By Jerry Jordan, Editor
JUSTIN, Texas — Lap after closing lap Josef Newgarden fended off a constant challenge from Alexander Rossi for the lead at Texas Motor Speedway in he DXC600 Saturday night and it paid off with a trip to Victory Lane.
Newgarden said after the race the car was fast but he wouldn’t have been as good in dirty air as Rossi had been throughout the night, which is why he gave the credit to his crew for helping to get him out of the pits in front of the pack.
“I knew we had a rocket ship,” he said. “We were better in the front than we were in the back.
“He (Alexander Rossi) was fast. Honestly, he ran a great race. Both him and (Scott) Dixon ran me really fair at the end. It was hard to get away on the restart; that was my biggest concern was getting a jump getting going again. (Rossi) was good, man, he was just hard to hold off. He was so good in dirty air. I saw him earlier in the race and how good he was behind people. I knew it was going to be tough, really tough, but you saw the speed I had on the frontstretch to hold him off, so thanks to Team Chevy. It was a good day in Texas, man. I’m glad we finally figured this place out. It’s been a while.”
Rossi said his car was good but he just couldn’t close out the pass on Newgarden. It was even tougher on him mentally because Newgarden hadn’t been running at the front for most of the night and when he got there, it was a battle to the end.
“We could get halfway around the outside, then would have to bail out. Could have maybe taken a bit more of risk. It was pretty low percentage. I didn’t think a lot of guys were making it happen. Ultimately, then it became about trying to beat him for the line, but we took out a lot of the tire life going in Lane 2 there, so we just didn’t have the rear tires there at the end to stay close to him. That sucks.”
Rounding out the Top 5 at Texas Motor Speedway were Graham Rahal, Santino Ferrucci and Ryan Hunter-Reay.
Rahal said his team’s hard work is beginning to pay off and he proved it Saturday by working his way to the front and getting a podium finish. His slow and steady march through the field are the building blocks the team needs to be a strong championship contender.
“I’m proud of this organization,” he said. “We’ve kept our heads down, and finally, I think we’ve been rewarded a little bit.”
IndyCar Results from Texas Motor Speedway
1. (7) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 248, Running
2. (11) Alexander Rossi, Honda, 248, Running
3. (9) Graham Rahal, Honda, 248, Running
4. (18) Santino Ferrucci, Honda, 248, Running
5. (4) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Honda, 248, Running
6. (5) Simon Pagenaud, Chevrolet, 248, Running
7. (14) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 248, Running
8. (3) Sebastien Bourdais, Honda, 248, Running
9. (15) Will Power, Chevrolet, 247, Running
10. (21) Marco Andretti, Honda, 247, Running
11. (19) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 247, Running
12. (16) Felix Rosenqvist, Honda, 246, Running
13. (13) Ed Carpenter, Chevrolet, 246, Running
14. (6) Spencer Pigot, Chevrolet, 246, Running
15. (1) Takuma Sato, Honda, 245, Running
16. (22) Tony Kanaan, Chevrolet, 245, Running
17. (2) Scott Dixon, Honda, 228, Contact
18. (10) Colton Herta, Honda, 228, Contact
19. (8) James Hinchcliffe, Honda, 218, Contact
20. (12) Zach Veach, Honda, 172, Handling
21. (17) Charlie Kimball, Chevrolet, 86, Mechanical
22. (20) Matheus Leist, Chevrolet, 73, Handling