Romain Grosjean said his team will “refocus and make finishing races our target” after crashing out of a front-running position for the second time in as many races last weekend.
The Andretti driver enjoyed one of his most competitive performances on an oval to date at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday. He spent half the race in the top five and was running fifth when a light brush with David Malukas sent the former Formula 1 driver spinning into a barrier on the penultimate lap.
Grosjean spent just two laps inside the top 10 on his first visit to the track last year, before retiring with a technical failure. After Sunday’s race the driver who spurned IndyCar’s ovals on his debut in the series two years ago agreed his performance might have surprised some people.
“It’s not something you would think yourself saying, Romain Grosjean winning on an oval, right?” he said. “But we were out there with the top guys, so I’m very, very proud of the effort we’ve made, very proud of the work we’ve done.”
He was encouraged by the competitiveness of his car in the second round of the season at a venue which could hardly be more different from the tight street circuit the championship began on last month.
“It was very good,” said Grosjean. “We had a good car, we had a fast car and we were good all the way.
“I got very unlucky at one point in the race with the traffic and the backmarkers – but that’s ovals – and I couldn’t pass them. But apart from that, we had very strong pace.”
Despite the pace he has shown in the opening two races, including a pole position in St Petersburg, Grosjean lies just 15th in the standings. He led 31 laps of the first race and was disputing the net lead with Scott McLaughlin when the pair made contact in an incident the Penske driver later took responsibility for.
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