First Impressions: Texas 2023

1. After many concerns about returning to Texas, this year's race will go down as one of the best we have seen at the 1.5-mile oval, and there have been many sensational races at Texas Motor Speedway. 

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.

Morning Warm-Up: Texas 2023

For the second consecutive year, Felix Rosenqvist won pole position at Texas Motor Speedway. It is Rosenqvist's fourth career pole position. He had a two lap average at 220.264 mph, the only driver to get into the 220 mph bracket. The Swede's qualifying time was 0.1802 seconds slower than his pole position last season. Rosenqvist becomes the ninth driver with multiple pole positions at Texas and the fifth driver to win consecutive pole positions at the track joining Tony Stewart, Tomas Scheckter, Alex Tagliani and Will Power. Rosenqvist has never finished in the top ten in the second race of the season. Rosenqvist's average finish in five Texas starts is 16.4.

Scott Dixon was 0.0624 seconds slower than Rosenqvist, and Dixon will start second. This is Dixon's ninth front row start in 25 Texas appearances. His average finish when starting on the front row at Texas is fifth. Dixon opened the season with a third-place finish at St. Petersburg. That tied Dixon with Mario Andretti for most top five finishes in IndyCar history. The two drivers have 193 top five finishes. Only three times in his career has Dixon opened the season with consecutive podium finishes. He did it in 2007, 2012 and 2020. The only of those three seasons he won the championship was 2020. 

Alexander Rossi qualified third, 0.065 seconds off his McLaren teammate Rosenqvist' pole-winning time. This is Rossi's best start on an oval since he started second at Pocono in 2019, but qualifying was rained out for that Pocono race. This is his best qualifying run on an oval since he started third at Pocono in 2018, Rossi's most recent oval victory. He has finished outside the top twenty in the second race of the season the last three years. Rossi is looking for his fourth consecutive top ten finish. It would be his longest streak since he had four consecutive podium finishes in 2020.

Josef Newgarden will start on the outside of row two. Newgarden was 0.0992 seconds off Rosenqvist. This is only the fifth time Newgarden will start in the top five at Texas. In three of those previous four occasions Newgarden has finished outside the top ten. The two-time Texas winner has finished on the podium in the second race of the season in five of the last six seasons, including two victories, both of which were on ovals. Newgarden has never won from fourth starting position in his IndyCar career.

Patricio O'Ward makes it three McLaren cars in the top five, as O'Ward was 0.1382 seconds slower than his Swedish teammate. This is the sixth time in the last seven races O'Ward has started in the top five and the 15th time in the last 16 races he has started in the top ten. O'Ward was second at the St. Petersburg season opener. Three of O'Ward's four career victories have come after finishing on the podium in the previous race. All four of his victories have come in races following a top five finish.

Takuma Sato makes his first start of 2023 and it will come from sixth on the grid. Sato's only top five finish at Texas was fifth in the first race of the 2011 doubleheader. Sato has four top ten finishes at Texas and five finishes outside the top fifteen in 14 Texas starts. He has finished worse than his starting position in 11 Texas races. Sato could become the fourth driver to win on his Chip Ganassi Racing debut oning Michael Andretti, Dan Wheldon and Álex Palou. Speaking of Álex Palou...

Álex Palou qualified seventh, only 0.0061 seconds off his new Ganassi teammate Sato. This is Palou's third top ten start in five Texas races. He has three consecutive top ten finishes at Texas. The Spaniard had four top ten finishes in five oval races last season. He has seven top ten finishes in nine oval starts with Chip Ganassi Racing. He is still looking for his first oval victory in IndyCar. 

Will Power wound up eighth on the grid. Only twice has Power won from eighth starting position in his career, and both times came in 2016 when he won the second Belle Isle race and at Pocono. Power was seventh in St. Petersburg. Only once before has Power finished seventh in the season opener. He was seventh in the 2012 season opener at St. Petersburg. Power won the second race that season at Barber. 

David Malukas ended up ninth in qualifying. Dating back to last season, this is the third time in the last four races and fourth time in the last six events that Malukas has started in the top ten. He had top ten finishes in his last two oval starts, including a runner-up at Gateway last August. His worst oval finish was 16th at Indianapolis and he completed 1,257 of 1,258 oval laps contested in 2022.

Colton Herta rounds out the top ten in the grid, and he leads three consecutive Andretti entries in the starting lineup. Herta was 0.2319 seconds off the pole position time. This is the fifth time in six Texas appearances the Californian has qualified in the top ten. He has won the second round of the season in each of his two odd-numbered season, one of which was his first career victory at Austin in 2019. 

Romain Grosjean leads an all-Andretti row six. Grosjean is making his 32nd career start. Five drivers have had their first career victory come in their 32nd career start. The most recent was James Hinchcliffe at St. Petersburg in 2013. The 11th-place starter has only won once at Texas, and it was the inaugural race when Arie Luyendyk won, though after a scoring error was found and the results amended. 

Devlin DeFrancesco starts 12th, his second best starting position on an oval in his IndyCar career. DeFrancesco could become the second Canadian to win at Texas Motor Speedway. Scott Goodyear won at Texas in June 1999 and October 2000. Nine different nationalities have won in the 35 Texas races. Only four of them have had multiple winners (United States, Brazil, Australia and the United Kingdom).

Benjamin Pedersen makes his IndyCar oval debut from 13th starting position, and the Dane is leading an all-A.J. Foyt Racing row seven. Pedersen is still looking to complete his first race lap in IndyCar competition after being caught in the opening lap incident at St. Petersburg. In four oval starts in Indy Lights, Pedersen was the third-place finisher three times, all of those coming at Gateway. 

Santino Ferrucci will start 14th. Despite his oval results, this will be Ferrucci's best starting position at Texas. His previous best was 18th. Ferrucci's worst oval finish came at Texas in 2020. Ferrucci was 21st after a pit lane issue. Along with 21st-place finish at Belle Isle last year, he has finished outside the top twenty in two consecutive starts. Ferrucci has never finished outside the top twenty in three consecutive starts. 

Scott McLaughlin topped the opening practice, but McLaughlin ended up 15th in qualifying, 0.3225 seconds slower than Rosenqvist. McLaughlin started 15th in his first Texas race, which was also his first oval race ever, and he ended up finishing second. McLaughlin could become the seventh Team Penske driver to win at Texas Motor Speedway. Team Penske leads all organizations with ten victories at the track. 

Two of the three Texas podium finishers last year will start on row eight, as Marcus Ericsson will start to McLaughlin's outside. This is the fifth time in six Texas appearances Ericsson will start outside the top ten. Ericsson's eight career podium finishes have come at seven different circuits, including his third at Texas last year. The only track where Ericsson has multiple podium finishes is Belle Isle. 

Callum Ilott returns to Texas for the second time and will start 17th. Ilott is coming off his first career top five finish in his 19th career start. Six drivers have had their first career podium finish come in their 20th career start. The most recent driver to do it was Justin Wilson, whose first career podium finish was his first career victory at Toronto in 2005. The worst starting position for a Texas winner is 17th when Justin Wilson won in 2012. 

Ed Carpenter will be on the outside of row nine. This will be the tenth consecutive Texas race Carpenter has started outside the top ten. The last time Carpenter started in the top ten was 2014 when he won from fifth on the grid. In the last nine Texas races, Carpenter has led a combined six laps and his average finish is 14.444. His only top ten finish in that stretch was fifth in the 2020 race.

Agustín Canapino will be making his oval debut this weekend and he will start 19th, qualifying 0.4089 seconds off Rosenqvist's pole time. Canapino was 24th and 15th in the two practice sessions with a combined 89 laps completed over the two sessions. His only other time on an oval was at Texas last month for his oval test.

Kyle Kirkwood qualified 20th, three spots better than his starting position last year. This is the third time Kirkwood has started 20th in his career on an oval. He has never started better than 20th in six oval appearances and his average oval starting position is 22.5. Kirkwood has not had a top ten finish in his last 15 starts. Kirkwood has finished outside the top twenty in eight of those 15 races. 

Hélio Castroneves leads an all-Meyer Shank Racing row 11, as neither car could crack the top twenty. This is the second time since expanding to two cars that MSR has failed to qualify a car in the top twenty. The other time was the first Iowa race last year. This is Castroneves' worst starting position at Texas. His previous worst was 15th in 2012. The Brazilian has not had a top ten finish in his last nine starts. This is Castroneves' longest top ten drought in his career. His previous worst stretch was seven races, which occurred in his rookie season in 1998.

Simon Pagenaud's 22nd starting position is the second worst at Texas. Pagenaud started 23rd in 2013 and ended up finishing 13th. The Frenchman failed to complete a lap in St. Petersburg. It was only the second time in Pagenaud's career he has not completed a lap in a race. The other was at Long Beach in 2018. His 26th-place result at St. Petersburg was the worst result of his IndyCar career, and it came in his 200th start. 

