The ninth round of the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series season brings the series to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. IndyCar surpasses the halfway of the season this weekend. After Mid-Ohio only eight races remain and they will all take place over 70 days. Entering this weekend, 486 points remain on the table. Everybody is still mathematically eligible for the championship, but with 98 points covering the top five drivers, 162 points covering the top 11 and only 18 drivers having scored at least 100 points through the first eight events, time is running out quickly for many drivers' championship hopes.
Coverage
Time: Coverage begins at 1:30 p.m. ET on Sunday July 2 with green flag scheduled for 1:53 p.m. ET.
Channel: USA
Announcers: Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will be in the booth. Kevin Lee and Dillon Welch will work pit lane.
Channel: USA
Announcers: Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will be in the booth. Kevin Lee and Dillon Welch will work pit lane.
IndyCar Weekend Schedule
Friday:
First Practice: 3:05 p.m. ET (75 minutes)
Saturday:
Second Practice: 9:45 a.m. ET (60 minutes)
Qualifying: 2:45 p.m. ET
Sunday:
Warm-up: 10:30 a.m. ET (30 minutes)
Race: 1:53 p.m. ET (80 laps)
Qualifying: 2:45 p.m. ET
Sunday:
Warm-up: 10:30 a.m. ET (30 minutes)
Race: 1:53 p.m. ET (80 laps)
* - All sessions will be available live on Peacock
Team Penske Still Hasn't Won a Pole Position
IndyCar may be a competitive series, but it remains staggering that through the first eight races of the 2023 season, Team Penske does not have a pole position.
Last year, Team Penske won nine pole positions over the 17-race calendar. The team ended the season with four pole positions on the spin and six in the final seven races. Josef Newgarden was tied for the best average starting position at 6.647. Will Power led IndyCar with five pole positions, and Power's fifth was the record breaking 68th in his career. Scott McLaughlin won three pole positions in 2022, second most only behind Power, and McLaughlin was one of only three drivers with multiple pole positions. McLaughlin had the third best average starting position at 6.882 and Power was fourth at 7.647.
Through the first eight races this season, only Newgarden has an average starting position in the top ten. Newgarden is averaging a ninth-place grid position, seventh in IndyCar. McLaughlin is averaging a 10.5, good enough for tenth. Power is averaging a starting position of 11.875, 12th in IndyCar as the halfway point of the season approaches.
Between the three drivers, they have only one front row start. McLaughlin started second at Detroit. They have only five top five starting positions, and Will Power is responsible for none of them.
Power is in one of the worst qualifying rut of his career. Power has not started in the top five in any races this season. His best grid position was seventh at Detroit. He has not made the Firestone Fast Six once. The only time Power has gone seven races or more without a top five starting position was an eight-race stretch from Portland to Road America in 2006. That spans the seventh start of Power's career to his 14th career start. This weekend could be the Australian’s 277th start.
On top of Power's qualifying woes, he has not won any of the last 17 races. The longest winless streak of Power's career is 18 starts, dating back to Kansas 2008 through Toronto 2009. Power raced the final 14 races in 2008 and then started four of the first ten races in 2009 before winning at Edmonton, his first victory with Team Penske.
Power is on pace for his worst average starting position in a single season. The only other time he had an average starting position worse than tenth was the 2008 Indy Racing League season, and that year his average was 10.9411 with five top five starting positions.
As for Newgarden, a ninth-place average would be his worst average starting position since joining Team Penske in 2017. He has averaged a top ten starting position in each of the last nine seasons. McLaughlin average starting position improve from 15.857 in his first full IndyCar season in 2021 to 6.882 last season. He went from one top five starting position in 2021 to nine last season.
This is Team Penske's longest pole position drought since the 49-race drought that stretched from Belle Isle in 1997 through the 1999 season finale at Fontana. Team Penske opened the 2021 season with zero pole positions in the first seven races. Penske also had a seven-race drought from Pocono through the first Houston race in 2013.
The good news for Team Penske is it has shown good qualifying form at Mid-Ohio. The team has won five of the last eight pole positions at the track, and six of the last 12. Since IndyCar returned to the track in 2007, Penske has started on pole position in ten of the 17 races. Since 2007, Power has the second best average starting position at Mid-Ohio behind only Dario Franchitti. Power has won five pole positions and he has started in the top six on 12 of 15 occasions. However, he has started outside the top fifteen in two of the last three races.
