A historic battle between IndyCar’s most popular driver and its most popular stole the show – and rightfully so – in a Mid-Ohio race that featured a host of interesting storylines.
But now that the dust has settled on Pato O’Ward, ending an almost two-year wait for an away win with McLaren after beating Alex Palou, who extended his championship lead in the process, we have time to reflect on other performances.
Highly questionable strategy choices, a contender for one of the best laps of the season in the circumstances, an excellent start for the new hybrid unit (albeit with a caveat) and a former F1 driver’s nightmare on Sunday means there’s plenty to tackle in this edition of winners and losers.
Winners: Pato O’Ward and McLaren
After a string of poor results in the first half of the season, O’Ward is on a streak of five consecutive top-10 finishes and finally ended a winless streak away from home that had lasted nearly two years.
Even he didn’t really take into account this year’s St. Petersburg victory, which came after two Penske cars were disqualified in the push-to-pass scandal.
Winning this race must have been even sweeter, having held off an attacking Palou for the last 25 laps. Especially knowing that on the hard tyres they both had, Palou had been quicker in the first stint of the race.
Getting passed for victory by Josef Newgarden at the Indianapolis 500 must have hurt, but this – holding off the best driver in IndyCar right now at one of the tracks he loves most – is redemption.
For McLaren, it is a boost at a time when the company is struggling to understand this year’s tyres, is still under scrutiny because of its global reputation and the expectations that come with having a Formula 1 team, as well as its questionable choices in the driver market recently, which have led to much criticism.
Hopefully this has now changed the situation.
This is also Chevrolet’s first win in the hybrid era, in a Honda-sponsored race. Honda did the same thing to Chevrolet at the Long Beach race, so this is another win for Chevrolet.
Losers: Palou’s rivals for the title
Scott Dixon suffered a hybrid problem before the race even started and although he eventually got back on track, he saw a 32-point deficit to Palou grow to 71.
Will Power also lost a lot of points with a largely anonymous run to 11th place – his worst finish of the year outside of an Indy 500 crash – to give Palou a 48-point lead.
The day before, Power had qualified 15th and, before the weekend, was suffering from flu symptoms.
Dixon and Power will need all their skills and experience on ovals to turn the tables in this championship fight, and so Palou is a big winner with his second place – even if he missed out on a victory that looked destined to be his mid-race.
Winners: A pair of beginners
Christian Rasmussen has had an up-and-down year, but his standout performances at the Indy 500, where he finished 12th, and here at Mid-Ohio couldn’t hurt his reputation. The Indy NXT champion qualified ninth and finished ninth on a weekend where Ed Carpenter’s teammate Rinus VeeKay struggled.
Toby Sowery had only had one previous IndyCar test – at Sebring last year with Rahal – but he turned a 24th-place start into a 13th-place finish on his series debut last Sunday.
Considering his lack of preparation and considering his Coyne team is struggling this year with a lack of consistent talent in and out of the car, it was nothing short of one of the best tests of the season.
It’s another impressive mark on his CV alongside his LMP2 exploits in the IMSA SportsCar Championship this year.
Loser: Josef Newgarden
In poor form heading into the weekend, Newgarden qualified 17th and then attempted a three-stop strategy in the race – which wasn’t intended to yield huge results but could have easily resulted in a top-10 finish – before he hit a kerb and went off track before his final stop.
Then he received three He took two pit lane penalties – two for speeding and one for violating IndyCar rules – to finish 25th. He is 10th overall, having never finished lower than fifth in his Penske career so far.
Winner: Andretti
All three Andretti cars were in the top eight at Mid-Ohio, thanks in part to Marcus Ericsson qualifying better than at other times this year.
Colton Herta took fourth ahead of Ericssion, with Kyle Kirkwood back in eighth. The latter holds the highest finish in the series this year, 11th.
A championship challenge is going to be a tough task for any of them going so long and without winning a race this year, but it’s a huge step forward for the team from last year and a good foundation to build on.
The Losers: The Three Stops
Since 2021, drivers have regularly tried the three-stop strategy at Mid-Ohio, but it rarely works, and never does it without a caution or three to help. With no cautions in this race after the start, that strategy was never going to be a winner.
Newgarden might have had an advantage before his troubles, but Felix Rosenqvist finished pretty much where he started (14th to 19th) as the better driver on strategy, and it’s hard to figure out what Ganassi was thinking with a pair of his cars trying from strong positions.
Linus Lundqvist had another good qualifying session but attempted the three-stop from 10th and finished 15th. Marcus Armstrong attempted the move despite starting on the hards when he could have gone too far with the two-stop, and finished 17th behind Sting Ray Robb.
All they did was just give places to the drivers behind who respected the two stops from the start.
Let this be a lesson for next year: don’t worry!
Winner: Hybrid
If you had asked anyone in the paddock at the start of the weekend if all 27 cars would be racing at the end of the Mid-Ohio race, they probably would have been surprised. But that was the case in the hybrid car’s mid-season debut.
This allowed a title contender to score a ton of points (we’ll get to that in a moment), but it also gave the race some extra spice and even helped avoid a caution in the final minutes as Romain Grosjean was able to restart his car with the hybrid – instead of the previous setup of waiting for the safety team to arrive, which in turn would have required a caution.
There’s still plenty to come on the competition side once it’s launched – it’s not yet running at maximum capacity to protect the longevity of the units – and teams are keeping secrets about how they’re using it on the track, so there’s fun to be had in that too.
Loser: Romain Grosjean
After securing Juncos Hollinger’s best IndyCar result at Laguna Seca last time out, Grosjean qualified a creditable 12th and looked set for a solid 13th – even after a pit stop issue cost him 15 seconds earlier in the race, so a much better result could have been had – and then spun with three laps to go.
“I’m not proud of myself on that,” he said.
He finished 23rd, another blow in his attempt to accumulate points for the team.
Winner: Santino Ferrucci
The last time an AJ Foyt Racing driver finished 12th or higher in the championship was in 2010, but the team is in contention to do so this year with Ferrucci.
Some smart signings from other teams and a partnership with Penske have helped improve his form (though team drivers have debated how much information actually exchanges hands between Penske and Foyt) and Ferrucci has six top-10s in nine races this year, adding another at Mid-Ohio on Sunday.
Loser: David Malukas
Still suffering from his well-documented hand injury, Malukas claimed a superb third place in qualifying on his second weekend back in action.
But on his first pit stop, a stall hampered his progress and he dropped to 12th. It’s still the car’s best result this year, but one wonders what could have been.
A flat tire cost him a top-10 finish at Laguna on his return, and now he’s stalled. When will he get lucky again?
It’s a miracle that with his wrist he can cover a race distance, let alone two twisty road courses like Laguna and Mid-Ohio. It’s a very promising start but it’s still a loss from third on the grid here, where he had remained on merit until that first stop.
