Track Walk: Iowa 2025

The 11th and 12th rounds of the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season takes place at Iowa Speedway for  the only doubleheader weekend on the calendar. This year, both Iowa races will be 275 laps after last year's race were both 250 laps. It will be the first time Iowa Speedway has ever run to the 275-lap distance. Fourteen of 21 Iowa races have been 250-lap races with the other seven being run to a 300-lap distance. Team Penske has won four consecutive Iowa races and eight of the last nine at the 0.875-mile oval. Honda has not won at the track since 2018, but the Japanese manufacturer enters this weekend with ten consecutive victories and 11 consecutive dating back to last season. 

Coverage

Time: Coverage for race one begins at 5:00 p.m. ET on Saturday July 13 with green flag scheduled for 5:20 p.m. ET. Coverage for race two begins at 1:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 1:20 p.m. ET.

Channel: Fox
Announcers: Will Buxton, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will be in the booth. Kevin Lee, Georgia Henneberry and Jack Harvey will work pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule

Friday:

First Practice: 4:30 p.m. ET (90 minutes)

Saturday:

Qualifying: 12:00 p.m. ET 

Race: 5:20 p.m. ET (275 laps)
Sunday:
Race: 1:20 p.m. ET (275 laps)

The Elephant in the Room

IndyCar returns to Iowa coming off a pair of its worst races ever held, let alone at Iowa Speedway.

Last year's Iowa races had 192 total passes and 204 total passes respectively. Those races had 100 passes for position and 94 passes for position. Most passing was only possible on restarts and in the immediate laps afterward. 

While Will Power won the second race from 22nd starting position, it was mostly down to a timely caution before Power made a pit stop while the rest of the field had stopped and were caught a lap down. The other four top five finishers in the second race last year started inside the top five. In the first race, only one lead change occurred. Colton Herta led the first 86 laps and then Scott McLaughlin led the final 164 laps. Herta was shuffled back to 11th when he was on pit lane when Álex Palou spun exiting the final corner. 

It did not help that prior to last year's Iowa weekend, the average number of passes in an Iowa race since 2017 was 807.667. In 2023, the total number of passes in the two races were 1,502 and 1,168. The average number of passes for position since 2017 was 276.888 with the 2023 races having 319 and 379 passes for positions respectively. Prior to last year, since 2017, the fewest total passes in an Iowa race was 378 in 2017, and the fewest number of passes for position were 203 in the first race of the 2020 doubleheader. 

The main reason for the passing issues was the partial re-pave of the Iowa track surface ahead of its inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race in June 2024. The bottom lane of the racetrack was re-paved, but the upper lane remained untouched, creating a near 18-year difference between the surfaces. With that discrepancy, drivers stayed on the bottom and no one ventured up the track during the middle of the run. With nowhere to go to pass, drivers saved fuel and both Iowa races became a two-stop race. 

IndyCar did test last month ahead of the return to Iowa Speedway with 21 cars participating. Firestone brought a different tire while IndyCar increased the downforce while turning down the horsepower.

Conor Daly reportedly ran the fastest lap of the time at 181.315 mph while Álex Palou was second at 181.118 mph. Felix Rosenqvist was in third at 180.969 mph with his fellow Swede Marcus Ericsson right behind him at 180.872 mph. Rounding out the top five was Colton Herta at 180.611 mph with Patricio O'Ward in sixth at 180.186 mph.

Kyle Kirkwood was ninth in the test while none of the Team Penske drivers cracked the top ten. Josef Newgarden was 11th while Will Power was 14th and Scott McLaughlin was 15th. 

After the test, Daly told Marshall Pruett of Racer the tires were a "better match for the bottom lane," but Daly added the second lane was not an option. In a post-test recap video for IndyCar's website, Daly emphasized the need for a high line practice, and he even jokingly suggested running the high line for the entirety of practice.

On his podcast after the test, Alexander Rossi stated drivers remained stuck to the bottom of the racetrack for the duration of the test, and Christian Rasmussen suffered a right front tire failure. This is leading Firestone to bring a different right side tire compound to this weekend, which is untested. Along with the different tire compound, IndyCar has settled on Iowa will have the same boost levels as the Indianapolis 500, and IndyCar has moved the dependence on downforce to the rear wing in hopes of increasing drag. 

