It’s a cloudy morning at Mid Ohio. USF2000 practice has just concluded, and Poesche Sprint practice will start in 15 minutes.
All eyes are on the weather this weekend.
The latest from @Indycar_Wxman:
For today
The rest of the weekend has a chance of rain affecting the Indycar sessions.
Turn one has been repaved, and I will be taking a look at it later today.
I’ll be back with more updates later. If you’re coming to the track, prepare for some rain. The air quality has improved this mornng.
Photo from Indycar
Today’s Schedule: All Times Eastern, Mid Ohio is in the Eastern Time Zone
Mid Ohio has a tough act to follow. It is the next event after Road America, which has became one of Indycar’s three crown jewels. The Lexington track will always have a special place in my heart. It was the first race that I went to outside of Indianapolis. There is a lot to watch for this weekend as we enter the heart of the season.
Sunday at lap 40 the season reaches the halfway point. Alex Palou leads Marcus Ericsson by 74 points and Josef Newgarden by 81. A lot of people are conceding the title to Palou, and his consistency is a big reason why. We have seen bigger leads evaporate, but I think while Palou may fall back to the field a bit, I don’t see anyone carching him this year.
Mid Ohio begins auditions in earnest for those looking to cahnge teams for 2024, and for those who need good results in the final nine races to keep their jobs.
Felix Rosenqvist is the top driver looking for a new seat for next season. It is pretty obvious that Alex Palou will replace Rosenqvist at Arrow McLaren. I have no idea where Rosenqvist will land, but he can help whatever team he goes to.
David nakukas has been rumored to be looking to move from Coyne. is one of the possibly two Ganassi openings his destiation?
Marcus Ericsson may of may not be on the move. I think it would be a mistake for Ganassi to let him go, but this is a business.
Jack Harvey remains in the warmest seat in he paddock. While his qualifying has improved, Harvey needs to have a larger improvement in race results.
How safe is Romain Grosjean? He looked secure early in the season with two poles and two second place finishes, but a series of crashes has made people wonder about his place.
RLL’s home track hasn’t produced a victory since Graham Rahal’s thrilling win in 2015. The team is making strides in qualifying, and Graham and Christian Lundgaard are starting to produce better race results, flirting with the top 10.
Will we see the best result of 2023 fron one of these two drivers Sunday?
I have to wonder, when I look at the driver roster for Arrow McLaren- Pato O’QWard, Felix Roswenqvist, and Alexander Rossi-why this team is winless in 2023. There have been opportunities and podium finishes, but no victories as the season begins the downhill run to the finish. This might be the weekend the team breaks through. If they do, I think Rosenqvist will stand on the top step of the podium.
According to @Indycar_Wxman, there is a chance of rain every day this weekend. The projected rain as of Friday night could interfere with every Indycar session.
It has been a long time since rain affected a arce at Mid Ohio, and it might make for an intersting afternoon on Sunday, Check back of weather updates all weekend.