Newgarden has the fourth best average starting position at Mid-Ohio since 2007, and he has started in the top six in eight of 12 starts at the track. McLaughlin started second in last year's race before winning with 45 laps led.
Palou vs. Ericsson
Chip Ganassi Racing has controlled the championship through the first eight rounds, and the team's success is best exhibited in its drivers ranked first, second and fifth in the championship with the fourth car, split between two drivers, ranked 14th in the entrants' championship, ahead of both Juncos Hollinger Racing entries, both Ed Carpenter Racing entries, both Meyer Shank Racing entries, both Dale Coyne Racing entries and two of the three Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing entries.
It is the top two in the championship that best exemplify Ganassi's strength in 2023. Álex Palou's 74-point championship lead has been discussed enough, but between Palou and Marcus Ericsson, currently second in the championship, the Catalan-Swedish combination has 16 top ten finishes out of 16 possible top ten finishes. They have a combined ten top five finishes and one of the two drivers has been on the podium in seven of eight races this season.
Palou's run is extraordinary. After opening the season with an eighth at St. Petersburg, he has seven consecutive top five finishes, the longest streak in IndyCar since his current teammate Scott Dixon had a seven-race streak spread over the final six races in 2018 and the 2019 season opener. Eight consecutive top five finishes has not been done since Dixon had an eight-race streak spread over the final six events of the 2011 season and the first two events of the 2012 season. Dixon had six podium finishes during that span. Palou had four podium results in the last seven races.
Palou could become the first driver with eight consecutive top five finishes within one season since Dario Franchitti had eight consecutive top five finishes during the 2010 season from Watkins Glen to Motegi. The first six of those results were podium finishes and Franchitti was on the podium in seven of those eight events. Franchitti was driving the #10 Ganassi entry at that time. To date, Franchitti's run is the only eight-race top five streak since reunification.
While Palou deserves attention, so does Ericsson. Ericsson and Palou are the last drivers standing to have finished in the top ten of every race this season. Ericsson has a nine-race top ten finish streak dating back to last season. This is the third consecutive season Ericsson has had at least an eight-race top ten finish streak. In 2021, he had a nine-race top ten finish streak that began with his first career victory at Belle Isle and lasted through the penultimate round at Laguna Seca. Prior to that streak, he had finished 11th in the Indianapolis 500 and was tenth in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis before that.
Mid-Ohio has developed into one of Ericsson's better tracks. His worst finish in the last three races is sixth, and he was runner-up to Josef Newgarden in 2021. Palou has finished third and second at the 2.25-mile road course in his two visits to the facility with Chip Ganassi Racing. Palou was taken out on the opening lap of the second race in 2020 after qualifying fourth, and he has started seventh the past two years at Mid-Ohio.
Americans
Independence Day will fall on a Tuesday this year, effectively making Mid-Ohio a holiday weekend event. This is the third consecutive season IndyCar has competed at Mid-Ohio during this weekend, and this year there are nine American drivers entered looking for a holiday victory.
Josef Newgarden leads all American drivers this season in victories with two. Newgarden is also the top American in the championship at the moment in third, 81 points behind Palou. Newgarden has been the top American in the championship the last four seasons, and he has led Americans in victories in three of the last four seasons.
The next best American in the championship at the moment is Alexander Rossi, sitting in seventh, but on 196 points, trailing Palou by 128 points. Rossi is the last American not named Josef Newgarden to be the top American in the championship. That was when Rossi was second to Scott Dixon in 2018. Rossi is still looking for his first victory this season and his first victory with McLaren. He has five consecutive top ten finishes, his longest streak since an eight-race run in 2019.
Colton Herta is ninth in the championship on 183 points, but Herta has yet to stand on the top step of the podium this season. Herta led all Americans in victories in 2021 when he won three times, but he has only won once in the last 24 races.
The only other American driver to win a race this season is Kyle Kirkwood, who had his first career victory come back at Long Beach in April. Kirkwood has finished in the top ten of the last two races, the first time he has had consecutive top ten results in his IndyCar career. This has the Florida-born driver up to tenth in the championship on 164 points.
