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| - The IndyCar racing series is poised to run its first competitive laps of the season in Texas on Saturday, following a three-month shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. The season now gets underway with the Genesys 300 at the 1½-mile Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth with an all-in-one-day opener without spectators. To limit the amount of time the participants will spend at the facility, organizers have decided to hold the practice, qualifying and the 200-lap race on Saturday. "It's going to be a new world for us racing here. Showing up for a one-day show, different than what we used to do at Texas," said American driver Josef Newgarden. "This sort of lag time between some events is very different. Haven't been in the car in three months." There will be nearly a month break before the next race July 4 on a road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The road course race will be the first of five IndyCar races in a 15-day period in July, including a doubleheader weekend at Wisconsin's Road America. The drivers were given a 35-page booklet with guidelines on what new health and safety procedures are in place. IndyCar also worked with local Texas health officials to ensure the safety of the drivers and their crews. Precautions include health screenings, social distancing and making it mandatory for anyone entering the track to wear personal protective equipment. "I think the new normal is nothing is normal. Going forward, we're trying to make it as normal as we can," IndyCar president Jay Frye said. American driver Ryan Hunter-Reay said he looking forward to the challenge of racing again after a three-month hiatus. "It feels like it's been an eternity, especially when we were sitting there at St. Pete ready to go and you're kind of in that mindset to get the season kicked off and all of a sudden everything is put on hold," Hunter-Reay said. "Yeah, we're just ready to get back to work. This is what we do. This is our livelihood and this is what makes the world go round for us." James Hinchcliffe said he is full of emotion as he counts the minutes before he starts racing again. "We were sort of directionless for a while, not really knowing when we were getting back and how to prepare," Hinchcliffe said. "But once it was released that Texas was going to be the race, the focus really shifted and I think everybody sort of kicked into high gear. "Now it's race week and we're just sort of counting the minutes. We went from counting weeks to counting days to almost counting hours before we get to go back racing." Newgarden will try to defend his 2019 Texas title. "The first couple weeks of this lockdown in the United States, it felt quite hopeless. Now we feel pretty positive that we have something to work towards," he said. "Texas is a very difficult racetrack to race in general, whether you've been there 20 years or first time. It's a daunting track to get right." The season was supposed to begin on March 15 with the Firestone Grand Prix in St. Petersburg, Florida before officials called off the race because of the Covid-19 outbreak. The St. Petersburg race will now become the season finale October 25. The 104th running of the Indianapolis 500 was moved from Memorial Day weekend in May to August 23. gph/rcw
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