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Newgarden wins Texas IndyCar epic ended by Grosjean crash
Sun 02, Apr, 2023
Source: The Race

Penske’s Josef Newgarden won his second Texas Motor Speedway race in a row as a late Romain Grosjean crash from fifth ended a barnstorming race which reminded onlookers of Texas IndyCar events of old.

It was a fantastic start as drivers were able to race two-wide thanks to aero updates on the car and a special practice session to rubber in the high side of the racetrack, as well as the race being supported by NASCAR Trucks.

Newgarden, Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward and Ganassi’s Scott Dixon swapped the lead before fuel saving, and then Takuma Sato trying to avoid the sinking Will Power sent Sato high and then into a spin and crash into the inside wall off Turn 2.

Newgarden led all of the next stint before taking a relatively early stop to benefit from an undercut with fresh tyres, but O’Ward erased a two second gap and took the lead on lap 129 of 250, proceeding to lap the whole field apart from Newgarden.

He was so fast high and low on the track passing cars as if in a video-game with the difficulty set to easy.

O’Ward held the lead through the following pitstop on lap 169 before just a few laps later his polesitting team-mate Felix Rosenqvist got too high and crashed in Turn 4.

O’Ward and Newgarden pitted to top off with fuel in case a later caution meant they could avoid a final stop.

That decision unlapped six cars who took their laps back and then pitted, but as they did pit, Newgarden joined them and topped off his fuel giving him five laps more fuel than O’Ward – who then had to save fuel.

The restart and fresh tyres encouraged brilliant side-by-side racing with Ganassi’s Alex Palou rounding Newgarden and O’Ward for the lead before Newgarden reasserted himself as fuel saving meant lead swapping with Andretti pair Romain Grosjean and Colton Herta and Penske’s Scott McLaughlin in the mix.

Sting Ray Robb crashed alone with 40 laps to go bringing out a final caution that everyone pitted from for tyres apart from Palou, who stayed out.

O’Ward made his way back to the lead as Herta hit the back of Grosjean then Grosjean hit Newgarden side-on into Turn 1 before another caution for Graham Rahal hitting the crashed Devlin DeFrancesco further back.