IndyCar at Texas Motor Speedway: facts, schedule, entry list

Event date: Saturday, March 19 – Sunday, March 20

Track: 1.5-mile oval.

Race distance: 248 laps (372 miles)

Firestone tire allotment: 11 sets primary tires to be used across two practice sessions, qualifying and the race.

Push-to-pass parameters: Not applicable

IndyCar schedule (local/Central Time) and broadcast details

Saturday, March 19
9.45-9.55am – Two-stage pit-limiter practice
10.00-11.00am
– First practice – Peacock Premium
1.00pm – Qualifying – Peacock Premium
4.00-5.00pm
– Final practice – Peacock Premium

Sunday, March 20
11.30amNBC on air
11.40am – “Drivers, start your engines” – NBC, NBCSports.com, NBC Sports app
11.45am –
Green flag: XPEL 375 (248 laps / 372 miles) – NBC live

Leigh Diffey is the play-by-play announcer for NBC’s coverage of the IndyCar Series alongside analysts Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe. Marty Snider and Kevin Lee are the pit reporters. All NTT IndyCar Series practice sessions and qualifying sessions stream live on Peacock Premium, NBC’s direct-to-consumer livestreaming product.

IndyCar Radio Network: Mark Jaynes is the chief announcer alongside analyst Davey Hamilton and turn announcer Nick Yeoman. Jake Query and Michael Young are the pit reporters. All IndyCar races, practices and qualifying sessions air live on network affiliates, SiriusXM 160, racecontrol.indycar.com and the IndyCar Mobile app powered by NTT DATA.

Race Notes

2021 race winners: Race 1 – Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda), Race 2 – Pato O’Ward (Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet)

2021 NTT P1 Award winners (set by championship points due to bad weather canceling qualifying): Race 1 – Alex Palou (Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda), Race 2 – Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda). 

Qualifying lap record (based on previous track length measurement of 1.44 miles): One lap – Charlie Kimball (Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda) in 2017 – 23.2730sec/222.747mph; Two laps – Kimball in 2017 – 46.5861sec/222.556mph.

The XPEL 375 will be the 35th IndyCar race at Texas Motor Speedway. No driver has competed in every IndyCar race there, but Scott Dixon has made 22 starts and scored five wins – 2018, ’15, ’18, ’20, ’21.

Six other Texas winners will start Sunday’s race. Helio Castroneves has four wins at TMS, Will Power has two, while Ed Carpenter, Graham Rahal, Josef Newgarden and Pato O’Ward have one each.

Power has won pole for three of the past 10 races at TMS, while other pole winners in this year’s race include Dixon (one), Josef Newgarden (two), Takuma Sato (one).

Five rookies are on the grid this weekend – Devlin DeFRancesco, Callum Ilott, Kyle Kirkwood, Christian Lundgaard and David Malukas – while an IndyCar sophomore, NASCAR legend Jimmie Johnson, will be making his first ever oval start in an IndyCar. For Ed Carpenter and JR Hildebrand, this race will be their first IndyCar starts of the year.

27-car entry list for XPEL 375 at Texas Motor Speedway

No. Driver Hometown Car name Team-Engine
2 Josef Newgarden Nashville, Tennessee PPG Team Penske Team Penske-Chevrolet
3 Scott McLaughlin Christchurch, New Zealand XPEL Team Penske Team Penske-Chevrolet
4 Dalton Kellett Stouffville, Canada K-Line / AJ Foyt Racing A.J. Foyt Enterprises-Chevrolet
5 Pato O’Ward Monterrey, Mexico Arrow McLaren SP Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet
06 Helio Castroneves Sao Paulo, Brazil AutoNation / SiriusXM Meyer Shank Racing-Honda
7 Felix Rosenqvist Varnamo, Sweden Vuse Arrow McLaren SP Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet
8 Marcus Ericsson Kumla, Sweden Huski Chocolate Chip Ganassi Racing Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda
9 Scott Dixon Auckland, New Zealand PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda
10 Alex Palou Barcelona, Spain NTT DATA Chip Ganassi Racing Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda
11 J.R. Hildebrand Sausalito, California ROKiT / AJ Foyt Racing AJ Foyt Enterprises-Chevrolet
12 Will Power Toowoomba, Australia Verizon Team Penske Team Penske-Chevrolet
14 Kyle Kirkwood (R) Jupiter, Florida ROKiT / AJ Foyt Racing A.J. Foyt Enterprises-Chevrolet
15 Graham Rahal New Albany, Ohio Fleet Cost & Care Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda
18 David Malukas (R) Chicago, Illinois HMD Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports-Honda
20 Conor Daly Noblesville, Indiana BitNile Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet
21 Rinus VeeKay Hoofddorp, Netherlands SONAX Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet
26 Colton Herta Valencia, California Gainbridge Andretti Autosport w/Curb Agajanian-Honda
27 Alexander Rossi Nevada City, California NAPA Auto Parts / AutoNation Andretti Autosport-Honda
28 Romain Grosjean Geneva, Switzerland DHL Andretti Autosport-Honda
29 Devlin DeFrancesco (R) Toronto, Canada PowerTap Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport-Honda
30 Christian Lundgaard (R) Hedensted, Denmark PeopleReady Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda
33 Ed Carpenter Indianapolis, Indiana Alzamend Neuro / Ed Carpenter Racing Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet
45 Jack Harvey Bassingham, UK Hy-Vee Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda
48 Jimmie Johnson El Cajon, California Carvana Chip Ganassi Racing Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda
51 Takuma Sato Tokyo, Japan Nurtec ODT Dale Coyne Racing with RWR-Honda
60 Simon Pagenaud Montmorillon, France AutoNation / SiriusXM Meyer Shank Racing-Honda
77 Callum Ilott (R) Cambridge, UK Juncos Hollinger Racing Juncos Hollinger Racing-Chevrolet

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