For most of this 250-lap affair, it was Josef Newgarden vs. Patricio O'Ward. In the early stages, Newgarden held the advantage, but in the middle third of the race, O'Ward grabbed the race and ran away. He was over seven seconds ahead of Newgarden, and O'Ward lapped up to third. The late cautions brought not only Newgarden back to O'Ward's rear wing but many other drivers and O'Ward faced a gauntlet in the final laps.
It became more than Newgarden vs. O'Ward. Álex Palou was in the mix. Colton Herta shot up and led some laps, as did Romain Grosjean. Just after halfway, it looked like only two cars were going to finish on the lead lap. With 50 laps to go, it looked like any of six drivers could end this race as the winner. Moves for the lead were coming from multiple lanes. The high lane held the advantage one lap and that advantage would shift to the low line the next time by.
In the final stint, despite a multiplication in contenders, it still came down to Newgarden v. O'Ward. Either man was worthy of victory. They traded the lead four times in the final ten laps. It was going to come down to the final corner until Romain Grosjean hit the wall exiting turn two on the penultimate lap. Newgarden had just taken the lead after a side-by-side battle that lasted about eight laps.
Both Newgarden and O'Ward showcased nerves of steel. They were the best two on this day. Someone had to finish second. For Newgarden, it is his 26th career victory, his 12th on an oval. With two championships and a handful of top five championship finishes, Newgarden already has a good place for himself in IndyCar history. O'Ward is still making his mark. For each driver, this race will go down as one of their finest performances, one in victory, the other in defeat.
2. Don't touch Texas! After a five-year period of atrocious Texas races, IndyCar finally found something. IndyCar shouldn't touch the cars either. They were able to salvage a remarkable race despite the track surface being ruined after years of irresponsible use of PJ1 traction compound for the sake of NASCAR. In a collaborative effort, every car participated in a high line practice to wear in some rubber and make that line usable. IndyCar added more aero options to increase downforce. It worked.
This race had 1,272 total passes! That was almost double the previous most passes in a Texas race since 2018. The previous high, the 2018 race, had 688 passes. There were 482 passes for position in this race. None of the previous six Texas races had cracked 300 passes for position. The second race of the 2021 doubleheader had only 100 passes for position in 248 laps.
It is still not thrilling that Texas is such a question mark. The track surface should never be this much of a concern, but IndyCar made it work today. It took years of experimenting, but IndyCar finally found a winning formula at Texas.
3. Álex Palou went off strategy, stretching his final set of tires over 60 laps to have a shot at victory, and despite having tires nearly double in age of the other front-runners, Palou held his own and finished third. He is something special. Not many drivers I would trust in such a situation. Palou confirmed he is one of those few names on that list. He didn't quite have the same strength as Newgarden and O'Ward, but Palou can make something out of nothing. To be fair, Palou was running at the front for much of this race, but he was fighting with almost an arm tied behind his back in those closing laps considering how many cars had much fresher tires than Palou. Kudos to the Catalan.
4. In the last two oval races, David Malukas has had the race of his career in each. Last year at Gateway, Malukas went off and pull out a runner-up finish. Today at Texas, Malukas was in the top ten for basically every lap. Malukas climbed into the top five and he was with the big boys in the closing laps. There were a few close calls. Malukas unintentionally played a part in Romain Grosjean's accident, but Malukas didn't do anything wrong. He might have had that Gateway race last season, but these scenarios are still new to Malukas. He didn't crater in the moment. It was a strong drive and a strong result.
5. Scott Dixon hung at the front all race. Dixon wasn't quite on the same level as our top two finishers, but fifth was the worst he should have finished today. The car was good, but not great. Nothing wrong with that. Dixon brought the car home where it should have been. In doing so, this was Dixon's 194th top five finish, breaking a tie with Mario Andretti for most top five finishes in IndyCar history. We need to pause at times and realize what Dixon is doing. In 20 years, when mentioning IndyCar records, Dixon's name is going to come up a lot, and I am not sure many realize that now. Dixon will likely become the first driver to reach 200 top five finishes. He already has 53 victories, and 60 isn't unthinkable. As much as we acknowledge Dixon's greatness, I still don't think it is appreciated enough.
6. It was surprising to see Scott McLaughlin qualify 15th after the pace he showed in practice. McLaughlin was fighting from behind all race, but he was making up ground. He spent much of the race a lap down due to the pace of Newgarden and O'Ward, but McLaughlin was making up positions and was in the top ten when he could get a wave around after one of those late cautions. The car might not have been perfect today, but if McLaughlin had started in the top eight, I think he could have been a greater factor for victory. This is still a good finish for the New Zealander.
