Tag: Mid-Ohio

Palou goes three in a row with dominant drive at Mid-Ohio

Chip Ganassi Racing’s 2021 champion Alex Palou is now looking unassailable at the halfway point in the 2023 IndyCar championship after scoring his fourth win of the year in the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio. Palou was chased home by Dixon who is now up …

Chip Ganassi Racing’s 2021 champion Alex Palou is now looking unassailable at the halfway point in the 2023 IndyCar championship after scoring his fourth win of the year in the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio.

Palou was chased home by Dixon who is now up to second in the championship after their teammate Marcus Ericsson crashed out on the opening lap, Josef Newgarden had difficult run to 13th, and Pato O’Ward’s three-stop strategy from the back of the field elevated him only to eighth. Will Power claimed the final podium spot.

The top three on the grid, Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta, Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s Graham Rahal and another Andretti driver, Kyle Kirkwood, elected to start on the Firestone’s softer red-sidewall alternate tires as did fifth place starter Christian Lundgaard of RLL. Runaway championship leader Palou went to the grid on primaries as did CGR teammate Scott Dixon, and fourth-row starters Will Power and Scott McLaughlin of Team Penske, the top Chevrolet-powered starters. The Swedes on row five, Marcus Ericsson (Ganassi) and Felix Rosenqvist (Arrow McLaren) would also begin on the harder tires.

The start of the race, as ever, was on the back straight, through the kink of Turn 3 down to the second gear right-hander Turn 4.

All went well until Ericsson and Rosenqvist, who had outbraked Power on either side at Turn 4, collided at Turn 6, as Ericsson understeered at Turn 6 and struck the McLaren. Rosenqvist was able to get a bumpstart, but Ericsson’s steering was way off and he limped to the pits.

Herta had retained P1 and led the field to the lap six restart ahead of Rahal, Kirkwood, Palou, Lundgaard, Dixon, McLaughlin, David Malukas of Dale Coyne Racing w/HMD, Power and Jack Harvey (RLL). The restart was mercifully clean, the only significant order change being Romain Grosjean passing Alexander Rossi for 11th at the Keyhole, Turn 2. Further back, Pato O’Ward, who had started from 25th after a mistake in qualifying, had used his alternates to climb to 19th. By lap 10, he was into 17th.

On lap nine, McLaughlin was ordered by race control to cede position, having blocked Malukas on the run down to Turn 2.

Up front, Herta wasn’t shaking off Rahal, but by lap 15 the pair had pulled two seconds on Kirkwood who was being trailed closely by Palou, Lundgaard and Dixon. On lap 17, Palou’s more durable Firestones allowed him to make a challenge around the outside of Kirkwood into Turn 4. It didn’t work, but it was clearly the point in the race when primaries gained the edge over alternates. To this end, McLaughlin re-passed Malukas for seventh, while O’Ward, who had climbed to 14th but couldn’t quite pull off a pass on Josef Newgarden, ducked into the pits for his first stop and took on primaries.

Next time by, Palou got his outside pass at Turn 4 on Kirkwood done, and the Andretti driver spun. A couple of laps later he pitted for primaries. A lap later, Newgarden also stopped, while Palou hunted down Herta and Rahal, pulling 2.4 ahead of Lundgaard.

Herta went to the end of lap 27 before making his first stop, but Rahal stayed out one more lap before taking the hard tires, releasing Palou to set as big a gap as possible. Behind, McLaughlin also made his first stop, while Palou went a lap longer before taking on his red-sidewall tires. He emerged easily in front of Herta who had passed Rahal on the latter’s out lap, the RLL driver also falling victim to the charging O’Ward who had clearly committed to a three-stop strategy.

The big winners in the strategic battle had been Dixon and Power who had gone to lap 30 before pitting for alternates. They emerged just ahead of Herta, and while the erstwhile leader on warm tires was able to outbrake both of them on, at Turns 2 and 4 respectively, Dixon and Power were now in legitimate third and fifth, once O’Ward outbraked Power for fourth.

