O'Ward took advantage of the opportunity and from there he never let go. O'Ward made all the right moves with traffic and had the better car in the middle two stints. It allowed O'Ward to open a gap and it gave him breathing room in the final stint. Lundgaard put up a challenge and charged from over four seconds back after the final round of pit stops to within a second as the laps dwindled, but the car was gone from Lundgaard at that point. The Dane could not overcome that last bit of the deficit. O'Ward had to remain precise, and he kept all four wheels on the track to bring the #5 Chevrolet home in first.
This has been a good season for O'Ward. He has regularly been finishing in the top five. Those just haven't been podium finishes or victories. McLaren had the speed and O'Ward did not waste this moment. A championship push will require more than this. It is still a little far out. The real fight will be for best in the team. He has work to do to claim that, and a teammate that likely is going to be defeated easily.
2. It is easy to claim this is a failure for Christian Lundgaard, especially in light of his release from Arrow McLaren at the end of this season despite winning twice and being in the top five of the championship after ten races. Winning pole position was a statement. Winning the race would have been an emphatic one. O'Ward improved as the race went along, and Lundgaard took second. It got away from him, but he didn't cough it up over a silly mistake.
There was a lot of race to run after O'Ward took the lead, and if O'Ward had the better car, he was likely going to find his way through, even if it was through a pit cycle.
Lundgaard did gather himself and make a late charge. He didn't continue to lose time to O'Ward. He kept O'Ward honest. Lundgaard has two victories and he has two runner-up finishes on permanent road courses. There is still Portland and Laguna Seca to go, and two street courses, a discipline where Lundgaard has raced well. It will not be easy for O'Ward to finish this season as the top McLaren driver, and Lundgaard will make sure it will not be easy either.
3. Kyle Kirkwood stopped early to end the first stint, and it was what vaulted him into the podium position in third. Kirkwood was able to run a little harder in the second stint as others still had not made their first stop, and he likely benefitted from the leaders catching traffic while he was pulling out fast laps. The leaders didn't have enough traffic slow them down where it turned into Kirkwood's favor of pulling out a victory, but he was within 2.5 seconds at the finish. Kirkwood had speed to match the McLaren, as we saw in the closing laps.
The better news is Kirkwood's strategy put him ahead of Álex Palou, not by much, but it could have been worse. It could have been points lost. Palou was starting two spots ahead of Kirkwood in this one. This was a good turnaround from a rather underwhelming qualifying effort. Kirkwood will need to take out bigger chunks in the championship, but five points gained is a start.
4. Rinus VeeKay was on the identical strategy to Kirkwood, and VeeKay was on it despite starting four spots better on the grid. That was a great call for Juncos Hollinger Racing. Starting sixth did not prevent the team from taking a minor risk. It did not follow the leaders, and VeeKay made up ground with this call. He finished ahead of the three drivers that started immediately ahead of him. He was ahead of Kirkwood until the final pit stop, and that is when VeeKay lost the spot through the pit cycle. Fourth is still an impressive result for this group.
5. Álex Palou didn't run as long as the leaders on the first stint, but he did not stop as early as Kirkwood and VeeKay, and Palou ended up somewhere in-between. He gained ground but not as much as others. It was still a fifth-place finish from eighth. Palou lost five points to Kirkwood. He lost 12 points to Lundgaard.
It isn't a concern for Palou until it is a regular thing. He has been fifth in the last two races. Kirkwood's average finish over the last two races is 6.5. Lundgaard is still more than a race behind Palou. David Malukas has yet to win a race. O'Ward is still 94 points back. If Palou keeps finishing fifth, he will be fine, and we know he is going to finish better than fifth multiple times over the final seven races. We must see more from the field to think anyone can beat Palou. Don't diminish finishing fifth. Most are still not beating Palou on a regular basis.
6. Will Power drove well to finish sixth. Power did stop on lap 13, a lap before Palou and four and three laps after Kirkwood and VeeKay respectively. The strategy didn't quite work out for Power. Running a little longer on the alternate tire to open the race is what cost him those spots to Kirkwood and VeeKay, but Power still drove a decent race. Power passed Rasmussen and Malukas after his final pit stop to gain a few spots. It is a good result for Power. He now has three consecutive top ten finishes after having one in the first eight races. He looked good all weekend.
7. We do not see Christian Rasmussen run this competitively on road and street courses. Rasmussen dropped from fifth to seventh, only his third career top ten finish on a road or street course. He spent the entire race in the top ten and did not make a costly mistake. That is progress. We have seen Rasmussen make mistakes and hurt his own results. He didn't do that today. It can be better, but Rasmussen entered today 22nd in the championship. He couldn't afford to lose points this weekend.
