IndyCar: Top 5 strangest races since 2010

By Asher Fair | Mar 2, 2019

FORT WORTH, TX - AUGUST 27: James Hinchcliffe, driving the #10 Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda leads the pack late in the race during the Verizon IndyCar Series Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway on August 27, 2016 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Ralph Lauer/Getty Images for Texas Motor Speedway) /

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FORT WORTH, TX – JUNE 11: Will Power of Australia, driver of the #12 Verizon Team Penske Dallara Honda, winner of race two and Dario Franchitti of Scotland, driver of the #10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara Honda, winner of race one (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images) /

#3 – 2011 Firestone Twin 275s (continued)

Not only that, but polesitter Tony Kanaan finished the first race in 11th place after starting in sixth, and set to start alongside him on the front row was Wade Cunningham, who crashed in the first race. As a result of this crash, his backup car was set up more for a road or street course race as opposed to a superspeedway race.

Big difference.

Will Power went on to dominate the race after taking the lead from Kanaan on lap 39, while Scott Dixon rallied to finish in second place and Dario Franchitti rallied to finish in seventh in arguably the most “manufactured” race of the decade thus far.

Considering the fact that IndyCar has had at least one doubleheader consisting of two full-length, full points-paying street course races in each of the last six seasons going back to the 2013 season (seven if you include the scheduled 2019 doubleheader on the streets of Belle Isle in Detroit, Michigan), it makes even less sense to run two extremely short races for half-points on a superspeedway.

There has not been another IndyCar doubleheader of any kind on an oval track since the 2011 Firestone Twin 275s were contested.