Power identifies aeroscreen as major Texas unknown

Will Power has identified IndyCar’s new-for-2020 aeroscreen as a significant unknown ahead of its one-day season-opener this weekend.

Non-rookies will only get 80 minutes of practice at Texas Motor Speedway tomorrow morning (AEST) before qualifying and a 200-lap race around the 1.5mi (2.4km) oval, all in the space of nine hours.

It will be the first time that drivers have lapped competitively with the aeroscreen, which has increased the weight of cars, shifted weight balance forward, and raised centre of gravity.

With the pandemic preventing development of new tyres for the event, stints will be limited to 35 laps, well done on the more than 60 laps which some drivers were running at a time last year.

“I cannot wait to get back on track this weekend at Texas,” said Power, whose #12 Team Penske entry will be one of 24 cars in the field.

“It feels like it’s been a year since we were on the track for pre-season testing at COTA (Circuit of The Americas), then when we were in St Pete(rsburg).

“But the delay was the right thing to do – to make sure we are doing this right as a sport and taking all the proper precautions.

“I have seen a lot of the plans and we know IndyCar has taken a lot of time to figure everything out to put on a good show, but to do it with everyone’s safety as the first priority.

“Once we get there and get in the swing of things, it will also be interesting to finally get a race with the new windscreen.

“On top of that, it will be the first time anyone has run the windscreen at night, so it should be a new experience for all of us.

“We don’t really know how the cars are going to react, so the one practice session will be really important.

“But we are all professionals and it will come back to all of us rather quickly.”

Both qualifying and the race will be shown live on Fox Sports, including through Foxtel Go and Kayo, this weekend.

The former session starts tomorrow morning at 07:00 AEST.

Entry list: Race 1, Texas Motor Speedway