8. A bobble in the pit lane cost David Malukas a probable top five and he was eighth at the finish. This wasn't on Malukas. I think the strategy wasn't going to get him on the podium. I think it would have been a closer battle between Malukas and Power for sixth if Malukas didn't have that issue. Maybe he is challenging Palou for fifth, but that was the best Malukas' day was going to be today. This was still Malukas' third consecutive top ten finish and his ninth of the season. He did drop to fourth in the championship, partially because of how well Kirkwood and Lundgaard ran. Malukas is doing fine.
9. Josef Newgarden didn't do much, starting and finishing ninth. That could be a significant achievement considering Newgarden is still banged up from his Indianapolis 500 accident, and in the road and street course races between then and now, he has looked slow and struggled for results. Qualifying in the top ten and finishing in the top ten on speed is a sign of progress even if he made up zero positions from where he started.
10. Nolan Siegel quietly made the top ten, picking up a few spots. It wasn't the flashiest race, but Siegel made up ground, and he made it a triple top ten day for McLaren, the team's first since Barber last year, and only the team's fifth since it expanded to a three-car operation in 2023. This was the 62nd race since then. This year has been an improvement for Siegel. We are starting to see the results, and he probably should have had a top ten at Road America as well. He is also out the door with Lundgaard at the end of the season. It didn't feel as harsh to Siegel.
11. Outside the top ten, not much changed. Caio Collet started and finished 11th. Graham Rahal started and finished 12th. Felix Rosenqvist started and finished 13th. Collet was pushing for a top ten. Rahal and Rosenqvist didn't really push for a top ten. These aren't the worst days for these drivers, but they aren't spectacular either.
It is good for Collet, and he has been in good form for the last month. Rahal probably wishes he improved. It is good he didn't lose ground. Rosenqvist should have made up ground. It felt like he was going to, as he has run well at Mid-Ohio previously. It looks worse for Rosenqvist when you consider what his teammate did.
12. Marcus Armstrong did make some moves today, getting up to 14th from 24th on the grid, and in a caution-free race while not going off-strategy. Armstrong stopped essentially with the leaders each time. It is a recovery drive from Armstrong and the team. He got caught out in qualifying and was further behind the eight-ball than he probably should have been. The pit strategy fascinates me the most. Armstrong didn't stop on lap nine or lap ten or lap 15 and benefit from going a little off-strategy. It makes his performance more impressive.
13. Kyffin Simpson went from 18th to 15th. Not much happened there.
14. Let's cover some New Zealanders. An engine change for Scott McLaughlin during the morning warm-up saw McLaughlin take a six-grid spot penalty and it dropped him to 23rd starting spot. He ended up finishing seven spots better than where he started. He made up the penalty, but there was not much more he could do.
Scott Dixon started 22nd, and he made a few spots early, but he was bumped and banged into, notable from Alexander Rossi, which earned Rossi a penalty. Marcus Ericsson then made contact with Dixon and also took a penalty. Those instances of contact weren't why Dixon finished 17th. He wasn't good this weekend. That is unusual. We may need to have a deeper conversation about Scott Dixon. He stopped on lap seven, but the speed wasn't there for him to make up spots, and then everyone ended up running a three-stop race. There was no benefit to trying to run hard and make an extra stop.
15. Let's get through the field. Louis Foster and Santino Ferrucci did nothing and were 18th and 19th.
16. I don't think Rossi's contact with Dixon warranted a two-spot penalty. I think Ericsson's contact was arguably penalty.
Rossi ran wide and nudged Dixon. After Graham Rahal's contact with Will Power, I see how they are calling it a penalty. At some point, there must be incidental contact. It wasn't the worst contact in the world. If that is a penalty, we are going to see a half-dozen penalties a race. Rossi never show good pace in this one. That is the bigger problem than the penalty he took.
Ericsson had made the passed and then pinched Dixon. That was unnecessary from Ericsson, and he was likely driving frustrated at that point. Ericsson stalled on his first pit stop and it took him out of a top ten position. That is what shuffled him to the back-half of the grid. He could't afford that error.
17. We have Sting Ray Robb, Romain Grosjean, Mick Schumacher and Dennis Hauger rounding out the field. Twenty-second is where Robb lives. There is no surprise there. Dale Coyne Racing didn't have it this weekend. Hauger may have never recovered from his accident in Saturday morning practice. This was a weekend to forget for the organization. This season is a step back, which didn't feel likely at the start of the seaosn.
Schumacher was sandwiched between the Coyne drivers in 24th.
There is no way Schumacher is this bad, right? I know he didn't light the world on fire in Formula One and he is driving for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, which has been an anchor for drivers, but he cannot finish in the top fifteen and he cannot finish ahead of Sting Ray Robb, and Schumacher was competitive with the likes of Lundgaard and Armstrong in Formula Two. All these tracks are new for Schumacher, but it cannot be that big of a learning curve for him. That injured wrist from St. Petersburg cannot be this debilitating... right?
18. We get a week off, and then IndyCar will follow the World Cup Final with a 400-mile, 300-lap race at Nashville SuperSpeedway. At least we have plans for a Sunday evening a fortnight from now.
