How Team Penske's Josef Newgarden Once Again Came Up Big on IndyCar Stage in Texas

Using a golf analogy from a guy who likes to hit the links a lot, you can say it was “T” time once again for Josef Newgarden on Sunday.

With due respect for legendary singer/songwriter (and Texas native) Jimmie Rodgers, who originally wrote the song back in 1928, give Newgarden a T for Texas (where he seems to dominate behind the wheel of his Chevrolet-powered IndyCar), and a T for Tennessee (where Newgarden hails from).

The Team Penske driver won for the second straight year and third time overall in the PPG 375 at Texas Motor Speedway, defeating Pato O’Ward in a race that ended under caution due to a last lap crash by Romain Grosjean.

“Pato gave me all the respect in the world when he was racing against me,” Newgarden said. “There’s just no gimmies. It was packed up all day. When we needed to be good, the car was there at the end.

“I’m so happy to be here and get this done. It’s just a big day for us.”

The win helps Newgarden move up 14 places in the standings to fourth place after a disappointing season-opening showing at St. Petersburg.

And for somewhat of a consolation for O’Ward, who has finished second in each of this season’s first two races, he leaves Texas as the points leader.

“It’s been a hell of a start to the year,” O’Ward said. “The guys gave me an absolute rocket ship. It’s been an absolute joy to drive, this No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevy. We’ve had two second-place finishes so we’re still waiting for that win this year.

“But that’s a great start to the championship this year, that’s what we need, and we’re going to keep chipping at it to see that first win of the season and then try to rack some more up.”

Last year, Newgarden passed teammate Scott McLaughlin on the last turn of the last lap to claim the win. Sunday, Newgarden was battling O’Ward, trying to hold him off for a last lap burst, when Grosjean lost control of his car on the white flag lap, sealing the victory under caution for Newgarden.

“It’s not something you’d say, Romain Grosjean winning on an oval,” Grosjean chuckled. “But we were up there, right there, I was a top guy. I’m very proud of the effort we had and the work we’ve done.”

Grosjean appeared to clip tires with David Malukas, sending him spinning and ending his day one lap from a full effort. Grosjean finished 14th.

Another driver having a good day was 2021 IndyCar champion Alex Palou, who finished with a third-place podium finish.

“I’m super happy to be here on the podium,” Palou said. “It was a fun race. I’m super happy to be here. 100% it was the best oval race of my career. It was the first one I could drive how I wanted, I could attack and I’m super, super happy.”

St. Petersburg winner and defending Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson finished eighth Sunday and lost the lead in the driver point standings.

Kirkwood-Rossi Pit Road Crash Causes Finger Pointing

It would not be an exaggeration that virtually everyone at Texas Motor Speedway felt Kyle Kirkwood was at fault of a pit road crash with Alexander Rossi.

Everyone, that is, except IndyCar Race Control—which penalized Rossi and his team, saying Rossi’s team made an unsafe release of their driver and his car—and Kirkwood’s Andretti Autosport team, that is.

Even the entire NBC broadcast crew felt Kirkwood was completely at fault.

Kirkwood crossed two lanes on pit road—the pass-through and the transition lanes—and cut in front of Rossi, who was exiting his pit stall at the same time. Rossi could not avoid making contact, sending Kirkwood’s car spinning.

Rossi was able to get back on-track, but not before extensive work had to be done on his car, including a new front wing and front suspension parts. He returned to the track six laps down and finished 22nd, 7 laps off the pace.

In a sense, though, Rossi got some vindication as Kirkwood exited the race on lap 98 of the 250-lap event with rear mechanical failure that was unrecoverable from. It’s unclear if the contact with Rossi ultimately led to the failure for Kirkwood.

“We had a rear right failure,” Kirkwood told NBC. “It started smoking and getting too hot.”

When asked by NBC about the incident with Rossi, Kirkwood, who finished 27th in the 28-driver field, stuck with his “it wasn’t my fault” explanation.

