IndyCar series returns with doubleheader street races in Houston

The Verizon IndyCar Series returns from a three-week layoff with one of its doubleheader weekends, this time on a street course in downtown Houston.

For the drivers, that will mean one thing: Drink lots of fluids.

With temperatures forecast to reach 90 degrees amid high humidity, IndyCar’s best will race for 90 laps Saturday on the 10-turn, 1.68-mile circuit and then do it all over again Sunday.

Team Penske’s Will Power, who leads the IndyCar championship standings, won one of the two Houston races last year and reigning champion Scott Dixon of Target Chip Ganassi Racing won the other.

It was in the second race in Houston last year when the car of Dixon’s former teammate, four-time IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti, went airborne and crashed into a catch fence.

Franchitti suffered a broken right ankle, two spinal fractures and a concussion in the crash, and he later retired as a driver on the advice of doctors.

After eight races this season, Power holds a 39-point lead in the title standings over his teammate, Helio Castroneves, and a 60-point advantage over Ryan Hunter-Reay, the winner of this year’s Indianapolis 500.

Team owner/driver Ed Carpenter won IndyCar’s last race June 7 at the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway oval, with Power finishing second.

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