Tag: Honda Indy200 presented by the 2023 Accord Hybrid

Palou Streak Continues; Mid Ohio Win Third in a Row-Quick Thoughts

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I am going to save this headline and just change the name of the race each week. Alex Palou’s five second win over Scott Dixon moves Palou one step closer to tying Dixon’s four straight to start the 2020 season.

A. J. Foyt won the first seven races of the 1964 season. I don’t think we need to start discussing that record yet.

Palou’s lead is 110 points over Dixon and 116 points ahead of Josef Newgarden. Palou leads the top five by 127 points. I can’t recall when a driver dominated the field like this in the modern era.

Lundgaard Saves Rahal’s Day

The great weekend for RLL- withdrivers starting second, fifth, and 11th, fizzled in the race. Graham Rahal was in a close battle with Colton Herta for the lead early in the race. Rahal had a fueling issue on his first pit stop and then stalled the car on his second stop. Rahal finished seventh.

Jack Harvey lined up 11th and faded to 18th. Christian Lundgaard came home fourth, salvaging complete disappointment on whqat looked to be a promising day.

Andretti Still Searching for a Complete Weekend

Andretti Autosport won its fifth pole of the season, and also had a river starting third. Colton Herta jumped out to an early lead over Graham Rahal, and Kyle Kirkwood maintained third for a while, but spun as Palou battled him for position.

Herta also had pit issues and served a penalty for a pit speed violation.

Herta finished 11th, and Kirkwood took the checkered flag in 17th.

Daly Returns to Super Sub Role

Conor Daly returned to his role as one of the best substitute drivers, taking ober for Simon Pagenaud, who was not cleared to drive following yesterday’s horrific accident.

Daly started last and moved up to 20th by the end of the race. It was an admirable job considering he was driving what uis usually the Indianapolis 500 car, and had just 30 minutes in the car this morning.

The Event

It was a decent race, better than most at Mid Ohio. There were a lot of position battles and passing in the esses.

Tiday’s crowd was the largest I have seen at Mid Ohio in many years. Every Indycar event this year has seen increased attendance over last year, and not just by a little.

While I enjoyed the race, I think this race is better at 90 laps. The longer distance would allow for an alternate strategy to have a better chance of working. Pato O’Ward tried an undercut today, but the lack of yellows didn’t help him.

Thanks for folowing along this weekend. I will have a wrap up at some point tomorrow,

Rahal Fastest in Warm Up

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Grahan Rahal’s great weekend continued this morning as he posted the fast time in this miorning’s warm up for the Honda Indy 200. Rahal ‘s lap of 1:08.4255 was 17hindredths of a second quicker than Scott Dixon.

David malukas was third, devlin DeFrancesco fourth, and Marcus Ericsson rcompleted the top five.

Will Power went into the turn 4 sand trap and caused the only red flag of the session.

Conor Daly, substituting for Simon Pagenaud, was 12th. Pole sitter Colton Herta was sixth fastest.

Kyle Kirkwood completed just five laps and had the slowest speed of the morning.

Results

Mid Ohio Race Day

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Good morning from a wet Mid Ohio. Rain has tapered to sprinkles. @Indycar_Wxman thinks the race will be dry, but we will see. His Latest:

@Indycar_Wxman 46m

Storms made it through #MidOhio overnight and showers are generally ending this morning…this should open up a drying gap into the afternoon and into the #Honda200 race window..we’ll have to watch for redevelopment late afternoon..but timing leans to dry race for now #INDYCAR

Today’s Schedule: All tumes Eaastern

8 am: Porsche Race

10:30-11 am: INDYCAR warmup Peacock

11:35 am: INDY NXT Command

11:40 am: INDY NXT Green Peacock

1:05 pm: Driver Intros

1:34 pm: Invocation

1:35 pm: Anthem

1:37 pm: Drivers to Cars

1:46 pm: Command

1:53 pm: Green Flag USA; Peacock

We should know in the next couple of hours if Simon Pagenaud will be cleared to drive. If he is not, Conor Daly will take his place..

I think the winner today comes from the second row, and I don’t think his first name is Alex. I have had a good feeling about Kyle Kirkwood since Friday’s peactice.

An interesting thing about front row starters Colton Herta and Graham Rahal- both teams have made personnel changes since the 500. It’s nice to see the changes pay off so quickly.

Today’s race will get veryn intereting very quickly if it begins dry and rain comes later in the race.

The schedule can be quite fluid on a day with a weather forecast like we have today. I wll post upfates on The Pit Window on Facebook and on @tutorindie on Rwitter. Save some of your 500 tweets for late breaking news.

