 

 

The top Eleven (because Josef finished eleventh):

 

Ed Carpenter (3rd career win)

 

Will Power (led most laps)

 

Juan Pablo Montoya (first podium and first laps led since returning to Indycar this season)

 

Simon Pagenaud (5th top 5 this year)

 

Scott Dixon ( 4 top fives this year)

 

Tony Kanaan (his car was charcoal gray. On the gray track it was like watching black and white tv)

 

Mikhail Aleshin (only rookie in the top ten in only his 2nd oval race ever! Wow!)

 

Helio Castroneves (last year's Texas winner)

 

Ryan Briscoe (10 Verizon Indycar series seasons)

 

Charlie Kimball (2nd top ten finish this year)

Josef Newgarden (after a career best P2 start he struggled with the rear of the car all night)

 

 

 

Facts:

 

* 8 Chevrolets & only 2 Hondas were in the top ten

 

* Only 3 different drivers led:

 

Juan Pablo Montoya, Will Power, and Ed Carpenter

 

* There were 11 different lead changes

 

* 6 penalties were handed out:

 

-1 to Power

-2 to Saavedra

-1 to Newgarden

-1 to Kimball

-1 to Briscoe

 

* There were 3 cautions for 23 laps

 

* The fastest 1-lap average speed was 214.824 set by Tony Kanaan

 

* The biggest mover was Graham Rahal, who moved up 9 positions

 

 

Varying Pit stops:

 

* 3 drivers made 8 stops

 

* 4 drivers made 7 stops

 

* 5 drivers made 6 stops

 

* 5 drivers made 5 stops