Lexington, OH – Pato O’Ward took the lead from his Arrow McLaren teammate Christian Lundgaard near the halfway point to win the INDYCAR race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. The Arrow McLaren drivers made it a one-two finish after a one-two start, where Lundgaard was on the pole, carrying momentum from his last-to-first victory two weeks earlier, at Road America.
It was a small mistake that allowed O’Ward to make the pass for the lead on Lap 42 of 90, earning his first victory of the season at the Honda Indy 200. Kyle Kirkwood finished third, followed by Rinus VeeKay in fourth, and Alex Palou in fifth.
“It’s been a year,” said O’Ward, earning his 10th career victory, having struggled for results this season. “It’s great that the first podium of the year for me is a win. It’s the best result as a team to finish one-two. We’ve had good performances, and today was a textbook showing of execution. My guys in the pits were phenomenal, which make or break my race. They truly allowed me to keep my position today as we were fighting on track. It’s been a very strong weekend for all three cars. It was a matter of being perfect.
“The pace has been so close between Christian and I, basically matching each other every single session,” continued O’Ward, who led 45 laps to Lundgaard’s 41. “I was positioning myself to pounce on an opportunity if Christian made a mistake. He did, and I took full advantage of it. We obviously don’t want to take both cars out but knew we were going to race hard. It was either his or mine (victory).”
Lundgaard, who finished second, just 0.9877 seconds behind his teammate, revealed that there were some challenges with his car.
“A very long and tough day,” he said. “Obviously, very tough physically out there with the heat, but also just an all-green race. It didn’t really help that we were quite loose. We went into the race knowing that, thinking the balance was going to go towards understeer. But we overreacted, making the car a lot harder to drive. At the end of the day, it was a mistake of my own. I was struggling so much on entry with the rear. It happened three times before that lap (Lap 41, where O’Ward passed for the lead). I wanted to be the good sport. I could just as easily run him off the track in Turn Four if I wanted to. We fought, touched, and that’s always good racing.”
Kirkwood, driving for Andretti Global, earned his first road course podium, his fourth podium of the season, after struggling in qualifying to start 10th.
“That was one of the most physical days I’ve ever had in a race car,” described Kirkwood, who moved up three positions by Lap 3. “I’m cooked right now. Running all green around here, with it being so hot, and this place is just so busy as it is. We are running qualifying laps every single lap. It’s hard to even take a drink of water it was so busy. We drove from 10th to third. We had good strategy and pit stops, as well as passing some cars in the beginning. We should have qualified towards the front because our car had a lot of pace.”
The Mid-Ohio race was caution-free on the 13-turn, 2.258-mile natural terrain track that has an elevation change of 136 feet, giving drivers a roller coaster feel. There were five lead changes during the just over 200-mile-long event on a track that is no wider than 40 feet in places, making passing difficult. Temperatures reached the mid-80’s Fahrenheit (about 28-30 Celsius) during the race but it was at least 20 degrees hotter (about 10 Celsius hotter) in the cockpit driving inside the aeroscreen.
Initially, it was expected that the field would be split between some drivers on a two-stop strategy and others on a three-stop. It didn’t take long to see that all drivers were on a three-stop strategy. The primary tires and fuel lasted about 30 laps. The McLaren drivers were able to get the softer tires to last 17 laps (winner O’Ward pitted on Lap 26 for his second set of blacks, took reds on Lap 48, and changed to blacks on Lap 65).
Palou struggled in qualifying, admitting he made a mistake that affected his tires and missed out on the Fast Six. He started eighth but managed a fifth-place finish.
“I needed a bit more speed today,” said Palou. “I started really good and comfortable with the soft (red, alternate) tires. As soon as I went on the primaries (the black, harder tires) I started struggling.”
The standings after 11 races still have Palou leading the title fight with 404 points, chased by Kirkwood, 348, Lundgaard, 339, David Malukas, 338, and O’Ward in fifth, with 310 points.
Teams have a weekend off and then return to Nashville Superspeedway on July 19 to take on the 1.33-mile oval.
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