First Impressions: Mid-Ohio 2019

1. Chip Ganassi Racing worked this race to perfection. It started with Scott Dixon starting the race on the primary tire. While most of the field started on the alternate tire and soon found themselves struggling, Dixon kept up the pace and picked off a few drivers while some dived to pit lane and committed to a three-stop strategy. Come Dixon's first stop he was third. On the second stint, Dixon had the speed of the alternate tire but did not have the same levels of degradation. While the three-stoppers were hoping to keep the pressure on the two-stoppers, Dixon controlled the pace, he never lost his legs and the gap was large enough in Dixon's favor that he could make his final stop and not have to worry about being chased from behind... except he was, more on that in a moment.

Dixon had never won from eighth on the grid. Dixon started eighth today. This is another classic Dixon performance. When no one else could make the alternate tire work, Dixon did. We have seen him stretch fuel further than anyone at this place and he went from 22nd to first in that race. He has six victories at this place. The same way Al Unser, Jr. is synonymous with Long Beach and Michael Andretti is synonymous with Toronto, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio will forever be a reminder of New Zealand's Scott Dixon's greatness.

2. Part two of Chip Ganassi Racing's perfection is Felix Rosenqvist finishing second. Rosenqvist also started on the primary tire and he worked his way to the front. He found himself carve his way to the front of the field on what we thought was a two-stop strategy but while leading Rosenqvist made his second pit stop about 15 laps after his first stop. He got all he could out of the alternate tire and then jumped to the primary. Such an audible was a surprise but all of a sudden Dixon was leading on a two-stop strategy and Rosenqvist was second on the three-stop strategy.

The team covered all the bases and it allowed for a thrilling finish. Dixon's strategy to double up on the alternate tire nearly backfired and Rosenqvist clawed out his teammate's lead. It also helped Rosenqvist that Dixon's second set of alternate tires was scuffed from practice. Traffic helped and then it hurt. Four lapped cars were between the two with Dixon sliding around on tires that were junk. The race followed the script. Rosenqvist cleared the final lap car behind him and Dixon with a lap and a quarter to go and it allowed for one final run at it.

The teammates touched into the keyhole, Dixon held on. Rosenqvist was able to mount a second charge through turns five and six but Dixon had the racing line. All Rosenqvist could do was ride Dixon's coattails. He had one final shot in the carousel and he was close, he had a run off the final corner and the gap separating Rosenqvist from his first career victory on this day was 0.0934 seconds.

Rosenqvist lost today but that doesn't mean he has to like it. The master bested the pupil on this day. Tomorrow is a new day.

3. Ryan Hunter-Reay ran a clean race but a quick race and lack of the championship distraction allowed him to focus on going as fast as he could. Hunter-Reay leapfrogged his way up the order, ahead of drivers that started in the top five and he found himself primed for a podium finish. If there had not been as much traffic, maybe Hunter-Reay would have been able to make a run for the lead but Hunter-Reay gets hard-earned third place finish.

4. Will Power does not get his first victory of the season nor his first victory at Mid-Ohio but it seems like the two-stop strategy was not going to work and not because the three-stoppers could run faster but because of the alternate tire. The time lost on the alternate tire cancelled out the two-stop strategy. Power lost out on the opening stint to Rosenqvist and then lost on the second stint because Rosenqvist and Dixon had the alternate tire. While Dixon made it work, Rosenqvist's audible allowed him to gap himself over Power and not lose out to the Australian. Fourth is good but it seems like the strategy was never going to play out.

5. We are going to cover the championship here. Alexander Rossi played the wrong strategy today, just like Power, but worse. Rossi lost a lot of ground on his first stint and it cost him dearly. He went from second to fifth before his final stop and then proceeded to be leapfrogged. On top of that, Rossi stopped a lap or two before the pit window. Rossi had to conserve the entire race and he squeaked out a top five finish. Partially because he had enough fuel to get across the line and then ran out at the end of the pit lane just after the checkered flag and the other part is because Josef Newgarden tossed away a fourth place finish.

