Some quick thoughts on Mid-Ohio:
Pato O’Ward led Arrow McLaren’s total domination of the weekend. Christian Lundgaard won the pole, but O’Ward passed him on track on lap 42. The duo led a combined 86 of the 90 laps. In addition to O’Ward and Lundgaard finishing 1-2, Nolan Siegel finished 10th.
O’Ward becomes the sixth different driver to win a race in 2026
The most intriguing part of the race was the pit strategy. The entire field opted for a three-stop race, but some pitted at the beginning of the window, and others waited until the end of the cycle. In the end, the early pitters had the4 advantage.
The lack of a caution flag and having cars pretty strung out made for a less than exciting television broadcast for the casual viewer. more on the broadcast later.
Why Rinus VeeKay is not with a bigger, more competitive team is puzzling. He made the Fast Six in qualifying, and he backed it up today by finishing fourth. VeeKay had a good shot at a podium spot for awhile.
Kyle Kirkwood’s early pit stop helped gain his first road course podium. Today was one of Andretti Global’s best days on a natural road course in quite a while. Teammate Will Power started third, dropped back at the start and recovered to sixth at the finish. Kirkwood returns to second in the point standings, just 56 points behind Alex Palou, who finished fifth.
After another strong qualifying effort, David Malukas didn’t have the pace to contend with the McLarens. A long pit stop caused by a balky fuel hose dropped to eighth. Malukas drops to fourth in the standings, just 66 points behind the leader.
Hats off the Scott McLaughlin, who toughed it out all afternoon after his cool suit failed on lap 3. He did finish 16th after starting 23rd.
Lundgaard made the statement he needed to this weekend. I don’t understand why McLaren is letting him go. Tony Kanaan said after the race that the 2027 lineup hasn’t been decided yet, and that Lundgaard is “very much in play.”
I don’t understand why they are playing with Lundgaard’s feelings like this. He is third in points, won two races and a pole. What more does he have to do?
FOX Sports
The nice thing about attending races is you don’t have to watch the race broadcast. The booth does a fine job analyzing the race and keeping viewers informed of what is happening, but several things about the presentation are annoying.
It seems that there was a commercial break every three laps. At times it felt as if they would come out of a break, say, “How ya doin’?” and go to another break. The last break seemed so long that I wasn’t sure they would get back in time for the checkered flag.
Townsend Bell was particularly annoying today. He talked about when cars would “box,” his constant soccer references were more numerous than necessary, his obsession with Davidf Malukas, an American (who knew?), drove me up the wall.
That will do it for me this weekend. I’m still recovering from a bug I picked up at the end of my trip to Ireland. Thanks for following See you in Nashville.
The Pit Window by Mike Silver 