So on lap 35 of 80, Palou on alternates was over 6s ahead of primary-tired Herta, with Dixon on alternates in a very close third, O’Ward in fourth 1.5s behind but two seconds ahead of Power. In sixth was Lundgaard, who had jumped teammate Rahal when the No. 15 RLL suffered a tardy stop. McLaughlin, Rossi and Malukas completed the top 10 at this time.

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O’Ward pitted for his second of three stops on lap 43, and rejoined 14th, behind Newgarden. Meanwhile up front, Palou’s 8.3s lead on lap 40 started to ebb away as he got bottled behind Benjamin Pedersen of AJ Foyt Racing who didn’t wish to be lapped. By lap 48, the leader’s advantage was down to 3.8s, while Herta had his mirrors full of Dixon, who had pulled out a 4.5s margin over Power.

Once Palou finally passed Pedersen, he immediately delivered a couple of fast laps and stretched his lead once more, leaving Herta far more concerned with the Ganassi car behind him, that of Dixon. However, the six-time champion and six-time Mid-Ohio winner ducked into the pits for more primaries on lap 53, with Palou doing the same after getting his lead out to 7.5s over Herta.

When Herta made his final stop, he broke the pitlane speed limit, and with the consequent drive-through penalty, his challenge was over, dropping to 13th. Rahal was last of the frontrunners to stop and unfortunately his crew suffered a wheelgun failure, and he emerged in seventh, and almost immediately lost this spot to Malukas.

With 20 laps to go, all the frontrunners were on primaries, Palou leading by 6s over O’Ward – who still had to make another stop, and by nine over Dixon, 15 over Power, and 16 over Lundgaard. O’Ward hit pit road for the third time at the end of lap 64, taking on fresh primary tires and emerged in ninth, but swiftly made that eighth as his teammate Rossi up ahead could not find away around the unnecessarily obstructive Pedersen, and O’Ward’s fresh tires allowed him to get past both of them. Rossi also lost out to the Ganassi car of Marcus Armstrong, slipping to tenth, but was protected from the rear by the one-lap-down teammate Rosenqvist.

With five laps to go, Palou held a 9s lead over Dixon who had a dozen seconds on Power, who was playing cat’n’mouse on push-to-pass with the closely pursuing Lundgaard, who in turn was trying to hold back McLaughlin.

Palou paid out the line in the closing laps, crossing the line 5s ahead of Dixon, who had 13s on Power, Lundgaard and McLaughlin.

Malukas took a quiet but impressive sixth ahead of Rahal and O’Ward, while Armstrong was ninth and Rossi 10th. A dynamic battle between DeFrancesco, Newgarden and Grosjean in the closing laps, saw the Penske driver pull off a brilliant opportunist pass at Turn 11, to claim twelfth place, while Grosjean also deposed his teammate who nonetheless held on ahead of Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay.

Conor Daly, subbing for Simon Pagenaud, beat his new teammate Helio Castroneves to take 20th, but couldn’t get past the occupant of his old seat at ECR, Ryan Hunter-Reay.

Palou now holds a 110-point lead over Dixon, who has six points on Newgarden.

RESULTS

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Foster claims breakthrough Indy NXT win at Mid-Ohio

Reigning Indy Pro 2000 champion Louis Foster at last claimed the Indy NXT win he had long threatened, snatching the lead from polesitter Christian Rasmussen late in the race at Mid-Ohio. From the drop of the green flag, the top four drivers held …

Reigning Indy Pro 2000 champion Louis Foster at last claimed the Indy NXT win he had long threatened, snatching the lead from polesitter Christian Rasmussen late in the race at Mid-Ohio.

From the drop of the green flag, the top four drivers held position, meaning Rasmussen’s HMD Motorsports car led Foster of Andretti Autosport, with their respective teammates Kyffin Simpson and Hunter McElrea in third and fourth. However, Reece Gold (HMD) got muscled back to seventh by championship leader Nolan Siegel (HMD) and Jacob Abel (Abel Motorsports).

Just four laps into the race, the track started catching sprinkles of rain, and on lap 6 Christian Bogle (HMD) spun off on the exit of Turn 2, bringing out the full-course caution.

The lap 9 restart saw Rasmussen well able to hold off Foster, with Simpson and McElrea equally comfortable but Siegel had to work hard to hold off Abel, Gold, Jagger Jones, and Jones’ Cape Motorsports teammate Enaam Ahmed, who found a way around Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Rasmus Lindh at Turn 5. At that same spot on lap 16, the other JHR car of Matteo Nannini pulled off with a mechanical issue.

By lap 20 of the 35, Rasmussen had a 1.4s advantage over Foster., who had Simpson 0.75s behind him, with McElrea a further second in arrears. As the only drivers who had set 111mph laps, it was little surprise that this quartet had separated themselves from the opposition, Siegel running four seconds back from McElrea, with Abel two seconds behind the points leader. A little further back, Lindh had reclaimed ninth from Ahmed.

On lap 25, Gold dived down the inside of Abel at Turn 4 to grab sixth place. Two laps later, this was the site of the race-winning move. The rain sprinkles had increased in intensity and a mistake from Rasmussen allowed the chasing pack to close in. Down the long back straight to Turn 4, the leader protected the inside line, so Foster flicked to the outside and braked much later. Despite locking up his right-front, he got the move done and was into the lead.

The Andretti driver now had a large flatspot, but his tires got a rest when the cautions flew again for Siegel making a rare mistake at Turn 10, sliding off the road and needing rescuing.

The restart with four laps to go saw Foster eke a gap, and Rasmussen lost out to teammate Simpson under braking for Turn 2.

Lindh and Ahmed moved into the top eight as a result of Jones spinning off with a puncture, and Lindh found himself at the back of a very close train between Rasmussen, McElrea, Gold and Abel.

Three times a pole winner this year, Foster finally became a race winner by 0.4385s ahead of the very impressive Simpson, with Rasmussen eventually dropping four seconds back as he successfully defended the final podium spot.

RESULTS

Rahal leads damp IndyCar warm-up at Mid-Ohio

Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s Graham Rahal topped the speed charts in damp but drying warm-up for this afternoon’s Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio, while Conor Daly got his first laps as Simon Pagenaud’s sub at Meyer Shank Racing. The only incident of note …

Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s Graham Rahal topped the speed charts in damp but drying warm-up for this afternoon’s Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio, while Conor Daly got his first laps as Simon Pagenaud’s sub at Meyer Shank Racing.

The only incident of note came while the track was drying but treacherous off-line. Defending IndyCar champion Will Power found a damp patch entering Turn 4, and fishtailed into the runoff, and thus needed a red flag in order to be rescued.

As the session rolled on, the times dropped toward “fully dry” times, David Malukas of Dale Coyne Racing w/HMD-Honda lapping the 13-turn 2.258-mile course in 1m08.6385s, half a second quicker than Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren-Chevrolet.

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With three minutes to go, pole winner Colton Herta jumped into second place, but was then displaced by Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing. Then Graham Rahal, front-row starter, delivered a 1m08.4255s to land top spot, as Dixon furher improved to displace Malukas.

Devlin DeFrancesco made a late improvement to go fourth fastest ahead of Marcus Ericsson of Ganassi.

Behind Herta, Alexander Rossi was marginally the fastest Arrow McLaren driver ahead of O’Ward, who will have to climb from the very back of the grid after his qualifying faux pas.

He will be joined there by Daly, subbing for Pagenaud as the Frenchman follows IndyCar’s medical protocol after his huge shunt in Saturday practice. The Noblesville, Ind., native did a great job in his first 14 laps in a Meyer Shank Racing-Honda, clocking 12th-fastest lap, just a few hundredths behind teammate Helio Castroneves.

WARMUP RESULTS

STARTING LINEUP/TIRE DESIGNATION

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‘I can finally drive the car the way I want to’ – Rahal

Graham Rahal has expressed his relief and happiness at the Rahal Letterman Lanigan team’s return to form, and his own car’s handling. He qualified second for his home race, the Honda Indy 200, just 0.0432s slower than pole winner Colton Herta. With …

Graham Rahal has expressed his relief and happiness at the Rahal Letterman Lanigan team’s return to form, and his own car’s handling.

He qualified second for his home race, the Honda Indy 200, just 0.0432s slower than pole winner Colton Herta. With teammate Christian Lundgaard fifth and Jack Harvey 11th, it’s a clear signal that the team is continuing to build momentum on road courses, where Lundgaard qualified and finished sixth in Barber Motorsports Park, took pole and finished fourth in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and qualified and finished seventh at Road America.

These have been the only highlights of the season for a squad that reached its nadir in practice and qualifying at the Indianapolis 500, the consequence of which was a restructure of the engineering department. Now, Saturday’s result appears to also herald a distinct upswing in Rahal’s form, as he seeks his seventh Indy car win — his first for over six years.

“It’s been a long time coming,” the veteran explained. “We’ve been beat-up. We’ve been bruised. We’ve been knocked down. For us as a team to rebound this way, I could have told you last night after the practice, yeah, I was P20, but I told everybody I don’t think that’s real at all.

“And I told the guys in the engineering room, ‘Actually I think I’ve got P2, P3 pace’ and I don’t normally say that unless I’m fairly confident that we do. This morning we went out, ran only one set of blacks, we were right there.

“To be honest with you, this is the first weekend I felt like I’ve had the car to where I can drive it the way I want to drive it, and it’s rewarded me because it’s finally to the place where I can charge the (corner) entries, I can do the things I like to do with my style, and it’s just nice to finally see the result come.

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“It almost feels in a weird way like today you don’t have to drive nearly as hard as you were the last two years combined. You knew the speed was there. You weren’t over-pressuring yourself. You just simply needed to work through it and get there. It certainly was nice to see the result, as I said, for the whole team.

“I think the turnaround has been coming. Detroit was a major disappointment, which worries me a little for Toronto because I think there’s still a lot of questions for us on our street course package, but the road course package — you look at Indy GP, you look Road America, and you look here — we’ve been competitive. Again, it’s good to see that, good to feel the energy, feel the momentum.

“I think we’re finally starting to make changes with the car, as I just said, that they’re responding the right way, the way you’d expect them to, and it’s nice. It’s nice to feel that. More than me, I think it’s just for these guys, to see the smiles on the mechanics’ faces. Those guys, they’ve never had an ounce of quit in them, and they could have for years. To see them excited is worth it.”

Of teammate Lundgaard, he later added: “I think Christian has done a great job because he’s more tolerant of the oversteer slides on entry and things like that. And for me, my style, I want to attack the corner. I want to brake late, brake hard, roll speed with good, good rear confidence, and I’ve struggled with that mightily.”

Rahal remained tight-lipped on what changes he wishes to see at the team in 2024, although he admitted the personnel changes post-Indy had been hard and that, “We had a lot of good people that I think were being held back a little bit. Once we started to unleash them a little bit to realize their full potential, it benefited the entire program, and so we’re starting to see that — at least on road courses.”

However, for now he said his mind was entirely on the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio, a race he won back in 2015.

“I’m going to focus, honestly, on just tomorrow,” he said. “I know it sounds cliche, but it’s the truth. At this standpoint there’s been a lot of discussions, a lot of conversations back and forth. There’s a lot of thinking to do.

“But right now I’ve got a chance to go win tomorrow. If I can get another win at home, it would mean a hell of a lot to me. So that’s my focus.”

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Andretti Autosport just needs to put a whole race weekend together – Herta

Colton Herta, who scored his second straight pole position Saturday at Mid-Ohio, says the most vital thing the No. 26 Andretti Autosport team needs to do is to get everything right on one weekend. Herta, for whom this was an 11th career pole, in …

Colton Herta, who scored his second straight pole position Saturday at Mid-Ohio, says the most vital thing the No. 26 Andretti Autosport team needs to do is to get everything right on one weekend.

Herta, for whom this was an 11th career pole, in four-and-a-half seasons of IndyCar racing, is still seeking his first podium finish of 2023. His most recent disappointment was at Road America, where he took pole and led the majority of the laps, but an early final pitstop left him vulnerable to attack as he saved fuel in his final stint, and fell to fifth.

Since then, Andretti Autosport has replaced his erstwhile strategist Scott Harner – who had himself replaced Colton’s father Bryan Herta on the No. 26 pit stand after the first round of the season – with team COO Rob Edwards. Harner now oversees the No. 29 Andretti car of Devlin DeFrancesco.

Herta used a fresh set of Firestone primary tires to edge Graham Rahal in the resurgent Rahal Letterman Lanigan team by just 0.043s around the 2.258-mile Mid-Ohio course.

“Obviously we picked the right stuff today and had a competitive car, and yeah, I think the tire choice was kind of what set us over,” said Herta. “I think that was the right call.

“We were looking at (the difference between red-sidewall alternate tires and harder black-sidewall primary tires) all weekend. After practice one (switching to reds) didn’t seem like a big enough jump and it got a little bit bigger in qualifying than it was in practice. But we were in a position where we weren’t happy with our first set of (red) tires so we didn’t want to run on them and we didn’t want to run on our second, so we only had one choice, and it kind of made the choice for us, and I think it was the right one.

“I wasn’t sure if (66.3096s) was good enough. It took them like 30 seconds to tell me. Everybody went around again, so it could have gotten bettered. No, it ended up being good enough, and it was a good lap. I think I did pretty good with it.”

Regarding the change in strategist, Herta remarked: “It’s not how I would like to do it. You would want an off-season to prepare with one person, and unfortunately I never got that.

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“It’s nice that they’re open and willing to making changes, and they take everybody’s feedback, and they look it over. They truly want everybody on the team to do their best… We have the speed, and we just need to put together some race weekends as a whole. Hopefully we can do that.

“Obviously it’s been a struggle to do that pretty much all year. It’s pretty frustrating to be sitting here and having a best result of fourth and not really getting an opportunity at a podium.

“I’m happy that Rob is here. He’s been really good with me on the radio. But it’s not how he is on the radio — it’s all about strategy and what we can do with that. That’s the most important bit.”

Asked how much the tactical blunder at Road America had prompted the strategy change, Herta replied: “I think it had a little bit, but for that stuff, they’re obviously pretty critical on strategists after every race when they’re going over everything and they have their meetings and I’m sure they get drilled pretty good in those meetings if they make a wrong decision.

“But it’s tough. It’s just like the drivers; you’ve got to do it, and you’ve got to do it every time, and if you can’t, it sucks, but that’s the way it is.”

On the subject of a season of miscues, Herta remarked: “You can look back and say we could have done better here and there, but the best thing is just to learn from (the mistakes). I feel like I’ve been saying that a lot this year, just from my end, from everybody’s end. I would love to have just this weekend be super clean, get through, have a podium, hopefully a win — but just have a clean race, clean stops, clean everything, and then try to build on that.”

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Herta pips Rahal to Mid-Ohio pole while RLL cars shine again

Andretti Autosport-Honda’s Colton Herta scored his second straight pole position of the IndyCar season, but the talking point of qualifying for the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio came from Rahal Letterman Lanigan, who saw Graham Rahal and Christian …

Andretti Autosport-Honda’s Colton Herta scored his second straight pole position of the IndyCar season, but the talking point of qualifying for the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio came from Rahal Letterman Lanigan, who saw Graham Rahal and Christian Lundgaard make it into the Firestone Fast Six.

Firestone Fast Six

Alex Palou Palou and Herta elected to attempt their bids for pole position using fresh primary tires, while Graham Rahal started the session on primaries but then pitted for used reds. RLL teammate Lundgaard set a banker lap on used reds – a 66.7805s – then pitted for more used reds.

Rahal produced a 66.3528s to go top, with Palou’s first shot at him falling 0.0638s short. That was enough of a gap for Kyle Kirkwood to slot into second, just 0.0165s adrift from Rahal.

Then Herta spoiled the Ohio party, shaving 0.0432s from Rahal’s time to score his second consecutive pole with a 66.3096s on his primaries an average speed of 122.589mph around the 2.258-mile 13-turn road course.

Still, RLL can be gratified to have their drivers line up second and fifth, split by Kirkwood – who has won here eight times in junior formulas — and runaway points leader Alex Palou.

Q2

Scott McLaughlin took the No. 3 Penske-Chevy straight out on used alternate tires, but his 67.1532s left him behind Colton Herta of Andretti Autosport, Christian Lundgaard of RLL and Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing, who set their initial times on primary tires.

Once everyone pitted for fresh reds, Graham Rahal produced a 65.9336s, although he was swiftly edged off top spot by teammate Lundgaard. The pair of them were bumped by Colton Herta’s 65.8576s but fell no further so graduated to the Firestone Fast Six.

So too did Kirkwood, Dixon and Alex Palou, but surprisingly neither Will Power nor teammate McLaughlin got through and will start from the fourth row, the highest Chevrolet-powered cars. Row five is all Swedish, Marcus Ericsson ahead of Felix Rosenqvist.

Q1 Group 2

Colton Herta produced a 66.2999s on Firestone primaries, with Scott Dixon, Will Power and Kyle Kirkwood drawing within a tenth of him before pitting for alternates.

Christian Lundgaard of Rahal Letterman Lanigan was the first to set a fast lap on reds, the Dane clocking a 65.8933s, an average of 123.363mph, although he had a slight slip-up on his next attempt at a flyer.

Kirkwood put Andretti Autosport on top with a 65.7240s, closely followed by Dixon, Herta, Lundgaard, Power and Rahal. Thus RLL had all three cars into Q2.

Surprise eliminations at this stage included Romain Grosjean, 0.156s behind Rahal, and Ganassi’s Marcus Armstrong was a surprising 0.567s off top spot.

Q1 Group 1

Helio Castroneves went straight out on alternates at the start of the session, in the sole Meyer Shank Racing-Honda to take part in qualifying, following Simon Pagenaud’s monstrous crash this morning.

But it was Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren-Chevrolet who first ducked under 67s, with a 66.9058s. However, a huge oversteer moment out of the Keyhole, Turn 2, turned into a spin to the inside, where he stalled and brought out the red flag. That cost him his best time, and meant he could take no further part in qualifying, so last year’s polesitter will start Sunday’s race from last.

The first segment continued with just over five minutes remaining, so everyone rejoined the track on their Firestone alternate compounds.

Alex Palou threw down a 66.0357s, and his teammate Marcus Ericsson responded with a 65.9252s to go top and immediately pitted.

Felix Rosenqvist clocked third, ahead of defending race Mid-Ohio winner Scott McLaughlin, but their respective teammates Alexander Rossi and Josef Newgarden missed out. As a sign of Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s improvements, Jack Harvey did get through to Q2, as did David Malukas of Dale Coyne Racing w/HMD.

RESULTS

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D’Orlando rockets back to USF Pro 2000 form with win at Mid-Ohio

After experiencing all manner of misfortune during the first half of the USF Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires season, Michael d’Orlando now has earned two victories in his three most recent starts for Turn 3 Motorsport. Last year’s …

After experiencing all manner of misfortune during the first half of the USF Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires season, Michael d’Orlando now has earned two victories in his three most recent starts for Turn 3 Motorsport. Last year’s USF2000 Presented by Cooper Tires champion led from flag to flag in Saturday’s opening leg of the Cooper Tires Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio, which included a red-flag stoppage due to a short, sharp rain shower, and finally took the checkered flag 1.5096s ahead of Pabst Racing’s Jace Denmark, from Scottsdale, Ariz.

Jack William Miller, from Carmel, Ind., completed the podium for Miller Vinatieri Motorsports.

D’Orlando, from Hartsdale, N.Y., continued his run of form by securing his third Cooper Tires Pole Award of the season during qualifying on Friday, and comfortably translated that into the lead at the start.

Brazilian Kiko Porto, who preceded d’Orlando as a USF2000 champion in 2021, started second for DEForce Racing, but maintained his position only as far as the exit of Turn 4 where he was unceremoniously bundled off the road and onto the grass by an aggressive Salvador de Alba (Exclusive Autosport), from Guadalajara, Mexico. Matters went from bad to worse for the unfortunate Porto as he inadvertently collected several other cars as he attempted to regain the racing surface at Turn 5. Cue a full-course caution.

D’Orlando once again displayed his superiority at the restart, while de Alba was obliged to serve a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility which relegated him to the back of the field.

Reece Ushijima (Jay Howard Driver Development) and fellow Scottsdale, Ariz., resident Denmark, who today celebrated his 19th birthday, led the chase at the restart, having vaulted, respectively, from sixth and eighth on the starting grid. But a three-wide tussle at the end of the back straightaway soon after the restart saw Ushijima shuffled back a couple of positions, which he maintained until catching the curb and spinning into the gravel trap at Turn Eight after 13 laps.

Rain began to fall during the ensuing caution period, and after two more laps the race was red-flagged and the entire field was instructed to fit wet-weather Cooper tires prior to the restart. With the 50-minute time slot closing rapidly, there was time for merely a two-lap dash to the finish. The storm clouds miraculously deposited only minimal precipitation, and on a damp track d’Orlando expertly negotiated the tricky conditions to cement his win.

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“The race was fun. Sometimes you have a battle with another driver and it’s super hectic but, to be fair, I was out front the whole time,” d’Orlando said. “I did get a bit anxious when the rain came. I went into Turn One with the new rain tires and didn’t know what to expect. I went in a tad too fast and corrected that but a real moment. It was a great race and the #1 Priority machine from Turn 3 Motorsport was absolutely insane. It has been fast all weekend and I am super proud to put it on top at Mid-Ohio. Huge thanks to all my supporters.”

The top five positions remained unchanged, with Miller just fending off Sweden’s Joel Granfors (Exclusive Autosport) for third and Bijoy Garg (DEForce Racing) from Atherton, Calif., claiming a season-best fifth-place finish.

German-based Albanian Lirim Zendeli (TJ Motorsport) made up a couple of positions in the closing laps to secure sixth ahead of Canada’s Louka St-Jean (Turn 3 Motorsport).

Championship leader Myles Rowe (Pabst Racing with Force Indy), from Brooklyn, N.Y., slipped from sixth to 11th, but still managed to maintain a healthy points advantage over Granfors.

Ricardo Escotto (Jay Howard Driver Development), from Mexico City, Mexico, picked up the Tilton Hard Charger Award by virtue of finishing ninth and advancing nine positions from the start.

Turn 3 Motorsport’s Peter Dempsey claimed the PFC Award as the winning car owner.

The second half of this weekend’s Cooper Tires Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio is scheduled to go green Saturday at 5:25 p.m. EDT.

RESULTS

Rasmussen takes Indy NXT pole at Mid-Ohio

An incredibly tight battle for pole at Mid-Ohio saw HMD Motorsports’ Christian Rasmussen take pole by just one-hundredth of a second from Louis Foster. HMD Motorsports’ Danial Frost spun off due to a failed halfshaft and caused a red flag before …

An incredibly tight battle for pole at Mid-Ohio saw HMD Motorsports’ Christian Rasmussen take pole by just one-hundredth of a second from Louis Foster.

HMD Motorsports’ Danial Frost spun off due to a failed halfshaft and caused a red flag before anyone had truly set a time close to their practice efforts. The track then got very crowded as the green flag flew again, and it was Hunter McElrea who ducked under the 72-second barrier with a 1m11.5968s effort for Andretti Autosport. However, he was by no means the last, and it was HMD’s Christian Rasmussen who nailed pole with a 1m11.4998s, just 0.0107s faster than reigning Indy Pro 2000 champion Foster. As championship leader Nolan Siegel’s primary challenger, Rasmussen could not have done a better job.

Remarkably, there was just one tenth of a second covering the top four, Kyffin Simpson slotting his HMD car just ahead of McElrea.

Reece Gold and Siegel will line up fifth and sixth, ahead of Rasmus Lindh and Jagger Jones, with Christian Bogle completing the top 10.

Three-time W Series champion Jamie Chadwick produced her best qualifying effort of the year, 12th fastest and within one second of pole.

UP NEXT: Sunday’s race begins at 11.30am ET.

RESULTS

Pagenaud to miss Mid-Ohio qualifying after huge practice crash

Simon Pagenaud will sit out qualifying for this weekend’s NTT IndyCar Series race at Mid-Ohio following his huge crash in practice on Saturday morning. The 2016 series champion and 2019 Indianapolis 500 winner suffered a suspected brake failure at …

Simon Pagenaud will sit out qualifying for this weekend’s NTT IndyCar Series race at Mid-Ohio following his huge crash in practice on Saturday morning.

The 2016 series champion and 2019 Indianapolis 500 winner suffered a suspected brake failure at the end of the back straight, pitching the No. 60 Meyer Shank Honda into a series of high-velocity barrel-rolls through the gravel before finally coming to rest against the tire barriers.

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Pagenaud was quickly checked and released by IndyCar’s medical team, but has not been cleared to return to the cockpit today. A further evaluation on Sunday morning will determine whether he will be able to play any further part in the weekend.

“Following this morning’s incident at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, the driver of the No. 60, Simon Pagenaud, was evaluated and released by the IndyCar medical team,” read a statement issued by the series. “As per IndyCar protocol, Pagenaud has not been cleared to return to racing today. He will be re-evaluated tomorrow morning.’

Pagenaud is a previous winner at Mid-Ohio, claiming victory from pole en route to winning the title in 2016, and also finished on the podium in 2012 and 2015.

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Pagenaud walks away from huge shunt as Power tops IndyCar FP2 at Mid-Ohio

Will Power led the field in second practice for Sunday’s Honda Indy 200, but the talking point of the session was Simon Pagenaud’s escape from a shunt that involved multiple high-speed barrel rolls. Eight minutes into the session, Peacock’s cameras …

Will Power led the field in second practice for Sunday’s Honda Indy 200, but the talking point of the session was Simon Pagenaud’s escape from a shunt that involved multiple high-speed barrel rolls.

Eight minutes into the session, Peacock’s cameras captured Pagenaud’s Meyer Shank Racing-Honda broadside but still at high velocity at the end of the back straight. The car launched over the strip of grass, before the right-side wheels dug into the sandtrap, and the car went through six-and-a-half rolls before the belly of the car hit the tire wall with ending up coming to rest on its rollhoop.

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The 2016 champion and 2019 Indy 500 winner radioed to the MSR team to inform them he was OK and that he had suffered brake failure. The AMR Safety Team stabilized the car on its side while Pagenaud slithered out, paused a couple of times to capture his breath, and then walked to the safety vehicle unassisted.

He later told NBC’s Dillon Welch, “It was a hell of a ride, for sure. Something broke and I couldn’t slow down. I tried to make the corner anyway. I know that gravel is deadly. Michael Andretti’s done it, so I’m joining another legend, so that’s cool! But I was just trying to bail out.

“It’s downhill, which is nuts: the car took off, it hit the gravel and I just rolled. I’m just glad I didn’t go over the tire wall. I’m so glad we have the aeroscreen. I’m really thankful for IndyCar and the aeroscreen safety.”

Asked if that was as bad a ride as he’s suffered in his career, Pagenaud said: “Definitely the wildest. Funnily enough, my first crash was exactly the same circumstance. So… yeah, interesting.”

Regarding his return to action for qualifying at 2.45pm ET, Pagenaud declared he was “ready, it’s not a problem” but admitted it would be the doctor’s decision.

When the session restarted, the lap times remained as incredibly tight as in first practice, with Colton Herta of Andretti Autosport-Honda, Friday pacesetter Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren-Chevrolet and Scott Dixon covered by just half a tenth with 15 minutes to go.

Team Penske-Chevrolet’s Will Power then jumped to the top with his 14th lap, and clipped 0.28sec from that time on his 15th. That kept him a quarter-second clear of runaway points leader and 2021 champion Alex Palou of Ganassi, who also jumped up the order to second.

Santino Ferrucci brought out the second red flag with an off at Turn 12, although the AJ Foyt Racing machine looked fairly undamaged. That wasn’t the end of his drama as he spun over the hill at Turn 9, but managed to continue without stalling.

Arrow McLaren’s Felix Rosenqvist also had a spin toward the end of the session, while Scott McLaughlin of Penske was a late improver, jumping to sixth behind compatriot Dixon.

Graham Rahal, Christian Lundgaard and Jack Harvey confirmed the improved Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda form hinted at by Lundgaard’s pace at Road America two weeks ago and on Friday here at Mid-Ohio. The trio finished the session in seventh, 11th and 14th.

Another happy surprise was David Malukas, who slotted his Dale Coyne Racing-Honda into eighth, ahead of Kyle Kirkwood and Rosenqvist.

RESULTS

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