2-in-1 IndyCar race, Saturday night Cup at Texas

[August 18, 2010]  DALLAS (AP) -- IndyCar drivers will race twice in one day next year at Texas Motor Speedway, where the 2011 racing schedule also includes the track's first Saturday night NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.

The Texas two-step for the IndyCar Series, along with Sprint Cup and Nationwide races under the lights on the first of the track's two NASCAR weekends, were the biggest changes revealed Tuesday night for TMS's 15th season of racing.

For the first time in the IndyCar Series, and first time in major U.S. open-wheel racing since 1981, there will be two races on one day. The Firestone Twin 275s at Texas on June 11, dual races with two different winners, will replace the single 550-kilometer (342 miles) at the track.

"The concept has Indy car history to it, but at the same time provides a new dynamic event to our fans as well as the drivers themselves," TMS president Eddie Gossage said. "It should be a tremendous show."

There have been only 17 twin races in the history of U.S. open-wheel racing including CART and USAC. All of those dual races were between 1967 and 1981, the last a CART-sanctioned event at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Before dual races in its first event after the Indianapolis 500, the IndyCar Series has restored the week off between its two most-attended races. The break after Indianapolis was standard in the league's schedule from Texas' inaugural 1997 season through 2005.

The first of Texas' two Sprint Cup races next year will be April 9, and is the first night race of the 2011 season in NASCAR's top series.

That pushes the spring Nationwide race back to Friday night -- that race has been on Saturday afternoon since the track's inception. Sprint Cup qualifying will be earlier that Friday.

"I've been around NASCAR racing at night my entire life -- from attending night races in Nashville to promoting night races at Bristol and Charlotte -- and I've always found them to be electric," Gossage said. "We've always wanted one here."

Unchanged at Texas is the NASCAR tripleheader weekend in the fall with Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Truck races.

Texas, the eighth of 10 races in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship, is in its regular Sunday afternoon spot, on Nov. 6, 2011. The Nationwide Series race is that Saturday afternoon, after the Truck race Friday night.

"Having the largest crowd and purse of all the 10 tracks in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, there wasn't a need to make a dramatic change (that) weekend," Gossage said.

[Associated Press; By STEPHEN HAWKINS]

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