Through Two Oval Races

One-third of the oval races on the 2025 IndyCar calendar are complete. Another third will be in the books once we are through this weekend at Iowa. It will be a little over a month until IndyCar returns to another oval, but when IndyCar heads to Milwaukee it will be the first of two consecutive ovals to close out the season. 

This has been an odd year for oval races, and that is reflected in the oval points scored. 

Patricio O'Ward did not win either of the first two oval races, but with finishes of third and second, O'Ward has scored the most oval points. The Mexican has 87 oval points, and he has scored the most oval points in two of the last four seasons. O'Ward is five points ahead of Indianapolis 500 winner Álex Palou, who finished eighth at Gateway.

There is a 14-point break between the top two and David Malukas in third on 68 points. Christian Rasmussen sits in fourth on 65 points while Santino Ferrucci rounds out the top five with 61 points. O'Ward, Palou, Rasmussen and Ferrucci are the four drivers to have finished in the top ten of both oval races this season.

Kyle Kirkwood has 56 points with 51 of those points coming from his Gateway victory last month. Kirkwood is a point ahead of Felix Rosenqvist. Conor Daly sits on 54 points with Scott Dixon in ninth on 51 points. Rounding out the top ten is Christian Lundgaard, who has scored 47 points in the first two oval races.

Robert Shwartzman sits in 11th on 38 points. Twelve of those points are from Shwartzman's pole position at the Indianapolis 500, but he did score his first career top ten finish at Gateway. The next driver is Takuma Sato, who scored 36 points at Indianapolis after finishing ninth but Sato picked up 11 points for qualifying second and leading the most laps in the race. Marcus Armstrong has 34 points, two more than Rinus VeeKay and Colton Herta rounds out the top fifteen on 29 points. 

Nolan Siegel has 28 points from two oval races while Devlin DeFrancesco and Marcus Ericsson are tied on 27 points. Alexander Rossi has 26 points while Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing teammates Louis Foster and Graham Rahal have 23 and 21 respectively. 

Hélio Castroneves has 20 points after finishing tenth at Indianapolis. That is the same points total that Will Power has from two oval starts. Callum Ilott has 18 oval points and Sting Ray Robb has 17 oval points. 

Last year, Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden ranked first and second in oval points. Through the first two oval races in 2025, they are the bottom two in points among drivers who have started both races. McLaughlin has scored 15 points from the first two oval events and Newgarden has scored 14 points. They have fewer oval points than Ed Carpenter, who scored 16 points for his 15th-place finish. 

While it is good to score points on ovals, it usually does not win a driver the championship. Since 2010, only three times did the driver with the most oval points win the overall championship. Dario Franchitti did it in 2010, Ryan Hunter-Reay followed in 2012, and Scott Dixon was the most recent to do it in 2020. In that same timeframe, the driver with the most road/street course points has won the overall championship nine times, including in four consecutive seasons. 

First-Time Winners

We are approaching two years since IndyCar's most recent first-time winner. This is the longest space between new winners since a near-three year gap from Alexander Rossi's first career victory at the 2016 Indianapolis 500 and Colton Herta's first career victory at Austin in March 2020.

Ovals are not where you would typically expect a first time winner. Of the 17 drivers to score their first career victory since 2012, only two won on an oval. Rossi was the first in 2016, Patricio O'Ward is the other when he won at Texas in 2021. However, looking at recent results, an oval is the more likely location for a breakthrough victory.

At the Indianapolis 500, four of the top eight finishers had zero career victories. At Gateway, three of the top six finishers and five of the top ten finishers had zero career victories. 

Conor Daly was the fastest at the Iowa test last month. Daly has made 125 career starts and he is still looking for that first career victory. Only two drivers have made more starts before their first career victories. Michel Jourdain, Jr. won in his 129 starts. If Daly wins this weekend, he would match George Snider for second-most starts before a first career victory. Daly has finished in the top ten of both oval races this season, and he had finished in the top ten in four of his last five oval starts, including a third at Milwaukee last year. 

Santino Ferrucci has five consecutive top ten finishes on ovals, four of which have been top five finishes. In his career, nine of his 11 career top five finishes have been on ovals. At Iowa, he was sixth and 11th last year, but prior to that, he had finished outside the top ten in his first five starts at the track. 

