Patrick: Drivers may miss race two
Danica Patrick is predicting a diminished field for the second race in today's IndyCar Twin 275s at Texas Motor Speedway today
The series is running the first twin-race event in American single-seaters since 1981, with the second race to start an hour after the completion of the first.
The grid for the opening race was determined in qualifying yesterday, with Alex Tagliani taking pole, while the race two grid will be determined by a random draw between the races.
However, with attrition expected to be high, Andretti Autosport's Patrick believes that some drivers will not make the start for the second race.
"If there's an accident, I don't know how people are going to fix it in an hour," Patrick said.
"I know you can do an engine change in 45 minutes, but you've got to have that thing together, and what if you've got corners broken, what if you don't have a complete rolling second car like some teams might not - I don't think you'll start the same number of cars in the second race. That's just my opinion."
Teams are allowed a limited window to work on their cars between races. Honda has provided one spare engine for each team that can be fitted to a spare car and used for the second race if necessary.
The push-to-pass system will be available for use 20 times by each driver, each of 12s duration and with a 10s recharge period.
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