FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Graham Rahal lifted his arm over his head just as he reached the finish line at Texas Motor Speedway, then glanced to his right to make sure he had won the race.
After a last-lap pass of James Hinchcliffe, Rahal did indeed hold on to win Saturday night in the closest finish ever for an IndyCar race at the high-banked, 1 1/2-mile oval.
“When I got to the stripe, I started to raise my arm and then I was like make sure,” said Rahal, who saw the No. 2 on the LED panel of Hinchcliffe’s car signifying his place in the race. “I knew it was going to be close.”
The only time Rahal led the race — competed over a 2 1/2-month span — was when he sliced to the bottom of the track coming off of the backstretch on that final lap. He won by eight-thousandths (0.008) of a second, crossing the line only inches and side-by-side with Hinchcliffe, with Tony Kanaan right behind them.
Hinchcliffe had led the Firestone 600 for 76 days. He was leading when the race was initially red-flagged June 12 because of rain after only 71 of 248 laps, and dominated after it resumed until three late restarts.
Hinchcliffe led 188 laps overall in the race, including 157 of the 177 laps run Saturday night.
Series points leader Simon Pagenaud was fourth, and extended his lead to from 20 to 28 points over Team Penske teammate Will Power with two races left.
Power, who won four of the previous six races with runner-up finishes in the other two, was eighth at Texas.
It was the fifth-closest finish in IndyCar Series history and the closest of any race ever at the Texas track that has hosted NASCAR and IndyCar races since 1997.