6. Josef Newgarden will be classified in 14th place. He lost ten spots because while Dixon and Rosenqvist touched, it backed up the lapped cars of Marco Andretti and Max Chilton into Hunter-Reay and it allowed Newgarden to make a run. Newgarden smelled blood in the water and while many spew the famous line from Ayrton Senna about gaps, Newgarden drove into Hunter-Reay, he was going to get third and it bit him. He slid off Hunter-Reay and into the gravel trap at the exit of the keyhole, beached and descending down the order.

Newgarden should be mad. Penske should be mad. Fuck being a race car driver, fuck the bullshit about not going for a gap. Lose the battle; win the war. Newgarden didn't need to finish third. He was gaining on Rossi and Simon Pagenaud. He was going to lose on Dixon but Dixon still had work to do. All Newgarden did today was make it easier for everyone else.

Rossi was going to lose another five points to Newgarden, instead, Rossi is 16 points back with four races to go. Dixon is 62 points back. Rossi had a tendency of coughing up points last year. When all Newgarden had to do was bring the car home, he coughed up points on the final lap. Pin this one boys and girls, pin it for Laguna Seca.

6. Simon Pagenaud finished sixth and he was the third best Penske car today. He is now 47 points behind Newgarden. This is better year in that Pagenaud has won three races and one of those was the Indianapolis 500 but he has not had enough days where he has been a contender. The double points of Indianapolis are inflating his performance this season.

7. Spencer Pigot had a great race. For a moment, he jumped Power, Dixon and Rossi at one point through pit strategy but he too opted for the late audible for a three-stop race. Still, he ran in the top ten all day and I am glad for him.

8. Colton Herta finishes eighth, one spot off his starting position but considering how his season has been he has to take a top ten when he can get it. This was a solid day and he got laps.

9. Graham Rahal was the first of the cars to commit to the three-stop strategy and it could only get him a ninth place finish but it is his seventh consecutive top ten finish. Rahal wants more, I bet RLLR expect more and the IndyCar grid is tough. I can understand if he is frustrated but he is right there. I am sure he would be quick to say he has been right there for five seasons and that massive breakthrough has been elusive.

10. Rahal might be disappointed in ninth but Jack Harvey made one Buckeye very happy with a tenth place finish. Meyer Shank Racing gets a fantastic result in its home race and a ten-spot improvement over last year. I don't know if Meyer Shank Racing will be full-time but we have seen Harvey get impressive results this year. There is still another level this team has to reach but it has been out kicking the coverage as a part-timer.

11. Sébastien Bourdais was spun early when he and Colton Herta made contact. That kind of kept him from getting a top ten result. Santino Ferrucci finishes a spot behind his teammate. Ferrucci was a late audible to the three-stop strategy. He finishes 12th and that was about as good as he was in this one.

12. Quickly through the rest of the field: Not a good showing for Ed Jones when Spencer Pigot worked his way to seventh and Jones was 13th. We covered Newgarden. Marco Andretti, Max Chilton and RC Enerson were caught in the middle of the battle for the lead in the closing laps. They were all battling for positions and faster than Dixon. They all handled it well and gave none of them held up Dixon or Rosenqvist and played into the outcome of the race. Matheus Leist was out there. Takuma Sato made contact with Marcus Ericsson at the start and that pretty much took him out of this one. Sato was in the battle with Andretti, Chilton and Enerson but after contact Sato had to make a stop late. Tony Kanaan was out there and finished 20th. Zach Veach wasn't close at all today but had great sportsmanship and did not impede the leaders to an excessive extended when he could have, especially when it could have benefited his teammates.

13. Schmidt Peterson Motorsports had the bulls-eye on the team today. Sato made contact with Ericsson and that knocked Ericsson into James Hinchcliffe. Ericsson was done after two laps. Hinchcliffe lost a couple of laps immediately. Both cars made the second round of qualifying, both cars started on row six and both cars finished outside the top twenty. They are a long way from Big Four territory, which the team proclaimed as its goal for this season.

14. Damn! This was a great race. To have the strategies play out the way they did and have the alternate tires factor in the way they did and to have a race at Mid-Ohio decided by less than a tenth of a second is outstanding. Bravo to Firestone. It has done a great job with alternate tire compounds this year.

15. We get two weeks off before heading to Pocono. The final quarter of the season is in front of us. Time is running out. The end of summer is approaching. The days are getting shorter. Enjoy them while they last.