1. These are a little delayed, but first nonetheless, and right when Andretti Autosport needed a good day, it had a historic day, sweeping the podium for the first time since 2005.
Colton Herta won pole position in changing track conditions and in the race, Herta was flawless, escaping any damage when Santino Ferrucci made an aggressive start and took out two cars. From there, Herta's main rivals were his teammates, Alexander Rossi and Ryan Hunter-Reay.
Herta has been the best Andretti Autosport driver this season. He was sixth in the championship entering today, the only Andretti car in the top ten. He has been consistently in the top five, but prior today had not a race that suggested a shot a victory. Maybe Gateway is one where Herta possibly could have pulled out a victory, but there wasn't a race where Herta qualified on the front row and spent the entire day in the top two. He has been a top five driver, which is fine, and it has been more consistent than his rookie year.
Herta won from pole position, but this was not like Power's victory yesterday with Herta driving away from the field. The early cautions, first at the start, and then 17 laps in for Dalton Kellett's spin prevented that. When Takuma Sato and Marco Andretti stayed out under the Kellett caution, it was going to keep the field close to Herta.
On the second stint, Herta was on the primary tire while Rossi was on the alternate and, like yesterday, Rossi was a little quicker in that second stint, but was stuck and couldn't pull away. Rossi came early for the final stops again but couldn't leapfrog ahead of Herta and had to settle for second. Rossi made up a little time in the closing laps, but Herta's tires held on and got him his third career victory.
Andretti needed this day. It had the two best cars and those cars ended up first and second.
2. Alexander Rossi wears his emotions on his sleeves and shows a ruthlessness when it comes to winning races. I am not sure anyone despises losing more than Rossi, which is a loaded statement because you have nearly two-dozen drivers in IndyCar and none of them are thrilled to pick up a top five finish and only a top five finish. But Rossi holds himself publicly to a higher standard.
It is not that he is mad at others when he is fourth, third or second, but he is mad at himself.
Rossi's championship hopes ended yesterday with four races to go in the season. I don't think Rossi or anyone around IndyCar thought with four races remaining Rossi would be 15th in the championship and mathematically ineligible for the title, not after the last two seasons where Rossi made strong cases for the championship but narrowly lost out. There was a point when Rossi was down to 18th at Gateway. No one truly believes Rossi is only the 18th best driver in IndyCar. I think everyone has him as one of the five best drivers on the grid, but 2020 has been one unfortunate circumstance after another unfortunate circumstance.
From here on out, it is victory or bust for Rossi. After seeing Herta win today, I don't think Rossi wants to end this season without a victory, and we are running out of time. It sucks not to win a race in a season. The perception of your season is massively alternate over whether or not you have a victory. If you win one race and finish outside the top ten in the rest, you at least have that victory to brag about. If you do not win but finish in the top five 80% of the time and finish in the top ten for all but one race, it is worse because people will ask why you couldn't complete that final step to victory. Rossi is looking for bragging rights to close 2020.
3. Another day, another solid run for Ryan Hunter-Reay with Hunter-Reay ending third. The season has been streaky for all the Andretti drivers. Hunter-Reay has one good day and then two bad ones. This weekend was two positive days at a track he is comfortable at. Remember when I was saying if it wasn't for Scott Dixon, Mid-Ohio would be Will Power's track? Hunter-Reay might be the third-best driver at Mid-Ohio and looking at the results, it is surprise he hasn't had a victory yet there.
I will admit I was stunned when I found out Andretti Autosport had not swept the podium in 15 years. You know what is even more stunning? The only race Andretti has swept the podium at is the famous 1-2-3-4 finish at St. Petersburg with Dan Wheldon ahead of Dario Franchitti, Tony Kanaan and Bryan Herta. That St. Petersburg race is one of the high-water marks for that great four-car era of Andretti Autosport.
You would have thought the team has swept the podium since when looking at those four drivers from 15 years ago and considering Hunter-Reay has been with the team for a decade, Danica Patrick had her share of podium finishes and the likes of Rossi, Carlos Muñoz and James Hinchcliffe have driven for the team full-time and were competitive.
To be fair to Andretti Autosport, since that 2005 St. Petersburg race, only three times has a team swept the podium: Team Penske at Sonoma 2011, Chip Ganassi Racing at Pocono 2013, Team Penske at Sonoma 2017. It is still surprising this is only the second time the team has done it.
4. Graham Rahal was fourth for a second consecutive day and, darn is this another good but not great year for Rahal, though it is borderline great. This is the season I am referencing above when I was talking about how one victory can completely change your perception of a season. Rahal maybe should have won the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. He was good at Iowa and Indianapolis and he didn't put a wheel wrong in either race this weekend.
