Josef Newgarden is the latest winner from Texas Motor Speedway, with the two-time champion showing his skills to make a pass for the lead coming to the finish line.
Newgarden was running in second place for much of the final stint of the race, unable to get closer than one second behind his Australian team-mate.
A fortunate group of lapped traffic came around just at the right time, however, and the 31-year-old veteran was able to drive past the driver that led over two-thirds of the laps on the day.
An elated Newgarden nearly fell over climbing out of his car, and could not stop laughing during the television interviews in pit lane. The final margin of victory was only 0.067 seconds at the line.
There were multiple crashes in the middle third of the 248-lap race, leading to quite a few drivers retiring from the race early.
Takuma Sato was the first driver to hit the wall after a bump and run by rookie Devlin DeFrancesco. Sato could drive back to the pits, but was forced to retire his car.
Only one lap after the field took the green, another rookie Kyle Kirkwood got into the traction compound in the upper lane and was not able to save his AJ Foyt Racing Chevy. Kirkwood was able to walk away uninjured from his wrecked car.
On the ensuing restart, less than one lap was completed before the biggest crash of the race took place. DeFrancesco made a bold move to make it three wide into turn 3, and ended up putting himself as well as Graham Rahal and Helio Castroneves into the wall.
By this point, only 19 of the original 27 cars were still running. But the final third of the race was a great show for the fans.
There was lots of dicing back and forth among the entirety of the field, with the second groove working much better than it has in recent years.
Jimmie Johnson was making bold moves with the best of them, and powered his Chip Ganassi Racing Honda to a sixth-place finish. The result was far better than any of his previous IndyCar efforts, and will put to rest some calls for him to retire after a long career spent in NASCAR.
Jack Harvey did not take part in the race due to no passing concussion protocol after a hard crash on Saturday. Ferrucci got the call to fill in late Sunday morning, stepped into the car with no practice, and ended the day in 10th position.
The exciting finish could go a long way to helping Texas Motor Speedway secure a contract extension following speculation all weekend if the series will return next year.
IndyCar takes another two week break, and will return on April 10 for the Grand Prix of Long Beach.
| # | Driver | Time / Gap | Laps led | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Josef Newgarden | 02:09:29.7270 | 3 | 51 |
| 2 | Scott McLaughlin | 0.0669 | 186 | 43 |
| 3 | Marcus Ericsson | 1.3537 | 10 | 36 |
| 4 | Will Power | 15.2230 | 20 | 33 |
| 5 | Scott Dixon | 15.6736 | – | 30 |
| 6 | Jimmie Johnson | 18.0939 | – | 28 |
| 7 | Alex Palou | 19.1937 | – | 26 |
| 8 | Simon Pagenaud | 22.4649 | – | 24 |
| 9 | Santino Ferrucci | 24.4149 | – | 22 |
| 10 | Rinus VeeKay | 25.4840 | 5 | 21 |
| 11 | David Malukas | 26.0503 | 3 | 20 |
| 12 | Colton Herta | -1 lap | – | 18 |
| 13 | Ed Carpenter | -1 lap | 4 | 18 |
| 14 | JR Hildebrand | -1 lap | 1 | 17 |
| 15 | Pato O’Ward | -1 lap | – | 15 |
| 16 | Callum Ilott | -1 lap | 5 | 15 |
| 17 | Dalton Kellett | -2 laps | – | 13 |
| 18 | Conor Daly | -3 laps | – | 12 |
| 19 | Christian Lundgaard | -15 laps | – | 11 |
| 20 | Takuma Sato | -108 laps | 5 | 11 |
| 21 | Felix Rosenqvist | -110 laps | – | 10 |
| 22 | Graham Rahal | -120 laps | – | 8 |
| 23 | Helio Castroneves | -120 laps | 1 | 8 |
| 24 | Devlin DeFrancesco | -120 laps | – | 6 |
| 25 | Kyle Kirkwood | -135 laps | 5 | 6 |
| 26 | Romain Grosjean | -145 laps | – | 5 |
| 27 | Alexander Rossi | -237 laps | – | 5 |
