Penske’s Josef Newgarden won his second Texas Motor Speedway race in a row as a late Romain Grosjean crash from fifth ended a barnstorming race which reminded onlookers of Texas IndyCar events of old.
It was a fantastic start as drivers were able to race two-wide thanks to aero updates on the car and a special practice session to rubber in the high side of the racetrack, as well as the race being supported by NASCAR Trucks.
Newgarden, Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward and Ganassi’s Scott Dixon swapped the lead before fuel saving, and then Takuma Sato trying to avoid the sinking Will Power sent Sato high and then into a spin and crash into the inside wall off Turn 2.
Newgarden led all of the next stint before taking a relatively early stop to benefit from an undercut with fresh tyres, but O’Ward erased a two second gap and took the lead on lap 129 of 250, proceeding to lap the whole field apart from Newgarden.
He was so fast high and low on the track passing cars as if in a video-game with the difficulty set to easy.
O’Ward held the lead through the following pitstop on lap 169 before just a few laps later his polesitting team-mate Felix Rosenqvist got too high and crashed in Turn 4.
O’Ward and Newgarden pitted to top off with fuel in case a later caution meant they could avoid a final stop.
That decision unlapped six cars who took their laps back and then pitted, but as they did pit, Newgarden joined them and topped off his fuel giving him five laps more fuel than O’Ward – who then had to save fuel.
The restart and fresh tyres encouraged brilliant side-by-side racing with Ganassi’s Alex Palou rounding Newgarden and O’Ward for the lead before Newgarden reasserted himself as fuel saving meant lead swapping with Andretti pair Romain Grosjean and Colton Herta and Penske’s Scott McLaughlin in the mix.
Sting Ray Robb crashed alone with 40 laps to go bringing out a final caution that everyone pitted from for tyres apart from Palou, who stayed out.
O’Ward made his way back to the lead as Herta hit the back of Grosjean then Grosjean hit Newgarden side-on into Turn 1 before another caution for Graham Rahal hitting the crashed Devlin DeFrancesco further back.
Dejavu Moment.@GrahamRahal and @DevlinDeFran make contact on lap 223 bringing out the yellow flag.
📺: @nbc & @peacock #INDYCAR // #PPG375 pic.twitter.com/NhHQV7CQZh
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) April 2, 2023
Grosjean and Dixon pitted to emerge seventh and eighth but on fresh tyres.
O’Ward and Newgarden found their way past Palou and went wheel-to-wheel – touching on the main straight with three to go – before really, really late drama.
Grosjean crashed out of the lead pack with two laps to go as Newgarden had just taken the lead, meaning the race finished under yellow and Newgarden won the second Texas race in a row after an engine fire ruined his season-opener in St Petersburg.
Not the way @RGrosjean wanted his day to end. #INDYCAR
A look at the race-ending caution. pic.twitter.com/QwC90KQnXL
— INDYCAR on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) April 2, 2023
Newgarden didn’t do the usually obligatory victory donuts because he said he likes his engine too much to risk damaging it.
A deflated O’Ward at least leaves with the championship lead – after he was robbed of victory in St Pete after a plenum fire cost him – but had to settle for second.
Palou on older tyres drove his best oval race since the 2021 Indianapolis 500 with third, ahead of David Malukas.
Malukas, the impressive Coyne driver, was saved by team-mate Robb’s crash as the previous caution he hadn’t pitted when he had meant to, although it’s unclear if that was his or the team’s error.
Palou checking up at Turn 2 created dirty air which contributed to Grosjean sliding up and clipping Malukas, with Malukas luckily unscathed.
Dixon took fifth ahead of McLaughlin and Herta, the only drivers left on the lead lap.
Marcus Ericsson, Callum Ilott and Helio Castroneves rounded out the top 10. Grosjean was classified 14th.
