'I hope we come back': Josef Newgarden's last-corner pass on Penske teammate wins Texas IndyCar race

FORT WORTH, Texas – A surprisingly race-y IndyCar race at Texas Motor Speedway, the best the series has seen at the track in years, finished with a last-lap, last corner pass that delivered Roger Penske the 600th win of his team owner career.

After No. 2 qualifier Scott McLaughlin led 186 of the 248 laps Sunday afternoon, 2019 IndyCar Texas winner Josef Newgarden came around his Penske teammate out of Turn 4 and won a drag race to the start-finish line to take the second race of the year.

After passing polesitter Felix Rosenqvist on Lap 2, McLaughlin had built more than a 10-second lead on the field before a series of mid-race cautions leveled the grid. Coming down the stretch, McLaughlin, Newgarden and 3rd-place Marcus Ericsson hit lapped traffic, and ultimately it’s what slowed McLaughlin just enough to give Newgarden a chance for the race-winning pass.

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“Oh my gosh, I was fuming in the car, cause we had all this traffic,” Newgarden said post-race. “But right when I needed it, it helped me that last corner. I hate doing that to a teammate, but I was going for it just like he was.”

“That’s what it’s all about at Texas. Let’s come back. I hope we come back.”

After losing by 0.0669 seconds, the 8th-closest IndyCar finish in TMS history, McLaughlin was quick to greet Newgarden in Victory Circle.

“I mean, 2nd-place is a great day, but unfortunately we just led a ton of laps,” McLaughlin said. “But if you lose it to anyone, you want to lose it to a teammate.

“At the end of the day, we’re there, and I learned a lot in this race. Man, I’m just gutted. It hurts, but it is what it is. Still, I’m pretty proud of how we ran. I’ll learn and grow from this and just get on with it.”

Johnson takes late-race surge to 6th-place

After biding his time following his strongest qualifying run in an Indy car Saturday (18th), Jimmie Johnson found himself in the top-10 with one pit sequence to go. One after another, the IndyCar oval rookie picked off Santino Ferrucci – in for an injured Jack Harvey after his Saturday practice crash – before also grabbing Rinus VeeKay, Simon Pagenaud and teammate and defending champ Alex Palou. At his best, Johnson worked his way up to 5th before CGR teammate Scott Dixon got him with a couple laps to go.

“A top-5 would have been a home run. I’d hoped to qualify in the top-10 and race into the top-10 too, but once we hit the halfway point, I really sensed the car and it all became second-nature,” Johnson said post-race. “I knew going oval racing would help us, and today it got us into the competitive mix.”

Still, his 6th-place finish achieved the dream-type of weekend Johnson spoke about heading into Sunday. His next oval? His debut at the Indianapolis 500.

“Yeah, no pressure, right?” he said. “This is a huge step in having a successful Month of May for me at the Brickyard. All the laps I logged in the last two days are going to be so helpful.”

Mid-race chaos eliminates 8 cars

The 27-car field, the largest IndyCar grid at Texas Motor Speedway in a decade, saw heavy attrition similar to the oval finale a year ago at WWT Raceway, where only 15 of 24 cars finished after six cautions. In total, eight cars either crashed or were sent back to the garages early. The race saw four total yellow flags, including three in just 30 laps (Lap 99-129). Here’s a summary of the carnage:

>>Lap 11: Alexander Rossi’s No. 27 slowed to a crawl on-track on the backstretch on Lap 11, and the Andretti Autosport driver barely pedaled it into pitlane. After stepping out of the car, he told the NBC broadcast he believed he’d suffered an electrical issue, giving him a third-straight terrible start to a season after taking 20th in St. Pete last month.

“The battery from the start of the race was cutting power, and it just went exponentially worse until the battery died,” he said. “And here we are. At this point, what do you say? It is what it is. It’s a shame, because the car was fast, I think. A really good car, and to not get the opportunity is pretty sad.”

>>Lap 99: Takuma Sato was running high on Devlin DeFrancesco in Turn 1 when the Andretti driver drifted high, making light contact with the Dale Coyne Racing car. Sato then tapped the outside wall in Turn 2, but the veteran was able to save it and work back to the pits to further evaluate the damage. The No. 51 Honda team later retired the car after initially trying to make repairs.

Also during that stop, Romain Grosjean pulled into the pits with smoke coming out of the back of his No. 28 Honda, and his team quickly retired the car after he said the engine lost power.