Sting Ray Robb makes his IndyCar oval debut from 23rd position. It is the second consecutive race Robb has started 23rd. Robb never won an oval race in Road to Indy competition. Robb made 11 oval starts between Indy Pro 2000 and Indy Lights. His best oval result was second at Indianapolis Raceway Park in the 2019 Indy Pro 2000 race.

Graham Rahal was the top Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing qualifier in 24th. This is the second consecutive year RLLR's best Texas qualifier was in 24th position. Rahal started 27th in this race last year. Last season, Graham Rahal's best finish on an oval was ninth in the first Iowa race. It was only the third time in the ten seasons he did not have a top five result on an oval. This is the first time Graham Rahal is the top RLLR starter since last year's Indianapolis 500.

Conor Daly qualified 25th, his worst start at Texas, but only his second worst starting position of the season. Daly started 26th at St. Petersburg last month. Daly has finished outside the top fifteen in his last three Texas starts and in four of seven races at the 1.5-mile oval. Daly has not had a top ten finish in his last 12 races. 

Rinus VeeKay makes it an all-Ed Carpenter Racing row 13. This 26th starting position is the worst starting position of VeeKay's IndyCar career. He has finished in the top ten of the second race of the season in each of his first three seasons in IndyCar. VeeKay has finished in the top ten in his last two Texas starts with an average finish of 9.5 after having an average finish of 21st in his first two Texas starts. 

Christian Lundgaard leads an all-RLLR row 14. This is the second consecutive season RLLR has taken the final two starting positions at Texas. Lundgaard has finished in the top ten in his last two starts. Lundgaard has yet to have three consecutive top ten finishes in his IndyCar career, and his best oval finish was tenth in the first Iowa race last year. 

Jack Harvey rounds out the field in 28th position. Harvey was 0.9063 seconds of Felix Rosenqvist. Harvey's average finish in four oval starts last season was 21.5 with his best finish being 18th in the first Iowa race. The worst starting position for a winner in IndyCar history is 28th. Ray Harroun won the first Indianapolis 500 from 28th, Louis Meyer won the 1936 Indianapolis 500 from 28th and Hélio Castroneves won the 2008 Chicagoland race from 28th. 

NBC's coverage of the PPG 375 begins at noon Eastern with green flag schedule for 12:10 ET. The race is scheduled for 250 laps.

Track Walk: Texas 2023

The second round of the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series season is at Texas Motor Speedway, the first of five oval races this season. Only twice since reunification has the winner of the first oval race of the season gone on to win the championship. In both cases that oval race was the opening race of the season, and in both cases Scott Dixon was the race winner. The winner of the first oval race has finished in the top five of the championship in ten of the last 15 seasons and finished in the top ten of the championship in 13 of 15 seasons. The last nine champions were in the top ten of the first oval race of the season, seven of which had a top five finish. This will be the longest IndyCar race ever held at Texas Motor Speedway. The race has increased to 250 laps, two laps more than last year. Eight Texas races were ran to 248 laps in distance. Twenty-eight cars are entered for this year's Texas race, the largest field since 30 cars entered the 2011 Texas doubleheader.

Coverage

Time: Coverage begins at 12:00 p.m. ET on Sunday April 2 with green flag scheduled for 12:10 p.m. ET.
Channel: NBC
Announcers: Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will be in the booth. Marty Snider and Dave Burns will work pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule

Saturday:

First Practice: 9:00 p.m. ET (60 minutes)

Qualifying: 12:15 p.m. ET 

Second Practice: 1:45 p.m. ET (30 minutes)

Final Practice: 2:30 p.m. ET (60 minutes)
Sunday:
Race: 12:10 p.m. ET (250 laps)

* - All sessions will be available live on Peacock

Advantage Chevrolet and Team Penske

Oval races have been Chevrolet's playground for most of the DW12-era but especially over the last few seasons. Chevrolet won four of five oval races last season, leading 1,017 of the 1,258 laps, and the American manufacturer has won six of the last nine oval races. 

Team Penske is responsible for most of those victories, winning four of those six, and Josef Newgarden has won all four. Newgarden won three oval races last season, the first driver with three oval victories in a season since Scott Dixon in 2009. Newgarden's ten oval victories is the most in the DW12-era. The next closest driver is Newgarden's Penske teammate Will Power, who has won eight times in the last 59 oval races, but Power has not won on an oval since Pocono 2019.

The 2022 oval champion was Patricio O'Ward. With 226 points, O'Ward took top spot with his victory in the second Iowa race being the high-water mark for the Mexican. O'Ward had top five finishes in each of the final four oval races last season, starting with a runner-up finish in the Indianapolis 500. O'Ward is the only non-Penske Chevrolet driver to win an oval race in the last 31 oval races. His first career victory was the second race of the 2021 Texas doubleheader. 

Newgarden, Power and O'Ward combine for Chevrolet's last eight oval victories, but the bow-tie brigade has ten other drivers on its bench looking to earn a victory. 

Scott McLaughlin has been knocking on the door of his first career oval victory. In three Texas starts, McLaughlin has finished second twice, including last year when he led 186 laps only to be passed off the final corner when Josef Newgarden made a move around the outside stick and took victory by 0.0669 seconds. McLaughlin's average finish of fourth is the best among drivers with at least three Texas starts. McLaughlin was on the podium in three of five oval races last season with a pair of thirds in the second Iowa race and at Gateway. In nine oval starts, he has four podium finishes and five top five results. 

Felix Rosenqvist started on the pole position last year at Texas but a halfshaft problem ended Rosenqvist's race after completing 138 laps. He did pick up his first career top five oval finish last season when he was fourth at Indianapolis. Alexander Rossi had eight podium finishes in his first 16 oval starts. However, in Rossi's last 20 oval starts, he has only two podium finishes, a runner-up in the 2019 Indianapolis 500 and a runner-up in the following race at Texas. His only other top five finish on an oval since 2019 was fifth in last year's Indianapolis 500.

Ed Carpenter Racing has not won an oval race since Iowa 2016 with Josef Newgarden. ECR will field three cars this weekend with Ed Carpenter joining Rinus VeeKay and Conor Daly. In 12 Texas races, ECR has one victory, three top five finishes and five top ten finishes out of 20 starts. 

A.J. Foyt Racing has its home race with Santino Ferrucci and Benjamin Pedersen as its drivers. Ferrucci has finished fourth, 21st and ninth in his three Texas starts. Foyt has two top ten finishes in the last 12 Texas races and it has not had a top five finish at Texas since Airton Daré was third in the June 2002 race behind Jeff Ward and Al Unser, Jr.

Juncos Racing will have Callum Ilott competing in his sixth career oval start, and Agustín Canapino making his oval debut. Ilott is coming off his first career top five finish at St. Petersburg, and his best finish on an oval last season was 11th in the second Iowa race.

Honda's best hope is Scott Dixon. Dixon is responsible for three of the last six Texas victories. With five total victories at the 1.5-mile oval, the New Zealander leads all drivers. He is also the only driver to have led more than 1,000 laps at the circuit. His 1,043 laps led are more than double the next closest driver. Hélio Castroneves is second with 507 laps led at Texas. In 24 Texas appearances, Dixon's average finish is 7.041, fifth best among drivers with at least three starts. He has four consecutive top five finishes at the track. 

Castroneves has four Texas victories, but we are nearly ten years removed from his most recent one. He has retired from his last two Texas starts after retiring only once in his first 19 races at the facility. The only other Honda driver entered with a Texas victory is Graham Rahal, who won the 2016 race in a Honda 1-2 finish over James Hinchcliffe by 0.0080 seconds. Rahal has five top five finishes in the last eight Texas races. He had only one top five finish in his first eight starts at the track. 

Since reunification, Chevrolet holds a narrow edge in Texas victories, leading Honda seven to five. 

Andretti's Stumble Out of the Gates

Coming to the green flag for the St. Petersburg season opener, Andretti Autosport had three cars in the top five. When the checkered flag waved 100 laps later, Andretti Autosport's best finisher was Kyle Kirkwood in 15th. 

All four of Andretti's entries were involved in an accident at St. Petersburg. Romain Grosjean was taken out after contact with Scott McLaughlin after McLaughlin emerged from the pit lane after his final pit stop. Grosjean was looking at a possible victory, and at worst a podium finish. Colton Herta was nudged into the turn eight barrier from Will Power's front wing. Kirkwood climbed over Jack Harvey's car in turn four only for Kirkwood to be able to continue in the race. Devlin DeFrancesco was caught in the opening lap incident and was vaulted into the air when Benjamin Pedersen slammed into the side of DeFrancesco's stationary vehicle. 

