IndyCar

IRL: Texas: Vision Racing qualifying report

VISION RACING EARNS TEAM'S HIGHEST QUALIFYING SPOT AS SCHECKTER LOOKS TO REPEAT LAST YEAR'S WIN FT. WORTH, Texas -- Vision Racing's Tomas Scheckter looks to repeat win at Texas Motor Speedway by qualifying his Rock & Republic car in the top-five, ...

Edited: Mar 27, 2008, 5:47 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

VISION RACING EARNS TEAM'S HIGHEST QUALIFYING SPOT AS SCHECKTER LOOKS TO REPEAT LAST YEAR'S WIN

FT. WORTH, Texas -- Vision Racing's Tomas Scheckter looks to repeat win at Texas Motor Speedway by qualifying his Rock & Republic car in the top-five, while Ed Carpenter will start the Bombardier Learjet 500k from the 12th spot.

Coming off the team's highest finish of sixth scored by Carpenter last weekend at Watkins Glen International, Scheckter has now recorded the team's highest qualifying spot by putting the #2 Rock & Republic Vision Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone in the fifth position. The previous best qualifying position for Vision Racing was also scored by Scheckter at St. Petersburg this season when he started eighth.

Scheckter started from the pole last year at Texas for Panther Racing where he led 119 laps and drove to victory on the 1.5-mile oval. The defending champion has also started from the pole a total of three times at Texas Motor Speedway. In his IndyCar Series career, Scheckter has eight career poles, two career wins and 1,346 laps led. Most recently Scheckter led 12 laps at Watkins Glen International on Sunday and finished 10th. Earlier today, Scheckter completed 69 laps between the two practice sessions and had the fifth best time overall. He will look to give Vision Racing and Rock & Republic their first win on Saturday night.

Carpenter is on a bit of a roll lately as he's finished the last two races by scoring an 11th place finish at Indianapolis and his career best and the team's best finish of sixth in the Watkins Glen Indy Grand Prix last Sunday. Today Carpenter and the #20 Rock & Republic Vision Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone was 10th quick overall between the two practice sessions and he qualified in the 12th spot. His best qualifying attempt occurred at Texas during his rookie season in 2004 when he earned the seventh starting spot.

Battling track temperatures of 135 degrees Fahrenheit, Carpenter completed 44 laps between both practice sessions today. He will make his 40th career IndyCar Series start on Saturday as he looks to break into the top-five and record a new personal best, or better yet, take home his first win.

Tomas Scheckter -- #2 Rock & Republic Vision Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone

On starting position:
"So far so good to be honest. It's really great that we could qualify this well this early. We are actually a little bit quicker than we thought we could go so I'm happy with that. The guys did a great job of the car ready. It's great to be back wearing Rock & Republic clothes and driving the Rock & Republic car so I'm looking for a good result."

Ed Carpenter -- #20 Rock & Republic Vision Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone

On starting position:
"I would have liked to qualify in the top 10, but I lost a little speed on that second lap and that hurt me a little bit. We were still pretty consistent with how we practiced and overall I'm happy with the car and our speed. We should be in good shape for the race and we have some time to work on some things tomorrow as well. It was good to get my career best finish at Watkins Glen last weekend and I want to improve on that this week at Texas and see if I can't make it three finishes in a row."

-VR-

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article CHAMPCAR/CART: Milwaukee: Driver penalties announced

Next article IPS: IRL: Indy Racing League News and Notes 2006-06-07

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Barcelona set to host IndyCar race in 2027 under multi-year deal

IndyCar

Indy IndyCar 8 h

Barcelona set to host IndyCar race in 2027 under multi-year deal

Winners and losers from a Chase-altering NASCAR Cup race at Phoenix

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Phoenix II

10 h

Winners and losers from a Chase-altering NASCAR Cup race at Phoenix

Heart of Racing rules Valkyrie GTP step next year ‘too soon’ for IMSA standout Barrichello

IMSA

IMSA IMSA 10 h

Heart of Racing rules Valkyrie GTP step next year ‘too soon’ for IMSA standout Barrichello

Sergio Perez: Debut Cadillac season "without a doubt one of my best years"

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

10 h

Sergio Perez: Debut Cadillac season "without a doubt one of my best years"

Feature

Discover prime content

Inside AJ Foyt Racing’s transition: Hauger’s arrival, Ferrucci’s future, and the Pierson waiting game

Feature

IndyCar

Feature

IndyCar

By Joey Barnes

Inside AJ Foyt Racing’s transition: Hauger’s arrival, Ferrucci’s future, and the Pierson waiting game

You Ask The Questions: David Malukas

IndyCar

By Joey Barnes

You Ask The Questions: David Malukas

Top 10 Ganassi IndyCar drivers of all time

IndyCar

By John Oreovicz

Top 10 Ganassi IndyCar drivers of all time

Alex Palou still unstoppable as Nashville win edges him closer to fifth IndyCar title

IndyCar

Nashville

By John Oreovicz

Alex Palou still unstoppable as Nashville win edges him closer to fifth IndyCar title

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts