IndyCar Mid-Ohio: O’Ward beats Palou by 0.5s after thrilling duel

Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward held off Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou to win the first race of the hybrid era in a thriller at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Circuit.

The 25-year-old Mexican came back from a deficit of more than 6 seconds to lead 24 of the 80 laps and take the victory by 0.4993 seconds on the 2.258-mile, 13-turn natural terrain road course.

It was the second win of the season for O’Ward, who was credited with the victory in St. Petersburg after Josef Newgarden was disqualified in the push-to-pass scandal. It was also the sixth win of O’Ward’s career.

Palou, who started on pole after beating O’Ward by 0.0024s in qualifying, crashed early in the final stint after opening the race with a dominant pace to lead a race-record 53 laps. But a botched second stop cost him crucial time and allowed O’Ward to gain track positions.

Scott McLaughlin took third, well behind O’Ward and Palou on the podium. Andretti Global’s Colton Herta and Marcus Ericsson took fourth and fifth, respectively.

Palou continues to hold the championship lead after Mid-Ohio with 329 points. O’Ward moves up to second with 259 points.

The race

The first laps of the hybrid era race began under yellow after Scott Dixon’s No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda stopped on the track in Turn 5 due to an electrical issue that shut down his engine. The six-time Mid-Ohio winner was pushed behind the wall before the green flag waved.

Dixon entered the weekend in third place in the championship standings, 32 points behind leader and teammate Palou.

Palou led the field to the green flag at the alternate start finish line on the backstretch on Lap 3, making a clean start into Turn 4 and opening an early gap on the field.

Buried in the middle of the field after starting 17th, Penske’s Josef Newgarden opted for an early pit stop – putting him on the three-stop strategy – on Lap 12 and switched from the softer alternate tires to a lightly used set of harder primary tires.

By lap 18, Palou was 5.5 seconds ahead of front-row teammate O’Ward, with Malukas and Herta still in tow, third and fourth respectively. Malukas was 12.8 seconds back. Dixon was able to come back from his suspected hybrid issue, albeit more than 20 laps down.

O’Ward made his first pit stop on lap 28, followed by Malukas. Although O’Ward got away clean after changing from primary to alternate tires, Malukas stalled coming out of his pit box, dropping him out of the lead battle.

Palou pitted while leading on the next lap, opting to drop to substitutes and handing the lead to McLaughlin, who pitted on lap 30 and handed the lead back to Palou.

The top five after the first round of pit stops was led by Palou, with O’Ward 5 seconds behind, followed by McLaughlin, Herta and Newgarden.

Newgarden relinquished fifth position to Ericsson after diving for his second pit stop on lap 36, staying on the primaries and returning to the track in 15th.

Palou’s lead began to dwindle as O’Ward closed the gap to 3.5 seconds on lap 45. Although O’Ward came within 0.4 seconds of Palou over the next few laps, he dove into the pit lane on lap 54 and changed to harder primary tires.

Palou then came in on Lap 55 and had a slow exit after receiving a set of shifts as he struggled to get into first gear. O’Ward passed Palou, who continued his momentum on track with a pass on the outside of Turn 1, leaving a trail of kicked up dust that Palou was able to ride through.

After McLaughlin brought his No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet into the pits on Lap 56, the lead was handed to O’Ward, who held a 1.6s lead over Palou.

After the second round of pit stops, the top five was led by O’Ward, followed by Palou, McLaughlin, Ericsson and Newgarden. Herta was sixth, ahead of Chip Ganassi Racing rookie Linus Lundqvist.

After a brief excursion, Newgarden made his final pit stop on lap 62 and opted for a softer compound. Race control issued him a pit stop penalty after a pit lane speed violation, compounding his difficult weekend.

The battle for the lead began to heat up with 15 laps to go when Palou caught O’Ward’s rear wing. However, the battle widened moments later when Palou got a slight wide after hitting the curb in Turn 13.

O’Ward and Palou remained within 0.5s of each other, with McLaughlin a distant 17s behind with eight laps to go.

Traffic came into play as O’Ward caught backmarkers Agustin Canapino and CGR’s Kyffin Simpson, closing Palou to just 0.3s behind with seven laps to go.

O’Ward still couldn’t get past the backmarkers as the laps went on, but managed to keep Palou behind him to record a hard-earned victory by just under half a second.

IndyCar Mid-Ohio Results