"I'm proud of our accomplishment, knowing we put together some of the best laps of the weekend," said Foust, who was racing at the Nyirádi Motorsport track for the first time, in a news release. "The second-place finish is a little bittersweet. It's hard knowing we had the tools, but didn't convert them to a win."

Foust (19 points), who won the inaugural GRC championship in 2011, is second behind Gronholm (22 points) in the 2012 overall standings, followed by Stephan Verdier (15) in third. The top 12 drivers after the first two rounds will be invited to compete at the X Games in Los Angeles later this month, so the racing in Texas promises to be intense.

The folks at Texas Motor Speedway are calling the race "Hoon Kaboom," because hoon means crazy, dangerous driving in Australia. You can watch Saturday's GRC races live beginning at 4:30 p.m. ET on ESPN3 and tape-delayed at 1 a.m. ET Sunday on ESPN2.

Saturday's race at Texas will be the first of three events in which GRC drivers will compete for the Discount Tire-America's Tire Cup. The driver with the most points from Texas, New Hampshire (July 14) and Las Vegas (Sept. 29) will win the trophy and $25,000 at the season finale at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.