First Impressions: Mid-Ohio 2017

1. Josef Newgarden is up for it at Team Penske. He has the most victories in 2017 as he picked up his third victory of the season and now he leads the championship. This was a master class performance by Newgarden. He caught a break two weeks ago but today he was head, neck and shoulders above the competition today. He made a bold move on Will Power early and never looked back. This victory comes after a string of poor results at Mid-Ohio, most weren't of his doing. He could have won in 2014 if it wasn't for one poor pit stop. There are still four races to go but he hasn't been spooked yet this season. Everything he has faced in his first season at Team Penske he has been able to handle. Four races to go but I don't think he is going to blink at what is in front of him.

2. Will Power was second-best all day. He started on pole position and led a few laps but never had anything for his teammate. It is a good day, it is another 1-2 finish for Team Penske and it is another second-place finish for Power at Mid-Ohio. Surprisingly, he has yet to win at this track. He will have to wait until 2018 to get that elusive victory.

3. Graham Rahal gave it his all to finish second but third is a respectable result for the Ohioan at his home race. Rahal has consistently been the best Honda driver in the last three seasons in this aero kit-era. He has been able to go toe-to-toe with Team Penske as a single-car effort. It is absolutely impressive what he is doing and he is still in the title fight. He is going to have to probably win one of the final four races if not two but don't count him out.

4. Simon Pagenaud finished fourth and this is the fourth time he has finished fourth after starting seventh in his career. He had a good start and made up a few positions but he really had nothing for the top three. Minus winning three consecutive races, this year mirrors what Pagenaud did last year. He is constantly finishing at the front. He has ten top five finishes in 13 races. Any other year he would be leading the championship.

5. Takuma Sato finished fifth and I think he over-performed his car today. He didn't really have the best car. He was really holding on to stay in sixth or seventh but the only caution bunched the field up and he made up two spots immediately on the restart. This was a good day in what has really been an impressive season for Sato and that isn't even taking into consideration his Indianapolis 500 victory.

6. Alexander Rossi looked like he would have a shot at the podium but his middle stint on the alternate tire did not go to plan. He set the fastest lap of the race but he was over two seconds off the rest of the field at the end of that stint. He probably should have finished ahead of Sato but sixth isn't a bad day.

7. Hélio Castroneves finished seventh in what was a Castroneves-esque day. He really didn't have a car to finish in the top five. He gets points and he remains second in the championship, seven points behind Newgarden.

8. Ryan Hunter-Reay is probably counting his lucky stars that he finished eighth. He had a spin early after a battle with his teammate Rossi for fifth. He got back going immediately and rejoined the race in 12th. He made a handful of passes and came home in eighth. After the rough start to his season, Hunter-Reay should be happy with an eighth-place finish. He is clawing his way back into the top ten of the championship.

9. Scott Dixon finished ninth in what was a rough day for him. He couldn't get the handling of his car to his liking and he was fighting the car for most of the race. Add on top of that a botched pit stop where the left rear changer had an issue with the air gun and the fact he came home ninth is amazing. He dropped to third in the championship from the championship lead but he only trails Newgarden by eight points. He isn't out of this at all.

10. Conor Daly finally had a good weekend. He started 11th, he finished tenth and it has to be a good boost for the team. He is changing his diet in hopes of improving his driving and I am not sure the vegan diet is 100% responsible for this result nor do I think he is going to end the season with a string of top ten finishes but it is a good day and something to build on for the final four races.

11. James Hinchcliffe was passed late by Daly and he finished 11th. He was stuck behind Sato for most of this race and he probably should have finished sixth or seventh but he got shuffled back during pit stops and he didn't have the best car in the final stint.

12. Marco Andretti finished 12th after starting 14th and Charlie Kimball started and finished 13th in two days that could have been better but could have been worse as well.

13. Mikhail Aleshin had a quiet day and finished 14th and that is a good thing. After he spun and hit the barrier in the final practice on Saturday, I was starting to think he was going to be fired come Monday. I am not sure he salvaged his career today but he isn't confirmed for the final four races. Keeping all four wheels on it today bodes well for him but the ice remains thin for the Russian.

14. Quickly through the rest of the field: Max Chilton and Tony Kanaan were lost all day. J.R. Hildebrand may have had a chance for a top ten had he not been caught out by the only caution in this race. Carlos Muñoz proved that not everything is swell for A.J. Foyt Racing. Spencer Pigot couldn't overcome the hard accident in the warm-up session and finished 19th. This was a bad day for Dale Coyne Racing. Esteban Gutiérrez damaged his front wing in the opening laps and was a lap down most of this race and Ed Jones spun exiting turn nine for the only caution in this race and finished two laps down.

15. The one sore eye from today and it is one of the few areas IndyCar has to improve on in terms of on-track competition is blue flag enforcement. We had two incidents today. The first was Carlos Muñoz. He had to make an unscheduled pit stop and came out between Power and Rahal in second and third. Rahal couldn't get by for a handful of laps and the gap between him and Power went from just over a second to over seven seconds.

Then there was Esteban Gutiérrez. He was between Newgarden and Power on the restart, which is legal, but after a few corners he still held up Power and the rest of the cars on the lead lap. Gutiérrez eventually pulled down the pit lane but at that point Newgarden's lead was over three seconds.

I didn't see blue flags being waved once and I question whether there were any present at Mid-Ohio this weekend. Neither driver had any reason to be holding up lead lap cars. I understand Gutiérrez was trying to fight to get his lap back but it was clear he wasn't and he had over 11 seconds between him and Muñoz, the next car on the lead lap.

IndyCar needs to work on blue flag enforcement and I think all the drivers would agree, including Muñoz and Gutiérrez. I am sure if the roles were reversed and Muñoz and Gutiérrez were second and third they would not want a lapped car holding them up and allowing the leader to pull away. I hope IndyCar works on it immediately but realistically I hope it is amended for 2018.

16. Mid-Ohio has a problem and that is it is running out of room to put people. Good lord, there was people lined all along the fence down the straightaway from the keyhole to turn four. This has to be the largest crowd Mid-Ohio has seen since the IRL first went there in 2007 and it has to challenge for one of the largest crowds all-time for a Mid-Ohio IndyCar race. This is what a decade of running the last weekend in July/first weekend in August does. People know when it is and they make it a yearly summer trip. It is exciting to see and you can only hope Pocono, Phoenix, Gateway and Watkins Glen are allowed to follow in the footsteps of Mid-Ohio and growth happens at those places as well.

17. We get a little summer break now for IndyCar. I like the two weeks off. It isn't a massive amount of down time but it is just enough. Besides, IndyCar will run three consecutive weeks once the series gets back to work at Pocono on August 20th.