Well, what a scintillating race that was at Texas Motor Speedway, and wow if that doesn’t sum up how good IndyCar racing and oval racing are then I don’t know what will. A race that had everything from multiple cautions to 2-lane racing, which IndyCar has struggled to have at TMS
Josef Newgarden:
There’s something about Josef Newgarden winning around Texas but not in a normal way, flashback to 2022 when he passed teammate Scott Mclaughlin on the last corner on the last lap to win, and now it was winning the race with strategy and just pure aggression when fighting with Alex Palou and Pato O’Ward. What made it also different was that Newgarden mid-race just couldn’t keep up with the Arrow McLaren but to still win in the latter stages of the race just shows why Newgarden is a 2x time champion in the series.
Pato O’Ward:
I’m sure if you would have offered Pato 2x 2nd places finishes in the first 2 races, he would have bit your hands off but those 2nd places don’t tell the full story of how strong this young Mexican has been at the start of the season. O’Ward could and probably should have had 2 wins so far this season but with the next oval race being the Indy 500, and given the pace of the Arrow McLaren driver around Texas and the pace that the Mexican had last year at the 500 there is a lot of promise for them to deliver another big oval result but back to Texas, O’Ward’s pace was out of this world to lap everyone up to 2nd place was unreal which should be a massive wakeup call to everyone else on the grid.
David Malukas:
Wow, arguably the driver of the race but that can be thrown at anyone but David Malukas take a bow. It felt like the young American was nowhere to be seen but strategy calls from the team allowed Malukas to be fighting for a place on the podium unfortunately that didn’t materialise however getting a P4 just goes to show what a combo the young American and the Dale Coyne Racing team are together and it wouldn’t be a surprise me to see him join one of the top teams any time soon. Whether this was a one-off for Malukas we will have to wait and see but it will certainly be a shot in the arm for both him and the Dale Coyne crew for the upcoming race at Long Beach.
Juncos Hollinger Racing:
If St Pete was a fluke for the team then Texas showed that Juncos Hollinger Racing is a team that others should fear. All Europeans will know just how good Callum Ilott is but with Augustin Canapino having never raced an open-wheel car before coming to IndyCar and having never raced on an oval and on a daunting track like Texas Motor Speedway it’s easy for rookies to get caught out with mistakes but in fact, it was some series veterans who were making the mistakes.JHR came to cross the line in P9 with Ilott and P12 with Canapino. Ilott has started the season with P5 and a P9 finish leaving him P7 in the standings with 52 points while Canapino is P12 in the standings with 36 points.
The Rookies:
Even with all of the pre-event testing that the rookies get before driving the daunting track that is Texas Motor Speedway, it still takes a lot to get to terms with the track but this time it felt different. 3 rookies took part in the event (Augustin Canapino, Sting-Ray Robb and Benjamin Pederson) and they took to the oval like a duck to water with Pederson the highest qualifying rookie starting in 13th, Canapino in 19th and Sting-Ray Robb in 23rd but in a race that was just full of chaos in more ways than one, Sting-Ray Robb was the only rookie to retire due to a late race crash on lap 208 of 250. The other rookies went unnoticed it has to be said, Canapino finished in P12, gaining 7 places from his starting spot and Pederson fell back 2 places to P15 but on a day were experienced drivers were caught up in action, the rookies certainly delivered strong outcomes.
Texas Motor Speedway:
Running that second lane was something that was crucial to change the perception of oval racing around the daunting track but we have to thank Will Power for insisting on doing a second lane practice session in 2022 and it once again was a huge success. With the second lane being viable it led to over 1000 overtakes and well that is probably the most overtakes in 1 race than what there has been in the last 5 years. What made racing hard at Texas was this new asphalt that was laid down for the NASCAR series and it just didn’t suit the IndyCar setup.
Team Chevrolet:
Team Chevy delivered the power to take a clean sweep of pole position and the race win around Texas and given the pace that the chevy powered Arrow McLaren was able to deliver midway through the PPG 375, just shows that they have sent out a message on ovals to Honda. Chevrolet currently lead the engine manufacturers championship over Honda by 10 points with both having 1 win (Honda with Marcus Ericsson in St Pete, Chevrolet with Josef Newgarden in Texas) and both taking 1 pole (Honda with Romain Grosjean in St Pete, Chevrolet with Felix Rosenqvist in Texas). The fascinating thing to watchout for this season is who can gain the upper hand on the street tracks and the ovals.
Arrow McLaren:
Even though the overall team result wasn’t what the organisation would have wanted with O’Ward finishing 2nd, Rossi finishing 22nd but 7 laps down, and Rosenqvist finishing 26th but with a DNF. It was the qualifying pace that was the standout for the team, with all 3 cars in the top 5 for the race. It’s been a good start to the season for the team with back-to-back podiums for O’Ward, it is certainly the early season momentum that is needed to be a title contender/winner.
The losers
Rahal Letterman Lanigan:
Just a recurring theme going on at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing of having terrible starts to the season with Graham Rahal (Qualified P24, Race DNF), Christian Lundgaard (Qualified P27, Race P19), and Jack Harvey (Qualified P28, Race P18) all struggled to find any meaningful pace on the oval. It’s certainly not what team RLL would have wanted to start the season after being left behind by the likes of Chip Ganassi Racing, Team Penske, Andretti Autosport, and Arrow McLaren.
Takuma Sato:
With Taku only doing the ovals till the Indy 500, the Japanese racer would have wanted to complete all 250 laps but having a 3-wide moment on the exit of turn 2 forced him to go high into an area where the car can’t be saved from crashing and low and behold that’s exactly what happened after just 47 laps. Not the best preparation for the Indy 500 but he is also a 2x time winner around there so it’s anyone’s guess as to how he will perform.
IndyCar Penalty System:
Now if you did watch the race, you would have seen the pitlane collision between Alexander Rossi and Kyle Kirkwood which, in the eyes of the stewards, was deemed to be Rossi’s fault even though he was coming out of his pit box while Kirkwood was trying to enter into his pit box. The penalty for the collision was not only front right suspension for the 7 Arrow McLaren car but also a drive-through penalty which left the American 7 laps down.
Devlin DeFrancesco:
Oh Devlin, for the second year in a row he has been involved in another race-ending crash and also took out the exact driver he did last year. It all started on the exit of turn 2 with the 29 running too high clipping the wall with the right side of his car and tried entering the pits but given the right side of the car was damaged he couldn’t turn left so ended up running up onto the track and left Graham Rahal nowhere to go and crashed into the back of the Andretti Autosport driver and both races were done.
Felix Rosenqvist:
A brilliant Saturday turned into a hard Sunday, starting from pole position the Swedish driver would have wanted an uneventful race but far from it. He went backward in the race after conceding the race lead on lap 2 and never really looked like he had the pace to keep up with the leaders. Once again though the Swede finds himself needing results this early on in the season as the rumours of him losing his seat are starting to float around the paddock, which is just another repeat of the McLaren shenanigans from 12 months ago and Felix is a driver that is hugely popular with the other drivers in the series.
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