Can't knock the guy because many of IndyCar's best drivers have won races this way. These breaks go each way. McLaughlin won this time but he will likely be on the wrong side of it next time. He drove flawlessly and Palou pressured him for the entire final run. McLaughlin didn't put a wheel wrong when you think he could. This is his sophomore season. Palou isn't much more experienced, but Palou knows these tracks a little better and has more time in single-seater cars. McLaughlin is still new to this and he didn't put a wheel wrong when about 90% of drivers in similar roles would.
Not to mention McLaughlin did this with his parents in attendance. He hadn't seen his mother and father for nearly three years due to the pandemic and his move to IndyCar. This is a wonderful thing he gets to share after possibly wondering if this moment would ever happen again after he left Supercars. It is heartwarming.
2. If Kirkwood doesn't go off, this is another race where Alex Palou goes from seventh to first without breaking a sweat. Palou nails it all the time. Put him first on the grid? He will be fine. Start seventh? He has got it. He is confident, believing in his ability and knowing the results he can pull out. He is going to be at the top of IndyCar for the next 15 years. You better get comfortable with it and IndyCar better figure out a way to turn a talented champion into a star.
3. Will Power nearly went over his skis on lap one. Power blew a Mid-Ohio race last year early in the race. But Roger Penske must have pleased the Lord today because the cautions not only fell for McLaughlin. First, Felix Rosenqvist broke down. Power went off strategy. During Kirkwood's incident, Power made his second stop, a free stop. It only got him to 13th, but Power had the set up and blasted forward. The extra cautions helped keep the gap manageable and made it easier for Power to get to the front. He got to third. Power isn't the championship leader, but he is there. With eight races to go and Power already having seven top five finishes, he is going to be there down the stretch.
4. Rinus VeeKay got off the snide. VeeKay looked competitive all day and was making moves, but now he has to do it again. We have seen the speed, but it has been inconsistent. He has two or three-race periods of good runs and then falls off the map for three months. That has to change. This was a good day but it only means something if the results follow.
5. Scott Dixon was fifth. Just another good but not great day for Dixon. He was at the front all race but couldn't quite get in the battle. That has been the theme of the last two seasons for Dixon. The crazy thing is Dixon has top ten finishes in eight of nine races and that ninth race was arguably his best race of the season. It is funny how IndyCar works out. As for Dixon, he is there, but the muscle doesn't appear to be quite as strong.
6. Marcus Ericsson kept his nose clean and kept the championship lead, 20 points ahead of Power. This day could have been a lot worse for Ericsson. He was starting 13th, all his championship rivals were around or behind him, but sometimes you are due a bad day. Ericsson doesn't go over the edge. It wasn't going to be a race victory today, but he maximized his points and finished sixth. Yes, he lost ground to Power despite Power starting eight positions behind him, but this could be a lost battle in what is ultimately a won war for Ericsson.
7. Josef Newgarden was in lockstep with Ericsson all race. They started on row seven. They end up sixth and seventh. Newgarden was good but not great today. He couldn't quite get ahead of Ericsson. If he did, I think maybe he could have pushed for the top five, but not much more than that.
8. Meyer Shank Racing scored a double top ten finish in its home race. Helio Castroneves was eighth in what was the crafty drive of an elder statesman. Simon Pagenaud really didn't seem comfortable on track at all today and was bouncing around, but somehow finished tenth. The team will take it though it will wish it was better.
9. David Malukas gets his first career top ten finish and it was about time. Malukas has been good and really should have had a top ten finish by now. He held his own against some of the big boys today. This will be the first of many... we hope. He might end up with only ten or 15 top ten finishes in his career. He has one. That is enough for today.
10. This wasn't a good day for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, and yet Christian Lundgaard was 11th and Graham Rahal was 12th. Neither of those two looked that good. Rahal went off strategy with Power after the Rosenqvist incident and this gives a clear indication of the difference in quality between the two teams. Jack Harvey had an electrical issue early and then spun Dalton Kellett. Harvey ends up 20th. RLLR might have been on the fringe of the top ten but they are farther off that.