7. Considering how bad the season started for Andretti Autosport, Colton Herta spending the entire race running about seventh and finishing seventh is the basic thing the team needed. Late cautions brought Herta into the race for the victory. A podium result would have been flattering today, but Herta had a good race. The team nailed the pit stops. Nothing broke. Herta kept it out of the barrier. There have been plenty of oval races where Herta has been in it only for something to go wrong. He probably should already have an oval victory to his name. A Gateway victory got away from him. It wasn't going to be a victory today, but seventh is a worthy result.
8. Marcus Ericsson didn't look all that flashy in this race, but he made up ground over each stint and Ericsson comes home with a top ten finish. That is sometimes all you can ask for. Ericsson didn't overdrive the car and end up in the barrier. He knows the limit and maximize driving to it but not over it. This day could have been worse. Ericsson drops to second in the championship, but this day minimized the damage.
9. Two races and two top ten finishes for Callum Ilott. This is the most improved team through two races in 2023. Juncos Hollinger Racing looked good this weekend at Texas. There is room for growth, but JHR is far from where it was during its three-race sample at the end of the 2021 season. Ilott signed an extension with JHR before this season began. JHR better have a high buyout price, because Chip Ganassi Racing or Team Penske or McLaren may want Ilott's services soon. IndyCar is blessed to have Ilott. Ilott could be standing at the back of the Haas F1 garage like Pietro Fittipaldi and let his career die on the vine. Instead, we are getting to see a bright talent compete and raise his game.
10. This was a gift for Hélio Castroneves. Castroneves shouldn't have been tenth today. He made up some ground in this race, but he wasn't that good. He benefitted from late accidents and wavearounds. Credit to Castroneves for keeping his car moving forward and not losing ground. He and his team put himself in position to take advantage of a situation just like this one. You take them anyway you can get them.
11. Rinus VeeKay fell short of turning this race into a top ten finish, but he made great progress over this race. He couldn't quite get into top ten contention. VeeKay gained some spots due to late incidents, but this car was improved compared to its 26th-place starting position. VeeKay is currently hamstrung at Ed Carpenter Racing. When it clicks for VeeKay, he looks as good as O'Ward, Palou, Herta, and could be a leader for the next 15 years in IndyCar, but it seems like the team lets him down and these days become few and far between. VeeKay has tied himself to ECR for the next few seasons, but a change of scenery could yield better results.
12. Two races, two 12th-place finishes, I am not sure Agustín Canapino could have asked for a better start to his IndyCar career. This is an extraordinary change for Canapino from driving touring cars in Argentina. Through two races, he hasn't looked out of place. There would have been forgiveness if he did considering he has next to no single-seater experience, and this was his first oval race. Canapino wasn't set up for success in this move. Ninety-nine times out of 100 this move would not work. It has only been two races, but if Canapino has been 12th in each race and with no incidents over either of the two race weekends, I don't think he is going to have a big wakeup call. Indianapolis might be another story, but we can probably dismiss there being a race where Canapino looks like a liability.
13. Ed Carpenter didn't do much and he finished 13th. Carpenter never looked like he was going to finish in the top ten, but he never looked lost out there. He was fine. It has been confusing that Ed Carpenter Racing can show some potential at Indianapolis almost every year, but in the other oval races the team isn't close. In the middle of last decade, ECR was a contender at almost every oval race. In the last four or five seasons, ECR has fallen, and it is disappointing because an extra car or two at the front makes a race better.
14. Romain Grosjean caught the wake off of David Malukas' car on the penultimate lap and that sent Grosjean into the wall exiting turn two. The incident dropped Grosjean from what should have been a top five finish down to 14th. Grosjean spent much of this race at the front and as the best Andretti Autosport car. It is a shame Grosjean didn't get to see it to the end, especially for the second consecutive race, as he probably should have been no worse than second at St. Petersburg, and he should have been no worse than fifth in this one. Combine those results and Grosjean should be in the top two of the championship and possibly leading in points. Instead he is 15th, which is not an accurate representation of his season so far.
15. Benjamin Pedersen was the top A.J. Foyt Racing finisher in 15th, which is basically a victory for this group. Pedersen was in the middle of the field nearly the entire race. He did take a dip for a part of it and Pedersen gained a few spots due to incidents, but completing 248 laps in his first IndyCar oval race is a good first experience.
16. Will Power never looked like the man to beat today, and a pit lane penalty for hitting personnel when his left rear tire wasn't secure took what was likely going to be an underwhelming day into disappointment. A top ten results was going to be fair, nothing special, but a good result in the larger championship picture. It is the kind of result Power built his 2022 championship off of. Power didn't have many bad days. A bad day was eighth. One race will go against you, but you hate to threw it away this early.