From Indycar:
| Race weekend: Friday, June 30-Sunday, July 2 Track: Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, a 13-turn, a 2.258-mile permanent road course in Lexington, Ohio Race distance: NTT INDYCAR SERIES: 80 laps / 180.64 miles | INDY NXT by Firestone: 35 laps / 79.03 miles or 55 minutes Push-to-pass parameters: NTT INDYCAR SERIES: 200 seconds of total time with a maximum time of 20 seconds per activation. | INDY NXT by Firestone: 150 seconds of total time with a maximum time of 15 seconds per activation Firestone tire allotment: Six sets primary, four sets alternate to be used during the event weekend. One additional set of primary tires may be used by teams fielding a rookie driver. Teams must use one set of primary and one set of new (sticker) alternate tires for at least two laps in the race. Twitter: @Mid_Ohio, @IndyCar, #Honda200, #INDYCAR Event website: www.midohio.com INDYCAR website: www.IndyCar.com 2022 race winners: NTT INDYCAR SERIES Scott McLaughlin (No. 3 Odyssey Battery Team Penske Chevrolet) INDY NXT by Firestone Hunter McElrea (No. 27 Andretti Autosport) 2022 NTT P1 Award winner: Pato O’Ward (No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet) 1:06.6739, 121.919 mph Qualifying lap record: NTT INDYCAR SERIES Simon Pagenaud, 1:03.8700, 127.271 mph, July 30, 2016 INDY NXT by Firestone Oliver Askew, 1:10.8079, 114.801 mph, July 27, 2019 USA Network race telecast: The Honda Indy 200 at Mid Ohio Presented by the 2023 Accord Hybrid 1:30 p.m. ET Sunday, July 2, USA Network (live). Leigh Diffey is the play-by-play announcer for USA’s coverage of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, alongside analysts Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe. Peacock Live Streaming: All NTT INDYCAR SERIES practice sessions and qualifying will stream live on Peacock, NBC’s direct-to-consumer livestreaming product, while USA Network’s race telecast of The Honda Indy 200 at Mid Ohio Presented the 2023 Accord Hybrid will be simulcast on the streaming service. The INDY NXT by Firestone Grand Prix at Mid-Ohio will be streamed on Peacock with practice and qualifying being shown on INDYCAR Live. INDYCAR Radio Network broadcasts: Mark Jaynes is the chief announcer alongside analyst Davey Hamilton. Jake Query, Nick Yeoman and Michael Young are the turn announcers. Ryan Myrehn, Joel Sebastianelli and Alex Wolff are the pit reporters. The Honda Indy 200 at Mid Ohio Presented by the 2023 Accord Hybrid race (1 p.m. ET Sunday), INDY NXT by Firestone Grand Prix at Mid-Ohio (11:25 a.m. ET Sunday) and all NTT INDYCAR SERIES and INDY NXT by Firestone practices and qualifying sessions air live on network affiliates, SiriusXM 160, racecontrol.indycar.com and the INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA. At-track schedule (all times local): Friday, June 30 1:55-2:40 p.m. – INDY NXT by Firestone Practice 1, INDYCAR LIVE 3:05-4:20 p.m. – NTT INDYCAR SERIES Practice 1, Peacock Saturday, July 1 8:35-9:20 a.m. – INDY NXT by Firestone Practice 2, INDYCAR LIVE 9:45-10:45 a.m. – NTT INDYCAR SERIES Practice 2 (45 minutes of green flag or 60 total minutes), Peacock 2:05-2:25 p.m. – INDY NXT by Firestone Qualifying (Eight minutes of green flag running or 15 minutes), INDYCAR LIVE 2:45-4:15 p.m. – NTT INDYCAR SERIES Qualifying for the NTT P1 Award (Three rounds of knockout qualifying), Peacock Sunday, July 2 10:30-11 a.m. – NTT INDYCAR SERIES Final Practice, Peacock 11:35 a.m. – INDY NXT by Firestone Grand Prix at Mid-Ohio command to start engines 11:40 a.m. – INDY NXT by Firestone Grand Prix at Mid-Ohio (35 laps/55 minutes), Peacock 1:05 p.m. – Driver introductions 1:46 p.m. – The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Presented by the 2023 Accord Hybrid command to start engines 1:53 p.m. – The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Presented by the 2023 Accord Hybrid (80 laps/180.64 miles), USA Network (live) NTT INDYCAR SERIES Notes: The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Presented by the 2023 Accord Hybrid will be the ninth race of the 2023 season. There have been five different winners in nine NTT INDYCAR SERIES races this season. Marcus Ericsson (Streets of St. Petersburg), Josef Newgarden (Texas Motor Speedway and Indianapolis 500), Kyle Kirkwood (Streets of Long Beach), Scott McLaughlin (Barber Motorsports Park) and Alex Palou (Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course-1, Streets of Detroit and Road America) have all won in 2023. The modern record (1946-present) for most different winners in a season is 11 in 2000, 2001 and 2014. The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio will be the 40th