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(Reuters) - IndyCar drivers eager to get back
behind the wheel will face a test unlike any other on Saturday
when, with limited practice, they kick off a season delayed by
the COVID-19 pandemic on one of the series' trickiest tracks and
with no fans in attendance.
The Genesys 300 at the daunting Texas Motor Speedway in Fort
Worth will air as a primetime show in a sports-starved world and
mark the first time drivers have been in their cars since
pre-season testing in February.
Adding to the challenge, drivers will take part in practice,
qualifying and the 300-mile race on the same day with a
cockpit-protecting wraparound windscreen for the first time and
in the intense Texas heat.
"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," said defending IndyCar Series champion Josef
Newgarden.
"Typically we have five races or so to sort out our stuff, kind
of get ourselves in the right frame of mind, have a general base
before we go to a track like that."
The one-day event will be run with strict guidelines to protect
participants from COVID-19, and safety measures include limiting
the personnel on site and a health screening system administered
to all participants.
Six-times IndyCar race winner Graham Rahal said all drivers are
likely to be nervous given the uncertainties, including how the
canopy-like windscreen will perform.
"If you're not nervous, I'd be concerned about the head that you
have on your shoulders," said Rahal.
"This is going to be a first for us. The glare, the pitting,
does it get beat up on an oval, just the visibility standpoint,
the heat, all of these things on an oval, we don't know. We just
don't have any answers for that."
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto, editing by Ed Osmond)
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