If he had won one of those five races, we are singing Rahal's praises at the end of the season. If he closes 2020 with three more top ten finishes, we will be happy for him but disappointed he was so close yet not there. This is a great season for Rahal, but victory frustrating eludes him.
5. Marcus Ericsson rounded out the top five in what was a quiet day for him. Ericsson made up a lot of ground from the opening lap incident, but he gained a few spots with each pit stop. He got between the Penske drivers and during that final stint got ahead of Simon Pagenaud for fifth.
Ericsson has had his share of accidents in recent races. A few mechanical issues have not been his fault. Those poor days dragged his results down, but he has seven top ten finishes this season and three top five finishes. Last year, he had three top ten finishes and one top five finish. There has been no sophomore slump for Ericsson.
And kudos to him for completing the Honda sweep of the top five.
6. Leading the Chevrolet camp was Simon Pagenaud, who for the first time this season was the top Penske qualifier. In the race, he didn't push the Hondas. He was fifth or sixth for this entire race. It is an atypical day for Team Penske, they also had one of those at Gateway, but with the way qualifying was shuffled due to the rain, the team was spread out and fighting from the middle of the pack.
Do they wish they had done more and backed up Will Power's victory from yesterday? Absolutely, but sometimes you have days like this. IndyCar is tough. There are nine guys we expect to be in the top five every week and 15 guys we can pencil into the top ten heading into every weekend. There are going to be drivers with disappointed days. That is natural.
7. Will Power went from top step of the podium to second driver out of qualifying when he brought out a red flag when he spun off circuit. The good news for Power is two other cars from his qualifying group brought out red flags, which allowed Power to start a few positions better on the grid because points determine those spots, even though I think the order of red flags should set those spots.
Either way, Power went from 17th to seventh in the race. That is prototypical of Penske. We do not see many races where a Penske car starts and finishes outside the top fifteen. It is starting outside the top fifteen that is a mistake and it will be corrected. Power did the best he could today, and he got seventh.
8. Josef Newgarden took 20 points out of the championship lead to Scott Dixon yesterday when Dixon started at the rear. When Dixon spun after clipping the grass while in the top five, it appeared Newgarden would be set up to take out at least another 20 points, possibly more.
However, Newgarden didn't capitalize on this day, similar to last year at Portland when Alexander Rossi was starting seventh and Newgarden failed to make it out of the first round of qualifying. Rossi had a chance to swing the pendulum and instead Newgarden retained the momentum.
Newgarden looked to be a top five contender early but dropped back a spot at a time over each stint and instead of picking up 20 points on Dixon, he made up four points. It is better than nothing or losing ground, but it was a missed opportunity and he got no help from his teammates. We are in the point of the season when team orders are necessary when circumstances allow it. Newgarden could have made up four extra points today. I don't think today will be the reason why Newgarden did not retain his championship, but until you are officially out of it you got to take every point you can get, and those four points could be crucial whenever this season ends.
9. Patricio O'Ward was one of four drivers to bring out a red flag today in qualifying and O'Ward had to start worse than he would have liked to, but he recovered to finish ninth. Sometimes you fight to salvage a day and O'Ward did that.
10. Like I said, this day could have been worse for Scott Dixon.
Dixon clipped the grass on exit of turn one and it sent him spinning out of fourth at the time. He kept it from getting bogged down in the wet grass and he kept it out of the barrier, but he dropped from possible podium finish to 17th and at that point we are thinking the championship is going from 76 points between Dixon and Newgarden to possibly below 50 points with three races to go.
However, as Dixon and Chip Ganassi Racing is known for doing, it took a dismal situation and did something spectacular. Dixon lost the ground but ran a hard-pressing strategy. The race was basically broken down in 20-lap increments from there. He would have to make an extra pit stop, but he wouldn't be saving fuel and he would have fresh tires.
Over that first stint, he took six seconds out of the lead. He kept going and was up to fourth through the pit cycle. He knew he was going to sacrifice that position, but he pushed and came out in 14th after his final stop. From there he ran down Max Chilton, Jack Harvey and Rinus VeeKay and got the final spot from the Dutch driver on the final lap.
A run like this can only be done by Dixon, Power, Newgarden and perhaps Rossi and Pagenaud. If any other driver but those five drivers spin while in podium contention and drop to 17th, those drivers are finishing at best 14th or 15th. They are not climbing into the top ten. Dixon can make it back to the top ten and in doing so he limited the damage in the championship. Serve is comfortably his with three races to go and he will likely wrap the championship up a race early.
11. Another stout day for Rinus VeeKay and in what started the year as an exciting rookie class, VeeKay is surprisingly coming out on top of the trio race after race. I thought between him, Oliver Askew and Álex Palou they would split who was best each time. VeeKay has been the top rookie in five consecutive races.