“I asked the team if it was my fault, they said no,” he said. “We were coming into the pits, I had two guys ahead of me that I had to let them go. He wasn’t even in sight for me. They just launched him too early, in my mind. Nothing I could do about it.”

Several Young Drivers Were Impressive

• David Malukas was the most notable, finishing fourth.

“My new word for this week is going to be beautiful chaos,” Malukas quipped to NBC. “I loved it. I was having a blast. We were going inside and outside, we were going with the big three, all these big names and here’s Little Dave, going inside and outside. I was having a blast, it was so much fun.”

• Callum Ilott hung around the top 10 most of the race and finished a respectable ninth.

• Agustin Canapino was the highest-finishing rookie, coming in with a strong 12th-place showing.

Crash, Boom, Bang

There were several incidents—mainly solo events—that saw a number of drivers make premature exits from the race:

* Takuma Sato’s first race for Chip Ganassi Racing didn’t end up the way he and the team had hoped.

Sato appeared to come out of Turn 2 with too much speed and momentum, carrying him first into the outside wall before crossing the track and hitting the inside wall. No other car was involved.

Sato was the first driver to exit the race and finished last in the 28-driver field. The Japanese driver is competing only in oval races for CGR this year, including the Indianapolis 500, of which he’s a two-time winner.

• Another driver who got up into the marbles and resulted in a single-car wreck was pole sitter Felix Rosenqvist, who hit the Turn 4 wall on Lap 182 and suffered heavy damage, finishing 29th.

“I just got a little high, got a wiggle, saved it, got another one and got caught up in the marbles,” Rosenqvist said. “It was really a shame for us.”

• Rookie Sting Ray Robb had a hard hit on Lap 212. He exited Turn 2, skimmed the outside wall, which may have broken part of his steering suspension, sending Robb across the track and head-on into the inside retaining wall.

Robb told his team the wreck “rang my bell” and walked gingerly to the safety car for a ride to the infield medical center. He finished 25th.

“Tough day to end that way,” Robb told NBC. “I felt like the cars in front of me checked up way too aggressively and I got wide, but I’ll go back and learn from the team. I just feel bad. I was feeling so good and comfortable in the car, we were moving forward, had the right strategy going and I cost the team a good day.”

• Then on Lap 225, and in a replay of a similar incident from last year between the same two drivers, Graham Rahal slammed into the rear of Devlin DeFrancesco, who appeared to have broken something before impact occurred.

“Nothing that Devlin did wrong, can’t go out and can’t go in, unfortunately it’s just a racing incident,” Rahal told NBC. “But I’m in one piece, we cheated Texas again and we move on to the next one. But I’m definitely frustrated. This whole weekend, we expected a lot. And none of us were in the window at all, and for a team like us, that’s totally unacceptable.”

Both drivers were okay. Rahal finished 24th, while DeFrancesco finished 23rd.

Rahal will remain in the Fort Worth area, as he’s one of several drivers who will take part in a test at TMS in preparation for next month’s Indianapolis 500.

More News, Notes

Even though he was a non-factor in the final outcome of the race, it was still good to see four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves rally back from a mid-pack run most of the day to finish a respectable 10th (Meyer Shank Racing teammate Simon Pagenaud was 17th). … Jack Harvey was back behind the wheel after suffering a concussion in a wreck in the season-opening race last month at St. Petersburg. Unfortunately, Harvey struggled throughout Sunday’s event in his No. 30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda, finishing 18th. … Conor Daly capped off the back half of his so-called “Texas Two-Step" doubleheader. Last Sunday, Daly finished 36th in the NASCAR Cup race 225 miles away at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, going just 16 laps of the 75-lap event before his day ended due to transmission failure. Sunday, Daly was a non-factor in Sunday’s IndyCar event, finishing 20th.

RESULTS

NTT IndyCar Series PPG 375

at Texas Motor Speedway

1. (4) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 250, Running

2. (5) Pato O'Ward, Chevrolet, 250, Running

3. (7) Alex Palou, Honda, 250, Running