Prior to his accident, Grosjean led 31 laps, second most in the race behind only McLaughlin. Andretti Autosport led only two laps over the final four races of the 2022 season. Both laps led came at Gateway and Grosjean was responsible for each. Herta has not led a lap since his car broke down while leading the second race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course last July. In 2022, Andretti Autosport led five of 1,258 oval laps run. Along with the two laps Grosjean led at Gateway, Marco Andretti led three laps during the final pit cycle in the Indianapolis 500. 

St. Petersburg was the fourth time in the 18 races since the start of the 2022 season Andretti Autosport failed to produce a top ten finisher. Andretti Autosport had only five such occurrences over the 81 races held between 2017 and 2021.

One of those races where Andretti Autosport failed to have a top ten finisher in 2022 was Texas. In 2022, out of 21 oval entries, Andretti Autosport had one top five finish and three top ten finishes. The team had eight oval finishes outside the top twenty. 

Herta's best oval result was 11th. In 20 oval starts, Herta has two top five finishes and six top ten finishes. Grosjean was the only Andretti driver with multiple oval top ten finishes last season, coming home seventh and ninth at Iowa. DeFrancesco's best oval finish last season was 12th at Gateway. Driving for A.J. Foyt Racing, Kirkwood's best oval finish was 15th at Iowa, and he retired from three of five oval races last season. 

The team's only victory at Texas Motor Speedway was in June 2004 with Tony Kanaan. Twenty-one Texas races have been held since that Kanaan victory. Seven different teams have won at Texas in that time. Andretti Autosport has not won an oval race since Pocono 2018 and it has not won on a 1.5-mile oval since Danica Patrick won at Motegi in 2008. 

The only time Andretti Autosport had consecutive races without a top ten finish was in 2016 when it did not put a car in the top ten at Long Beach and Barber Motorsports Park.

PeopleReady Force For Good Challenge

For the second consecutive season, PeopleReady is sponsoring the Force For Good Challenge, a charity bonus program where each IndyCar winner earns a $10,000 donation to charity of the team and driver's choosing. However, the first driver to win a race on a road course, street course and an oval will earn $1,000,000 for charity. 

Last season, Josef Newgarden won the $1,000,000 prize, and it all started with an oval victory at Texas. Newgarden won the next race at Long Beach and his road course victory was in the eighth race of the season at Road America.

The first person on the board this year is Marcus Ericsson. The St. Petersburg victory earned $10,000 for Riley Children's Hospital in Indianapolis.

Ericsson won the Indianapolis 500 last year, his first career oval victory, and it helped elevate the Swede to second in the oval championship, two points behind O'Ward. Ericsson had top ten finishes in all five oval races last season and he has six consecutive oval top ten finishes dating back to 2021. At Texas, he was third, leading ten laps from 14th starting position, his first career podium finish on an oval. His best starting position at Texas is ninth.

The Swede has a chance to get ahead of the competition, knocking out two of three disciplines off the crack of the bat, and doing so would give Ericsson two chances to clinch the million dollar prize before anyone else could have a shot at it. Barber Motorsports Park would be his first chance to clinch while the Grand Prix of Indianapolis would be his second. 

Winning the first two races would make this the 12th time since 1946 a driver opened the season with consecutive victories. Ericsson would be the first driver to do it since his teammate Scott Dixon won the first three races in the 2020 season. In eight of those 11 seasons, the driver to open the season with consecutive victories went on to win the championship. 

Ericsson has never won consecutive races in his IndyCar career. He has not won consecutive races in his career since he ran in Japanese Formula Three in 2009. He won the second race of the Suzuka doubleheader on July 12 and then won the first race of the Motegi round on August 8. The only time he has had consecutive podium finishes in IndyCar was in 2021 when he was second at Mid-Ohio and then won at Nashville. The only other time Ericsson has had consecutive top five finishes was last season when he was fourth in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and then won the Indianapolis 500. 

In seven of the last eight seasons, a driver has won a race on all three track disciplines. Last season, it took Newgarden eight races to win on all three disciplines. That was the earliest a driver had won on all three disciplines since 2015. In the other six seasons it happened, it took on average 13.8333 races for a driver to win on the third and final discipline. 

Passing

Texas Motor Speedway has had its share of unsatisfying races in recent seasons after the track saw a reconfiguration in turns one and two ahead of the 2017 race, and the use of PJ1 resin in the turns have stained the track surface, causing grip issues for the Firestone tires. 

The 2018 Texas race had 688 total passes and 242 passes for position. Over the next four Texas races, the total number of passes and passes for positions dropped each time IndyCar ran around the 1.5-mile oval. Rock-bottom was the second race of the 2021 Texas doubleheader. Only 171 passes occurred, 100 of which were for position. 

Ahead of the 2022 race, IndyCar introduced a new bargeboard in hopes of increasing downforce and allowing cars to run on the resin-stained upper part of the racetrack. IndyCar also ran a special practice session with cars only permitted to run the higher line in hopes of adding rubber to the racetrack. 

With all of these changes, last year's Texas race jumped up to 461 passes, more than the three races from between 2020 and 2021, and the number of passes for position shot up to 284, the most in the last six Texas races. 

In 2022, passing increased in four of five oval races compared to most recent race held at those tracks. Passing went up 68.55% and 77.29% at Iowa compared to the most recent Iowa race held in 2020. Gateway had 520 passes in 2022, the most at the track since it returned to the schedule in 2017. It was an increase of 163.9% compared to the 197 passes that happened in the 2021 Gateway race. 

The only oval race that saw a decrease in passing was the Indianapolis 500. The 2022 race saw a decrease of 42 total passes from 465 to 423. Passes for position dropped by 23, from 361 to 338. 

Josef Newgarden's pass for the lead on the final lap was the first IndyCar race to have a final lap pass for the lead since the 2016 Texas race where Graham Rahal took the victory by 0.0080 seconds over James Hinchcliffe.

For 2023, underwing sidewalls have been made optional and the special practice session to increase rubber in the higher groove has been expanded to all entries. 

Fast Facts

This will be the tenth IndyCar race to take place on April 2 and the first since Scott Dixon won at Phoenix in 2016. 

This will be the second IndyCar race to take place on April 2 in the state of Texas. Tom Sneva won at Texas World Speedway on April 2, 1977. 

On two occasions has a driver scored a first career victory on April 2. Pietro Bordino won the first heat race from the 1.25-mile board oval, Los Angeles Motor Speedway, on April 2, 1922. In 1995, Robby Gordon scored his first career victory at Phoenix. 

Four drivers have scored their first career victory at Texas (Billy Boat, Mark Dismore, Jeff Ward and Patricio O'Ward). It was the only career victory for Boat, Dismore and Ward. 

Josef Newgarden won last year's Texas race. American drivers have not won consecutive Texas races since a five-race stretch from June 2001 through June 2003.

Only once has a driver won consecutive Texas races. Scott Dixon won the 2020 race and the first race of the 2021 doubleheader. 

The average starting position for a Texas race winner is 5.1428 with a median of third. 

The pole-sitter has not won at Texas since Ryan Briscoe in 2010.

Eight of the last 14 Texas races have been won from outside the top five starting positions. 

Three of the last six Texas races have been won from seventh starting position.

The average number of lead changes in a Texas race is 13.485 with a median of 13. 

Only one of the last 15 Texas races has had more than 15 lead changes. The 2017 race had 23 lead changes.

Six Texas races have had over 20 lead changes.

Two Texas races have had more than 30 lead changes. There were 31 lead changes in the June 2000 race and there were 32 lead changes in the October 2001 race.

The average number of cautions in a Texas race is 4.2571 with a median of four. The average number of caution laps is 34.771 laps with a median of 32. 

Fifteen of the last 16 Texas races have had five cautions or fewer. Ten of those races had three cautions or fewer.

The most recent caution-free race on an oval occurred at Texas. It was the second race of the 2011 doubleheader.

Predictions

Josef Newgarden rebounds from a rotten St. Petersburg weekend and becomes the second driver with consecutive victories at Texas Motor Speedway. Newgarden will not need a final lap pass to win the race though. Scott McLaughlin leads fewer than half the laps. Andretti Autosport has at least three cars see the checkered flag. Devlin DeFrancesco avoids causing any incidents. McLaren pit crew members will not be clattered during any pit stops. Santino Ferrucci does not finish inside the top ten. Ed Carpenter Racing's combined laps completed will be less than 735. Meyer Shank Racing's average finish will be better than 15th. There will be less praise for Agustín Canapino. There will be a new championship leader after this weekend. Sleeper: David Malukas. 

