Five Takeaways from Texas

McLaughlin Adds to Title Lead

Scott McLaughlin leads the championship standings after two races by 28 points over Penske teammate Will Power. After St. Pete, we saw all the posts and discussion about how the winner of the first race has gone on to win the championship in recent years, and would McLaughlin continue the trend? Well, so far it looks like he could. A win and a podium is a fantastic way to start the year, and he has a healthy lead. Looking past just results, McLaughlin dominated from pole in St. Pete. He led the most laps and won on a street course, then nearly repeated the performance on a speedway the next race, narrowly being beaten by a veteran champion teammate. There’s a lot of racing left in the season, but if you were building a title season, two dominant performances on two track types is exactly how you start it. 

Oval Rookies Impress

The 500 this year looks like a stacked field, and two drivers just showed that they are going to be serious contenders. In their first IndyCar oval races, Kyle Kirkwood and Jimmie Johnson were very impressive, with Kirkwood’s race ending too soon. Kirkwood hasn’t had a good finish this year, but he has undoubtedly impressed. He made some fantastic moves around the outside at Texas, and if not for DeFrancesco’s mistake, was on his way to a top 10 finish. But the big story of the weekend was Jimmie Johnson, who saw what was easily his best IndyCar performance this weekend. Johnson was conservative in the first half of the race, but slowly worked his way into the top 10, then began to fight with the top drivers, eventually battling with Scott Dixon for 5th up until the last lap. Johnson made some truly fast moves, and was part of the Ganassi-Penske top 7. Johnson has been off his teammates since he got into the series, so to see him really competing is fantastic for the series.

Andretti Suffers Again 

Man. Andretti Autosport cannot catch a break. They suffered issues at St. Pete, and all four of their cars suffered at Texas. Rossi was out on lap 12 with an electrical failure, Grosjean on lap 103 with an engine failure, and on lap 129 DeFrancesco sent it down low on Rahal and Castroneves, taking all three cars out. With three of the four cars out, all hopes rested on Colton Herta, who had been at the front all day. Pitting from 7th on lap 187, Herta’s crew had an issue with the left front wheel nut, dropping him to an eventual 12th place finish, one lap down. DeFrancesco’s antics aside, having that many mechanical failures is unacceptable, and I wouldn’t want to be in the debriefing room Monday. If Andretti wants to have any success this year, they need to figure out how to execute. 

Devlin DeFrancesco: Rookie Mistakes

While Kirkwood and Johnson were very impressive, the same cannot be said for Andretti rookie Devlin DeFrancesco. After colliding with Takuma Sato and effectively ending his race, DeFrancesco more or less hip-checked Kyle Kirkwood into the PJ1 stain, and Kirkwood couldn’t hold the car in the upper lanes, spinning backwards into the wall. One lap after that caution ended and the race restarted, he dove underneath Rahal and Castroneves and hit the apron, causing a wreck that took out all three, and ended a strong run for Castroneves. There were four cautions in this race, three of which involved DeFrancesco. While it was his first speedway, that amount of mistakes shows he needs to really work on his racecraft at these tracks, and hopefully he improves before the 500. 

McLaren’s Nightmare Weekend

Talk about a nightmare weekend. McLaren F1 had a dreadful weekend in Bahrain, and it didn’t go much better at Texas. Rosenqvist started on pole, and O’Ward was fast early, but as the race went on, it all fell apart. Two botched pit stops, where Rosenqvist overshot his pit, and O’Ward ran into the left front tire changer, sent them back in the field, and then Rosenqvist had a failure that took him out of the race. Two strong cars both experienced problems, and while Arrow McLaren is still a good team, you can’t help but feel for Felix Rosenqvist. He needs to show that he can perform this year, and this was a great opportunity for him that he lost. The pressure is on him this year, and he’s lost one of his best chances. O’Ward was a late championship contender last year, and scoring 15 points at a track he won at last year is not how you start a title run.