Four of the nine American drivers entered this weekend have won at Mid-Ohio before. Along with Rossi, Newgarden and Herta, Ohio's own Graham Rahal won the 2015 Mid-Ohio race. Rahal has nine top ten finishes in his last ten Mid-Ohio starts. After a difficult pair of races between the Indianapolis 500 and Detroit, Rahal was 11th in the most recent race at Road America.
One driver that surprisingly has not won at Mid-Ohio is Ryan Hunter-Reay. The veteran of 17 Mid-Ohio starts has four podium finishes, seven top five finishes and 14 top ten finishes but he has never won at the facility. His average finish at the track is 8.882 and his average starting position is 5.764 with 14 consecutive top ten starting positions at the track.
Santino Ferrucci is making his first visit to Mid-Ohio since 2021 when he drove a third entry for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Ferrucci went from 22nd to ninth in that race, his best finish at the track. He has finished no worse than 14th in four Mid-Ohio starts.
David Malukas qualified eighth and finished ninth in last year's Mid-Ohio race. It was the second top ten starting position of Malukas’ career and his first career top ten finish. Malukas' Dale Coyne Racing teammate Sting Ray Robb will be making his first IndyCar start at Mid-Ohio. In five Indy Lights starts at the track, Robb had an average finish of 7.8 in fields that averaged a size of 12.6 cars.
For a period of time, IndyCar did not race on Independence Day weekend, but it has so for the past three seasons. Newgarden's victory in the 2021 Mid-Ohio race made him the first American driver to win over the holiday weekend since Ryan Hunter-Reay won at Waktins Glen in 2008.
The Rest of the World
While there will be nine American drivers competing this weekend at Mid-Ohio, two-thirds of the grid hails from around the globe and will be looking to spoil the party in a sense.
Leading the way, along with his Spanish teammate leading the championship and his Swedish teammate in second, is the most successful international driver in IndyCar history.
Scott Dixon has 53 IndyCar victories, second most all-time, and six championships, also second most all-time. Dixon also had six Mid-Ohio victories, more than any other driver. The New Zealander is looking for his first victory of the season, and while he has a half-dozen victories at this circuit, he has only won once in the last nine Mid-Ohio races and that victory in 2019 is his only podium finish during that span.
Joining Dixon, his fellow Antipodeans Will Power and Scott McLaughlin have each won in the last four Mid-Ohio races. Power has finished on the podium in eight of his 15 Mid-Ohio starts. Marcus Armstrong makes it four Antipodeans on the grid.
Like Dixon, his best friend, Mexico's Patricio O'Ward, enters Mid-Ohio looking for his first victory of the season. O'Ward started on pole position for last year's Mid-Ohio race, but fuel pressure issues took him out of the running for race victory. O'Ward has never finished better than eighth at Mid-Ohio in four starts. Sweden's Felix Rosenqvist makes its two international drivers for McLaren, and Rosenqvist’s track record is shakier than O'Ward at this place. While Rosenqvist was second and sixth in his first two Mid-Ohio starts, he has finished 22nd, 23rd and 27th in his last three trips here. He has failed to make it beyond lap eight in two of his last three visits.
France has two representatives on the grid. Simon Pagenaud won at Mid-Ohio in 2016, and Pagenaud has completed all 1,110 laps in his 13 starts. Qualifying has not been Romain Grosjean's strength at Mid-Ohio, starting 18th and 17th, but he has gone forward each year. The finish did not come through last year, after contact with then-Andretti Autosport teammate Alexander Rossi took Grosjean out of a top ten position. Grosjean was seventh in 2021.
The United Kingdom has two drivers on the grid as well. For Callum Ilott, it is his second Mid-Ohio race. Ilott qualified tenth last year, but lost an engine after completing 57 laps and was classified 23rd. Jack Harvey has two top ten finishes at Mid-Ohio with his best finish being seventh in the first race of the 2020 doubleheader.
The sixth country with multiple representatives on the grid is Denmark. Christian Lundgaard is two points outside the championship top ten and he has finished in the top ten of all three permanent road course races this season. Benjamin Pedersen has finished outside the top twenty in all three permanent road course races this season.