Musings From the Weekend: IndyCar Without Texas

It took only 1,281 days for Team Penske to go from 500 victories to 600 victories, and it was Josef Newgarden who achieved the milestone victory at Texas Motor Speedway. Kevin Mangussen traded a 12 Hours of Sebring victory for points in his Formula One return. I guess that is worth it. Super Sebring was back, and it is a weekend that was worth it. Marc Márquez went over the edge in Indonesia before the rain and the delay came. Ferrari had a banner day while it went sideways for Red Bull in the closing laps. Atlanta Motor Speedway has been transformed, though the tunnels exiting the track have remained the same. Here is a rundown of what got me thinking.

IndyCar Without Texas

IndyCar is accustomed to goodbyes. 

It is a near yearly basis IndyCar finds itself visiting a racetrack knowing no matter what happens it will be the series' final time competing there for the near future. Fortunately, history shows that we can never say never, but some places will be gone for a while. Perhaps it is only a year or two, but it could be a decade or an entire generation before IndyCar races at a place again. 

This weekend at Texas did not feel like a surefire farewell, but it was borderline. 

After a rough three-year period at the 1.5-mile oval where IndyCar struggled to race on the track due to the reconfiguration and the PJ1 traction compound stains in the corners, laid down on the asphalt for the NASCAR races, this year's race had a hint of being the final visit from the time IndyCar left from the Texas doubleheader last May. 

Track president Eddie Gossage retiring in the middle of 2021 also didn't help IndyCar's future there. Gossage was long an advocate for IndyCar, with Texas hosting at least one race for over 25 years and at one point hosting two races, including the season finale. With a new sheriff in town, IndyCar does not necessarily have the same guaranteed hospitality moving forward. From the apparent lack of promotion and buzz in the Dallas/Fort-Worth-area ahead of this race, it sounds like this was not the first impression anyone was hoping for. With IndyCar and Texas living on one-year contracts, it would be easy for the series to be escorted out of town and never to return. 

For many of us, it is hard to imagine Texas not being on the IndyCar schedule. It has been here since the infancy of the Indy Racing League and the split. It made its mark in the early 2000s with hyperactive races known for constant side-by-side racing, close finishes, and unfortunately, terrible accidents. It was one of the few definitive marks of the IRL at a time when the series identity was highly polarizing. The IRL stood out because of the racing it had on 1.5-mile ovals and while there were plenty of the schedule, Texas stood out among them all. 

After reunification and during the recession, the number of 1.5-mile ovals dwindled on the IndyCar schedule. In 2008, there were a half-dozen 1.5-mile ovals. Texas was the last one standing in 2012 and since then it has been the only 1.5-mile oval for the last decade. IndyCar will more likely have zero of the intermediate ovals that proliferated around the turn of the 21st century than increase in the immediate future. 

Losing Texas would be a shock to the system even if the race has not been close to its highest level over the last ten years. The track billed itself as IndyCar's second home, and as misguided and incorrect as that tagline is, no other track was flaunting that type of relationship with the series. Texas had clearly diminished in importance to IndyCar and vice versa, but the partnership continued, and it was one of the few venues IndyCar could count on being on the schedule. Schedule consistency is important for the health of the series, and when long-standing races are falling off that is concerning. 

This loss is more than just another track. It is another oval gone for a series that has been unable to build any oval foundation when it has openly expressed waiting to keep it as a part of its identity. Even worse is there is not another oval waiting in the wings to join the IndyCar schedule.

After the 2011 season, Kentucky fell off the schedule after 11 seasons, Loudon was gone after a one-year return and Motegi was already switched to the road course after the oval was damaged in the Tōhoku earthquake, but IndyCar was set to lose three oval races from its original 2011 oval schedule in 2012. But then Fontana returned, and while Fontana didn't cover three lost ovals, it softened the blow. 

Over the last decade, IndyCar has been always had another oval soften the blow. First it was Fontana. Then Pocono was added to the schedule and IndyCar was back up to six oval races. Unfortunately, Fontana only lasted four seasons and it fell off after 2015, the same year as Milwaukee, but Phoenix kept the number of oval races at five in 2016. Gateway brought the oval total back up to six races in 2017. Then Phoenix fell away in 2018. Pocono was gone the year after that, but Richmond was ready to step up in 2020. Then the pandemic came, and Richmond never happened. Iowa let IndyCar go for the 2021 season.

Texas is on the fritz and there isn't another oval around to step up. IndyCar is fortunate to raise Iowa out of the pandemic ashes, but there is a world where the only oval races on the 2023 calendar are Indianapolis and Gateway. No one else is jumping for IndyCar to return. Richmond has been silent. Michigan isn't walking through that door. Chicagoland is not walking through that door. Langhorne is not walking through that door. 

I am not sure when the wakeup call is to come but it should be now and not when the two-oval reality comes to be. 

Beyond ovals, losing Texas is losing Texas, as in the entire state. With the second-highest population, leaving Texas would be withdrawing IndyCar from an important part of the country. Five of the fifteen largest cities are in Texas, each has loads of businesses that could be potential partners for the series and the state population is growing. 

On top of all that, Texas has a large Mexican American population at a time when IndyCar has a Mexican driver that is about to burst as a star. Can IndyCar afford not to be in Texas at all? 

This is about more than running ovals. This is about IndyCar exposure. People went nuts about not having a race in the Pacific Northwest for more than a decade viewing it as an underserved market before Portland returned in 2018. Leaving Texas is even crazier in terms of the future of the series. With nearly 30 million people in the Lone Star State, you have to imagine IndyCar could hold one healthy race there. 

Texas Motor Speedway was once that race. It has decline significantly. Houston failed after three separate short stints on the schedule. There was only one IndyCar race at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, and while it would be easy to call the race a failure, it was trending in the correct direction before the pandemic started in March 2020. IndyCar had a successful preseason test at the track. The race had gained AutoNation as a title sponsor. It might not have rivaled the Formula One crowd, but it was respectable for what IndyCar draws. Maybe it was building into something. We will never know.

It will likely be a few months before we know whether or not Texas Motor Speedway will return to the IndyCar schedule for the 27th consecutive season in 2023, but until its fate is finalized, we must ask whether or not IndyCar can afford to lose this track for a variety of reasons.

There were reasons for optimism yesterday. This year's race was far better than the 2020 race and both races in 2021, but the track surface is still unfriendly to IndyCar competition. IndyCar had to really work to put on a half-decent show. If the track is not going to work with IndyCar, nor promote its only visit to the state, IndyCar has to weigh its options. 

Does the series remain at an inhospitable racetrack and use more resources to try and have a respectable race with no guarantee of success just to remain in the state of Texas and keep its roots in the second largest state or is this a sacrifice IndyCar has to accept and potentially leave the state if another venue cannot be found? 

Winners From the Weekend

You know about Josef Newgarden, but did you know...

The #02 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac of Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn and Neel Jani won the 12 Hours of Sebring. The #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca-Gibson of Scott Huffaker, Mikel Jensen and Ben Keating won in LMP2. The #33 Sean Creach Motorsport Ligier-Nissan of João Barbosa, Malthe Jakobsen and Lance Willsey won in LMP3. The #3 Corvette of Antonio García, Jordan Taylor and Nicky Catsburg won in GTD Pro. The #47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco, Roberto Lacorte and Giorgio Sernagiotto won in GTD. 

The #36 Alpine of Andre Negrão, Nicolas Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxivière won the 1,000 Miles of Sebring. The #23 United Autosports Oreca-Gibson of Paul di Resta, Olivier Jarvis and Josh Pierson won in LMP2. The #92 Porsche of Michael Christensen and Kévin Estre won in GTE-Pro. The #98 Northwest AMR Aston Martin of Paul Dalla Lana, David Pittard and Nicki Thiim won in GTE-Am. 

Charles Leclerc won the Bahrain Grand Prix, his first victory since the 2019 Italian Grand Prix. 

Richard Verschoor and Théo Pourchaire split the Formula Two races from Bahrain. Isack Hadjar and Victor Martins split the Formula Three races.

Miguel Oliviera won MotoGP's Indonesian Grand Prix, his third consecutive season with a victory. Somkiat Chantra won the Moto2 race, his first career victory. Dennis Foggia won the Moto3 race.

William Byron won the NASCAR Cup race from Atlanta. Ty Gibbs won the Grand National Series race, his second career victory. Corey Heim won the Truck race, his first career victory in his fifth career start. 

Eli Tomac won the Supercross race from Indianapolis, his fourth consecutive victory and sixth of the season.

Coming Up This Weekend

Formula One is back in Saudi Arabia. 

NASCAR takes its turn around Texas, but at Circuit of the Americas in Austin.

Supercars has its second round of the season from Symmons Plains.

Supercross visits Seattle for the first time since 2019.