David Malukas was second in the Indianapolis 500, and all three of his podium finishes have been on ovals. All his top five finishes have been on ovals as well. Malukas' best finish at Iowa was eighth, and he has finished outside the top ten in four of his six starts at the circuit. 

Marcus Armstrong is quietly having a good season. Through ten races, Armstrong has finished in the top ten in five races, including a fifth at Road America. He picked up a top ten finish at Gateway as he was ninth. In nine career oval starts, Armstrong has four top ten finishes with his best result being seventh at Nashville last year.

Christian Rasmussen has been the surprise of the season on ovals. Not only does Rasmussen have the fourth-most oval points but he was third at Gateway, his first career podium finish, and it was Ed Carpenter Racing's first podium result since Barber Motorsports Park in 2022. It was ECR's best oval finish since Ed Carpenter was second at Gateway in 2019. 

Of the remaining eight drivers entered for Iowa without a victory, none of them have a top five finish on an oval. Only Callum Ilott, Nolan Siegel, Sting Ray Robb and Robert Shwartzman have at least one top ten finish on an oval. Kyffin Simpson's best oval result was 13th in the second Milwaukee race last year. Devlin DeFrancesco and Louis Foster were 11th and 12th respectively at this year's Indianapolis 500, their best oval results. Jacob Abel made his first oval start at Gateway and finished 21st. 

The next new winner is a milestone winner. It will be the 300th winner in IndyCar history. There is a reason everyone should be concerned though. There has never been a first-time winner at Iowa. 

Intra-Team Battles

We have completed ten races in the 2025 season, and with three street races, five road courses and two oval races contested, we have a fair sample size of every bit of the calendar, and we know where every team stands with four ovals, two road courses and one street course remaining. 

It is no surprise that Álex Palou is leading the way for Chip Ganassi Racing. Palou has won six times. He has been the top Ganassi finisher on seven occasions. Scott Dixon's victory at Mid-Ohio was his second time as the best Ganassi finisher this season. Kyffin Simpson has been the best Ganassi finisher once, that was Detroit, where Palou was taken out and Simpson was fifth. The other was Gateway, where Dixon caught a timely yellow, which allowed him to have a lap on the field before he made his penultimate pit stop, and it allowed Dixon to finish fourth while Palou was the next-best Ganassi runner in eighth. 

When it comes to qualifying, Palou has been the top Ganassi starter eighth times. Dixon was the best Ganassi driver on the grid at St. Petersburg and the Indianapolis 500. Simpson has yet to be the best Ganassi starter, but his best grid position this season came last week at Mid-Ohio when he started third. 

Patricio O'Ward has taken over the team battle at Arrow McLaren. O'Ward has been the top McLraen finisher in four of the last five races and he has been the best McLaren five times this year. Christian Lundgaard has been the top McLaren finisher four times this season, including his third last week at Mid-Ohio. Nolan Siegel got on the board at Road America when he led McLaren with an eighth-place finisher.

In qualifying, it is identical to race form. O'Ward has led McLaren five times to Lundgaard's four and Siegel has been on top once.

Kyle Kirkwood has been the top Andretti Global finisher in six races, including three of the last four. Colton Herta has been the best Andretti car four times, but one of those includes the Indianapolis 500 where Marcus Ericsson and Kirkwood were disqualified. Prior to his penalty, Indianapolis was the only time Ericsson has been the best Andretti finisher on the road. Ericsson has been the worst Andretti finisher in seven races.

Herta has been the better qualifying, as he has started ahead of both his teammates in seven races. Kirkwood has been the top qualifier only twice, and Ericsson started the best of the three at the Indianapolis 500. 

Will Power has been the best Team Penske finisher five times while Scott McLaughlin has led the way four times, including in the last three races. Josef Newgarden has not been the best Penske driver since he was third in the St. Petersburg season opener. 

McLaughlin is by far the best Penske driver in qualifying. He has been the top qualifier in seven races. The only times Newgarden has been the best starter was when no Penske car started in the top fifteen. At Thermal Club, Newgarden started 17th and his two teammates started outside the top twenty. The second time was at Mid-Ohio. Newgarden started 18th, and neither of his teammates started in the top twenty. Power's pole position at Gateway is the only time he has been the top Penske starter. 

Felix Rosenqvist is sixth in the championship, two spots ahead of his Meyer Shank Racing teammate Marcus Armstrong. Rosenqvist has a 7-3 advantage on Armstrong in race finish, but the drivers are level 5-5 in terms of qualifying. 

After splitting the first six races three apiece, Santino Ferrucci has taken a 7-3 edge in the A.J. Foyt Racing battle, but David Malukas has been the better qualifier in eight races this season, and Malukas has been the best Foyt starter in the last five events. On four of those occasions, Malukas has started in the top ten while Ferrucci has started 15th or worse. In three races of those races, Ferrucci has started no better than 18th.

Alexander Rossi is up 8-2 on Christian Rasmussen in races and 8-2 in qualifying at Ed Carpenter Racing. Rasmussen has been the best ECR finisher at both ovals, and Rasmussen has been the better qualifier in two of the last three races.

Conor Daly is up 7-3 on Sting Ray Robb in races and 8-2 in qualifying at Juncos Hollinger Racing. Robb got the better of Daly at Long Beach, Detroit and Mid-Ohio. Daly has been the best JHR starter in the last four races. The only times Robb has been the better starter was Long Beach, when he started 19th and Daly was 21st, and at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis with Robb starting 17th and Daly in 22nd.

Rinus VeeKay is thoroughly dominating the fight at Dale Coyne Racing over Jacob Abel. VeeKay is up 9-1 in finishing positions. The only time Abel has been the top DCR finisher was Detroit when VeeKay retired due to a mechanical issue after six laps. VeeKay is up 9-1 in qualifying as well. Abel got on the board last week at Mid-Ohio. 

It has not been a good year at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Its best driver in the championship is Graham Rahal in 21st, and Rahal has been the top RLLR finisher in six races. Louis Foster is 22nd, and he was the best RLLR driver at Long Beach in 16th, Road America when he finished 11th after starting on pole position, and Mid-Ohio in 14th. Devlin DeFrancesco's only race as the best RLLR finisher was when he was 11th in the Indianapolis 500. The three drivers are near-level as the top RLLR qualifier. Foster has been the best RLLR in four races while Rahal and DeFrancesco has each been the team's top starter three times.

At Prema, Robert Shwartzman holds a 6-4 advantage in finishing position, but Callum Ilott is ahead 8-2 when it comes to qualifying. Ilott has been the better starter in four consecutive races, and Ilott scored his best finish of the season at Mid-Ohio, finishing 13th.

Indy Lights

Only one series will join IndyCar at Iowa, and Indy Lights will run a 75-lap race on Saturday afternoon prior to the first IndyCar race of the weekend. 

Dennis Hauger extended his championship lead with a victory at Mid-Ohio where Hauger led every lap. The Norwegian has 371 points and a 47-point lead over Andretti Global teammate Lochie Hughes, who was third at Mid-Ohio, his third consecutive podium finish and seventh of the season. Caio Collet was second at Mid-Ohio, and Collet is 83 points behind Hauger in the championship.

Myles Rowe is down 135 points to Hauger with Josh Pierson 147 points behind the Norwegian. Salvador de Alba is a point behind Pierson in the championship. 

There has only been one oval race this season in Indy Lights. At Gateway, Hauger started on pole position and led, but he faded as the race went on and ended up falling to fifth at the checkered flag. Collet led most of the race, but the Brazilian did not have the pace to match Hughes down the stretch. Hughes won at Gateway and Rowe wound up taking second ahead of Collet. De Alba was fourth. 

Last year, Andretti Global won at Iowa with Louis Foster. Three of the last four Iowa race winners have gone on to win the Indy Lights championship. It was an Andretti 1-2 finish with James Roe, Jr. finishing second. Roe is currently 15th in the championship and he has finished outside the top ten in six consecutive races. De Alba was third last year ahead of Callum Hedge. Hedge has finished sixth in the last two races and he is seventh in the championship on 189 points, 34 points behind Pierson. 

The Indy Lights race will take place at 1:30 p.m. ET on Saturday July 12.

