INDYCAR Previews

Preview – 2017 Rainguard Water Sealers 600

By Dylan Reynolds, The Open Wheel

The Verizon IndyCar Series continues this weekend with the Rainguard Water Sealers 600 at Texas Motor Speedway. The Open Wheel will be covering the action all weekend so stay tuned to this site and our Twitter page @openwh33l for all of the latest news.

Preview – 2017 Rainguard Water Sealers 600 - 2016 firestone 600
Photo by Chris Jones/INDYCAR

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Verizon IndyCar Series Preview: Rainguard Water Sealers 600, Saturday, June 10 8:00PM (ET) NBCSN – After last year’s wild finish at Texas everyone in INDYCAR is looking forward to the Verizon IndyCar Series’ return to Texas Motor Speedway. The big news of the weekend is Harding Racing and driver Gabby Chaves’ second race as a team after a successful run in the 101st Running of the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race and the return of Tristan Vautier at Dale Coyne Racing in their No. 18 car for the injured Sebastien Bourdais. Esteban Gutierrez couldn’t get the necessary testing required to run this weekend as he has no oval experience. Previous driver experience at Texas shows six former winners in the field in Helio Castroneves (3), Scott Dixon (2), Ed Carpenter (1), Tony Kanaan (1), Will Power (1), and Graham Rahal (1). The active Top 5 in laps led at Texas are Castroneves (506),  Kanaan (371), Dixon (353), Power (252), and James Hinchcliffe (196). Kanaan and Castroneves each finished in the Top 5 in both 2016 and 2015. If that’s expanded to the Top 10 you can add Charlie Kimball and Carlos Munoz to that list. My pick to win: Scott Dixon – Neither Scott Dixon or the entire Chip Ganassi Racing Teams program has won a Verizon IndyCar Series race this season but Dixon has to be one of the favorites this weekend. He’s led a ton of laps here over the years and was dominant a couple years ago in his 2015 win. He showed at Belle Isle he can fight through the ankle injury suffered in his scary crash at Indianapolis so that shouldn’t be a concern this weekend. He has just one finish outside of the Top 6 so far this season and he’s due to add a win to his impressive start to the year.

My fantasy.indycar.com picks: Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Ryan Hunter-Reay, and Ed Carpenter – You know my thoughts on Dixon. TK is always strong at Texas and was in the mix in last year’s wild finish. RHR hasn’t had the best of luck at Texas or this entire season but he’s been consistently fast and should be good value at $20. Carpenter is another driver that should be fast this weekend but has been plagued by trouble over the last couple years whether it be mechanical issues or contact. If he keeps it clean a Top 10 should be almost guaranteed and that’s why I’m intrigued by him at $22.