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The Five Greatest IndyCar Finishes Since 2012

By Asher Fair

Don't look now, but the month of May is right around the corner, with Barber being the last stop before Indianapolis. Credit: Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports
Don't look now, but the month of May is right around the corner, with Barber being the last stop before Indianapolis. Credit: Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports /
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No. 1: Texas, 2016

After a restart with eight laps to go, this was an all-out pack race. We saw two, three, and sometimes four-wide between the top four drivers, which included James Hinchcliffe, Tony Kanaan, Graham Rahal, and Simon Pagenaud.

Hinchcliffe, who led pretty much the whole night by as much as half a lap, was trying to hold on in front of those three drivers. With one lap to go, he still had the lead, but Rahal shot up right behind him. Heading into turn three, Rahal sliced to the bottom of the race track and took the lead off of turn four.

Then, Hinchcliffe came back, but Rahal didn’t know it. Already pumping his fist in the air as though he had won the race, Rahal was approached by Hinchcliffe on the right side as the two crossed the finish line.

The margin of victory was 0.008 seconds, the 5th closest finish in IndyCar history and closest IndyCar finish at Texas.

The leader was still Rahal, who won the race despite leading only one lap. However, according to Townsend Bell in the video, the fist pump by Rahal added drag to his car that could have cost him the victory but didn’t.

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It was the first race that the winning driver had only led the final lap in since James Hinchcliffe won the race at Sao Paulo in 2013, the race that is ranked second on this list.