 |
| Will Power aims to end summer with a Mid-Ohio sweep |
Will Power is coming off his 38th career victory in race one from Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and today Power could tie Al Unser for fifth all-time on 39th victories. Yesterday was Power's 17th victory from pole position in his IndyCar career, moving him into sole possession of fourth-most victories from pole position in IndyCar history. He was tied with Bobby Unser. Mario Andretti holds the record with 24 victories from pole positions, one more than A.J. Foyt and Sébastien Bourdais is third with 18 victories from the point. Power has not won consecutive races since 2018 when he won the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and Indianapolis 500. Power has never swept a doubleheader. The only two times he has finished on the podium in both races of a doubleheader was Texas 2011 and Belle Isle 2014. He has led laps in eight races this season, the most races led in IndyCar this season.
Josef Newgarden picked up his 33rd career podium finish in race one at Mid-Ohio. It was the second 1-2 finish for Team Penske this season after Newgarden won the second Iowa race with Power in second. The only time Newgarden has had three consecutive podium finishes was when he had a four-race stretch of first, first, second and first at Toronto, Mid-Ohio, Pocono and Gateway in 2017. Newgarden cut the gap to championship leader Scott Dixon down to 76 points. No matter what happens today, Newgarden will remain alive for the championship heading to the Harvest Grand Prix doubleheader next month at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
Alexander Rossi scored his second podium finish of the season with his third-place result. Rossi has three consecutive top five finishes at Mid-Ohio. Rossi has yet to be the top Andretti Autosport qualifier this season. Last year, Rossi was the top Andretti qualifier in 11 races. He has never won the 11th race of the season with his best finish being third at Toronto last year.
Graham Rahal extended his top ten streak to seven consecutive Mid-Ohio races with his fourth-place result in race one. It was Rahal's first top five result at Mid-Ohio since 2017. He has four top five finishes this year, the most he has had since 2017 when he had five. His most top five finishes in a season was eight in 2016.
Ryan Hunter-Reay was fifth yesterday and picked up his first top five finishes since he was fourth in the first Road America race. Hunter-Reay started second after qualifying on top of the second group. He was the fastest in the only practice session. In 14 Mid-Ohio starts, Hunter-Reay has three podium finishes, six top five finishes and 12 top ten finishes. Despite finishing fifth, he has still only finished better than his starting position two times this season.
Felix Rosenqvist ended up his sixth and Rosenqvist has matched his longest top ten finish streak in his IndyCar career at three races. His last three finishes have been eighth, seventh and sixth. He has twice finished fifth in his career, at Toronto and Laguna Seca last year.
Jack Harvey picked up his fourth top ten finishes of the season yesterday, and it was the third time Harvey has finished seventh in 2020. Harvey enters the second Mid-Ohio race with the fifth-best average starting position ahead of Dixon, Rosenqvist, Patricio O'Ward, Alexander Rossi, Takuma Sato and Graham Rahal to name a few drivers. Similar to Hunter-Reay, Harvey has only finished better than his starting position twice this seaso. He went from ninth to seventh in the first Iowa race and from 20th to ninth in the Indianapolis 500.
Rinus VeeKay has three consecutive top ten finishes and he is up to 13th in the championship on 205 points. Prior to his finish yesterday, VeeKay had finished on the podium in all his Mid-Ohio starts in the Road to Indy. He has been the top rookie finisher in the last four races with no other rookie finishing in the top ten during that time.
Colton Herta ended up in ninth position, but he has fourth consecutive top ten finishes. Herta's longest top ten streak is seven races, which started over the final three races of 2019 and carried through the first four races of this season. Herta has yet to stand on the podium this season and with being sixth in the championship he is the best driver in the championship without a podium finish.
Scott Dixon's tenth-place finish yesterday was his second worst result of the season. Dixon does have 13 top ten finishes in his last 14 Mid-Ohio races. Strangely, while Dixon has six Mid-Ohio victories, he has never won at Mid-Ohio and the championship in the same season. In 2007, he won the race but lost the championship in the final corner to Dario Franchitti. Franchitti took the titles in 2009 and 2011 while Dixon won at Mid-Ohio each of those years. His 2014 victory came in Will Power's championship year and last year he won the race and Josef Newgarden took the title.
Patricio O'Ward held on to third in the championship with his 11th-place finish in race one. O'Ward's worst finish in 2020 is 12th and he has been the top Arrow McLaren SP finisher in the last four races and he has been the top Arrow McLaren SP qualifier in eight consecutive races.