INDYCAR SERIES race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Scott McLaughlin won the race in 2022. Johnny Rutherford won the first INDYCAR SERIES race at Mid-Ohio, in 1980. Scott Dixon is the winningest INDYCAR SERIES driver at Mid-Ohio with six victories (2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2019). Emerson Fittipaldi won at Mid-Ohio three times, while Michael Andretti, Helio Castroneves, Teo Fabi, Josef Newgarden, Bobby Rahal, Al Unser Jr. and Alex Zanardi all won at Mid-Ohio twice. Past winners Dixon, Castroneves (2000 and 2001), Newgarden (2017 and 2021), Graham Rahal (2015), Simon Pagenaud (2016), Alexander Rossi (2018), Will Power (2020-Race 1), Colton Herta (2020-Race 2) and Scott McLaughlin (2022) are entered this year. ACTIVE RACE WINNER WINS SEASONS Scott Dixon 6 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2019 Helio Castroneves 2 2000, 2001 Josef Newgarden 2 2017, 2021 Graham Rahal 1 2015 Simon Pagenaud 1 2016 Alexander Rossi 1 2018 Will Power 1 2020 Race 1 Colton Herta 1 2020 Race 2 Scott McLaughlin 1 2022 ACTIVE POLE WINNER POLES SEASONS Will Power 5 2010, 2012, 2017, 2019, 2020 Race 1 Helio Castroneves 2 2007, 2008 Scott Dixon 2 2011, 2015 Simon Pagenaud 1 2016 Alexander Rossi 1 2018 Colton Herta 1 2020 Race 2 Josef Newgarden 1 2021 Pato O’Ward 1 2022 Twenty-one drivers entered in the event have competed in past INDYCAR SERIES races at Mid-Ohio. Scott Dixon (19) has made the most starts at Mid-Ohio among the entered drivers. Ten drivers have led laps at the track (Dixon 261, Will Power 205, Josef Newgarden 162, Alexander Rossi 71, Colton Herta 66, Simon Pagenaud 37, Graham Rahal 27, Takuma Sato 16, Felix Rosenqvist 15 and Marcus Ericsson 3). Team Penske has 12 wins at the track with Emerson Fittipaldi (1992, 1993), Al Unser Jr. (1994, 1995), Helio Castroneves (2000, 2001), Ryan Briscoe (2008), Simon Pagenaud (2016), Josef Newgarden (2017, 2021), Will Power (2020-Race 1) and Scott McLaughlin (2022). Chip Ganassi Racing has won 11 times at Mid-Ohio, including eight of the 17 races sanctioned by INDYCAR at the track. Ganassi’s winning drivers are Alex Zanardi (1996, 1997), Juan Pablo Montoya (1999), Scott Dixon (2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2019), Dario Franchitti (2010) and Charlie Kimball (2013). Scott Dixon has finished in the top five in 13 of his 19 starts at Mid-Ohio, including six wins between 2007 and 2020 … Will Power has finished in the top five in 10 of his 15 starts at Mid-Ohio … Simon Pagenaud has finished on the podium four times in his previous 13 starts … Kyle Kirkwood won eight of nine development series starts from 2018-2021. Milestones: Scott Dixon will attempt to make his 314th consecutive start, the second-longest streak in INDYCAR SERIES history … Graham Rahal will attempt to make his 251st INDYCAR SERIES start with Honda power, tying him with Tony Kanaan for the most Honda-powered starts in INDYCAR SERIES racing. INDY NXT by Firestone Notes: Nolan Siegel heads to Mid-Ohio looking for his third consecutive race win in 2023. The 18-year-old Californian could become the sixth driver since 2018 with a three-race win streak. Three of the previous five drivers to record such a streak – Linus Lundqvist, Kyle Kirkwood and Oliver Askew – won the INDY NXT by Firestone championship. Nolan Siegel, Reece Gold and Matteo Nannini became first-time winners in the first half of the season. Will another talented prospect like Jacob Abel, Louis Foster, James Roe, Kyffin Simpson or Ernie Francis Jr. score a first series win in 2023? Push-to-pass could play a key strategic role at Mid-Ohio as INDY NXT by Firestone drivers will have a bank of 150 seconds to use an added 50 horsepower to assist in overtaking, similar to the drivers in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES. The maximum amount of time for each press of the overtake system is 15 seconds. Qualifying takes on a new look in 2023 with Saturday’s qualifying session featuring just eight minutes of green flag running or 15 minutes total, whichever comes first. Setting a fast lap and starting up front is at a premium as 10 of the last 13 INDY NXT races at Mid-Ohio have been won from the pole with two other INDY NXT winners in that span starting on the front row. |
Last weekend at Road America, a friend posted that he was attending his 100th Indycar race. I congratulate him on reaching an amazing milestone. I have never kept track of how many races i have attended. i am sure it is more than 100. Guessing on the conservative side, I have probably attended around 120 races, 56 of which are Indianapolis 500s. Note- total does NOT include Ray Harroun’s win.
