Wilson Wins IndyCar Firestone 550 at the Texas Motor Speedway

Justin Wilson earned his first oval win and his first win since Watkins Glen in 2009 at the IndyCar Firestone 550 at the Texas Motor Speedway Saturday evening.

The Dale Coyne Racing driver started 17^th, lost four places when Simon Pagenaud drove into the Wilson pit box, and came back to second place where he was gaining on race leader Graham Rahal when Rahal brushed the wall and fell back to second.

“It’s just fantastic. The car was fantastic and on the long runs it just got better and better,” Wilson told NBC Sports. “I saw people sliding around and I was able to to hit my marks.”

Regarding Rahal’s wreck, Wilson saod, “I saw him sliding more and more every lap and and I didn’t think there was a chance. But when I saw him hit the wall, I thought, ‘Okay, now it’s time to go.’ It was four-wheel drifting all the way into Turn 3 and all the way out of Turn 4. You were having to hang on out there.

“The cars weren’t stuck, you had to manage the grip and tires—I thought it was a lot of fun. I had a blast out there.”

The new IndyCar Dallara, with its specific 1.5-mile banked-oval low-downforce configuration, was a real handful for drivers. Once the tires had a dozen laps of wear, the cars tended to become very loose, and the drivers had to be vigilant all the time.

Ganassi’s Scott Dixon dominated the first half of the race and more leading 133 out of 174 laps before losing the back end and smacking the wall. Dixon held on to second in the points, but he was deeply disappointed that a fraction of a second’s error cost him an almost sure win.

“We had been getting loose at the end of stints,” Dixon explained to NBC Sports. “For the last 10 laps of that last stint I was just really fighting to hold on. That time there I kind of got into the middle of few people we were trying to lap and I was trying to get back up to Power. I turned in and the rear just started to slide and I kind of dipped down onto the apron and shut around again.”

Points leader Will Power took a turn at the front until the Penske driver was penalized for blocking KV Racing’s Tony Kanaan. Kanaan was third when the incident happened; he had to pit for a new nose and ended up 11^th.

Will Power made no effort to deny that he had moved into Kanaan. “I had Briscoe on the outside of me and Tony took me by surprise. I feel bad because I ruined his day—I feel bad for the guy. We ruined our own day—we had one of the best cars out there

Power also reinforced Justin Wilson’s comments on racing with the new 1.5-mile aero package. “I have to say it’s the best racing I’ve ever had on ovals. You had to lift you had to look after your tires, you had to really drive the thing. That’s the sort of racing that we needed on these tracks, I think it was great.

“I feel bad for my guys because we ended up with a drive-through. I feel as though we could have quite easily won this race.”

Tire Central-Ganassi driver Graham Rahal moved to the front on lap 200, and led until he brushed the wall on lap 224. Rahal managed to limp around for the next few laps to take second, but he too was deeply disappointed to see the almost sure win slip away.

“I just messed up; There’s not much else to say,” Rahal told NBC Sports. “I didn’t expect it honestly. I had the same amount of push I had every other lap so I just thought Okay, just chase it through the corner, we are coming to the white flag. It just washed out a little bit; it’s my fault. There’s not much else I can say.

“Certainly very disappointed because obviously we had that. And we worked really hard those last 50 laps to put ourselves in that position During the first couple stints the car was so loose I had several big moments this one is going to haunt me forever, that’s for sure.”

IndyCar stays on the ovals for its next two races the Milwaukee IndyFest on June 16 and the Iowa Corn Indy 250 on June 23. Tickets for these events can be purchased through the Milwaukee IndyFest and Iowa Speedway websites.

The Milwaukee IndyFest will be broadcast on ABC TV starting at 1 p.m. EDT. The Iowa Corn Indy 2590 is a night race, starting at 10 p.m. EDT on the NBC Sports Network.