Round 6 : Texas Motor Speedway, United States

Race preview

The Firestone Twin 275s was introduced August 17 before a crowd of more than 1,600 at the House of Blues in Dallas. IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard and Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage announced that almost 20 years after Rick Mears won both races at Atlanta Motor Speedway that the IZOD IndyCar Series would revisit the twin race format.

This new format - formerly the Firestone 550k - will consist of two full-field 275-kilometer races (171 miles/114 laps each) with two race winners being recognized by the sanctioning body. Both will pay half the points and half the bonus prize amounts for the event, and the field for the second race will be set by blind draw.

" 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."

Each race winner will receive 25 points through 5 points for the 25th-place and subsequent finishers (all half points). The driver leading the most laps in each race will earn two bonus points, but the driver starting on the pole in Race 2 won't receive the one point that the first race pole winner receives through two-lap qualifying. Half bonus money -- $17,500 for first place through $5,000 for fifth - also will be allocated.

Texas Motor Speedway measures 1.5 miles (2.4 km) around and its turns are banked at 24 degrees, and is a quad-oval design, where the front straightaway juts outward slightly. The speedway has been managed since its inception, in 1996, by legendary racing promoter Eddie Gossage. The IZOD IndyCar Series has raced at the Fort Worth facility 21 times, including twice in the same season seven times, since the racetrack opened in 1997.

"You have to love the open-mindedness of the INDYCAR officials for randomly selecting the starting lineup of the second Firestone Twin 275," Gossage said. "It guarantees a real jumble, an incredible shootout in the second race. Different strategies are going to be employed for each race. What a night of racing this will be."

Schedule