First Impressions: Texas 2022

1. This might have been the final IndyCar race at Texas Motor Speedway for the near future, but this was a fitting finish. Scott McLaughlin was masterful from the front row of the grid. He led from the drop of the green flag and proceeded to pull away. For a moment, it appeared McLaughlin would run away with this race. Within 70 laps his lead was up to 13 seconds. But he didn't have to run away with the race, and he was smart with the lead. McLaughlin paced himself. He controlled his lead and took it down to six seconds on his own. 

McLaughlin was the man to beat, and he saved fuel when necessary. He got his car into the final pit window and emerged as the man in control. Everything was going his way, and then he caught traffic on the final lap and Josef Newgarden swung around on the outside of turn four and Newgarden won the race by 0.0669 seconds. 

McLaughlin did nothing wrong all race, and Newgarden was meticulous, just as he was when he won his first Texas race in 2019. In that 2019 race, Newgarden drove to leapfrog the order through pit cycles. That was the case today. Before the first round of pit stops, Newgarden was in the middle of the top ten. After the first round he was second. He wasn't afraid to trade positions for fuel mileage and it led to him in second place in the dying laps.

It appeared McLaughlin had the race won and strategically drove to his advantage, lapping Colton Herta into turn one with four laps to go and putting Herta between him and Newgarden. It felt like race over. The lead had been at its largest since the final round of pit stops finished. 

But Newgarden went on the charge and with McLaughlin catching the tail end of the field in the final corner, Newgarden had one move. Newgarden took to the outside, a place where passes kind of worked but was far from 100% success rate today and Newgarden had the momentum to beat McLaughlin to the line. 

You couldn't ask for more from a race. The top two were nose-to-tail in the closing laps and on the final lap there was a move for the lead. It was brilliant.

2. Let's nip this in the bud: This might have been the final Texas race and it was... good? Bad? Great? I am not sure. The upper lane still wasn't there, but there was an extra half a lane, and you could run a little off the bottom, but it was still hair raising for two cars to go side-by-side. There is ground between pack racing and two cars being able to run next to each other in the corner without feeling like an accident is going to happen. IndyCar wasn't close to the middle of it in this race.

But this was better than last year. IndyCar's seven-car upper lane session helped. I think if the entire field or at least two-thirds of the field had been out there it could have been much better. I don't think it would have flipped the track into IndyCar's favor. The surface at Texas is ruined, and it is not even five years old. But considering where the track has been since 2020, this was the best IndyCar has done with it. 

It was better, somewhat good, but still flawed. 

3. Marcus Ericsson finally had a good result at Texas. He should have had a top five finish in at least two of the last three races at this track only for pit lane problems to go extinguish his hopes of a good finish. Ericsson made some passes today and looked comfortable. He didn't quite have the pace of the top two, but he was close. He made up some ground late to finish 1.3537 seconds back. He was there if the leaders had collided. Either way, third is what he needed.

4. Will Power was fourth and that is kind of where he was all race. Third or fourth. There was brief moment in the second half of the race where it felt Power was about to take over and have a dominant finish lead to another oval victory. I feel like that is how at least two of his Pocono victories happened. But Power settled back into fourth and it was just a good day for him. Not great, but still a strong result for him and Team Penske.

5. Scott Dixon was fifth and had a similar race to Power. Dixon was just fifth or sixth the entire time. I was expecting him to maybe use strategy late and jump from fifth into the fight for the victory, as he is known to do. He did have to fight for that fifth-place finish and pass a teammate to get it.

6. And that teammate was Jimmie Johnson, who scores his first top ten finish in IndyCar finishing sixth. Johnson fulfilled the adage to finish first one must first finish. He was five spots off of first, but this is the exact race Johnson needed in his IndyCar oval debut. Many drivers were in accidents today and Johnson benefitted from that. He didn't take an unnecessary chance. Every move he made was calculated. He spent the opening third of the race outside the top twenty. He didn't light the world on fire driving up the field. It is a good result, and he was encouragingly competitive, but as we saw in qualifying, there is more pace to find. However, he did a great job today.

7. We have had many anonymous days from Álex Palou since he joined Chip Ganassi Racing. This was one of them, as he finished seventh. He did nothing wrong, but he was never quite a contender. It is still a solid points day. Championship runs need days like this. He was the worst Ganassi driver on the day, but far from being disappointing. 

8. Simon Pagenaud was saving fuel late and it cost him a possible top five finish. Eighth is a good race, but it sums up his weekend, slightly off from where it felt Pagenaud should be. He was the fastest in the opening practice and then qualified 15th. There are plenty of positives to draw, but also plenty of areas to polish for the Frenchman and Meyer Shank Racing.

9. Jack Harvey was ruled unfit to start this race after his practice accident yesterday, so Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing drafted in Santino Ferrucci to fill in the #45 Honda this weekend. With only a handful of sighting laps in the morning, Ferrucci had another impressive oval race. He took his time and stayed out of incidents to finish ninth. He just has a feel for ovals. 

10. Rounding out the top ten was Rinus VeeKay, but the team got the strategy wrong. It stopped right when it thought the final pit window opened. The only problem is the pace was not in VeeKay's favor and the team had to save more fuel than expected. He somehow made it to the finish and held onto the top ten, but he looked like one of the few drivers who could challenge McLaughlin. This is encouraging heading to the Indianapolis 500 in May, but the team has to make sure the car can fight at the end of the race. That wasn't the case today.

11. David Malukas had a good race. He made laps and Dale Coyne had him on an interesting alternate strategy. He made five pit stops and made his final stop with exactly 50 laps to go. It worked out that not only did Malukas lead three laps, but he was just ahead of Scott McLaughlin for the final stint, and Malukas had fresh tires and could drive hard. He could stay on the lead lap and chase down the field. He just missed out on a top ten result, but for his first large oval everyone should be satisfied.

12. Andretti Autosport is no longer a great team. The IndyCar "Big Three" is now a "Big Two." This was a disaster today. Colton Herta took a similar strategy to VeeKay and he had to save more fuel. He ended up a lap down in 12th. Herta should have been competing for a top five finish. The team made a bad strategy call again, just as it did with Alexander Rossi at St. Petersburg. Throw on top of Herta's missed opportunity the mechanical retirements for Romain Grosjean and Rossi, with Rossi out of the race after only 11 laps, and Andretti Autosport is a mess. Its IndyCar results should give Formula One pause because it is clearly a distracted organization and is far from excelling. 

13. Ed Carpenter did nothing and finished 13th. This was a glorified test session before the Indianapolis 500.

14. J.R. Hildebrand tried a few different things and it got him in contention. For a moment a top ten result looked possible, but that wasn't meant to be. It was another smart race from Hildebrand, which is what he is known for doing. A.J. Foyt Racing has some work to do, but Hildebrand is a key asset. 

15. We will cover both Arrow McLaren SP drivers here: Both drivers blew their marks on pit stops under the lap 99 caution for Takuma Sato getting into the wall. Patricio O'Ward hit his front left tire changer and had to serve a penalty. Later, Felix Rosenqvist suffered a mechanical failure. Both drivers should have been in the top ten, possibly the top five. At best, O'Ward was 15th. Not the start to the season AMSP would have liked. 

16. Let's run through some driver: Callum Ilott was only a lap down in 16th, but I think he wasn't the most comfortable out there. He did well, but at the end of multiple stints his lap average were below 200 mph, but Ilott was hitting that range quicker than others. I am not sure he has entirely digested ovals. Dalton Kellett did nothing and was 17th. Conor Daly had two pit lane speeding penalties and was 18th. Keep shooting your toes off, Daly, and see where that gets you. 

17. There is a minor point of controversy in this race and that is with about 15 laps to go, Christian Lundgaard brushed the wall exiting turn four while the leaders were about to lap him. It was a healthy lick, but no caution came. Takuma Sato arguably had a lighter brush with the wall in turn two and a caution came out for the Sato incident about 130 laps earlier. 

I expected the caution to come out when Lundgaard hit the wall. It was clear he hit the wall, but nothing came. When Sato brushed the wall, I thought it was going to stay green because it was a kiss, but he was still able to drive the car, didn't lose much speed, and could have easily gotten to the pit lane with no debris coming off the car. 

It was questionable and all we ask is for IndyCar to be consistent. 

Officiating aside, Lundgaard did a good job today. He was set to finish somewhere in the top fifteen. It wasn't the finish he would have liked, but the day was promising. 

18. Takuma Sato was the first victim of questionable driving from Devlin DeFrancesco. In this case, I think DeFrancesco just walked up the track and Sato just happened to be there. The light contact forced Sato into the barrier. Then DeFrancesco got loose under Kyle Kirkwood and Kirkwood couldn't hold onto the top lane and slammed the barrier. Kirkwood said it wasn't on DeFrancesco and he just ran out of grip. That is how it looked. Nothing wrong from DeFrancesco, he just happened to be the other driver involved.