11. Conor Daly ended 13th. Not bad considering he started 22nd. He made some passes, but can we really celebrate 13th when that is where Daly is on average? He did what he normally does. Ok.
12. Takuma Sato was 14th. Sato went off track a few times. He clearly didn't have it today. That is all.
13. The "Big Three" is no more in IndyCar. There is a "Big Two." Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing. That's it. That's the list.
Andretti Autosport is garbage, and after this pathetic showing the Formula One constructors' should all come out today and say there isn't a snowball's chance in hell Michael Andretti is getting a team.
The team botched calling Colton Herta in when the caution was being held for Tatiana Calderon's stopped car. Instead of calling Herta in when running third while McLaughlin and the rest were stopping, Herta went on through and took the lead when he would have preferred not to have it.
Herta had one roll of the dice, to run as hard as he could for about five to seven laps and open as big a gap as possible and possibly come out better than 22nd. It looked like it might work because Herta, not stopping trapped Simona de Silvestro a lap down and put de Silvestro between Herta and McLaughlin. Herta wasn't going to gap McLaughlin, but it was feasible he could come out somewhere in the top fifteen and possibly challenge for a top ten.
That was ruined when Romain Grosjean and Alexander Rossi got together in the keyhole, and both those cars were in the top ten! Andretti went from three cars in the top ten to none in the top fifteen in about three laps.
It got worse. Rossi and Devlin DeFrancesco collided. Grosjean spun Herta. This was embarrassing. IndyCar race control should call the entire Andretti team, pit crew members and ownership as well, and ask them what the hell is going on.
Andretti Autosport was worse than A.J. Foyt Racing today and that is hard to beat considering two Foyt cars retired and the other is Dalton Kellett. Every driver that finished between sixth and 14th should be thanking Andretti Autosport because due to their incompetence those finishers were all gifted somewhere between one and three exra positions.
If Andretti Autosport doesn't wake up after this then it is a dumber organization than I thought.
14. This might be the first time I didn't hear Jimmie Johnson's name mentioned all race weekend since he joined IndyCar and Johnson ended up with his best finish in his IndyCar career, 16th. Good for Johnson.
15. Simona de Silvestro was 18th and on the lead lap. She did well, and her fastest lap was better than the fastest laps of Daly, Johnson, Harvey and Kellett. She has a handle on the car after all this time away. She runs Nashville and then that is it. She really needs more seat time. Maybe Andretti Autosport will sit one its knuckleheads and give a level-headed driver a ride.
16. This was a brutal day for Arrow McLaren SP. From double top-five starters to double retirement. Felix Rosenqvist broke down after eight laps. Patricio O'Ward's was struggling at the end of the first stint and just didn't have the pace. The car finally crapped out after O'Ward made a pit stop during the countdown for the Calderon caution. O'Ward had the car fail him at Road America. This kind of thing keeps drivers out of championship battles. It is a massive blow and AMSP has work to do.
17. Callum Ilott broke down while running on the edge of the top ten. Juncos Hollinger Racing has speed. It is lacking reliability. It isn't hurting Ilott. We see his pace and he will not be at JHR for long. JHR on the other hand has a few steps it needs to make to become a respectable IndyCar team.
18. A.J. Foyt Racing is a mess. Three finishers outside the top ten, funding not coming and leaving Tatiana Calderon's entry in limbo, and two retirements today is not good. Kyle Kirkwood went off in turn eight. Kirkwood over drove it. He was in a good position. The pace is there, but my worry is if Kirkwood is over driving now, why should we believe Andretti Autosport will calm him? After this season, Kirkwood needs a stable setting and a group that makes sure he is driving within his means. That isn't Andretti Autosport right now and I doubt Andretti can return to being that team.
