Photo by Kyle McInnes

A rather dull race turned quickly into a great 20 lap duel to the end as Pato O’Ward held off Alex Palou by about half a second. Officially oit os O’Ward’s second victory of 2024, but the first time he has won on track. He was awarded the St. Pete victory after Josef Newgarden’s disqualification.

What a brilliant call by the 5 crew to pit a lap early.

No one is happier to see six oval races coming up on the schedule than Newgarden. He has had two consecutive road course finishes in the 20s. Newgarden is 146 points behind Palou and appears to be out of the championship, but given his record on ovals, he has a chance to get back into the chase. Palou has b=ever won on an oval.

It’s great for the series to have its most popular driver win a race. It has been since Iowa race 2 in 2022 that O’Ward last crossed the finish line first.

The hybrid seemed to perform weel except for Scott Dixon’s issue. Both Palou and third place Scott Mclaughlin said that they enjoyed using it more than they thought they would.

Kyle Kirkwood continues to be the most consistent driver in the series. he scored another top 10 today, finishing eighth, after his worst qualifying of the season. Kirkwood nis now sixth in points.

David Malukas had a tough day after stalling at the start and then on his first pit stop. If he continues his outstanding qualifying, he will gat a top five result this year.

O’Ward mentioned how hard it is pass at Mid-Ohio. The results bear that out. The top five finishers started 2nd, 1st, 6th, 4th, and 5th.

I will have a more detailed analysyis tomorrow. I need to head back to Indianpolis. Thanks for following along this weekend.