Stefano Coletti had a race weekend that was a world apart from his full time Verizon IndyCar Series rookie of the year candidate Gabby Chaves at the Firestone 600, but the former GP2 competitor made it out of Texas Motor Speedway unscathed.

A rough start to the weekend

Coletti’s weekend started off with a technical problem that caused them to lose 35 minutes of the first 75 minute practice. He qualified last but was able to keep his car out of the wall to finish 19th, but not without some heart-stopping moments.

I learned that you need to do laps and laps and laps to get the confidence to get the line to get everything right and it just comes, it’s just something that we’re not used to coming from Europe Stefano Coletti

Coletti locked up the rears heading to his last pit stop and nearly spun, but managed to not hit anything and pitted the next time by.

“Well I braked too late coming in the pits, and when I put it in first gear it locked the rears, both rears locked up, and I just barely saved it, and then I was like ‘I’m not going to pit now because I might crash into my guys so I just put it back on the road and did one more lap,” Coletti explained.

Gaining confidence

Coletti was learning as he went through just his second ever oval race and felt quite confident in his car and his abilities.

“The first 150 laps were tough, but then the car started to feel better, I started to get more experienced in the track and changing my line and changing the way I was applying the throttle in the corners, and in the end I was good the last forty laps. I wish there would be another race right now to reset everything and restart,” Coletti said.

This was Coletti’s first mile and a half oval race and he realized he has a lot to learn.

“I learned that you need to do laps and laps and laps to get the confidence to get the line to get everything right and it just comes, it’s just something that we’re not used to coming from Europe and it’s something that we need to adapt so we need some laps,”

“I wasn’t very confident going into the race, but I’m pretty confident now leaving the race,” Coletti said.

He finished 19th at Texas after starting 23rd.