That turned out to be a fun race at the end. It was a pretty tame race for Texas.
Josef Newgarden has three wins already this season. No one had more than three wins in 2018. This puts Newgarden in a great position to win a tiebreaker, although should Alexander Rossi tie him in wins, Rossi has three second places to date.
If Newgarden wins the championship, Tim Cindric should get a big share of the credit. Another brilliant call to pit on the first yellow worked out and brought the car home first. All three of Newgarden’s wins this year can attributed to pit/tire calls by Cindric.
Rossi had a great save to avoid the Herta-Dixon crash. It likely saved his title hopes.
The high line never came in tonight as it usually does. Rossi lost one of his strengths without that second groove.
Graham Rahal had a quiet race, but ends up third. Glad to see him finally have a good result in what has been a frustrating season for his team.
Remember when crew members wore short sleeves and no helmets? A serious injury or worse didn’t happen on pit lane tonight because of the mandated safety equipment for crew members. That was a scary crash in Sato’s pit. Glad to see the crewman was okay.
Dixon has made race ending mistakes two straight weekends.
It’s a shame that James Hinchcliffe crashed. He had the drive of the race going until then.
Colton Herta also had a great run going. He made some incredible moves. A shame his day ended the way it did.
What can we say about Santino Ferrucci? His fourth place tonight at Texas gives him three top tens in the last four races. Ferrucci is now leading the Rookie of the Year standings. He has done this rather quietly. Ferrucci has improved every week.
Zach Veach continues his disappointing season.
Look for my full race report on Wildfire Sports tomorrow. Next week I take a look at the season at the halfway point.
The Pit Window by Mike Silver 
Wonderful race to be at. The crowd is not quite like Indy or the Texas of old, of course, but there was still something great about being in a big oval grandstand with a bunch of race fans and collectively cheering the battles for the lead. It is really such fun.
It was interesting that Newgarden’s car seemed to come alive once he obtained the lead, he wasn’t really charging before that. It wasn’t a case of passing being impossible either, though the limited second groove going into turn 1 allowed lead drivers to defend effectively in that primary passing zone by drifting up and straddling grooves. Most passes up front were essentially completed in the tr-oval, and they were thrilling moves.
I really thought Hunter-Reay’s late stop for tires was going to help him more than it did, but it seems the window of time where new tires were a real advantage was pretty short. Plus Hunter-Reay just seemed to be running “pretty good” all night, and “pretty good” cars usually challenge for podiums rather than wins.
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Thanks for the info. How was the crowd compared to last year?
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I thought the crowd was pretty similar to last year’s. Texas seems to have found a steady crowd over the past 5 or so years, with any growth being limited and fluctuating.
Still, it probably stacks up relatively well with a lot of this series’ races.
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