Josef Newgarden wins at Texas; Jimmie Johnson finishes career-best sixth in IndyCar

FORT WORTH, Texas — Josef Newgarden nipped teammate Scott McLaughlin on a last-lap pass for the victory at Texas Motor Speedway while Jimmie Johnson shined Sunday with his best finish yet in the NTT IndyCar Series.

Newgarden slipped by off Turn 4 to edge McLaughlin, who came up 0.211 seconds short after winning the first victory of his career in the season opener at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

Marcus Ericsson finished third, followed by Will Power and Scott Dixon in a 248-lap race that turned into a fuel-savings run in the second half.

Johnson patiently worked his way to a career-best finish from a career-high 18th starting position, achieving his two postrace goals at the track where the seven-time NASCAR champion has a record seven Cup Series wins.

The race got off to a choppy start with four caution flags for 52 laps before halfway.

Andretti Autosport rookie Devlin DeFrancesco was involved in three yellows that took out five cars. The last eliminated his No. 29 Honda, the No. 15 of Graham Rahal and the No. 06 of Helio Castroneves.

DeFrancesco clipped the apron while attempting to go three wide on the bottom in Turn 3, sliding up into Rahal (who collected Castroneves).

"Rookie mistake."

Devlin Defrancesco goes below the white line entering Turns 3 and 4, loses control, and takes out Helio Castroneves and Graham Rahal.#INDYCAR // @TXMotorSpeedway