Max Chilton is expecting another thrilling race at Texas Motor Speedway. He’s just hoping it’s not going to take a few months to finish like the previous time.
Last year’s Verizon IndyCar Series event was suspended a day due to rain, only to run just 71 laps when the downpour resumed and postponed the remainder of the race to late August.
It was worth the wait, coming down to a shootout to the chequered flag with James Hinchcliffe in the lead, but the Canadian driver couldn’t fend off a surging Graham Rahal, who pulled ahead on the final lap to win by eight-thousandths of a second.
Things are different this time around — for starters, rain isn’t in the forecast — as the track has been repaved and the first couple turns have had their banking reduced. For Chilton though, the most important change is his team, Chip Ganassi Racing, switched engine manufacturers from Chevrolet to Honda this season, which he credits for providing some spark heading into Saturday’s Rainguard Water Sealers 600 as he aims to improve upon his 15th-place finish from last year.
“I think Honda has the better package, so hopefully we’ll have an advantage here,” Chilton said. “[Teammate] Scott [Dixon] tested here last month or the month before, we weren’t allowed to test because there were certain cars that couldn’t test, and Scott was very fast. The new layout I think is going to allow even more overtaking but there was already plenty of overtaking last year. I think it’s going to make it quite a packed race, it’ll be constantly changing and you won’t know who’s going to win until literally a few laps to go or the last lap. So yeah looking forward to it.”
Watch the Rainguard Water Sealers 600 live Saturday at 8 p.m. ET on Sportsnet 360 and online at Sportsnet NOW.
Last year’s race was the fifth-closest margin of victory in series history and Chilton knows what that’s like to have a win seemingly within reach having experienced his own heartbreak just a couple weeks ago at the Indianapolis 500. After leading 50 laps, the most among all 33 drivers, Chilton just didn’t have enough to hold on during the final few laps, finishing fourth. While he said it was “painful” coming up short, the sophomore IndyCar driver has since seen the silver lining in setting a new career-best finish in the series.
“I’ve always known I could do it, but it is nice to know you actually have got a decent result,” the 26-year-old from Reigate, England, said. “I led 50 laps, which was a lot and more than anyone, pretty much double over [Ryan] Hunter-Reay, so I proved to people. … I got a lot of comments from people congratulating me on that, so that was nice even though I didn’t win. It’s given me an energy boost to try and get my first win because I know I can do it now. Hopefully we can get one this year.”
The Rainguard Water Sealers 600 race wraps up a busy stretch of the IndyCar Series schedule. The month of May was dedicated to the famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway, first with the infield road course race followed by the prestigious Indy 500 itself on the super speedway. The series headed straight to Detroit for a street circuit doubleheader this past weekend and now prepares for Saturday evening’s race under the lights of the high-banked Texas oval in Fort Worth. Chilton said it’s pretty demanding as a driver dealing with the tight turnaround between races plus the diversity of tracks.
“It’s so different from what I’ve been used to in the past,” said Chilton, who raced for two seasons in Formula One prior to joining IndyCar. “It’s lots of different disciplines in one sport. You go from 240 m.p.h. on a perfectly smooth oval and low downforce to full downforce on a bumpy street circuit in back-to-back races and then back to an oval, which is completely different from Indy all in the span of a few weeks. It’s demanding on the body and the mind and the team.
“The team struggles the most. They’ve had six or seven weeks non-stop with no days off so it’s hard on them, but that’s why they call it the mad month of May. We’re now in June, but it still continues.”
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The Verizon IndyCar Series will finally get a bit of a break after Texas with a couple weeks off before starting the second half of the season. Among the remaining races, Chilton is looking forward to the lone Canadian stop next month for Honda Indy Toronto. Chilton enjoyed his first trip to Toronto last year and while the race is definitely a challenge, it’s one he’s up for.
“The track is very unique and it’s quite tight and fiddly — apart from Turn 1 and the end of the back straight it’s very wide and allows overtaking — the rest of the track is quite easy to defend,” he said. “If you’re a spectator there are certainly a couple places where you’ll definitely want to sit and watch for overtaking.
“It’s very technically challenging, it’s bumpy apart from the bit they resurfaced on the back straight, there’s no room for error and there’s big curves as well for a street circuit. Usually a street circuit you don’t take curves but here you wallop the curving. I think it’s pretty difficult for a rookie from my experience last year, but looking forward to going back there.”
If Chilton is hoping to pick up any tips and tricks to mastering the Toronto track he doesn’t have to turn too far. IndyCar legend Dario Franchitti, who won three races in Toronto, continues to work with Chip Ganassi Racing since retiring in 2013 and serves as Chilton’s mentor. Chilton said the knowledge Franchitti, a four-time series champion, provides is priceless.
“The thing I learned in my rookie year is experience pays,” Chilton said. “You can’t buy the experience and to have someone with his experience, four titles, and also Scott, they’ve got four titles each, is invaluable really. It’s great to be working so closely with someone who can just say the odd comment, which to most people may mean nothing but when you’re driver on the track and have that on your mind it makes all the difference.”