I began to wonder how many different drivers have I seen win races. After some research to jog my fading memory, I came up with a total of 57 different drivers. The number seems low, but I have seen multiple Indyc 500 wins by nine different drivers, which lowers the number of winners I’ have seen at IMS to 47.
As I looked up other races I have attended, I found that most were won by Indianapolis 500 winners. That makes sense. If a driver has won the 500, it is usually one of many victories in his career. I did find drivers who never won the 500 that got to the checkered flag first in races I witnessed first hand.
I do know that my first Indycar race was the 1959 Hoosier Hundred, won by Rodger Ward. I went to six or seven Hoosier Hundreds. A. J. Foyt won most of them. Mario Andretti and parnelli jones each won one. The low number of individual winners makes more sense with the results of these races. The Hoosier Hundred is the race no longer on the schedul;e that I miss the most.
Drivers who never won the 500 that I saw win races, some of them more than once, are:
Ryan Briscoe
Carlos Munoz
Sebastien Bourdais
James Hinchcliffe
Alex Palou
Pato O’Ward
Felix Rosenqvist
Rinus VeeKay
Charlie Kimball
Graham Rahal
Who have I seen win the most? That is a diffidcult thing to remember, but I would say it is between Scott Dixon and Will Power. I didn’t start attending races outside the 500 until 2008.
What I learned by checking out the winners I’ve seen is that drivers who get a 500 win are the best at their craft, regardless of the era. My statistics confirm that winning an Indycar race is hard.
If you’ve been to at least 25 races, look back on how many different drivers have won those events. Like me, I think you’ll find that number surprisingly small.
It’s a race week once again.
The Honda Indy 200 schedule, a first look. All times Eastern. Mid Ohio is in the Eastern Time Zone.
Note- The Indycar race is on USA network.
Friday:
3:05pm-4:20pm Indycar practice 1 Peacock
Saturday
9:45 am-10:45 am Indycar practice 2 Peacock
2:45 pm-4:15 pm Indycar Qualifying Peacock
Sunday
10″30 am-11:00 am Indycar Warmup Peacock
11:40 am-12:35 pm Indy NXT Race (35 laps or 55 miles) Peacock
1:53 pm Green flag for Indycar Honda Indy 200 USA; Peacock
Another outstanding Road America event ended with a great race a little more than 24 hours ago. I have seen a lot of comments today on social media about post Road America depression. I still get post 500 depression at the end of May- I have for more than n50 years. After the htiurd Road America race in the cy=urreent series, in 2017, I had a weird feeling leaving the track. A couple of days later, I realized it was post race depression.
I don’t get this feeling after every race. It is a given after Indy; I have also felt it each time after the two times I have been to Long Beach; and now, every time I leave Road America. Maybe it’s Crown Jewel Syndrome. Indycar’s three Crown Jewel races- Long Beach, the Indianapolis 500, and Road America- occur in a span of 65 days. That is a lot of emotion crammed into slightly more than two months. Maybe that is the source of thefeelings following the last event.