Race one saw Álex Palou finish 12th and it was the fifth time this season Palou has been the top Dale Coyne Racing finisher. He has not had a top ten finish in his last six starts. Since returning to Mid-Ohio in 2008, Dale Coyne Racing has five top ten finishes in 25 starts at the track. The team has never had a top five at Mid-Ohio with its best finish of sixth coming in 2015, 2016 and 2018 with Tristan Vautier, Conor Daly and Sébastien Bourdais respectively.
Conor Daly picked up his best starting position on a road/street course in his career in race one when he rolled off from fourth position. Daly's previous best finish on a road/street course was seventh at Toronto in 2016. It was the ninth time Daly has started in the top ten in his IndyCar career, but only twice has Daly started and finished in the top ten. Daly has yet to be the best Ed Carpenter Racing finisher in a race this season.
Santino Ferrucci started and finished 14th yesterday, his first time finishing outside the top ten on a road course this year. It was the third time Ferrucci has finished where he started in his IndyCar career. He started and finished 12th at Iowa last year. Earlier this year, he started and finished sixth for the first Road America. Last year, Ferrucci started 14th and finished 12th at Mid-Ohio.
Marcus Ericsson started a career-worst 21st yesterday before climbing up to a 15th place finish. Ericsson has only started in the top ten six times in his IndyCar career and four of those have come his year. He started in the top ten in both Iowa races and both Gateway races. The only time he has started in the top ten on a road course was ninth in last year's Grand Prix of Indianapolis.
Max Chilton ended up 16th in the first 75-lap event of the weekend, his third time finishing 16th at Mid-Ohio. Chilton has finished 16th on eight occasions in his IndyCar career. His finishes this season have been 16th, 17th, 15th, 17th and 16th. He has finished on the lead lap in every race in 2020.
Takuma Sato has finished outside the top fifteen in seven of 11 Mid-Ohio starts after his 17th place finish in race one. He has started outside the top fifteen in six of 11 Mid-Ohio starts. Amazingly, Sato has a better average finish at Mid-Ohio than at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the oval despite being a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner. His average finish at Mid-Ohio is 15.7 versus a 16.2 at Indianapolis. Sato has only two top five finishes at Mid-Ohio and has never been on the podium.
Simon Pagenaud had his worst finish Mid-Ohio finish yesterday when he ended 18th. Pagenaud's previous worst was 13th on his Mid-Ohio debut in 2011, when he filled in for Justin Wilson, who suffered a fracture vertebra after going off track in practice the day before the race. Pagenaud has finished outside the top fifteen for four consecutive races for the first time in his career and this is the first time he has not had a top ten finish in four consecutive races.
Oliver Askew was 19th in race one. Askew has not finished better than 15th on a road course this season. Since starting fifth in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, his best start was 13th in the second Iowa race and the second Gateway race.
Zach Veach is in the middle of the longest top ten drought of his IndyCar career with nine consecutive results of 11th or worse. He has been 20th or worse in five of the last six races. He has not started in the top fifteen in nine consecutive races. His best qualifying result in the last nine races was 17th in the second Road America race, the Indianapolis 500 and the second Gateway race.
Charlie Kimball started 22nd, his worst starting position at Mid-Ohio and finished 21st, his worst finish since 2015 when Kimball was 25th. Only twice in his career has Kimball finished in the top ten of the 11th race of the season. He was runner-up to Scott Dixon at Pocono in 2013 in a Chip Ganassi Racing 1-2-3 finish with Dario Franchitti in third. His other top ten was eighth at Fontana in 2015.
Dalton Kellett was 22nd yesterday, his second-worst finish of the season behind 31st in the Indianapolis 500. Kellett has been the worst A.J. Foyt Racing finisher in all five of his starts and the Canadian has finished off the lead lap in every race this season. He has finished better than his starting position in four of five races with the Indianapolis 500 being the one exception.
After starting 11th in race one, Marco Andretti fell to 23rd after not having the proper setup on the car prior to pre-race time limit expiring for work on the cars. Andretti's worst Mid-Ohio finish was 25th in 2008 after starting third. Andretti has finished outside the top twenty in five of ten races this season.
Qualifying for race two will take place at 10:15 a.m. ET.
NBC's coverage of Honda 200 Race Two from Mid-Ohio begins at 1:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 1:05 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 75 laps.