The final incident is 100% on DeFrancesco. The Canadian attempted to make it three-wide on the inside of Graham Rahal and Hélio Castroneves entering turn three at lap 129, just after the halfway point. DeFrancesco was below the white line in the turn. It was always going to be an accident. It was a dumb move. He was never going to make it stick. It eliminated all three drivers, and it is a shame DeFrancesco couldn't have been smarter.

As for Rahal and Castroneves, with how Ferrucci's race played out, perhaps Rahal could have been competing for a top ten spot. Castroneves looked good at the start and then got stuck in the middle of the field. 

19. Kyle Kirkwood had a great first 114 laps. He went off strategy early, stopping under the lap 12 caution when Alexander Rossi had to be towed back to pit lane. With fresh tires, Kirkwood moved into ninth within the first 15 laps from the lap 16 restart. He looked ready for a top ten push, and he was finding grip in the higher groove. Unfortunately, that groove wasn't that wide, and he was a smidge higher than he could go when to the outside of DeFrancesco. 

Kirkwood has some great support around him. Sébastien Bourdais was on his timing stand at St. Petersburg and J.R. Hildebrand is the kind of teammate you want on ovals. But the best thing is Kirkwood sounded confident even after the accident. The car was comfortable for him, and confidence is not something we have regularly heard from Foyt drivers on ovals in recent seasons. We are all hopeful Kirkwood can have a good season for IndyCar's cellar dweller.

20. Romain Grosjean and Alexander Rossi both broke down. We touched upon it above. Rossi was out of it before it got started. Rossi's only contributions was jumping the start, another retched oval start in an IndyCar race, but that is a story for another day. Seeing how Herta finished, I have little hope Rossi's day was going to be much greater. Maybe Rossi could have pulled out a ninth-place result, but he at least deserved the chance to compete today and all he got was 11 laps. Damn.

As for Grosjean, he looked ok. He was in the middle of the pack, not really showing any potential, but maybe he could have had the car in position for the final laps. 

21. And then we get another three weeks until the next race. It will be Long Beach. We at least are waiting with a great finish on our minds. 

Morning Warm-Up: Texas 2022

Felix Rosenqvist took his second career position and his first on an oval with a two-lap average of 221.110 mph at Texas Motor Speedway. It is Rosenqvist's first pole position since the 2020 Grand Prix of Indianapolis, his fifth career start. This is Rosenqvist's first top five qualifying effort on an oval. His previous best oval start was seventh for the first Iowa race in 2020. Rosenqvist has finished at least two laps down in three of his four Texas starts. He completed all 212 laps in the first race last year. He has finished ahead of his starting position in three of those four Texas starts. 

Championship leader Scott McLaughlin starts next to Rosenqvist on row one. McLaughlin had a two-lap average of 221.096 mph, only 0.0030 seconds off pole position. This is the second consecutive race McLaughlin has started on the front row and it is his first oval front row start. After winning at St. Petersburg, McLaughlin is looking to do something he accomplished on 14 occasions in his Supercars career. That is win consecutive races. Seven of those winning streaks were three races or longer. 

Takuma Sato will be making his 200th IndyCar start this weekend, the 26th driver to reach this milestone, and he will do it from third on the grid. This is the first top ten starting position for Sato since he was on pole position for the second Gateway race in 2020, snapping a 22-race streak. Last season was the first time Sato did not have a top five finish in an oval race since 2016, his final season with A.J. Foyt Racing. His last three podium finishes and six of his last nine podium results have been on ovals. His only top five finish at Texas was fifth in the first race of the 2011 doubleheader.

Will Power was third in the opening race of the season at St. Petersburg, and he will start fourth for the second race of 2022. This will be the 11th time Power has started in the top five at Texas and the 15th time he has started in the top ten in 16 Texas starts. He has not opened a season with consecutive podium finishes since 2014. He also opened the 2007, 2010 and 2011 seasons with consecutive podium finishes. 

Scott Dixon rounds out the top five on the grid. Dixon was the final driver to average over 221 mph over his two-lap qualifying at 221.011 mph. This is the tenth consecutive Texas race Dixon has started in the top ten and the fifth consecutive race he has started in the top fifth. The only other time Dixon has started in fifth position at Texas was October 2004, and he finished sixth. 

Next to Dixon on row three will be Hélio Castroneves. This is Castroneves' first IndyCar oval race outside of Indianapolis Motor Speedway since Gateway 2017 when he finished fourth. In his six oval starts in 2017, he had a victory, four top five finishes and five top ten finishes, but his worst finish was 20th and that came at Texas. That 20th-place result matched his worst Texas finish. 

Josef Newgarden wound up seventh on the grid. For the second consecutive season, Josef Newgarden finished outside the top ten in the season opener. He has finished on the podium in the second race of the season in four of the last five years. He won the second race of the 2018 season at Phoenix. Newgarden also won from seventh at Texas in 2019. 

Rinus VeeKay qualified eighth for his fourth Texas start. VeeKay started eighth in the first Texas race last year. His best Texas finish was ninth in the second race last year. He has finished in the top ten in the second race of his first two seasons in IndyCar. 

Colton Herta will be making his 50th start this weekend and it will come from ninth on the grid. Herta has three consecutive top five finishes. Herta has never had four consecutive top five finishes in his career. He has had two three-race stretches of top five finishes, both coming in the 2020 season. He was fifth in the second Texas race last year.

Herta's past Indy Lights teammate Patricio O'Ward joins him on row five. O'Ward could become the second driver to win consecutive IndyCar races at Texas. Scott Dixon became the first driver to do it last season when he won the first Texas race after winning the 2020 race. O'Ward enters Texas on a bit of a slump. He has finished outside the top ten in the last two races, his longest drought driving for Arrow McLaren SP.

Álex Palou starts on row six. Palou was champion last year, but he is still looking for his first oval victory. He had three top ten finishes in the four oval races last season. He enters with four consecutive top five finishes, the longest stretch of his IndyCar career. 

Alexander Rossi will be to Palou's outside. Rossi has not had a top five finish on an oval since he was runner-up at Texas in 2019 to Josef Newgarden. That is 13 oval starts since his last top five result. His average finish over those 13 starts is 15.615 with only four top ten results.

Romain Grosjean is making his second career oval start and it will be from 13th on the grid. At Gateway last year, he started and finished 14th. Texas comes after Grosjean finished fifth in the St. Petersburg season opener. He has yet to finish in the top five of consecutive races in his IndyCar career. 

Next to Grosjean will be his good friend Marcus Ericsson in 14th position, his worst oval start since 17th at the 2020 Texas race. He was seventh in his first Texas start back in 2019, but he has finished outside the top ten in the last three Texas races.

Despite being fastest in the opening practice session, Simon Pagenaud finds himself 15th on the grid. Pagenaud has the best average finish driver among all drivers with at least Texas starts at 6.1. He has seven consecutive top ten finishes at Texas. The only driver with a better average finish at Texas and more than three starts is Ryan Briscoe, who had an average finish of 5.2 in nine Texas starts. 

Conor Daly qualified 16th, his best Texas start. His previous best at this track was 19th in 2019 and 2020. While Conor Daly has two top ten finishes at Texas, he has finished outside the top twenty in three Texas starts, including both races of last year's doubleheader.

IndyCar oval debutants occupy row nine on the grid. Devlin DeFrancesco starts on the inside in 17th position. DeFrancesco could become the second Canadian to win at Texas Motor Speedway in IndyCar after Scott Goodyear, who here in June 1999 and October 2000.

Jimmie Johnson's first IndyCar oval start will be from 18th on the grid. Johnson has completed 11,106 laps around Texas Motor Speedway in 35 NASCAR Cup Series starts, the sixth most laps he has completed at a track in his NASCAR career behind Martinsville, Bristol, Dover, Richmond and Charlotte. His 16,659 miles completed at Texas is third most behind only Charlotte and Talladega.

David Malukas qualified 19th for his first IndyCar oval race. Nine IndyCar races have been won from 19th starting position, most recently was Fontana 2015 with Graham Rahal. Seven of those nine victories from 19th position have come on ovals. One of the two non-oval races won from 19th was by a Dale Coyne Racing driver in the state of Texas. It was Carlos Huertas in the first Houston race in 2014.

Callum Ilott will be making his oval debut this weekend and he rounds out the top twenty. Ilott could become the first British driver to win an IndyCar oval race since Justin Wilson won at Texas in 2012. This will also be Juncos Racing's first Texas appearance.

In a third Ed Carpenter Racing entry, Ed Carpenter will start 21st. Carpenter is making his first IndyCar start outside of car #20 for the first time since his first career victory at Kentucky in 2011 when he won driving the #67 Dollar General Honda for Sarah Fisher Racing. 