I’ll be back after warmup with tire selections and a weaqther update.

Herta Edges Rahal for Mid Ohio Pole

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Colton Herta will start the Honda Indy 200 from the pole tomorrow. He narrowly beat out Graham Rahal on his final lap as time ran out.

Colton Herta

Herta decided to go with blacks on his final run, and he nipped Rahal by 0.0432 seconds. The pole is Herta’s second in a rpw as the year of streaks continues. A;ex Palou has won two races in a row going into tomorrow.

Honda Lockout

All six cars in the Firestone Fast Six had Honda power, an unusual happening in this age of competitiveness. Rahal explained that Mid Ohio is an important race for Honda, and they put a lot of effort into this event.

RLL’s Best Day

The Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team put all three cars into the second round, and two afvanced to the Fast Six. Jack Harvey will have his second best start of the season rolling off 11th tomorrow.

Graham Rahal

Christian Lundgaard will start fifth. Rahal, in second, has his best starting spot of the year.

2023 has been a struggle for RLL, but there havs been slow improvement. Today the3y showeed that they are capable of competing.

Arrow McLaren Stumbles

Once again, Arrow Mcaren missed an oppoprtunity to start up front and finally get a win this year.

Pato O’Ward, fastest in Friday practice, ended up off track in round one and will start 25th.

Felix Rosenqvist starts 10th, and Alexander Rossi lines up 13th.

Today’s qualifying was exactly what Indycar qualifying should be. There was a lot of drama and fierce battling to advance.The Fast Six was arguably the best qualifying round of the season. Anyone in the final round coukld have been on pole.

The Starting Lineup

Power Fastest in Practice 2; Pagenaud Involved in Scary Crash

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to quaWill Powwr turned the quickest lap this morning in the last practice before qualifying at 2:45 this afternoon. His quick lap came after a red flag for a horrific crash as Simon Pagenaud suffered a brake failure and rolled at least nine times in the turn 4 sand trap. Pagenaud was released from the medical center, but is not cleared to qualify.

Conor Daly is available to qualify if the backuo car is ready. The team has not made a decision as yet.

Simon Oagenaud comes to a stop agaunst the tire barrier.

It is easy in this age of enhanced safety to take it for granted that a driver will walk away from a crash, but to witness an accident like this still makes you hold your breath. Driver safety is never a guven, no matter how many advances in safety the car has.

I’ll be back with qualifying groups in a bit.

Results

Day 2 at Mid Ohio

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Today’s schedule: All times Eastern,; Indycar sessions on Peacock

7:55 am: GT3 Qualifying

8:35 am: Indy NXT Practice

9:45 am: INDYCAR Practice

11 am: USF2000 Race

11:55 am: USF Pro2000 Race

1 pm: GT3 Race

2:05 pm: Indy NXT Qualifying

2:45 pm: INDYCAR Qualifying

4:30 pm: USF2000 Race

5:25 pm: USF Pro2000 Race

There was some rain overnight, but the morning practice should be dry. Rain could be a factor during qualifying this afternoon, however. I will provide weather updates on The Pit Window Facebook page and on Twitter @tutorindie throughout the day.

In a media ocnference after yestreday’s pracrice, Alexander Rossi said that rain during the race could be an equalizer. He said that we wkk fuibd our id Alex Palou is good in the rain. Rossi noted that Indycar has so few rain races, it;’s hard to say who would have the advantage in wet conditions.

Track Improvements

I walked around some of the track Friday afternoon, and it was nice to see some changes the facility has made. The paddock area has new blacktop in the areas where the transporters and garages are.

Turn 1 has been repaved.

There is a new viewing stand on the inside of the track between turns 1 and 2. The stand is private for use of team guests and sponsors.

A qwlcone changes for fans who watch drom the esses.

Viewing here has been obstructed the last few years by small shade tents and umbrellas all the way down the hill to the fence next to the track. I am glad to see this change. I’m a bit surprised at how far from the track the boundary is. The esses are my favorite bantage point on race day. I am looking forward to seeing this policy implemented tomorrow.

O’Ward Leads Mid Ohio Practice 1

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In a frenzied practice session, Pato O’Ward turned in the fastest lap of Practice 1, 1:06.4935. Alex Palou was second quick, and Marcus Ericsson was third. The htree drivers are in the top four of the points standings heading into the weekend.

Helio Castroneves caused the only stoppage for an off track incident.

As usual, itwas a busy day at Mid Ohio. I will have more later.

Results