19. We had a waved off start today, and IndyCar is partially to blame for poor starts. One, at most circuits, the pace car clears too early. Compare it to NASCAR, the pace car remains in front of the field and pulls off at the last moment. IndyCar should do the same. Two, the cars should be side-by-side for most of the final laps before green. Three, stop letting the leaders get away with their games. Too often is the leader screwing around on the gas and spreads the field out or causes an accordion at the start. I know the optics for penalizing the leader is jarring, but it would send a message.
20. Can we talk about the Honda 200 for a second? And I mean the actual name of the race. It wasn't 200 miles. It wasn't 200 kilometers, why does the race have this title? The race distance has bounced around. When IndyCar returned in 2007, it was the Honda 200, but it wasn't 200 miles, it was 191 miles, five laps longer than today. Last decade, the race was extended to 200 miles before 2020, when Mid-Ohio became a doubleheader weekend. It was extended by five laps to make it tougher to complete on two stops.
One reason for the shorter distance is the television window. With Mid-Ohio being on network television, it is easier for 180 miles to fit into a two-and-a-half-hour window than 200, but Mid-Ohio does lose out because the shorter distance means less variety in strategy. When Mid-Ohio was 200 miles, it was a two or three-stop race but with varying options. At 180 miles, it quickly becomes a two-stopper and everyone is on the same page. I have mentioned this before. St. Petersburg is another example. St. Petersburg was shortened to 100 miles after nearly a decade at 110 laps and it took a wrinkle out of that street race, and it needs it.
I understand it because IndyCar wants to be on network television and fit into a window, but it also needs to put on the best race possible. It isn't going to get an extra half-hour or full hour on network television unless the ratings jump up to about three million viewers for every race. Today's race didn't start until 12:51 p.m. ET, 21 minutes after the television window began. The only real option is for IndyCar to come on air and immediately start its pace laps a minute into the broadcast and go green about five or six minutes after on air. It would buy IndyCar an extra 15 minutes and that could be enough for an extra 20 miles.
IndyCar and the television partners almost have to treat it like baseball. All baseball game broadcasts begin at 7:00 p.m., but first pitch is 7:07 p.m. In my youth, it was 7:05 p.m. That could be the model for IndyCar. On air at 12:30 p.m., green flag at 12:37 p.m. Start at 3:00 p.m.? The green flag waves at 3:07 p.m.
It should be noted that none of the seven Mid-Ohio races from 2013 to 2019 that were 90 laps, 203.22 miles in length, took more than two hours to complete. The longest took an hour and 55 minutes. Four of those races took under an hour and 50 minutes to complete and the 2016 race was exactly an hour and 50 minutes. I think Mid-Ohio can be extended and not have to worry about going over a television window.
We will have to wait and see if IndyCar decides to embrace something different, but knowing IndyCar and American sports, nothing will change. We will keep up appearances.
21. Remember that period when IndyCar did all restarts from between the keyhole and China Beach at Mid-Ohio? Why doesn't Mid-Ohio just move the start/finish over there? We have all been wondering about it. When Green Savoree Promotions bought the track, it was initially reported the track was considering having a new pit lane and paddock area. Nearly ten years later and that new pit area is not here but still needed.
There were plenty of complaints about Mid-Ohio's facilities during the IMSA weekend. I think its age is really wearing on people, especially when it was already considered outdated in 2012. I wish we could get some developers to look at these tracks and have them create concepts for what some of these racetracks could be. Mid-Ohio turned 60 years old this year and in some ways it still hasn't entered the 21st century.
We can maximize Mid-Ohio's potential. The crowd is there. We all saw it. The powers must do more for their own benefit as well as the masses.
22. This was a lot written for an otherwise ho-hum race. This is the start of a busy summer period, but IndyCar gets a week off. Once it hits Toronto in a fortnight, it will be at full throttle for nearly a month and the second half of the IndyCar season will disappear quickly. Enjoy it while it lasts.
