Alex Palou dominated the NTT INDYCAR Series’ Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio until Lap 85 of 90, when he made a very rare and uncharacteristic mistake. The Spaniard ran wide in Turn 9 and onto the grass, allowing his teammate, Scott Dixon, to pass for the win.
“It was a tough race,” explained Dixon, who’s now won a race in 21 consecutive seasons and has 59 career wins (closing in on AJ Foyt’s record of 67 victories). “Full credit to everybody at Chip Ganassi Racing achieving a one-two finish. A fantastic job all weekend. So much fun to pull it off. Honda did a fantastic job on fuel mileage as I had to save fuel all the way through.
“As soon as I saw the caution at the start, the two-stop (strategy) was on,” continued Dixon. “We worked pretty hard this morning in the Warm-up on fuel mileage and making sure we got the car balance where we needed it. During that final stop they actually didn’t take any of the front wing out, so the car was very loose. I was looking at the corner and the car would turn itself, which, one, is really physical, but two, it’s really difficult to push extremely hard because you start to lock rears. I just hoped the rear tires would hold up.”
Palou led 75 laps overall and made a couple of attempts to catch and pass Dixon in the final few laps, but the wily New Zealander knew just where to place his car to prevent Palou from getting a run on the 13-turn, 2.258-mile course, finishing with a margin of victory of 0.4 seconds.
“I don’t know what happened,” explained Palou, who is referred to as ‘the surgeon’ by the TV announcers for being such a precise driver and always in control. “It was a stupid mistake on my part. My car was amazing all race. I just lost it on entry, getting on the marbles, and then the curb. My rpms dropped and I couldn’t put the power down. I could say it was a good save instead of a mistake.”
Christian Lundgaard finished on the podium in third, followed by Colton Herta and Pato O’Ward. The Dane was also on a three-stop strategy, but unlike Dixon and Palou, he used only one set of black, primary tires, and three sets of red, alternate tires.
“We had a big debate about the fuel number for a two-stop race,” said Lundgaard, earning his fourth podium of the season for Arrow McLaren. ”Once out there on track, you don’t know who is on what strategy. We showed that we were able to get the number that we needed with the pace, but you need the rest of the race to fall your way.
“We saw Mr. Perfect make a mistake, which you don’t see very often. Alex seemed to have a little bit more pace than we did. I’m happy to be on the podium.”
Dixon was on a two-stop strategy, having started 9th, and Palou started on pole using a three-stop strategy, which gave him fresher tires and more fuel at the end. Dixon took him to school at a track where he’s now earned seven wins, giving Chip Ganassi Racing 13 Mid-Ohio victories. Unlike many of the drivers in the race, the team preferred the consistency of the harder, black primary tires to the softer, red alternate tires.
“We were lucky that Alex ran reds for the first stint so we knew how long they could last because we really didn’t know until then,” revealed Mike Hull, Managing Director of Chip Ganassi Racing. “Kyffin (Simpson – the other Ganassi teammate) ran 30 laps on reds, Alex ran 27 laps, and we were asking Scott to run 31 laps. That was significant for us.
“In motor racing, most teammates are so carnivorous with each other that they don’t really give an inch to their teammate,” continued Hull. “What we saw were two people at the end of the race that knew what they were doing, and they followed Chip’s only two rules. Number one, don’t hit your teammate, because if you hit him hard enough someone might be helicoptered out of the place. And, number two, remember rule number one.”
All but three drivers ran the three-stop strategy. There were only two cautions for four laps each, which could have hurt different strategies if ill-timed. The first-lap caution happened in Turn 4 when Josef Newgarden spun by himself and caught Graham Rahal, who started in the row behind. Both drivers beached in the sand trap.
“That yellow was really good for us because it lasted a long time,” stated Hull. “If it had been like one or two laps, our strategy probably would not have worked. We don’t just have one strategy. It certainly depends on what happens in the first 20 percent of the race (for) what we’re going to do next.
“Mid-Ohio has always been a driver’s track,” continued Hull. “The engineers can work on and tune the car, but they can’t change the car enough for a really good driver to be fast. The driver has to be able to change their line going into each of the corners to make the exit faster than everybody else. You cannot engineer the car to do that here.”
Devlin DeFrancesco of Toronto started 23rd, having suffered an engine issue that prevented him from advancing in qualifying. He finished 20th in his third race at Mid-Ohio.
“We made our first run (in qualifying) and were P1, ahead of everyone else who ran reds (tires),” explained DeFrancesco, who made five pit stops in the race. “I think we were easily going to transfer to Round 2 on the next run and then had an engine-related issue. I had no power to fight with and it couldn’t be fixed before the session ended. It was chaos at the start (in the race) and we got caught up in that. We came in and changed the wing. We had really good pace today but it’s unfortunate that a lot of cars caught that lucky yellow and cycled forward. That’s really what nailed us today.
“It’s been a painful few weeks but generally we’ve been strong everywhere we’ve gone,” continued DeFrancesco. “That’s partly why it’s so frustrating because the pace is there. If we were slow or off pace it would be another deal, but we’ve been competitive.”
Team Penske, winless this season, continues to struggle, with its highest finishing driver, Scott McLaughlin, finishing 23rd. Will Power had a mechanical issue that ended his race after 11 laps and Newgarden made contact at the start.
Honda has achieved ten consecutive wins, shutting out Chevy so far this season.
Palou now has 430 points in his quest for a fourth INDYCAR title, ahead of Kyle Kirkwood at 317, Pato O’Ward 305, Dixon 282, Lundgaard 263. There are 378 points still possible with seven races to go.
Next up is the doubleheader at the short oval track in Newton, Iowa on July 12 and 13.
