0.008 seconds was all that separated IndyCar race winner Graham Rahal from James Hinchcliffe—the man who had led most of the restarted race at Texas Motor Speedway but got passed by Rahal on the very last lap. The race was full of close dicing back and forth, but it set a record for TMS’ closest finish ever.
Today’s race had been restarted after getting rained out in June. Hinchcliffe thoroughly dominated most of the night and seemed to be driving away in his own private race. However, when drivers started making riskier moves in the last laps of the race, a series of crashes and restarts bunched up the field—and put everyone else within spitting distance of Hinchcliffe.
The final restart was pure chaos, with front-runners bumping into each other and going three- and four-wide as they diced for position. In fact, Rahal’s car ended the race with a chunk of Tony Kanaan’s car still in his front wing.
On the last lap, Rahal made his move to get around Hinchcliffe, and it stuck. The margin of victory was the closest in Texas Motor Speedway’s history, and certainly one of the craziest endings in IndyCar this year. Rahal only led one lap for the entire race, but it was the one that counted for the win.