The Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway, Round 9 of the Verizon IndyCar Series season, is set to continue for yet another day.
Except that day will be in another month, in August.
INDYCAR and the track confirmed late Sunday that the race will be rescheduled for August 27, rather than stretched into Monday. Poor weather and a heavy test slate coming up have prompted the decision. Tickets from this weekend’s race will be honored in August.
This will now run the Saturday after Pocono Raceway, which had been IndyCar’s only scheduled August race, on August 21.
Here’s details of the event as they’re being revealed at TMS, via track president Eddie Gossage and INDYCAR president of competition and operations, Jay Frye:
The event will be a one day show and will feature a single practice session and a full field autograph session. #INDYCAR #Firestone600
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) June 12, 2016
The event had been going for four days, starting with setup on Thursday, then practice and qualifying on Friday, the rainout on Saturday and then the first 71 laps completed today on Sunday, before the race was postponed once again.
The race will resume from the point of where they left off today, following a single practice session. Meanwhile Conor Daly and Josef Newgarden, who crashed out today, will be given a chance to rejoin the race but as many laps down as they were at the red flag (see above tweets from my colleague Daniel McFadin).
At a 248-lap race distance, the race needs to get to at least Lap 125 to go past the halfway mark and be declared an official race.
It was already a tight logistical time frame for the teams to begin with with the schedule what it was. Then with testing taking place at Road America on Wednesday - most teams are scheduled to test at the 4.048-mile road course - any delay only added to the strain.
Reminder about trying to reschedule Texas race. Tests coming up June 15 20-21 #IndyCar #Firestone600 pic.twitter.com/xoUFITUSk8
— Matt Archuleta (@indy44) June 12, 2016
Additionally of note, three full-time IndyCar drivers (Scott Dixon, Sebastien Bourdais and Mikhail Aleshin) plus NBCSN IndyCar analyst and Indianapolis 500 veteran Townsend Bell have to get to Le Mans, France where they are scheduled to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Dixon and Bourdais will be in two of the four Ford GTs for Chip Ganassi Racing, Aleshin in an SMP Racing BR01 Nissan and Bell in a Scuderia Corsa Ferrari F458 Italia.
Per Bob Pockrass of ESPN.com after being in touch with Ford Performance’s Dave Pericak, Dixon and Bourdais have been cleared to miss Sunday and Monday activity and still be able to compete at Le Mans owing to the extenuating circumstances. Bell, who was in the booth for both of Saturday and Sunday’s coverage on NBCSN, was due to depart for France on Sunday. All drivers for Le Mans are required to attend scrutineering (technical inspection) for their administrative checks.
Ford Performance Director Dave Perisak says they have checked w/Le Mans & Dixon/Bourdais OK'd to miss stuff today & to race next wknd.
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) June 12, 2016