Dalton Kellett was the top A.J. Foyt Racing qualifier in 22nd. It is only the second time Kellett has been the top qualifier for a team in his IndyCar career. The other was the second Mid-Ohio race in 2020 when he started 20th to Charlie Kimball's 23rd. Kellett's average finish in five oval starts is 18th with three finishes outside the top twenty. 

Kyle Kirkwood starts 23rd. A.J. Foyt Racing has only two top five finishes on ovals in the DW12-era, both were at Gateway with Conor Daly in fifth in 2017 and Tony Kanaan finishing third in 2019. The last time A.J. Foyt Racing had a top five finish on an oval other than Gateway was Darren Manning finishing fifth at the inaugural Iowa race in 2007. The last time the team had a top five finish on a 1.5-mile oval was the team's most recent oval victory, 2002 at Kansas with Airton Daré. Daré had finished at Texas three races prior to that victory.

Jack Harvey is the top Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing starter back in 24th position. It is the third consecutive race Harvey has started outside the top twenty. This is his worst starting position on an oval outside of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Harvey has five top ten finishes in the last nine IndyCar oval races. Unfortunately, Harvey had an accident in the final practice session and will run his backup car.

Christian Lundgaard was 0.0071 seconds behind his RLLR teammate Harvey qualifying 25th. Danish drivers have combined to start just three IndyCar oval races. Jan Magnussen started the 1999 CART race at Chicago Motor Speedway and only made it 85 laps before exiting the race in an accident. Ronnie Bremer started both Champ Car races in 2005. Bremer was eighth at Milwaukee, one lap down. At Las Vegas, Bremer had a pit lane incident end his race after 41 laps and he was classified 18th, last place.

J.R. Hildebrand will start 26th. Hildebrand is driving the #11 Chevrolet for A.J. Foyt Racing and he will contest all the oval races in this entry. This is his first Texas appearance since 2017 and he has four starts at the track. He was fifth in 2012 from 23rd on the grid and with a torn ACL, which occurred in a promotional event for the Texas race.

Graham Rahal rounds out the grid in 27th position with a two-lap average at 218.410 mph, only 0.5797 seconds off Rosenqvist's time over two laps. It is Rahal's worst starting position since qualifying 30th for the 2018 Indianapolis 500 and the third worst starting position of his career. Rahal has six top ten finishes in his last seven Texas starts with five top five finishes in that span. However, he has only led 22 laps combined in those seven Texas races.

NBC's coverage of the XPEL 375 begins at 12:30 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 12:40 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 248 laps.

Track Walk: Texas 2022

The second round of the 2022 NTT IndyCar Series season will be at Texas Motor Speedway. After moving from June to the start of May and becoming a doubleheader, Texas is back to a single-race weekend and will now be on the vernal equinox. It is the earliest a Texas race has ever been held on the IndyCar calendar. This is the earliest oval race in a calendar year for IndyCar since the 2005 Indy Racing League season when Homestead opened the season on March 6 and Phoenix was the second race on March 19. Twenty-seven cars are entered for this Texas race, the most at the track since 30 cars were entered for the 2011 Twin-275s doubleheader. This is the most entries for an IndyCar oval race outside the Indianapolis 500 since the cancelled 2011 Las Vegas season finale.

Coverage

Time: Coverage begins at 12:30 p.m. ET on Sunday March 20 with green flag scheduled for 12:40 p.m. ET.
Channel: NBC
Announcers: Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will be in the booth. Marty Snider, Kevin Lee and Kelli Stavast will work pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule

Saturday:

First Practice: 10:40 a.m. ET (75 minutes)

Qualifying: 2:00 p.m. ET 

Second Practice: 5:00 p.m. ET (60 minutes)
Sunday:
Race: 12:40 p.m. ET (248 laps)

* - All sessions will be available live on Peacock

Scott McLaughlin on Fire

Leading the IndyCar championship, fresh off his first career victory, is Scott McLaughlin. After taking a stunning victory in the St. Petersburg season opener, McLaughlin returns to the location of his first IndyCar podium finish. 

On his oval debut, McLaughlin started 15th after qualifying was rained out, but he entered the top ten before making his first pit stop. He was able to keep his car in the top ten before making his second pit stop earlier than the rest of the field. Emerging with clear racetrack, he moved up to third after the pit cycle. He moved up to second when his final stop came under caution, and he spent much of the closing laps hounding his fellow New Zealander Scott Dixon. Dixon held on, but McLaughlin was 0.2646 seconds back in second position. 

McLaughlin started seventh for the second Texas race and spent the entire race in the back portion of the top ten, coming home in eighth.

Ovals have suited McLaughlin. After Texas, he was the top Penske qualifier at the Indianapolis 500, albeit in 17th as the entire Team Penske organization struggled, but in the race, McLaughlin moved forward and was looking set for a top ten finish before speeding entering pit lane. This error knocked him back to 20th after 500 miles. When he made it to Gateway in August, he started 11th and made up a few spots again. A caution or two might have gone in his favor, but McLaughlin had a good race and ended up finishing fourth.

With three top ten finishes in four oval races, McLaughlin ended up sixth on oval points with 116. He scored more oval points than teammate Will Power, all four Andretti Autosport entries, both Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing drivers and Tony Kanaan last year. 

With his first career victory behind, McLaughlin is looking to become the first driver to have his first two victories happen in consecutive races since A.J. Allmendinger had his first three victories occur in consecutive races between Portland, Cleveland and Toronto. Team Penske leads all teams with eight Texas victories between five different drivers. 

Jimmie Johnson's Anticipated Oval Debut

For the first time since November 8, 2020, Jimmie Johnson is racing on an oval. 

After making 13 IndyCar starts, five IMSA starts and even an appearance in the Race of Champions on ice in Sweden, Johnson will run his first oval race since leaving the NASCAR Cup Series at the end of the 2020 season. 

Ovals were Johnson's stomping grounds for over 20 years. He made 646 ovals starts in NASCAR's top division. Throw in another 89 oval starts in NASCAR's second division, one Truck start, 40 in the American Speed Association, eight IROC starts as well as 19 NASCAR All-Star race appearances, 19 Daytona 500 qualifying races, and 18 Shootout/Unlimited/Clash exhibition race starts, and Johnson has made 840 oval starts in serious stock car racing. 

This weekend will be his first spin around an oval in an IndyCar. 

Eighty-two of Johnson's 83 Cup victories came on ovals, as did his lone victory in NASCAR's second division, as did his two ASA victories, his lone IROC victory was at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and he won eight NASCAR exhibition races on ovals. That is 94 oval victories.

Johnson's oval debut could not have come at a more comfortable place for the seven-time Cup champion. He has seven Texas victories in the Cup Series, the most all-time at the track. He had 16 top five finishes and 22 top ten finishes in 36 starts on the 1.5-mile oval. Unfortunately for Johnson, his results fell off in his final years at Texas. He had only one top ten finish in his final seven Texas starts with an average finish of 25.428.

Only five of 20 first-time winners since IndyCar reunification have had their first career victory come on an oval, but one of those happened last year at Texas Motor Speedway with Patricio O'Ward. The last two drivers to win on their IndyCar oval debut are Sébastien Bourdais at EuroSpeedway Lausitz in 2003 and Scott Dixon at Nazareth in 2001. 

Scott Dixon Stuck on 51

When IndyCar left Texas Motor Speedway after its 2021 doubleheader, Scott Dixon has fresh off his 51st victory. Returning to Texas in 2022, Dixon is still on 51 career victories ten months later. 

A 14-race winless drought is Dixon's longest since he went 16 races between victories from the first race of the 2013 Houston doubleheader through Mid-Ohio in 2014, the 15th round of that season. Even more concerning is how far Dixon was from getting that 52nd victory over the final three quarters of the 2021 season. 

Dixon had three podium finishes after his Texas victory last year, but he led 32 laps in the final 12 races of the season. Only once did he lead more than ten laps in a race, 16 in the first Belle Isle race. The good news is if there was ever a place for Dixon to bounce back it is Texas. 

He was first and fourth last year in the doubleheader, but he led a combined 369 laps over the two races. Dixon has won three of the last five Texas races and four of the last eight Texas races. In those eight races, he has led a combined 787 laps. His 1,043 laps led at Texas are more than double second all-time, Hélio Castroneves on 506. 

Dixon has the most Texas victories with five, most top five finishes with 13, and he is tied with Tony Kanaan for most top ten finishes with 16. Dixon has started no worse than seventh in the last nine Texas races and he started in the top ten in 19 of 23 Texas starts. Another victory at Texas would make it the second track where Dixon has at least a half-dozen victories at, joining Mid-Ohio. 

First Oval of the Season

This will be the third consecutive season Texas Motor Speedway has hosted the first oval race of the season. Two years ago was due to a pandemic delay. Last year, Texas was scheduled as the opening oval round. 