17. While Hélio Castroneves found some speed and benefitted from the rash of cautions and wavearounds, Simon Pagenaud didn't, though he started out better than Castroneves. Pagenaud went the wrong direction, and this has been a tough start to his season. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing wasn't brilliant at Texas last year, and somehow the team got worse. Jack Harvey and Christian Lundgaard were 18th and 19th. All three cars were lapped within the first 40 laps. Last year, RLLR struggled for speed at Indianapolis as well. With a better chance of a 34th entry than last year, RLLR could be getting nervous as May approaches.
18. Like Meyer Shank Racing, where one car improved and another didn't, Ed Carpenter Racing had the same. Conor Daly couldn't figure it out today. ECR has struggled at Texas the last few years. Santino Ferrucci was running better than his teammate Pedersen today, but then an equipment issued dropped Ferrucci four laps down. Ferrucci likely would not have finished in the top ten, but 12th or 13th would have been a great day for A.J. Foyt Racing.
19. Alexander Rossi's day was ruined when he and Kyle Kirkwood made contact in the pit lane. Rossi was exiting his pit stall while Kirkwood was coming in. Rossi earned an unsafe release penalty, but the damage was already done to his right front suspension, rendering the penalty rather moot. Some pointed to Kirkwood as at fault, but I disagree. Kirkwood wasn't blameless, but the responsibility falls on the driver leaving the pit stall not to make contact. It is difficult to tell a driver to wait a second, but Rossi's team should have done better there. Rossi continued, but he was seven laps down and 22nd was the best he could have hoped for.
As for Kirkwood, who ended up retiring after completing 97 laps when he had rear-right issues, he cannot buy himself a good day. The weekend wasn't going well from the start. Kirkwood was 20th in qualifying, but he finds trouble. We are waiting for Kirkwood to have a breakout. It never came at Foyt, and it fell apart in the St. Petersburg season opener. Kirkwood's goal at Long Beach should be just to see the checkered flag.
20. Devlin DeFrancesco drove respectably today. A top ten looked highly likely for most of this race. Then DeFrancesco hit the wall exiting turn two, damaging his right side, and he slid off the apron and onto the track when trying to get to the pit lane. Unfortunately, DeFrancesco ended up in the path of Graham Rahal. Rahal had nowhere to go but into the back of DeFrancesco. Rahal's day wasn't going well at that point already, but this is the second consecutive year DeFrancesco has taken out Rahal at Texas.
Sting Ray Robb got into the wall in turn two. He just got caught high (and then slammed in the inside barrier). Felix Rosenqvist threw away what should have been a top ten day when he got into the turn two wall. Takuma Sato had a similar accident as Robb exiting turn two on lap 47. Sato could not afford that incident considering Ganassi has only guaranteed him Texas and Indianapolis, and the team is ready to put in Marcus Armstrong for the other three oval races. Unless Sato finishes in the top five at Indianapolis, I think this result cemented Armstrong's oval plans for this summer.
21. Before today, I was wondering if Texas is worth saving. Even if the race improved, would it matter in drawing people back to the track?
Texas has become such a toxic racetrack in American motorsports. Nobody looks forward to a Texas race anymore. NASCAR is down to one Texas weekend. Many want the track converted into the short track, really anything but its present form. IndyCar has had such a wishy-washy relationship with the track that it has felt like Texas is on the verge of falling off the schedule for the last ten years, but the two parties always work out a deal. But considering the reaction the track draws, could the greatest race in the world be enough to draw more people out in 2024 and onward?
IndyCar couldn't have asked for much of a better race today. I couldn't tell if the crowd was better this year or if the crowd was just more spread out in the grandstand. It still wasn't good. However, who wouldn't want to attend next year if the race is going to look like what we saw today?
There are many things that must be improved on. The 11:00 a.m. local start isn't helping, but in this age of looking to maximize network television time, this is the window that is open for IndyCar, just before the Valero Texas Open golf tournament. On the bright side, this race got in before the NASCAR Cup race began.
I don't know what is the right circumstances for a Texas IndyCar race in terms of time of year and time of day. Is there a weekend where 2:00 p.m. Eastern on a Sunday is open and IndyCar at Texas will not be against a NASCAR Cup race at that time? That window just doesn't appear to exist with the number of Cuip races that start at 3:30 p.m. Eastern on Sunday. Either IndyCar runs at 11:00 a.m. local and shortchanges the possible crowd or it goes head-to-head with a Cup race and shortchanges its television audience, a lose-lose proposition.
If there is any victory from today, it is we saw a race worth everyone's time today. Drivers were able to use multiple lanes to make passes. A car could go from fifth to first. We didn't have an accident every time a car got off the bottom. We now have a race that works. Can we work out how to grow this race to look like an event people watching at home wish they were attending?
22. We just had a month between the first two IndyCar races, now we have a fortnight until Long Beach.
