We saw some spectacular racing in last week's #PPG375 at Texas, but were deprived of what might have been a finish for the ages. On the 2 laps prior to the yellow that ended the race, @PatricioOWard beat @josefnewgarden to the line by less than 15 thousandths of a second #INDYCAR

Last one of these of the year: lap time distributions by tire compound in the #INDYCAR finale at Laguna Seca. While most drivers turned their best laps on reds, high tire deg due to a rough track surface meant most saw more consistency on the firmer black @FirestoneRacing tires.

The @IndyCaronNBC team talked about high tire deg due to a rough track surface at Laguna Seca, and the numbers bear it out. Drop off over a stint was significant on both tire compounds, but was especially high on reds, which saw an avg time increase of ~0.3s/lap after ~12 laps.

Laguna Seca produced possibly the most dominant performance we saw all season. @AlexPalou owned almost every section of the track: straights, corners, everything. Palou's fastest *50 laps* were faster than runner-up Newgarden's by 0.55s on avg. That's per lap. Wild. #INDYCAR

Have a look at the difference between @smclaughlin93 and @scottdixon9's days in Portland. Both finished up front--McLaughlin earned a dominant win, and Dixon notched a critical podium coming home P3--but their journeys couldn't have looked much different. #INDYCAR | #PortlandGP

In the 7 laps after the lap 158 restart, @josefnewgarden passed: Scott Dixon, Alex Palou, Scott McLaughlin, Marcus Ericsson, Will Power, & Pato O'Ward. A great strategic call from the #2 team to pit for tires during the preceding yellow, and a short oval clinic from JNew himself.

Look at the work that @malukasdavid did to seal his podium finish in St. Louis. He made his way around @PatricioOWard and onto @smclaughlin93's gearbox over the last 35 laps of the race, setting up an impressive last lap move around the outside of McLaughlin for P2. #INDYCAR

Take a look at the tremendous drop in pace that @12WillPower experienced when his gearbox malfunctioned after being rear-ended in a multi-car incident. It was clear why he lost pace, but it's particularly striking when you look into the data. #MusicCityGP | #INDYCAR

Rounding out your weekly diet of tire-related content, here are each driver's lap time distributions. The big takeaway here? Just how few teams opted to turn more than a handful of laps on the new @FirestoneRacing green tires. #MusicCityGP | #INDYCAR

Curious how the new alternate green tires held up this past at the #MusicCityGP? The data is muddied a bit by frequent yellows, but they showed pretty minimal pace drop-off over the course of the stint. Still, they were generally 0.1-0.2s slower per lap than blacks, on average.