Honda Drivers Running 1-2-3 When Rain Halts Texas Race

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Honda Drivers Running 1-2-3 When Rain Halts Texas Race

  • Rains halt Firestone 600 after 71 laps
  • James Hinchcliffe, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Mikhail Aleshin lead field at red flag
  • Race scheduled to resume on Saturday, August 27

Two days of persistent rain showers have forced Verizon IndyCar Series and Texas Motor Speedway officials to postpone this weekend’s Firestone 600 until Saturday, August 27.

Originally scheduled to run Saturday night, rain and moisture seepage resulted in officials postponing the race start until 1 p.m. Sunday. At the green, pole qualifier Carlos Munoz took his Andretti Autosport Honda into the lead, with teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay rapidly moving up to third. Pit stops, starting on Lap 30, jumbled the running order, with James Hinchcliffe taking the lead in his Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda.

On Lap 42, Conor Daly lost control of his Dale Coyne Racing Honda exiting Turn 4, spinning and making contact with Josef Newgarden. Both cars then made heavy impact with the barriers. Daly emerged uninjured from the crash, but Newgarden was transported to an area hospital for treatment of possible shoulder and wrist injuries.

Rain retuned to the circuit as the field completed Lap 70, and the race was red flagged one lap later with Hinchcliffe leading, followed by fellow Honda drivers Hunter-Reay and Mikhail Aleshin. Although officials hoped to restart the event, continuing showers made a resumption of racing impossible. The decision was then made to postpone the race until Saturday night, August 27.

When the IndyCar Series fields returns, activities will include a single practice session, autograph session for the fans, followed by a race restart from the point of the red flag and in current running order.

Video recaps from this weekend’s Honda racing activities at Texas Motor Speedway are being posted on the “Honda Racing/HPD” YouTube channel. Produced by the Carolinas Production Group, the video packages can be found in the 2015 HPD Trackside Video Playlist at: https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV.

After a run of consecutive May-June races that concluded today, the Verizon IndyCar Series now takes a week off before resuming with a long-awaited return to the historic Road America road course in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, for the June 26 Kohler Grand Prix.