The starting order for the second race in the Izod IndyCar Series' doubleheader on June 11 at Texas Motor Speedway will be decided by a blind draw.
Ho-hum, NASCAR does that for the Budweiser Shootout, right? Well, the Shootout doesn't pay points. The races at Texas will.
IndyCar announced that qualifying for the Saturday night twin bill will only apply to the first race. A blind draw will be conducted after the conclusion of the first race for the order of the second race and after an hour of prep, the second race will start.
Each race will pay half points, as the races will be half the distance of the full races that have been run at Texas (275K each versus 550K)
Additionally, entrants shall utilize the same pit locations, based upon qualifications results for the Indianapolis 500, for both races. Because of the brief amount of time between races, each team (distinguished from entry and entrant) will receive one additional engine for use as needed with its entries in Race 2.
"We want to keep the format of this event as exciting as possible for our fans as we revive this open-wheel tradition," said Brian Barnhart, president of competition and operations for INDYCAR, the sanctioning body of the IZOD IndyCar Series. "With the starting field for the second race set by random draw, you could see the winner from the first race starting from the back of the field, creating quite a bit of drama.
"Also, if a car suffers damage and fails to finish the first race, there will be an opportunity for the driver to rejoin in the second race as we will have extra engines available for use in their back-up chassis. We want to make sure we're ensuring a strong field for Race 2 to keep the excitement and momentum going throughout the entire event."
Personally, I can't wait for the races, simply because this hasn't happened in my lifetime. And add in the fact that it's at Eddie Gossage's house and there's no telling what will happen on June 11. Will this make you tune into the IndyCar Series, or is it a publicity stunt that you'll ignore?
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