Newgarden holds off O’Ward for back-to-back wins at Texas

By JENNA FRYER
AP Auto Racing Writer

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Josef Newgarden won at Texas Motor Speedway for the second consecutive year when a thrilling back-and-forth battle with Pato O’Ward came to a sudden halt by a crash behind them. Newgarden and O’Ward frantically swapped the lead over and over during the final third of the race. But then Romain Grosjean crashed while running fifth as the leaders took the white flag. IndyCar threw the caution and Newgarden won under yellow. It was the third career victory at Texas for Newgarden, who won in a Chevrolet for Team Penske. He led a race-high 123 of the 250 laps. O’Ward opened the season with back-to-back second-place finishes and is the IndyCar points leader.