By Josh Farmer

FORT WORTH, Texas – Former Texas Motor Speedway winners Scott Dixon and Helio Castroneves are truly the hunter and the hunted heading into tonight’s Rainguard Water Sealers 600.

Scott Dixon and Helio Castroneves are locked in a tight battle for the 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series championship. Photo by Chris Jones

Dixon has recovered from his fair share of adversity this season. The 36-year-old New Zealander walked away from a devastating crash with Jay Howard on lap 53 of the 101st running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil.

He rebounded to finish second and sixth in last week’s doubleheader at Detroit, although he was challenging for the win in the second race until a fuel probe issue took him out of contention.

By the end of the weekend, he to move into the points lead – eight over Castroneves.

Despite the bad luck, Dixon is pleased how his team has rebounded.

“Detroit was a little frustrating just in the sheer fact that the race didn’t go smoothly because we had the fuel probe issue. You keep thinking, we clearly would have been racing for second or first in that scenario.

Scott Dixon, driver of the No. NTT Data Honda, will start second in Saturday’s Rainguard 600 at Texas Motor Speedway. Photo by Michael C. Johnson

“It was definitely good points and I think to keep the points lead at that transition after the amount of work the team had and the wreck we had was good.”

Dixon, a two-time winner at TMS, was nipped by Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Charlie Kimball for the pole for tonight’s race and will start second. With a new track surface and configuration, Dixon noted that staying on top of the changes will be crucial to success.

“It’s always tough, the race evolves a lot throughout the night,” he said. “It’s all about keeping up with it. This year’s a lot of unknowns. The track’s different, the tire’s different. We’ll just have to play it out and move as quickly as we can to make changes.”

The 42-year-old Brazilian qualified 10th for tonight’s race, his sixth top ten start of the season. He noted after qualifying while his starting spot could be better, the races here are always unpredictable.

Helio Castroneves, driver of the No. 3 AAA Insurance Team Penske Chevrolet, will start 10th on the grid for Saturday’s Rainguard 600 at Texas Motor Speedway. Photo by Michael C. Johnson

“The one thing about this track is that you never know what’s going to happen,” he said. “It always has a surprise or two.”

The driver of the No. 3 AAA Team Penske Chevrolet is not only chasing down Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon in the series championship, but he is also looking to end a 51 race winless streak. His last win came at Detroit in 2014, nearly three years ago.

Castroneves has shown pace capable of winning this season but has not had luck on his side to put it all together. At Long Beach, he won the pole and set the fastest lap, but mechanical issues relegated him to ninth place.

Untimely yellows have also cost him shots of victory at Phoenix and Detroit and he didn’t have the raw speed to overtake Takuma Sato in the 101st running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil. 

“It’s our Karma,” he said. “We’ve qualified up front. We’ve raced fast unfortunately the yellow comes at and it became an unexpected situation. The only thing that I can tell is the motivation is there. Our team, group especially with Chevy, AAA is there. We are going to keep pushing ourselves until we get the win.”

Of all the tracks on the Verizon IndyCar Series calendar, Texas Motor Speedway has proven to be one of Castroneves’ best. He has scored four wins (2004, 2006, 2009 and 2013) in 19 starts at the 1.45-mile oval.

For this race, Castroneves noted that while the new track configuration has taken some getting used to, he feels perky about the show tonight.

“We’re going to work ourselves to make a great racecar,” he said. “The second lane is a little bit harder than what we are expecting. Hopefully with some work from the track, the track will be a lot for fun to drive and also for the fans.”