Texas IndyCar: Newgarden swipes last-gasp win from McLaughlin's grasp

McLaughlin, winner of the 2022 IndyCar opener at St. Petersburg, led for 186 laps having taken the lead on the opening lap from polesitter Felix Rosenqvist, but got caught behind traffic which allowed Newgarden in for a late charge.

Carrying more momentum through Turns 3 and 4, the #2 Penske caught the tail of the leader and went around the outside of McLaughlin to grab the win by 0.0669 seconds.

Having looked every bit as comfortable on the Texas oval as he did in his rookie season, McLaughlin led through an early caution period following Alexander Rossi's glacial trickle to the pitlane as his Andretti-run machine slowed to a crawl, maintaining that lead through the opening pitstop period - with Newgarden 12.5s behind on his Penske stablemate following the first pitlane visits.

But Newgarden drew closer as he picked his way through the order and McLaughlin had to contend with various bouts of traffic, and through three caution periods during the middle portion of the race, with Andretti rookie Devlin DeFrancesco proving to be the epicentre of all three.

Following that trio of interruptions, McLaughlin then had to contend with multiple plays for the lead from his rivals in the second half of the race; Newgarden attempted to wrest control of the race on lap 150, but the Kiwi repassed his team-mate shortly after.

Rinus VeeKay was next to mount an assault on McLaughlin, who began to drop back slightly as Will Power rounded both drivers to momentarily factor in the lead.

But content to remain within the pack for a spell, McLaughlin then repassed VeeKay on the 205th lap around the circuit - assuming the lead after the off-sequence Callum Ilott made a pitstop. Newgarden and Marcus Ericsson followed through soon after, dropping VeeKay from the victory battle.

Josef Newgarden, Team Penske Chevrolet

Photo by: Phillip Abbott / Motorsport Images

Initially looking serene out in front, McLaughlin got caught behind traffic which suddenly allowed Newgarden to charge behind him. With enough speed garnered from Turns 3 and 4 ahead of the final lap, the #2 Penske charged onto the tail of the leader and went around the outside of McLaughlin - pipping his team-mate to the line.

Behind the front two, Marcus Ericsson scored a worthy podium in third for Chip Ganassi Racing, while Power ensured all three Penske cars finished in the top four as he just held off his long-time rival Scott Dixon of Ganassi.

Dixon managed to edge ahead of Jimmie Johnson for fifth, as the seven-time NASCAR Cup Series winner enjoyed his most complete IndyCar weekend to date - and his first on an oval.

Johnson had been impressive in working his way up the field, and made his way up to the top five after passing Simon Pagenaud - whose lap times began to dwindle towards the end.

Reigning IndyCar champion Alex Palou completed the run of Ganassi cars, ensuring all four made it into the top seven, as Pagenaud ended his day three seconds off the Spanish driver.

Santino Ferrucci, who was a last-minute call-up for Rahal Letterman Lanigan's Jack Harvey after the Brit was not cleared to race following a heavy crash in second practice, finished ninth ahead of VeeKay - while rookie David Malukas was the final driver classified on the lead lap.

Andretti's miserable day at Texas was encapsulated by Colton Herta, who was the sole finisher from the four-strong team with 12th place; Rossi, DeFrancesco and Romain Grosjean all retired.

IndyCar Texas race results

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	248	2:09'29.727			200.994
2	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	248	2:09'29.793	0.066	0.066	198.062
3	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	248	2:09'31.080	1.353	1.286	203.554
4	Will Power	Team Penske	248	2:09'44.950	15.223	13.869	199.743
5	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	248	2:09'45.400	15.673	0.450	206.387
6	Jimmie Johnson	Chip Ganassi Racing	248	2:09'47.820	18.093	2.420	204.395
7	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	248	2:09'48.920	19.193	1.099	202.149
8	Simon Pagenaud	Meyer Shank Racing	248	2:09'52.191	22.464	3.271	195.081
9	Santino Ferrucci	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	248	2:09'54.141	24.414	1.950	201.061
10	Rinus van Kalmthout	Ed Carpenter Racing	248	2:09'55.211	25.484	1.069	192.470
11	David Malukas	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD	248	2:09'55.777	26.050	0.566	197.390
12	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	247	2:09'30.432	1 Lap	1 Lap	203.005
13	Ed Carpenter	Ed Carpenter Racing	247	2:09'32.705	1 Lap	2.273	207.041
14	J.R. Hildebrand	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	247	2:09'41.949	1 Lap	9.243	198.637
15	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren SP	247	2:09'46.157	1 Lap	4.208	206.017
16	Callum Ilott	Juncos Hollinger Racing	247	2:09'55.615	1 Lap	9.458	196.332
17	Dalton Kellett	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	246	2:09'44.659	2 Laps	1 Lap	196.986
18	Conor Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing	245	2:09'52.464	3 Laps	1 Lap	194.917
19	Christian Lundgaard	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	233	2:05'04.306	15 Laps	12 Laps	58.708
20	Takuma Sato	Dale Coyne Racing	140	1:30'09.448	108 Laps	93 Laps	205.142
21	Felix Rosenqvist	Arrow McLaren SP	138	1:18'29.682	110 Laps	2 Laps	90.845
22	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	128	1:09'17.183	120 Laps	10 Laps	113.483
23	Helio Castroneves	Meyer Shank Racing	128	1:09'17.270	120 Laps	0.086	115.495
24	Devlin DeFrancesco	Andretti Autosport	128	1:09'17.446	120 Laps	0.176	116.812
25	Kyle Kirkwood	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	113	56'00.610	135 Laps	15 Laps	114.144
26	Romain Grosjean	Andretti Autosport	103	47'06.805	145 Laps	10 Laps	86.362
27	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	11	28'50.435	237 Laps	92 Laps	3.499
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