Patricio O'Ward scored his first career IndyCar victory last year in the second Texas and combined with a third in the first Texas race, it launched O'Ward to be the top oval driver of 2021. The Mexican scored 192 points, 34 points more than Josef Newgarden, who was second. O'Ward was the first non-Penske/Ganassi driver to top the oval standings since Josef Newgarden did it in 2016 with Ed Carpenter Racing.

O'Ward was in the top five of all four races last year with three podium finishes. He has six consecutive top five finishes on ovals dating back to the 2020 season, including five podium finishes during that span. O'Ward has seven top five finishes and eight top ten finishes in ten career oval starts in IndyCar. His worst oval result is 12th, which came in his oval debut at Texas in 2020 and in the second Iowa race later that season. 

There were no repeat oval winners last year as Dixon and O'Ward split the Texas races, Hélio Castroneves won his fourth Indianapolis 500 and Newgarden took his third Gateway victory. Newgarden has won an oval race in the last six consecutive seasons, the longest active streak of seasons with an oval victory. 

The top three in the overall championship last year were in reverse order in points, as Álex Palou had the third most oval points, 155, only three behind Newgarden. Palou opened the year with a fourth and seventh at Texas, and a runner-up finish to Castroneves at Indianapolis. He was caught in an early accident at Gateway and was classified in 20th. 

Quietly, Simon Pagenaud was fourth in oval points. He was in the top ten in all four races, but his only top five result was third at Indianapolis. He has seven consecutive top ten finishes at Texas. Pagenaud ended 2021 with 144 points, nine more than Dixon, who started with a first and a fourth at Texas, but pit lane problems held him to a 17th-place result at Indianapolis and being caught in the same accident as Palou at Gateway knocked him back to 18th. 

Scott McLaughlin was sixth in the oval standings on 116 points, nine points ahead of Ed Carpenter, whose only top ten finish was fifth in the Indianapolis 500. Carpenter has announced he will run all the oval races this season in the #33 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet. 

Hélio Castroneves only ran one oval race in 2021, but his Indianapolis 500 victory gave him 103 points and put him eighth in the oval championship, three points ahead of Takuma Sato and five points ahead of Rinus VeeKay, who rounded out the top ten. 

Ganassi drivers Tony Kanaan and Marcus Ericsson just missed out on the top ten with 96 points and 90 points respectively. Kanaan is not entered for Texas, the first time he is not on a Texas entry list since the 2002 Indy Racing League season finale, just prior to Kanaan joining the IRL with Andretti Green Racing. 

Colton Herta was the top Andretti Autosport driver on ovals last year with only 88 points. Andretti Autosport had a combined one top five finishes and four top ten finishes on ovals last year, and that team did not have a top fifteen finisher in the Indianapolis 500. Andretti Autosport has not won an oval race since Pocono 2018. Alexander Rossi finished outside the top fifteen in three of four oval races in 2021 with his best finish being eighth in the first Texas race. 

Graham Rahal was fifth and third at Texas last year, but 32nd at Indianapolis and 23rd at Gateway had him on 84 oval points, one ahead of Jack Harvey and three ahead of Will Power. Power was 14th, 13th, 30th and third in the four oval races last year. It was the second consecutive season Power did not have an oval victory after having won on an oval in four consecutive seasons from 2016 through 2019. 

Romain Grosjean is back for his second career oval start. Grosjean was 14th at Gateway last year after starting 15th. 

Along with Jimmie Johnson, five other drivers will be making their IndyCar oval debuts at Texas. Neither Christian Lundgaard nor Callum Ilott have run on an oval. Kyle Kirkwood, Devlin DeFrancesco and David Malukas made oval starts in the Road to Indy. 

Kirkwood won at Indianapolis Raceway Park in U.S. F2000 but was fourth at IRP in Indy Pro 2000 before winning at Gateway. He was second in both Gateway races last year behind Malukas. Malukas was also third at Gateway in 2019 in Indy Lights. Prior to that, he had only made three oval starts on the Road to Indy with finishes of 11th at IRP and eighth at Gateway in the 2018 Pro Mazda season, and he was 11t in the 2019 Freedom 100. DeFrancesco was fourth and first at IRP and Gateway respectively in Indy Pro 2000 in 2020. He was fourth and fifth in the Gateway Indy Lights races last year. 

And the Surface

The last two years IndyCar has visited Texas Motor Speedway the asphalt has grabbed the headlines. 

The PJ1 stained surface, laid down for the NASCAR races at the facility, has turned the track into a single-lane racetrack, with cars forced to run the bottom as the top lane does not have enough grip for the cars to run safely. 

In 2020, had only 364 passes, 180 of those for position after the prior two seasons had 688 and 579 total passes respectively, and 242 and 200 passes for position as well. The 2020 race was only 200 laps compared to the 248-lap races in 2018 and 2019. For comparison, the 2020 race averaged 1.82 passes per lap while the 2018 race averaged 2.77 and 2019 averaged 2.33 passes per lap.

Last year's races were 212 laps in race one and 248 laps in race two, the same distance we will see this season. 

The first race in 2021 had 282 passes and 140 passes for position over 212 laps or 1.33 passes per lap. The second race dropped even further to 171 total passes and 100 passes for position, an average of 0.689 passes per lap. The second race last year was also marred with the opening accident that took out six drivers. Six drivers out before even reaching turn one on the opening lap does significantly decrease the number of total passes and passes for the position, as there are fewer competitors on track. 

The first race last year had only three lead changes, the fewest ever in an IndyCar Texas race and the 2020 race had only five lead changes, one of four races to feature five lead changes or ever at Texas. Despite the lack of passing, the second race in 2021 did have 12 lead changes

Fast Facts

This will be the fourth IndyCar race held on March 20 and first since 1994 when Michael Andretti scored Chip Ganassi Racing's its first IndyCar victory at Surfers Paradise. 

This will be the 18th time an IndyCar race and the 12 Hours of Sebring have fallen on the same weekend. It is the first time IndyCar and Sebring have shared a weekend since 2005 when Sebring and the Indy Racing League Phoenix round were on the same day. 

Texas will be the fifth different track to host an IndyCar race on the same weekend as the 12 Hours of Sebring. Phoenix was on the same weekend 12 times. Surfers Paradise was on the same weekend four times, Homestead was on the same weekend once, as was the Rio de Janiero oval. 

The 1994 Surfers Paradise round that Michael Andretti won was the same weekend as Sebring. 

The average starting position for a Texas winner is 5.088 with a median of third. 

The last six Texas races have been won from a top ten starting position and the last three races have been won from a top five starting position. 

The pole-sitter has not won at Texas since 2010 when Ryan Briscoe won after leading 102 of 228 laps. 

Twenty-one of 34 Texas races have been won from a top five starting position.

Only five Texas races have been won from outside the top ten, most recently in 2016 when Graham Rahal won from 13th. 

The worst starting position for a Texas winner is 17th in 2012 with Justin Wilson. 

Last year, Patricio O'Ward became the fourth driver to score a first career victory at Texas Motor Speedway. The other three were Billy Boat, Mark Dismore and Jeff Ward, but for these three drivers Texas was their only IndyCar victory.

Team Penske has not won the last three Texas races. Team Penske has never failed to win four consecutive Texas races since it joined the Indy Racing League in the 2002 season. 

The average number of lead changes in a Texas race is 13.441 with a median of 13. 

Eleven of 34 Texas races have had under ten lead changes, including eight of the 16 Texas races since reunification. 

Only two of 16 Texas races since reunification have had 15 lead changes or more. 

The average number of cautions in a Texas race is 4.264 with a median of four. The average number of caution laps is 34.264 with a median of 31.5. 

The most cautions in a Texas race was nine in 2017 after IndyCar implemented competition cautions after any 30-lap green flag run over the final 90 laps of the race due to tire wear concerns. 

Beside the 2017 Texas race, the only other Texas race to have more than five cautions since reunification was in 2008 when there were eight cautions. 

Nine of 34 Texas races have had greater than five cautions. 

Predictions

Josef Newgarden gets another Texas victory, and he does it with at least 125 laps led. Jimmie Johnson will get a career-best starting position and get at least his first career top ten finish. Johnson will not be the best Ganassi finisher, however. Andretti Autosport will continue to be underwhelming but get at least one car in the top five. Scott McLaughlin will not leave Texas as the championship leader, and he will not be the top New Zealander. Every driver will complete at least one lap. Ed Carpenter will not top the Ed Carpenter Racing intra-team battle. There will be fewer than 325 total passes. A.J. Foyt Racing will have multiple cars in the top fifteen. There will not be a pit stop with a car exiting with a loose wheel.  Sleeper: Marcus Ericsson.