FORT WORTH — Josef Newgarden and Pato O’Ward were in a class of their own, then put on a spectacular show ahead of the “beautiful chaos” at Texas Motor Speedway, but only Newgarden walked away with a new hat and trophy.
O’Ward and Newgarden engaged in a breathtaking side-by-side battle for the lead over most of the final eight laps Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway, with Newgarden slightly in front when Romain Grosjean crashed with 1 1/2 laps remaining to bring out the caution and end the PPG 375.
Newgarden successfully defended his win from a year ago and now has three NTT IndyCar Series victories in Denton County. In the six races dating to his 2019 triumph, Newgarden has three wins, two other podiums and a sixth-place finish at TMS.
“How great was that to see that there was a second lane?” Newgarden said. “This was a real race today, which was fantastic. I think the difference maker for our car was that it had really good speed. It had really natural speed to it, and I felt like it was a little bit quicker than Pato’s car.”
After the final restart with 12 laps remaining, Alex Palou passed O’Ward for the lead. With nine to go, Newgarden took the point from Palou.
O’Ward charged back to the front and moved to the outside of Newgarden. The pair held that formation at 220 mph, with O’Ward occasionally ducking into single file before pulling back up on the outside. They appeared to touch wheels with three to go.
“I had the timing right,” O’Ward said. “The lap before, we crossed the line and my nose was slightly in front of his. There was no way it was going to finish in single file, but the racing gods had other plans.”
O’Ward earned the first of his four career wins in 2021 in this race, when Newgarden was the runner-up.
“Really nice that I got to race with guys that I have so much respect for — Alex, Josef,” O’Ward said. “You can push it to the limit but you always give each other the room that you need, and I think that’s what we gave the fans. I don’t know why Josef likes to get so close to me, but I didn’t really have anywhere to go — I had the wall.”
O’Ward’s No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet was dominant for much of the race and led 91 laps. With 90 to go, O’Ward put third-place Grosjean a lap down, with Newgarden lurking 7.5 seconds back.
With 72 laps remaining, pole winner Felix Rosenqvist crashed. Under the caution, six cars were able to rejoin O’Ward and Newgarden on the lead lap.
The next 16 laps were a wild affair, with O’Ward, Palou, Newgarden and Colton Herta swapping the lead as Grosjean, David Malukas, Scott McLaughlin and Scott Dixon nipped at their heels.
Sting Ray Robb crashed with 41 to go, with O’Ward and Newgarden among those stopping for new tires.
The next caution flag appeared when Devlin DeFrancesco hit the wall in Turn 2 and shot up the track in front of Graham Rahal, whose car launched over DeFrancesco’s left rear tire. That set up the final restart.
Palou finished third, followed by Malukas and Dixon. McLaughlin, Herta, St. Petersburg winner Marcus Ericsson, Callum Ilott and Helio Castroneves completed the top 10.
Newgarden, a two-time champion, now has 26 career victories.
“We were getting beat pretty significantly in the middle of the race,” said Newgarden, who led 123 laps in the No. 2 PPG Chevrolet for Team Penske. “When we were in position, we could get the job done, but we were not significantly better than [O’Ward]. … At the end, he was just as good. It could have gone either way, in my opinion, between our cars.”
The 28-car field was the largest at TMS since 2011. There were 26 official lead changes, the most at the track since 2001.
“My new word for this week is going to be ‘beautiful chaos.’ I loved it,” Malukas said. “All these big names, and there’s Little Dave going inside-outside. I was having a blast.
“Really great racing — very aggressive — but everybody still gave just enough space to make sure that we all go through safely but also put on a good show.”
O’Ward is the points leader after finishing second in both races this season. Ericsson trails by seven points.
UNT achievement recognized
TMS recognized North Texas and its men’s basketball team before the race.
Athletic director Jared Mosley; Jessie Gardner, executive senior associate AD for leadership and culture development; and Matt Witty, executive senior associate AD for finance, led a UNT delegation that visited the garage and was recognized during prerace ceremonies.
UNT won the National Invitation Tournament on Thursday night with a victory over UAB in the championship game in Las Vegas.
Witty said he grew up near Indianapolis Motor Speedway and has attended about 30 Indianapolis 500s. He said the group was going to watch the race from a TMS suite.
Thompson out of hospital
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Dean Thompson was released from an area hospital after a hard crash in Saturday’s race at TMS.
Thompson’s team, TRICON Garage, announced on Twitter around midnight that he will return to North Carolina and need medical clearance before racing next week on the dirt track at Bristol.
MATT CRIDER may be reached at mattcrider99@gmail.com and via Twitter at @countryMCdenton.
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