During the same caution, Arrow McLaren SP teammates Pato O’Ward and polesitter Felix Rosenqvist suffered separate issues in pitlane after running in the top-5. Rosenqvist missed his marks and had to have the car pushed back into his box, and O’Ward ran into his left-front tire changer. The No. 5 crew man was later checked and released from the infield car center, but O’Ward had to take the impending restart from the back, ending his chance to defend his win from a year ago. Later on, Rosenqvist’s team was forced to retire the car with a mechanical issue.

>>Lap 114: One lap into the restart, Kyle Kirkwood was running high on DeFrancesco in Turn 4 and spun after losing traction in the PJ1-stained section of the track. After starting 23rd, Kirkwood had carved his way into the top-10 after pitting during Rossi’s caution for new tires before his crash.

“I was running a phenomenal race,” he said. “I just got caught in the PJ1 on the restart. I was good at first (in the PJ1), but Devlin wiggled a little bit and pushed me just too far up. Then, there was no catching it.”

>>Lap 129: One lap after the next green flag, DeFrancesco tried to go three-wide with Graham Rahal and Helio Castroneves into Turn 3 on the low side. The rookie’s inside wheels went inside the white line marking the track boundaries, and he seemed to spin on the cold track, sending him into Rahal. The No. 15 car then spun into Castroneves, ending all three of their days.

“It was just unnecessary. We had 100 laps to go,” Castroneves said. “Come on, you know (three-wide) isn’t going to happen.”

Rahal said he was trying to give Castroneves enough room up high before DeFrancesco pushed his car into the mix.

“Just tight confines,” Rahal said. “I think (Devlin) has a bright future, but he punted Takuma earlier in the race, and you’ve got to learn from those mistakes.”

IndyCar results at Texas Motor Speedway

1. (7) Josef Newgarden, Dallara-Chevrolet, 248 laps, Running.

2. (2) Scott McLaughlin, Dallara-Chevrolet, 248, Running.

3. (14) Marcus Ericsson, Dallara-Honda, 248, Running.

4. (4) Will Power, Dallara-Chevrolet, 248, Running.

5. (5) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 248, Running.

6. (18) Jimmie Johnson, Dallara-Honda, 248, Running.

7. (11) Alex Palou, Dallara-Honda, 248, Running.

8. (15) Simon Pagenaud, Dallara-Honda, 248, Running.

9. (27) Santino Ferrucci, Dallara-Honda, 248, Running.

10. (8) Rinus Veekay, Dallara-Chevrolet, 248, Running.

11. (19) David Malukas, Dallara-Honda, 248, Running.

12. (9) Colton Herta, Dallara-Honda, 247, Running.

13. (21) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Chevrolet, 247, Running.

14. (25) JR Hildebrand, Dallara-Chevrolet, 247, Running.

15. (10) Pato O'Ward, Dallara-Chevrolet, 247, Running.

16. (20) Callum Ilott, Dallara-Chevrolet, 247, Running.

17. (22) Dalton Kellett, Dallara-Chevrolet, 246, Running.

18. (16) Conor Daly, Dallara-Chevrolet, 245, Running.

19. (24) Christian Lundgaard, Dallara-Honda, 233, Did not finish.

20. (3) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 140, Did not finish.

21. (1) Felix Rosenqvist, Dallara-Chevrolet, 138, Did not finish.

22. (26) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 128, Did not finish.

23. (6) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Honda, 128, Did not finish.

24. (17) Devlin DeFrancesco, Dallara-Honda, 128, Did not finish.

25. (23) Kyle Kirkwood, Dallara-Chevrolet, 113, Did not finish.

26. (13) Romain Grosjean, Dallara-Honda, 103, Did not finish.

27. (12) Alexander Rossi, Dallara-Honda, 11, Did not finish.v

___

Race Statistics

Average Speed of Race Winner: 165.467 mph.

Time of Race: 02:09:29.7270.

Margin of Victory: 0.0669 seconds.

Cautions: 4 for 52 laps.

Lead Changes: 15 among 12 drivers.

Lap Leaders: McLaughlin 1-56, Sato 57-61, Castroneves 62, Kirkwood 67-67, Hildebrand 68, McLaughlin 69-149, Newgarden 150-151, McLaughlin 152-158, VeeKay 159-163, Power 164-183, Ericsson 184-193, Carpenter 194-197, Malukas 198-200, Ilott 201-205, McLaughlin 206-247, Newgarden 248.

Points: McLaughlin 97, Power 69, Palou 67, Newgarden 65, Ericsson 58, Dixon 55, Veekay 50, Herta 50, Pagenaud 39, Johnson 35.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IndyCar: Newgarden's last-lap pass for win leads exciting day at Texas