Race Results
Pos | Name | Team | Car | Laps | Laps Led | Total Time | Fastest Lap | Pitstops | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 250 | 123 | 2h7m07.265s | 23.703s | 6 | 53 |
2 | Patricio O'Ward | Arrow McLaren SP | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 250 | 91 | +1.284s | 23.447s | 5 | 41 |
3 | Alex Palou | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara DW12-Honda | 250 | 22 | +1.884s | 23.471s | 4 | 36 |
4 | David Malukas | Dale Coyne Racing/HMD Motorsports | Dallara DW12-Honda | 250 | 0 | +2.117s | 23.771s | 4 | 32 |
5 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara DW12-Honda | 250 | 3 | +2.438s | 23.581s | 5 | 31 |
6 | Scott McLaughlin | Team Penske | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 250 | 0 | +4.136s | 23.906s | 5 | 28 |
7 | Colton Herta | Andretti Autosport | Dallara DW12-Honda | 250 | 4 | +6.423s | 23.511s | 4 | 27 |
8 | Marcus Ericsson | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara DW12-Honda | 249 | 0 | +1 lap | 23.816s | 6 | 24 |
9 | Callum Ilott | Juncos Hollinger Racing | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 249 | 0 | +1 lap | 23.953s | 6 | 22 |
10 | Hélio Castroneves | Meyer Shank Racing | Dallara DW12-Honda | 249 | 0 | +1 lap | 23.787s | 5 | 20 |
11 | Rinus VeeKay | Ed Carpenter Racing | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 249 | 0 | +1 lap | 23.983s | 6 | 19 |
12 | Agustín Canapino | Juncos Hollinger Racing | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 249 | 0 | +1 lap | 23.804s | 6 | 18 |
13 | Ed Carpenter | Ed Carpenter Racing | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 249 | 0 | +1 lap | 23.843s | 6 | 17 |
14 | Romain Grosjean | Andretti Autosport | Dallara DW12-Honda | 248 | 2 | +2 laps | 23.546s | 5 | 17 |
15 | Benjamin Pedersen | AJ Foyt Racing | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 248 | 0 | +2 laps | 23.723s | 6 | 15 |
16 | Will Power | Team Penske | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 248 | 0 | +2 laps | 23.649s | 7 | 14 |
17 | Simon Pagenaud | Meyer Shank Racing | Dallara DW12-Honda | 247 | 0 | +3 laps | 23.924s | 6 | 13 |
18 | Jack Harvey | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | Dallara DW12-Honda | 247 | 0 | +3 laps | 24.183s | 6 | 12 |
19 | Christian Lundgaard | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | Dallara DW12-Honda | 247 | 0 | +3 laps | 23.896s | 6 | 11 |
20 | Conor Daly | Ed Carpenter Racing | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 246 | 0 | +4 laps | 24.153s | 7 | 10 |
21 | Santino Ferrucci | AJ Foyt Racing | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 246 | 0 | +4 laps | 23.866s | 7 | 9 |
22 | Alexander Rossi | Arrow McLaren SP | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 243 | 0 | +7 laps | 23.727s | 7 | 8 |
Devlin DeFrancesco | Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport | Dallara DW12-Honda | 221 | 0 | DNF | 23.849s | 5 | 7 | |
Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | Dallara DW12-Honda | 219 | 0 | DNF | 24.086s | 5 | 6 | |
Sting Ray Robb | Dale Coyne Racing | Dallara DW12-Honda | 208 | 1 | DNF | 23.879s | 4 | 6 | |
Felix Rosenqvist | Arrow McLaren SP | Dallara DW12-Chevrolet | 177 | 4 | DNF | 23.455s | 3 | 7 | |
Kyle Kirkwood | Andretti Autosport | Dallara DW12-Honda | 97 | 0 | DNF | 24.207s | 2 | 5 | |
Takuma Sato | Chip Ganassin Racing | Dallara DW12-Honda | 46 | 0 | DNF | 24.057s | 0 | 5 |