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 