Askew and Palou have run into their problems. Palou was taken out today on lap one thanks to his teammate. Askew had his accident at Indianapolis and was caught in the Gateway mess in race one. VeeKay has made his mistakes, but he has shed them since Indianapolis. I was not expecting him to be this good in both races. He was ahead of Conor Daly in both races. I thought Daly would have gotten a top ten finish and been the best Ed Carpenter Racing driver on both days prior to the weekend.
All credit to VeeKay for exceeding expectations.
12. Jack Harvey had an accident that brought out a red flag in qualifying and that drop Harvey to the rear of the grid. He did a good job getting up to 12th. This was a little bit of a missed opportunity today. It could have been better.
13. Max Chilton was 13th, just a little closer to the top ten but not quite there. Chilton doesn't do anything wrong. The pace isn't there. He is not a bad driver. He was consistent in bringing the car home in Formula One. He won in Indy Lights at Iowa. He hangs outside the top ten. He just needs a day where a few things fall his way.
14. It was no surprise that Santino Ferrucci, who qualified at a blistering pace in the first qualifying group to get him second on the grid, was going to go for it at the start, and it was no surprise he blew the first turn, went off and took out two cars.
We see it, probably one every four years at Mid-Ohio where a car runs wide on exit at the start and then rejoins the circuit in the middle of turn five, in the middle of the racing line and takes out a few cars. It never works. There has to be a stricter penalty for such a move.
If you look at how the runoff is configured at that corner, there is a lot of space out there and then it tightens up at the top of the hill. There is some space for a driver to continue and re-join after the corner, but you could slide into the barrier. I would like to see Mid-Ohio push that barrier back and create somewhat of a penalty lane that if you go off course at the exit of turn four you can safely bypass turn five but lose time and drop from where you were down the order.
Back to Ferrucci, he deserves credit for the pace he showed in the wet in that qualifying group. I think his car was setup for a wet session while the rest of the grid stuck to what they had for the dry because the race was going to be dry. I felt like an aggressive move to get track position early and stay at the front, however it was wasted immediately, and it cost Dale Coyne Racing two cars because Palou was taken out when Ferrucci came back on track.
Coyne has never had a top five finish at Mid-Ohio. He had both cars starting in the top five today and that lasted all of two corners.
15. Quickly through the rest of the field: Oliver Askew was 15th and the pace is missing. I don't know what else to say. He is not driving poorly but he has lost something he had in the first half of the season. Conor Daly might have been caught out with the weather in qualifying but he was stuck in 16th all day and it makes his lost top ten finish from yesterday look worse. Zach Veach was 17th, as expected. Takuma Sato tried the alternate strategy and he ended up 18th, but when seeing what Dixon did, you think Sato should have done better, although Sato was starting 22nd and he does not run well at Mid-Ohio.
Charlie Kimball was 19th, leading the way for A.J. Foyt Racing... leading the way from 19th... that is A.J. Foyt Racing for you people. Marco Andretti ran the same strategy as Sato but lost more time when he dropped his right-side tires off course when entering turn one. Andretti kept it out of the barrier, but he had to drive through the gravel and grass. He went from third or fourth on the road to outside the top fifteen and ended up 20th after starting seventh today. Another good day lost.
As mentioned above, Dalton Kellett spun. I am glad his cheques are clearing for Foyt. Felix Rosenqvist was collateral damage to Ferrucci's reckless move. Rosenqvist didn't deserve that and he probably would have been in the top five if it weren't for that incident. I know Ferrucci qualified ahead of Palou, but I think Palou would have finished ahead of his teammate if he was not taken out immediately. Instead, Palou rounds out the field.
16. This was a good weekend for IndyCar. I think we are all happy Mid-Ohio happened. A month ago, when the race weekend was postponed within a week of its intended place in the schedule, it was nerve-wracking. It had just been expanded to a doubleheader days before. At that point at the end of July, it felt like we were in the clear. Mid-Ohio would precede Indianapolis. Gateway would round out August. September would be an off month. The season would end with the Harvest Grand Prix weekend at Indianapolis to start October and St. Petersburg would close the season on October 25.
That was thrown for a loop, and perhaps this delayed worked out for good. It would have stunk to have a month off, which was the plan back in July, between Gateway and the Harvest Grand Prix. This worked out.
I don't want to say we are in the clear. Look at how many schedule revisions we had from April 1 to August 1. Why should we think the next six weeks will be any different? We are almost there, but don't dare breathe yet.
17. Next up is Harvest Grand Prix weekend from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. It isn't negative to say I hope this is the only Harvest Grand Prix. We are going to get the odd Friday afternoon October race. It is nice to be back racing in October. It has been too long since we last raced in October, though I understand why it isn't more regular. The Harvest Grand Prix is happening only because of the pandemic. Let's have fun with it but acknowledge progress will be it not returning for 2021.
