Newgarden wins thrilling Texas race. Is IndyCar ready to climb back to the peak?

Texas Motor Speedway was repaved and reconfigured in 2017. Since then, due to a substance NASCAR applied to add artificial grip which aged to create the opposite effect, Texas has felt more like an obligation than appointment viewing for IndyCar.

IndyCar oval races are some of the most thrilling motorsports events in the world each year, but Texas — limited to one and a half racing lanes due to the stained track surface — was a drab, procedural affair at 200 mph for years.

After Sunday, a race which featured more than 1,000 passes on track and brought an energy not felt since the pack races of the old Texas and other forgotten 1.5 mile ovals, you can't help but smile.

Josef Newgarden crossed the line first on Sunday under caution, followed by the dominant car Pato O'Ward in second. At one point it felt unlikely O'Ward had any chance at losing this one, nearly lapping the entire field before a caution came out near the 2/3rd mark.

The only car he couldn't lap? Newgarden, just a step behind. During that caution's pit cycle O'Ward was the only car to stay out, with almost every other lead lap car (including those waved around the pace car) on fresh tires and fuel.

O'Ward held his own, and the final stretch of racing — the last 80 laps or so — were genuinely the best laps in motorsports this year. The fast cars had to defend from those who figured out their strategy later in the race and figuring out their way back to the front.

“Pato gave me all the respect in the world when he was racing next to me,” Newgarden said after the race. “It was really hard to fight those guys. I think (Alex) Palou was super strong, too. There are just no gimmes. It was packed up today, very difficult to get away.

“There were parts when we were good, parts when we were weaker. But when we needed to be good, the car was there at the end.”

IndyCar was kind enough to wrap up the highlights in under six minutes here, so I'll spare the lap-by-lap recap:

I'll point out two things before we move to my other thoughts following Texas:

1: Tough luck for Pato O'Ward, who has now finished second in both races this season, but a great sign of consistency needed to win an IndyCar title. He now leads the points standings. Also tough for McLaren, who saw Alexander Rossi caught up in a pit incident early and Felix Rosenqvist, who started first, out late after spinning and hitting the wall.

2: Josef Newgarden is still the gold standard on ovals right now — apart from Indianapolis. He's just got the special sauce, the juice, whatever you call it.

The Texas race will generate multiple perspectives from Twin Checkers (look out for more this next two weeks), but it was the kind of race that genuinely makes me ask: is IndyCar ready to break back into the stratosphere?

TLDR: IndyCar used to be bigger than NASCAR in America, only to suffer an internal war that split open wheel racing in two. NASCAR filled the void, peaked in the early 2000s, and has been in decline since. The war concluded in 2008 when the two open wheel series reunified and only recently does IndyCar feel positioned to skyrocket back to the top.

The answer is probably not just yet. IndyCar needs one or two more ovals, definitely one more 1.5 mile+ oval, to truly become a motorsport worthy of being called the pinnacle of American motorsport.

However, this is probably the most well-positioned the series has been to grow again since reunification in 2008. The racing in all forms is exquisite, the stars are bright and compelling, and perhaps by appealing to the most primal of appeals — raw speed — IndyCar can defeat all.

This nearly perfect Texas race (which you can view in it's entirety on Peacock) opened up this discussion by offering a reprieve from recently frustrating races and officiating in other major motorsports series.

Formula One contested the Australian Grand Prix early Sunday morning in U.S. time. The race was red-flagged three times, which set an F1 record. Two of those red flags marred the race finish, with both happening in the last five laps and both requiring a complete restart which eliminated multple cars in what many deemed an unnecessary manner.

Points in F1 are hard to come by since they're only awarded to the top ten finishers. With multple drivers and teams losing valuable points and the littany of crashes that occurred with the restart, a lot of fans and teams were livid. Max Verstappen still won a race he dominated, and cars were wrecked in an unnecessary manner.

Meanwhile, in NASCAR, the Richmond race Sunday offered a refreshing reprieve from last weekend's race a Circuit of the Americas. NASCAR is a pioneer in the world of motorsports rules, creating a unique overtime system to make sure races finish under green flag conditions, essentially extending races by two laps if a caution comes out before the final lap. Last weekend, three "overtime" finishes were required, and due to a variety of factors including race craft and accusations of "lack of respect" among drivers, the race became a farce.

Similar to NASCAR's races at the Indianapolis Road Course, many drivers felt they could gain many positions by bumping and shoving their way through COTA's tight turn one, which resulted in multiple accidents that extended the race an extra half an hour and eliminated multple drivers well after the scheduled race distance was over. This issue has popped up a lot this season with a majority of races this season requiring OT to finish. The "respect" issue is interesting as well, and could be a byproduct of NASCAR's playoff championship format that values wins over consistency — in NASCAR it's more valuable to wreck someone on the last lap for the win than take home the points for finishing second.

NASCAR and Formula One are reckoning with issues they've created for themselves: trying to manipulate rules to create a thrilling side-by-side photo finish each time an incident happens late in the race. I take issue with this on a few  points, but on this weekend I'll leave it to one.

IndyCar had an enthralling race with strategy, speed and competition that both of those series want without any race manipulation at the end.

It was exactly the race motorsports needed as a whole, and we'll be buzzing about it for a long time to come.

Results

1. (Start: 4) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 250, Running
2. (5) Pato O'Ward, Chevrolet, 250, Running
3. (7) Alex Palou, Honda, 250, Running
4. (9) David Malukas, Honda, 250, Running
5. (2) Scott Dixon, Honda, 250, Running
6. (15) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 250, Running
7. (10) Colton Herta, Honda, 250, Running
8. (16) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 249, Running
9. (17) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 249, Running
10. (21) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 249, Running
11. (26) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 249, Running
12. (19) Agustin Canapino (R), Chevrolet, 249, Running
13. (18) Ed Carpenter, Chevrolet, 249, Running
14. (11) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 248, Contact
15. (13) Benjamin Pedersen (R), Chevrolet, 248, Running
16. (8) Will Power, Chevrolet, 248, Running
17. (22) Simon Pagenaud, Honda, 247, Running
18. (28) Jack Harvey, Honda, 247, Running
19. (27) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 247, Running
20. (25) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 246, Running
21. (14) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 246, Running
22. (3) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 243, Running
23. (12) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 221, Contact
24. (24) Graham Rahal, Honda, 219, Contact
25. (23) Sting Ray Robb (R), Honda, 208, Contact
26. (1) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 177, Contact
27. (20) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 97, Contact
28. (6) Takuma Sato, Honda, 46, Contact

NTT INDYCAR SERIES Point Standings: O'Ward 82, Ericsson 75, Dixon 67, Newgarden 66, Palou 60, Malukas 53, Ilott 52, McLaughlin 48, Power 40, Rossi 40, Herta 37, Canapino 36, Rahal 34, Lundgaard 33, Grosjean 31, VeeKay 28, Castroneves 27, Daly 26, Harvey 20, Kirkwood 20, Robb 20, Pedersen 20, Armstrong 19, Pagenaud 18, Rosenqvist 18, Carpenter 17, Ferrucci 15, DeFrancesco 12, Sato 5