Driver Ratings for 2023 PPG 375 at Texas Motor Speedway

Josef Newgarden: 10

The finish wasn’t as dramatic as his win last year, but it was another brilliant drive from the three-time Texas winner, who led a race-high 123 laps.

Pato O'Ward: 9

Not winning after dominating the race feels like a kick in the gut, but a pair of runner-up finishes to start the year has Pato sitting in prime position atop the championship standings.

Alex Palou: 8

Fighting with the leaders in the closing laps on much older tires was impressive.

David Malukas: 9

Finishing 4th was a monumental achievement for this team, considering they made a mistake by not coming to pit road during the penultimate caution.

Scott Dixon: 8

Just another top-five finish for The Iceman, who quietly keeps stringing together results.

Scott McLaughlin: 7

He was able to move up through the field, but he simply didn’t have a car capable of challenging for the win this year.

Colton Herta: 8

Herta had never even led a lap at Texas before today, but he made his way towards the front and earned a solid result as the only Andretti driver to finish the race.

Romain Grosjean: 8

He may have crashed at the end, but Grosjean put on an impressive performance on the high-banked oval.

Marcus Ericsson: 7

Ericsson did what he does, staying quiet until the end where he collected another decent finish.

Callum Ilott: 8

It was another top-ten finish for the Juncos Hollinger Racing driver, who continues to push this team forward.

Helio Castroneves: 7

His name was never even mentioned during the race, but somehow Helio maneuvered his way up through the back of the field and almost earned a top-ten result.

Rinus VeeKay: 7

After a poor qualifying performance by the Ed Carpenter Racing team, VeeKay was able to find the pace in the race to make some solid gains.

Agustin Canapino: 9

Forget that this was his first oval race ever, this was only his second ever IndyCar race. It was another sensational drive by the rookie.

Ed Carpenter: 8

Making his first start this season, Carpenter was able to avoid disaster and actually make some on-track passes.

Benjamin Pedersen: 6

Expectations were not very high for the rookie driver, but he kept his nose clean after learning from his Lap 1 incident in the season-opening race.

Will Power: 5

The reigning series champion has had a rough start to the year, finishing outside of the top 15 after a mistake on pit road and simply not having speed.

Simon Pagenaud: 4

Pagenaud followed his disappointing qualifying effort with a 17th place finish.

Jack Harvey: 5

Considering where the RLL team started the weekend, this was a slight improvement, which says a lot.

Christian Lundgaard: 4

Same as Harvey, but more was expected from Lundgaard, who is a much better driver.

Conor Daly: 4

Ovals have been Daly’s strong suit, but the speed was never there all weekend.

Santino Ferrucci: 4

In a race that rewards bravery, it was surprising to see Ferrucci relegated to the back of the pack all day.

Alexander Rossi: 3

Rossi’s promising qualifying run ended at the hands of his former car, being taken out during a routine pit stop.

Devlin DeFrancesco: 3

Another day where his race ended up with a crashed car.

Graham Rahal: 3

After calling out his team’s “unacceptable” performance this weekend, things didn’t seem to improve during the race, which ended with him being collected and nearly going into the catch fence.

Sting Ray Robb: 3

Crashing is never a good thing, especially when there is no one else to blame, but it was the first oval race for the rookie.

Felix Rosenqvist: 5

After earning his second straight pole at Texas, Rosenqvist followed it up with another dismal performance. His best finish in seven starts is 12th, and today’s crash definitely puts them in a hole after the incident in the season-opener.

Kyle Kirkwood: 5

It hasn’t been a smooth move to Andretti for Kirkwood, who crashed a lot during his rookie season with AJ Foyt’s team. He crashed in the first race this year and was unable to finish today’s race due to a mechanical failure after slamming into Rossi on pit lane.

Takuma Sato: 2

The first race in his part-time role at Ganassi did not go well, despite his great qualifying effort. He crashed just 49 laps into the race, all by himself.