Castroneves, Dixon say Watkins Glen can produce a good race

Although the track’s resurfacing has decimated the length of the brake zones around the 3.37-mile course – to the extent that Dixon was five seconds under the lap record today – both he and second-fastest driver Castroneves have said there will still be passing opportunities.

Team Penske's Castroneves stated: “I think up the hill coming out of Turn 1, 2, 3, the car in front might be in huge trouble because he's going to be breaking the air, and whoever is behind is going to get more draft, just like at an oval.

“So probably the Bus Stop [chicane] is going to be a potential passing zone, especially on the restart or start of the race. There’s going to be a lot of three-wides there.

“I feel that's going to be the main opportunity to overtake, but you never know. Because it's so fast, somebody might make a mistake, and that could create potential for passing, as well.

Dixon, a three-time Watkins Glen winner, added: “I think when you've even got a small amount less drag going up the hill [toward the Bus Stop] it equates to a great deal once you got to the top. I think that's definitely going to be a pretty good chance there.

“And it's a pretty slim margin, I think, to make mistakes in Turn 1, and then also in 7. There's some places that you can really mess it up. You know, if you lose momentum here, man, it takes a lot to get it back.” 

Amazing and fun

According to Jonathan Diuguid, Castroneves’ race engineer, the #3 car’s impressive burst of speed toward the end of the two-hour afternoon session was a result of the team successfully dialing out the car’s looseness on corner-entry. That allowed the team to focus on reining in every car’s natural tendency to understeer.

The resultant neutral handling allowed Castroneves to enjoy the track.

He said: “I have to say that it's amazing the G-forces we're pulling in the Carousel. I literally feel my face going like this. What a lot of fun this place is. It's unbelievable.”

Said Dixon: “It's a lot of hard work. The loading is through the roof. There's no real time that you get to rest. It's really hard to talk to the engineers, especially where we're pitted this weekend [at pit-in] when you get in because the loadings and the timeline is right before pit entry. It's a lot of fun.

“I love being back here at the Glen. I was super excited when they announced this race, and I know with the Verizon IndyCar Series and everybody involved, we can definitely make this a fantastic race for the future, and hopefully we can build on it.

“It's one of the great old-school American tracks that we're very lucky to come back to.”