SPORTS
Dixon wins GENSYS 300 race at Texas Motor Speedway
A late-race caution only briefly delayed the inevitable victory for Scott Dixon whose dominant performance in the Genesys 300 earned him and the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda team their fourth victory at Texas Motor Speedway, tying a track record held by Helio Castroneves.
Dixon, who qualified second in the heat of the day when temperatures reached near triple digits, took the lead on Lap 32 and went on to lead 157 of the 200-lap, 300-mile race that kicked off the COVID-19-delayed 2020 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season.
The New Zealand native beat Simon Pagenaud in the No. 22 DXC Technology Team Penske Chevrolet by 4.411 seconds.
Dixon’s previous victories at No Limits, Texas were in 2018, 2015 and 2008.
“Such strange times right now and I just can’t thank the team enough, it’s such a team effort,” said the 39-year-old Dixon. “”It’s just so fast. Any situation we were in, we could just go for it. Huge thanks to everybody involved, and bummed that the fans weren’t here – I wish everyone was here to celebrate.”
Reigning NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion and defending Texas Motor Speedway winner Josef Newgarden, who also earned the pole position for the Genesys 300, finished third in the No. 1 XPEL Team Penske Chevrolet.
The balance of the top-10 finishers were: Zack Veach (No. 26 Gainbridge Andretti Autosport Honda), Ed Carpenter (No. 20 Sonax Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet), Conor Daly (No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet), Colton Herta (No. 88 Capstone Turbine Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport Honda), Ryan Hunter-Reay (No. 28 DHL Andretti Autosport Honda), rookie Oliver Askew (No. 7 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet), and Tony Kanaan (No. 14 7-Eleven AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet).
Teams had been informed in late May by series tire supplier Firestone of a 35-lap limit on tires as a result of new tire production halted due to COVID-19 work stoppages. Unused alternate right-side tires from last year’s Texas Motor Speedway race and unused left-side tires from last year’s Indianapolis 500 were made available.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott attended the event, visiting with drivers on pit road from a safe distance before the green flag.
“We’re honored to have Governor Abbott make another visit to Texas Motor Speedway because he’s a big race fan,” said Eddie Gossage, President and General Manager of Texas Motor Speedway. “He welcomed the crowd on NBC, which was his opportunity to tell everyone Texas is open more and more everyday as we all deal with COVID-19. He even got to pace the field before the start of the race. He is one of our biggest supporters.”
Three cars had issues leaving pit road after the command to start engines, resulting in each receiving penalties. Graham Rahal, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Alexander Rossi received drive-through or stop-and-go penalties which put them at the back of the pack when the race went green.
Newgarden led the field to the green flag and stayed at the point for the first 31 laps before pitting on Lap 33 due to a handling issue. Dixon took the top spot from there and was leading when the first caution flag waved on Lap 37 when rookies Rinus VeeKay and Alex Palou got together coming off Turn 2.
Dixon maintained his lead until a second caution, on Lap 77, slowed the field. A slow pit stop by the five-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion, allowed Newgarden and Dixon’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, Felix Rosenqvist, to take the top two spots for the Lap 87 restart.
Dixon was back to the lead just three laps later and began his domination shortly after the halfway point, leading by more than 10 seconds on Lap 118.
The third caution of the night slowed the field with just 10 laps remaining when Rosenqvist, attempting to pass a slower car, ended up making contact with the outside wall in Turn 2.
Despite there being just four laps remaining when the final green flag resumed competition, Dixon quickly opened up a more than four-second lead by the time the checkered flag concluded the Genesys 300.
There were five lead changes among three drivers and four cautions for 24 laps.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
The Bowie sports banquets was on Monday night. Olivia Gill and Tucker Jones were named Jackrabbit and Lady Rabbit of the year. Pick up the mid-week paper for all of the sports team awards and pictures.
The 72nd Chisholm Trail Rodeo was a big success on Friday and Saturday nights at Nocona.
The rodeo had big crowds and saw some good competition from both local and far reaching talent.
Winners in the events included Zach Hibler in bareback riding, Lindsey Muggli in barrel racing, Ashley Goforth in breakaway roping, Leanardo Lima in bull riding, Cody McCartney in calf roping, Thomas Moellering in ranch bronc riding, Wacey Hathcock in saddle bronc riding, Renato Finazzi in steer wrestling, Rowdy Jones and Rance Doyal in team roping.
To see full results and more pictures, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
The regional tennis tournaments were late last week in North Richland Hills and a doubles team is moving on to state.
The Saint Jo girl’s doubles team Kyler Dunn and Taylor Patrick won the 1A region III tournament and will return to state for the second straight year.
The pair rolled through teams from Morgan, Dodd City, Priddy before beating a Graford team in the finals. The pair did not lose a set and only lost five of the 53 games it played, never losing more than one in a set.
The team made it to state last year after finishing second at regionals and won a match at the state meet against a team from Vernon Northside. They then lost to the eventual state champion team from Utopia and finished tied for third place.
They will be the only tennis players from Montague County playing at state this week as others did not have as successful regional tournament.
The Saint Jo teammates and fellow girl’s doubles team Bailie Nobile and Maxey Johnson won their first match against Ector 6-1, 6-4, but fell in their next match against Lometa, 6-1, 6-1.
From Prairie Valley, Case Carpenter was competing in boy’s singles. His first match was a draining two and half hour battle against a player from Strawn Carpenter came through in the three-set battle, winning 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.
Unfortunately, the magic was not there in the second game. Paired against the eventual tournament champion from Gustine, Carpenter lost 6-0, 6-1.
From Gold-Burg, Alyson Rojas and Jimena Garcia competed in girl’s singles. Rojas won her first match against a girl from Avinger 7-6, 6-2. Unfortunately, the next match she lost to a girl from Graford 6-0, 6-0 to end her tournament.
Garcia lost a tough first match against a player from Ector. Both sets could have gone either way with the scores being 6-4, 7-5 to the winner.
The mixed doubles team from Forestburg, Jesse Wadsworth and Alli Cisneros, also did not make it through.
From Nocona, Kaygan Stone was playing in the girl’s singles 2A region II tournament.
Unfortunately, she got paired against the player who would go on to win the tournament in the first round to end her season.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
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