Perhaps Indycar should spread the Crown Jewels out a little more. I would love to see Road America in September. I bet the place looks spectacular with the leaves changing colors. I realize there are many reasons why this will never happen, but it might stave off some depression among fans.
Here is a quick review of the weekend.
The Sonsio Grand Prix of Raod America was an intricuing race. There was drama in the first half of the race with cars driving off track, and the different pit strategies.
Will Power probably needed a second half yellow to make his strategy work, but it was a brilliant drive to see him dart in and out of the pits and actually lead after starting 22nd.
Speaking of needing a yellow in the second half of the race, Colton Herta’s crew put him in a vulnerable spot asking him to go 15 laps on a tank of fuel yet maintain a leading pace. For a team and driver that despeartely needed a win, it was a questionable move.
I don’t know what else can be said about Alex Palou. there is no better driver in the series right now, nor has there been since he won the season finale at Laguna Seca last year. Including that race Palou has finished in the top eigtht nine straight races. Only at St. Pete in March has Palou finished outside the top 5.
While many fans are wondering if he will stay with Ganassi for 2024 (doubtful), my friend Tony dizinno pointed out that we should probably worry more that he leaves Indycar.
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If you thought there wer a lot of people at road America yesterday, you were right. I hear dthird hand thatb it was arecord crowd for the track, possibly by as much as 10% above the previous mark. I sensed it all weekend. In talked to a friend after qualifying, who said the crowd reminded him of the 2017 race day crowd. I could not disagree.
Yesterday I watched the warmup from the the top of the nturn 5 hill. Normally it is crowded, but I can always find a space for my golf cart. Yesterday it was atight squeeze to fit my vegicle into a tiny space by the road.
I watched the start of the race from the turb 7 area. The concession stand there is usually one of the easier ones to get something to eat quickly. Sunday the line stretched to the cart parking entry and kept growing. The workers handled it well. =they make food to order, and despite the demand, things moved smoothly.
I watched the end of the race from turn 3. It’s a great spot for restarts as you see the field come down the hill from turn 2.
Road Anerica is for race fans. People coma and watch the races, no matter which series. They have a good time, and nthey have fun, but this track is all about the racing. I see that atmosphere at sports car races, but the atmosphere is unique to Indycar events. I have heard fans at dinner talking about the next day’s races and thqt they want to get to the track for the first race.
Thanks for following along this weekend. I will be on here just occasionally the rest of this week, then be back to get ready for Mid Ohio at the end of next week.
Jusrt a few quick notes before I head home. i willhave a full wrap up tomorrow.
Are we seeing the second coming of Scott Dixon? A;lex Palou is the collest customer since Dixon. Seven wins in 55 races. 19 top 5s. Palou has won three of the last four races, and he has been inn the top five innthe last seven races. He has extended his lead to 74 points over Marcus Ericsson.
The race was better than I expected. I was surprised it came down to a fuel race rather than a tire race.
Great drives-
Scott Dixon to fourth from 23rd.
Will Power from 22nd to13th.
Kyle Kirkwood, shiuffled to the back of the field on the opening lap finishing 9th.
A great run by Marcus Armstrong ended with an off track excursion pushed him back to 24th at the end. We haven’t heard the last of him.
Where did Alexander Rossi’s speed go? Rossi led all three practices, but didn’t have the speed for qualifying or the race. A 10th place finish has to be disappointing.
What is it going to take for Colton Herta to win a race? The strategy was one lap off.
Finally a podium for Pato O’Ward. O’ward drove a steady race and didn’t let anything bother him today.
A good day for Rhal letterman Lanigan Racing. Christian Lundgaard finished seventh and Graham Rahal fnished 11th.
Ryan Hunter-Reay was 17th in his ECR debut.
I don’t think Road SAmrica can ever officially sell out, but today’s crowd was about as close as it can come to a full house.
I need to get on the road home. Thanks for following along this weekend. More tomorrow.
The Pit Window by Mike Silver 