The NTT IndyCar Series held its first of two races Saturday night at Texas Motor Speedway. Rain canceled qualifying earlier in the day. The starting lineup was set by championship points which went to Alex Palou, with Will Power starting second. Though the showers had dissipated, there was still a chance of showers during the race.
Alex Palou led the first two laps before Scott Dixon went to the outside of turn one to take the lead. Dixon dominated early in the race. Palou trailed Dixon by .568 seconds on lap 53. Palou slightly caught Dixon when they approached traffic. Teams had now started their scheduled pit stops when a lap later, the first caution came out. Josef Newgarden turned Sebastien Bourdais, sending him hard into the wall. Bourdais was checking up due to Colton Herta slowing ahead of him when the crash occurred.
Bourdais was the first car out of the race. Josef Newgarden was issued a penalty for avoidable contact and had to restart in the back. The race resumed on lap 71 with Dixon in the lead. Tony Kannan moved up to seventh on lap 72, while Felix Rosenqvist moved up to tenth place. On lap 110, Pato O’Ward made his second scheduled pit stop to start the next round of green-flag stops.
Scott Dixon had a 7.291-second lead on lap 125 before making his second scheduled pit stop. Alex Palou then took over the lead. Palou stayed out for four laps before making his scheduled pit stop, and the lead went back to Scott Dixon.
Dixon was ahead of Felix Rosenqvist by .253 seconds on lap 154. One lap later, Rosenqvist had Scott McLaughlin behind him and blocked him to keep second place. The second caution came out on lap 160 after James Hinchcliffe got loose at turn one and slammed the wall hard, leaving debris and fluid on the track. Everyone went to pit road during the caution, with Dixon beating Scott McLaughlin off pit road to keep the lead. Marcus Ericsson lost a right rear tire while leaving pit road, and his team backed him up to put the tire on. The race resumed with 38 laps to go.
The drivers in the back were very aggressive on the restart to get to Dixon. With 35 laps to go, the field settled down into a single-file lane. With 33 to go, Graham Rahal took seventh from Jack Harvey. He then moved up to fifth place with 21 laps to go after Colton Herta’s car suffered right rear issues and retired from the race finishing in 22nd place.
Upfront, Scott Dixon could not be caught. Scott McLaughlin did everything he could to catch Dixon. Dixon would win the race for the second consecutive year by .2646 over Scott McLaughlin. Dixon is now one win away from tying Mario Andretti in wins (52). He also becomes the winningest driver at Texas Motor Speedway by breaking a tie with Helio Castroneves with his fifth win and the first repeat winner.
The rest of the top ten finishers were Pato O’Ward third, Alex Palou fourth, Graham Rahal fifth, Josef Newgarden sixth, Jack Harvey seventh, Alexander Rossi eighth, Takuma Sato ninth, and Simon Pagenaud tenth. Dixon led 206 laps, the most in the race. There were four lead changes and two cautions for 29 laps.
The doubleheader concludes at Texas Motor Speedway today with the XPEL 375 at 5 pm on NBCSN.
