The NTT IndyCar Series concluded the doubleheader weekend at Texas Motor Speedway Sunday afternoon in the XPEL 375 for the fourth race of the season. Scott Dixon won the first race Saturday night and won the pole for this race. Alex Palou, who finished fourth in last night’s race, started second.
Just as the race was going green, a significant wreck happened in the back involving six cars. The No. 51 car of Pietro Fittipaldi turned Sebastien Bourdais. Conor Daly went flying, landing upside down and skidding on the track before flipping back over. The other cars involved were Ed Jones, Alexander Rossi, and Dalton Kellett.
It took crews over half an hour to clean up the mess. Once cleanup was complete, the race resumed on lap 19. Jack Harvey jumped from fifth to third on the same lap. Scott Dixon dominated the early part of the race. He had a .352-second lead over Alex Palou on lap 51.
Four laps later, Pato O’Ward and Will Power were in a battle for fourth place. Ward tried to go high but got loose, and Power maintained fourth place.
Colton Herta and Ryan Hunter-Reay went to pit road on lap 67 to start the first green-flag cycles. Scott Dixon came in on lap 71 as Palou was the new leader. Ed Carpenter and Rinus VeeKay also led some laps before Dixon resumed the lead on lap 80.
By lap 88, Dixon’s lead was .739 seconds over Palou. Pato O’Ward passed Jack Harvey from the outside front stretch to take the fourth spot. Unfortunately for Harvey, he blew a wheel well that left fluid on the track to bring out the race’s second caution. Harvey’s day was done, and he finished 17th place.
Everyone pitted during the caution, with Dixon beating Will Power off pit road to keep the lead. The race restarted on lap 127, and Pato O’Ward went from fifth to third on the same lap, passing both Rahal and Newgarden. Everyone was scrambling to get to Dixon, but Dixon took off. Graham Rahal moved up two spots to third, and then he passed Power for second. On lap 134, Dixon was recorded as having led 1,000 laps in his career.
Three laps later, Rahal caught Dixon, and on lap 141, he used the outside lane to pass Dixon for the lead. Rahal led twelve laps before Dixon took it back. Ten laps later, Dixon, Rahal, and O’Ward were fighting for the lead. Lap traffic came into play, and Dixon used them to distance himself from both Rahal and O’Ward.
Scott McLaughlin made his final scheduled pit stop on lap 183 to start the last round of green-flag stops. Both Rahal and Dixon pitted at the same time. O’Ward went a lap later and was able to get in front of both Rahal and Dixon afterward. On lap 190, Felix Rosenqvist’s right rear tire came off and bounced to the inside wall to bring out the third caution.
The race restarted on lap 197 with Takuma Sato in the lead. Josef Newgarden would take the lead from Sato on the outside with 47 laps to go. A lap later, Pato O’Ward took second from Sato. Then on lap 225, he got the lead from Newgarden on the inside of turn three and never looked back.
Pato O’Ward would win his first career NTT IndyCar race by 1.2443 seconds over Josef Newgarden. He is the first Mexican driver to win an IndyCar since Adrian Fernandez in 2004. This was also McLaren’s first win in IndyCar since April 22nd, 1979, when Johnny Rutherford won at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The rest of the top ten finishers were Graham Rahal third, Scott Dixon fourth, Colton Herta fifth, Simon Pagenaud sixth, Alex Palou seventh, Scott McLaughlin eighth, Rinus VeeKay ninth, and Ryan Hunter-Reay tenth. Scott Dixon led 163 laps, the most in the race. There were twelve lead changes and three cautions for 35 laps.
The NTT IndyCar Series will return on Saturday, May 15th, from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course at 2:30 pm on NBC.