Rounding out the 13 nations that will be on the grid this weekend will be The Netherlands with Rinus VeeKay, Brazil with Hélio Castroneves, Canada with Devlin DeFrancesco and Argentina's Agustín Canapino. Ten different nationalities have won an IndyCar race at Mid-Ohio. Eight of those nationalities will be represented this weekend with Italy and Colombia being the only two past Mid-Ohio winning nations not on the grid this year.
Road to Indy
There is plenty of racing this holiday as all three Road to Indy series with a triple-header to boot.
Indy Lights will be hitting the halfway point this weekend at Mid-Ohio, and there is a new championship leader.
After becoming the first repeat winner of the season at Road America, Nolan Siegel holds the championship lead on 229 points. Siegel has four podium finishes through six races and Siegel is heading to Mid-Ohio coming off a victory in IMSA's LMP2 class at the 6 Hours of the Glen. While Siegel took the championship lead, a retirement at Road America for Christian Rasmussen has set the Danish driver 40 points behind Siegel, a 58-point championship swing after Rasmussen had an 18-point lead entering the weekend.
Hunter McElrea picked up his first career Indy Lights victory last year at Mid-Ohio. This year McElrea heads to Mid-Ohio third in the championship on 173 points, five points ahead of Jacob Abel with Danial Frost 15 points back in fifth. Reece Gold sits on 155 points, four ahead of Louis Foster and eight ahead of James Roe, Jr.
Matteo Nannini still has only one top ten finish this season, but that victory on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course still has Nannini ninth in the championship on 133 points. Ernie Francis, Jr. rounds out the top ten, two markers behind Nannini.
Enaam Ahmed sits on 126 points, three ahead of Colin Kaminsky and four clear of Kyffin Simpson, who won pole position at Road America. Jagger Jones and Josh Green are tied on 119 points with Christian Bogle on 116 points. Jamie Chadwick has 99 points, seven more than Rasmus Lindh. Josh Pierson is back for his fourth race of the season.
Indy Lights will race for 35 laps or 55 minutes at 11:40 a.m. ET on Sunday July 2.
The second half of the USF Pro 2000 season begins this weekend at Mid-Ohio, and Myles Rowe enters as the championship lead. Rowe has 209 points, but he has not won in any of his last five starts. He does have eight top five finishes from nine events this season and that has the American 48 points ahead of Francesco Pizzi in the championship.
Pizzi has not won this season, but he has finished seventh or better in eight of nine races and his worst result is 11th. Pizzi is two points ahead of Kiko Porto, who also has not won this season, but who has three runner-up finishes, including the most recent race at Road America. Joel Granfors has fallen to fourth in the championship on 154 points. Salvador de Alba and Jonathan Browne are tied on 142 points.
Jace Denmark opened the season with three consecutive top five finishes, but Denmark has only one top five finish in the last six races. He is on 124 points, two clear of Reece Ushijima. Lirim Zendeli won the most recent race at Road America and that has Zendeli on 116 points, tied with Jack Wiliam Miller, but Zendeli holds the tiebreaker. Michael d'Orlando also picked up his first USF Pro 2000 victory at Road America, but d'Orlando was 20th in the second race and is 11th in the championship on 115points.
USF Pro 2000 has its first race at 11:55 a.m. ET on Saturday July 1 with the second race later that afternoon at 5:25 p.m. ET. Both races are scheduled for 30 laps or 50 minutes.
It will get late early in U.S. F2000, as after this triple-header weekend, there will only be five races left held over two rounds, with the penultimate round only occurring in two weeks time in Toronto.
Lochie Hughes and Simon Sikes split the victories at Road America and each driver had a bad day in the other race. Hughes was 12th in race one as Sikes won. Sikes was tenth in race two as Hughes won. Hughes has 249 points and a three-point lead over Sikes. Sikes has experienced at Mid-Ohio in this series. He was on the podium of all three U.S. F2000 races held over the 2021 Independence Day weekend at Mid-Ohio.
Nikita Johnson extended his top five finish streak to six races and he has finished in the top five in eight of ten races. Johnson is 40 points behind Hughes. Mac Clark is up to fourth in the championship on 172 points while Evagoras Papasavvas dropped to fifth on 159 points.
