FORT WORTH, TX (93.7 The Fan) - Team Penske's Josef Newgarden held off Andretti Autosports Alexander Rossi to win Saturday night's DXC Technology 600 NTT IndyCar Series Race at Texas Motor Speedway.
Newgarden and Rossi staged a thrilling duel over the final 10-laps with Newgarden beating Rossi to the checkered flag by 0.8164-seconds to grab his third win of the season.
"Feels awesome to win here," said Newgarden. "This win was down to the team. They keep putting me out front (and) I'm just trying to get it done at the end. He (Rossi) was fast. Both him and (Scott) Dixon ran me really fair at the end."
Newgarden started seventh in the 22-car field and didn't lead until Lap 190 of the 248-lap event on the 1.5-mile, high-banked oval thanks to pit-stop strategy. Newgarden was running ninth on Lap 135 when Andretti's Zach Veach brushed the SAFER Barrier exiting Turn 2 and subsequently did a 360-spin down the backstretch. Newgarden was called to the pits during that caution, which put him off-sequence to the leaders.
A lightning-quick pit stop on Lap 198 along with some fast laps before and after the stop put the No. 2 Fitzgerald USA Chevrolet in position to retake the lead on Lap 202.
"I knew once we pitted and basically got back to where we were before the pit stop on the green-flag sequence, we had such a fuel advantage on everybody," said Newgarden. "If we could get the lead, I could crank out super-quick laps and jump everybody. That's what we did."
Rossi ran second behind Newgarden after the final restart on Lap 236 and several times going into Turn 1, when Newgarden would go low, Rossi would try to make the pass using the outside line but the car wouldn't stick.
"I think we had a good car," said Rossi of his No. 27 GESS/Capstone Honda. "I could get a good run on him (Newgarden) off Turns 3 and 4. We could get halfway around the outside, then would have to bail out. Lane 2 was really never there for me."
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's Graham Rahal finished third followed by rookie Santino Ferrucci in fourth and Ryan Hunter-Reay in fifth.
Saturday night's race marked the the first time Americans swept the top five spots in an IndyCar race since 2001 at Gateway.
"It was a great run by the Fleet Cost & Care guys," said Rahal. "We raced smart tonight and made moves when we had to. Honda was great tonight and the fuel mileage was great. The guys did a hell of a job in the pits and made out lives easier. The first stop was phenomenal, we jumped a lot of guys. I'm proud of this organization. We've kept our heads down, and finally, I think we we've been rewarded a little bit."
"I can't thank my crew enough," said Ferrucci. "They did fantastic stops and we just made our way to the front while avoiding a couple of incidents in front of us. I can't thank my spotter Poncho (Carter) enough to get me to push my limits in the car, coaching me throughout the race. For someone who had no experience on ovals, I'm starting to say I love them. I'm happy with a fourth place."
"I thought for sure tonight was the night we were going to pull the DHL car into victory lane and get some cowboy hats," said Hunter-Reay, who led a race high 90-laps in the No. 28 DHL Honda. "I think leading that much maybe put us in a position where we were pitting a lap or two early and then that kind of snowballed on itself. It became a fuel mileage race with the way the yellows fell and not went our way then."
In addition to Veach's caution flag, the second caution flag flew when Arrow Schmidt Petersen Motorsports James Hinchcliffe slid wide coming off Turn 2 and made contact with the SAFER Barrier on Lap 219. The final caution flag came out when rookie Colton Herta made an ambitious move on Scott Dixon battling for third place going into Turn 3, where the pair made contact, ending both of their evenings.
The next race for the NTT IndyCar Series is the REV Group Grand Prix at Road America on Sunday, June 23rd at Noon.
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