FORT WORTH, Texas – As expected, the final practice before the Firestone 600 provided an excellent glimpse of what to expect in Saturday’s night race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Cars running in groups, using multiple lanes, passing and re-passing. The action was nonstop all around the 1.455-mile oval in the sunset session. Graham Rahal, who will start the race from the 13th position, led the way in the 30-minute evening practice with a lap of 213.935 mph in the No. 15 Mi-Jack/RLL Honda. Josef Newgarden was second at 213.318 mph in the No. 21 Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevrolet, which bodes well with the Ed Carpenter Racing driver starting from the fifth spot.

CLICK HERE: Firestone 600 practice 2 results; Firestone 600 combined practice results

The driver who may have had the most adventurous practice, however, was Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay. He was third quick in the No. 28 DHL Honda (212.981 mph), but that didn’t tell the story of the hectic 51 laps he turned that included side-by-side battles with a number of other competitors – most notably Juan Pablo Montoya.

“It was typical Texas,” said Hunter-Reay, the 2012 Verizon IndyCar Series champion whose best Texas Motor Speedway finish is second in nine previous races. He’ll go off 11th at the green flag Saturday.

“Everybody’s just getting a feel for where they can place their car. I think it’s going to be a good race tomorrow night and it’s going to be tight between Chevy and Honda. I think we have a pretty good car. We need to make some adjustments tonight; we’re always tweaking on it.”

A total of 897 incident-free laps were turned on the high-banked TMS oval. The most important circuits were run by Gabby Chaves, who completed just four laps in the morning practice before crashing his No. 19 Boy Scouts of America Honda into the Turn 4 SAFER Barrier.

Chaves missed qualifying in the afternoon while the car was repaired and desperately needed track time in the final practice. He got in 35 laps with a best speed of 210.536 mph.

“I’m extremely grateful for all the crew guys that worked all day and got the car back together so we can make this night practice,” said Chaves, who moved up 10 spots from his starting position to finish 10th a year ago at Texas when he drove for Bryan Herta Autosport. “For me, it was just trying to get up to speed, get back the confidence, and I felt good out there.

“I felt like I did last year, so now it’s just a matter of getting the car we want for the race and make our way to the front – like we did last year.”

Complete race coverage begins at 8 p.m. ET Saturday on NBCSN and the Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network. The green flag for the ninth race of the season and third on an oval is expected at 8:50 p.m.

Dixon looks to repeat 2015 charge to championship

In one way, Scott Dixon is in better stead than a year ago.

After eight races of the 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series season, Dixon sat third in the championship standings – but the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet driver recovered to win his fourth title on a tiebreaker. This year he’s second in points, but the margin to make up is greater.

Heading into Saturday night’s Firestone 600, Dixon trails Team Penske’s Simon Pagenaud by 80 points. A year ago at this time, the deficit was 63 points to Juan Pablo Montoya. Dixon went on to win at Texas in 2015, the beginning of his surge to the top.

He’s looking to kick-start a run toward a fifth championship in similar fashion this weekend.

“Second in points sounds good, but not when Pagenaud has an 80-point lead,” said Dixon, who will start this year’s race on the outside of Row 1. “With so much of the season to go, that can flip pretty quickly. If he has one bad race, myself or four or five that are really close around that second place can jump up pretty quickly.

“I think we've all got to keep our heads down and definitely make a race of the championship. By all means, it's halfway, so there's a lot of points left on the table. Hopefully we can swing it here quickly.”

The Firestone 600 will mark another milestone in a career for Dixon that’s seen him win 39 races (tied for fourth all time) and set a record at Phoenix in April by winning a race for the 12th straight season. When Dixon takes the green flag Saturday, it will be his 200th consecutive start – the third-longest streak in Indy car history.

Only teammate Tony Kanaan, who looks to make his record 257th straight start Saturday, and Jimmy Vasser, who ran in 211 straight races from 1993-2006, have longer streaks.

“Obviously I just love racing, it's a lot of fun,” Dixon said. “Obviously with a team like this, we've had a lot of success. For us, we just hope it continues. Yeah, it's been a run and hopefully we can do another 200 consecutive.”

Rossi has added Edge for Firestone 600

The No. 98 Andretti Herta Autosport with Curb-Agajanian car of Indianapolis 500 winner Alexander Rossi sports a familiar yet different look this weekend as Castrol Edge takes on the role of primary sponsor for the Firestone 600.

“It’s great to have Castrol Edge on as primary (sponsor) for this weekend,” Rossi said. “They’ve been a sponsor of Bryan and Bryan Herta Autosport for quite some time, so it’s great they are able to be a full sponsor this weekend. Hopefully we can have a great race for them and work on something more for the future.”

As part of the relationship, Castrol Edge will have an enhanced presence on the black-and-white livery to commemorate Rossi’s May 29 victory in the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil, with added green accents to the car.

“Castrol Edge has been a long-time partner of Bryan Herta Autosport and was welcomed into the Andretti stable with our team in February,” said team co-owner Herta. “Since 2013 we have seen our relationship grow and were thrilled when we first used the Supercar oil in our Honda engine at Pocono last year.

“It goes without saying Castrol Edge played a pivotal role in the success we had at the 100th Running of the Indy 500. It only makes sense for Castrol to have chosen the next speedway after IMS to celebrate the victory of Alexander, Castrol Edge and the team.”

Chevrolet Dual in Detroit sees record TV ratings and strong attendance

The Chevrolet Dual in Detroit presented by Quicken Loans at the Raceway at Belle Isle Park drew a weekend crowd estimated at 95,000 and set a Verizon IndyCar Series record for television viewership of a doubleheader weekend June 3-5.

Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix organizers said more than 25,000 fans attended June 3 on Comerica Bank Free Prix Day, approximately 40,000 fans were on hand for the first Dual on June 4 and more than 30,000 fans attended the June 5 race. It marked the fourth time in the last five years that attendance topped the 95,000 mark.

According to the final Nielsen ratings, both of the ABC national race broadcasts saw increased ratings and viewership over 2015. Race 1 drew a 0.7 rating (an increase of 17 percent from 2015) and 1.013 million viewers. Race 2’s rating was 0.9 (a 13 percent increase) with 1.397 million viewers. The viewership numbers for both days increased by more than 20 percent.

The two-day viewership of 2.41 million is the most ever for a series doubleheader weekend.

“These are truly great numbers for our event,” said Bud Denker, chairman of the grand prix, “but probably the most impressive thing we saw were the smiles on the fans’ faces all weekend long on Belle Isle. Everyone was having a great time enjoying the island and those are the best results we could hope for.”

Firestone 600 final practice results:

(R) Rookie (C)hassis: D=Dallara | (A)erokit: C=Chevy, H=Honda | (E)ngine: C=Chevy, H=Honda | (T)ire: F=Firestone

Total Laps: 897

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