Chase Gardner has 136 points in sixth, three clear of Jorge Garciarce with Danny Dyzelski on 113 points. Sam Corry and Jacob Douglas are tied on 111 points. Max Garcia is just outside the championship top ten on 109 points.
Race one for U.S. F2000 will be at 4:40 p.m. ET on Friday June 30. The next two races will both be on Saturday July 1. The second race of the weekend will be at 11:00 a.m. ET with the final race at 4:30 p.m. ET. Allthree races will be 20 laps or 40 minutes.
Fast Facts
This will be the sixth IndyCar race to take place on July 2nd, and the first since Sam Hornish, Jr. won at Kansas in 2006. It was also Hornish, Jr.'s 27th birthday.
Twice has IndyCar raced in Ohio before on July 2nd. Both those races took place at Cleveland. Emerson Fittipaldi won there on July 2, 1989 and Roberto Moreno won there on July 2, 2000. It was Moreno's first career IndyCar victory.
Fifteen of the last 17 Mid-Ohio races have been won by an American, a New Zealander or an Australian.
Americans have won six of the last 11 Mid-Ohio races. American drivers had not won any of the 14 Mid-Ohio races prior to this stretch.
There have been six different winners in the last six Mid-Ohio races. This is the longest streak of different winners in the history of Mid-Ohio.
Chevrolet has won the last two Mid-Ohio races. Since engine competition returned in 2012, no manufacturer has won three consecutive Mid-Ohio races.
Chip Ganassi Racing leads all teams with 11 Mid-Ohio victories, but Ganassi has won only one of the last eight Mid-Ohio races. Ganassi has not won any of the last four Mid-Ohio races. The only time Chip Ganassi Racing has gone more than four Mid-Ohio races without a victory was the first six years of the team from 1990 to 1995.
The last driver not named Scott Dixon to win for Chip Ganassi Racing at Mid-Ohio is Charlie Kimball in 2013.
Only once since Mid-Ohio returned to the IndyCar calendar in 2007 has the Mid-Ohio winner gone on to win the IndyCar championship. That was Josef Newgarden in 2017.
The average starting position for a Mid-Ohio winner is 3.435 with a median of second.
Four consecutive Mid-Ohio races have been won from the front row and seven of the last eight Mid-Ohio races have been won from the front row.
Sixteen of 39 Mid-Ohio races have been won from pole position. Twenty-four Mid-Ohio races have been won from the front row.
Seven Mid-Ohio races have been won from outside a top five starting position. Three of those have occurred in the last ten Mid-Ohio races, including the only two races that have been won from outside a top ten starting position.
Scott Dixon is responsible for three of the seven Mid-Ohio victories from outside a top five starting position and Dixon is responsible for the worst starting position for a Mid-Ohio winner, 22nd in 2014.
The average number of lead changes in a Mid-Ohio race is 4.667 with a median of five.
Last year's Mid-Ohio race had only three lead changes, the fewest since 2012.
Every Mid-Ohio race has had at least one lead change.
The average number of cautions for a Mid-Ohio race is 1.947 with a median of two. The average number of caution laps is 7.368 with a median of seven.
Last year's Mid-Ohio race has six cautions, the most ever in a Mid-Ohio race. The 17 caution laps were the most since 19 caution laps in the 2008 race, a race that started in wet conditions.
Seven Mid-Ohio races have been caution-free. Another eight Mid-Ohio races have had only one caution.
Predictions
Álex Palou makes it three consecutive victories and three consecutive podium finishes at Mid-Ohio, and the championship will feel out of hand before we even hit July 4. Team Penske does not win pole position. No Andretti Autosport driver will hit another Andretti Autosport driver, but an Andretti Autosport drive will make contact with another car at some point during this race. Every McLaren will see the checkered flag and at least two of those cars start in the top six. There will be fewer than three cautions in this race. The Antipodean finishing order will be Scott Dixon, Will Power, Marcus Armstrong and Scott McLaughlin. The Scandinavian finishing order will be Felix Rosenqvist, Christian Lundgaard, Marcus Ericsson and Benjamin Pedersen. An American will finish on the podium. Dale Coyne Racing has a top twenty finisher. Sleeper: Kyle Kirkwood.
