Pagenaud ready to return focus to racing at Texas

Simon Pagenaud still has more than 2,000 messages left from his Indianapolis 500 victory, and he plans to respond to every one of them.

Maybe next week, when the IndyCar Series takes a break.

"I'm going to catch up on all of my messages," Pagenaud said Thursday. "I need to respond. ... So that will be my time to do that."

Pagenaud has been full-go since the May 26 win at the Brickyard with plenty of appearances, not to mention two more races at Detroit last weekend. There is still that invitation to visit the White House and maybe even an appearance at the NHL Awards later this month.

When he got to Texas, his No. 22 Penske team won a pit stop challenge on a downtown Fort Worth street before a…