For the fifth time in his IndyCar career, Ryan Hunter-Reay will lead the field to the green flag, after capturing his third pole of the season and coming oh-so-close to break the fourteen year old track record set by Dario Franchitti in 1999. His 1:05.3519 second lap was just 0.0049 seconds off of the fastest ever run at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Next to him on row one will be Will Power who is still looking for his first win of the season and his first at Mid-Ohio. Scott Dixon starts third as he looks to win his fourth consecutive race of the season, third consecutive race at Mid-Ohio and fifth overall at the track. Next to Dixon will be Marco Andretti who starts fourth, his best start on a road/street course since he start fourth at Barber in 2010. Charlie Kimball qualified fifth, just ahead of his Ganassi teammate Dario Franchitti.
Justin Wilson starts seventh ahead of Simon Pagenaud. The farthest back a winner has come from at Mid-Ohio is eighth position, done by Al Unser, Jr. in 1995 and Juan Pablo Montoya in 1999. Simona de Silvestro starts ninth with birthday boy James Jakes in tenth. Should Jakes win, he become the tenth IndyCar driver to win on his birthday joining Dario Resta, Joe Boyer, Lou Moore, Tony Bettenhausen, Al Unser, Nigel Mansell, Sam Hornish, Jr., Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon. Bad news for Jakes is the farthest back a birthday winner has come from is Scott Dixon starting sixth at Mid-Ohio in 2007. Boyer relived L.L. Corum in the #15 Duesenburg at lap 112 of the 1924 Indianapolis 500 and Corum had started in the twenty-first position. Boyer had started fourth in the #9 Duesenburg but had been relieved by Ernie Ansterburg at lap 93, who was then relieved by Corum at lap 159, who was relieved by Thane Houser at lap 176. Houser hit the southwest wall on his first lap in the car, ending the #9's day.
Tristan Vautier was to start eleventh in his first career IndyCar start at Mid-Ohio but after a fire during the morning warm-up, Vautier will take a ten spot grid penalty for an engine change. Two Andretti Autosport drivers, EJ Viso and James Hinchcliffe will start on row six. Sébastien Bourdais starts thirteenth ahead of points leader Helio Castroneves in fourteenth. This is the third consecutive Mid-Ohio race where Castroneves has qualified fifteenth or worse. Each of those two previous races, Castroneves finished outside the top fifteen. Takuma Sato starts fifteenth. Since his win at Long Beach, Sato has two top tens, a second at São Paulo and a seventh at Milwaukee and he's had four consecutive finishes of twentieth or worse. James Davison starts sixteenth on debut. The Australian won two consecutive Indy Lights races at Mid-Ohio and becomes the fourteenth Australian to race an American open-wheel series race. Oriol Servià starts seventeenth. On three occasions Servià has gained seven or more positions to get a top ten at Mid-Ohio, including a drive from twenty-sixth to ninth in 2001 and from twentieth to eight in 2011. Josef Newgarden starts eighteenth with Tony Kanaan starting nineteenth. Kanaan has seven top tens in eleven starts at Mid-Ohio.
Sebastián Saavedra starts twentieth with Vautier twenty-first after the engine change and Graham Rahal starting twenty-second. Rahal has not faired well at his home track. One career top ten and now three starts outside the top twenty in six career starts. Ed Carpenter starts twenty-third with Luca Filippi making his debut from twenty-fourth position.
Note: This is the first American open-wheel race on August 4th, since 1991 when Rick Mears won the Marlboro 500 at Michigan International Speedway. His twenty-ninth and final career win.
NBCSN's coverage of the Honda 200 at Mid-Ohio begins at 3:00 p.m. ET.
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