Fast Facts

Saturday's race will be the eighth run on July 12th and the first since Felix Rosenqvist scored his first career victory at Road America. Sunday's race will be the eighth run on July 13th and the first since Scott McLaughlin won at Iowa last year.

The only Iowa race to previously take place on July 12 was in 2014. Ryan Hunter-Reay won it, and only led the final two laps after pitting under the final caution when most of the leaders did not make a stop.

Chip Ganassi Racing has won four of the seven races held on June 12 (1998: Alex Zanardi at Cleveland, 2008: Scott Dixon at Nashville, 2009: Dario Franchitti at Toronto, 2020: Rosenqvist at Road America).

Honda has won three consecutive oval races. Honda has never won four consecutive oval races in the DW12 era.

This will be the 75th oval race in the DW12 era. Chevrolet has won 49 of them. 

There have been seven different winners in the last seven oval races.

The last time there were eight different winners in eight oval races was from Pocono 2015 through the 2017 Indianapolis 500. Those winners were Ryan Hunter-Reay (Pocono 2015), Scott Dixon (Phoenix 2016), Alexander Rossi (Indianapolis 2016), Josef Newgarden (Iowa 2016), Will Power (Pocono 2016), Graham Rahal (Texas 2016), Simon Pagenaud (Phoenix 2017) and Takuma Sato (Indianapolis 2017).

The average starting position of an Iowa winner is 7.619 with a median of fourth.

Only five Iowa races have been won from the front row (2013, 2016, 2020 race II, 2022 race I, 2024 race I). James Hinchcliffe won the first. Josef Newgarden won the next three races and Scott McLaughlin won from second last year.

Six of 21 Iowa races have been won from third starting position.

Seven Iowa races have been won from outside the top ten, including the second race last year when Will Power won from 22nd. The worst starting position for an Iowa winner came in the first race in 2020 when Simon Pagenaud won from 23rd.

Ten of 21 Iowa races have been won from outside a top five starting position. 

The average number of lead changes in an Iowa race is 8.523 with a median of eight. 

Eight Iowa races have had at least a double-digit number of lead changes, but only two in the last ten Iowa races have had more than seven lead changes. 

The average number of cautions in an Iowa race is 3.952 with a median of four. The average number of caution laps is 43.476 with a median of 44.

The most cautions in an Iowa race is seven, which occurred in 2014.

The second Iowa race last year had 12 caution laps, the fewest in an Iowa race.

Predictions

Chevrolet gets on the board this weekend and Josef Newgarden gets the weight off his back. Chevrolet sweeps the weekend with Patricio O’Ward. Álex Palou will be on the podium in both races. Each race will have a top five finishers with zero career victories. Passing will be up, but by no more than 12% from last year’s average. No cars will get airborne. No cars will run out of fuel. None of the rookies get a top ten finish this weekend. At least one race sees Alexander Rossi as the top finishing Ed Carpenter Racing driver. Marcus Ericsson snaps his top ten finish drought. Neither race is a double top ten day for Meyer Shank Racing. No caution catches out Colton Herta. Sleeper: Marcus Ericsson.

Musings From the Weekend: Midseason Thoughts

Here is a rundown of what got me thinking...

There was a home winner at Silverstone, and a little bit of controversy that wasn't that controversial if you have a pulse. An American won though it appeared there was an infringement. Some junior series drivers did not get a long at Mid-Ohio. Imola had a red flag. The Norisring had a red flag. For the first time since November 2018, a NASCAR Cup race other than the Daytona 500 had a driver that did not qualify. It was also a historic weekend in Chicago, and not just because it didn't rain. Scott Dixon caught a break and somewhat stole a victory. Mid-Ohio had a good outing, but I want to look a the first ten races in their entirety, especially as the IndyCar season quickly disappears.

Midseason Thoughts

At the start of the season, I wrote about how IndyCar needed a season where neither Chip Ganassi Racing nor Team Penske were a factor. We are getting half of that. The problem is the other half still means it is more of the same. However, we are witnessing a season the likes we have not seen in decades. 

Two drivers combined to win the first nine races!  It took until the tenth race to get a third winner.

That hadn't happened since 1980. It didn't mean the championship has turned into a stunning one-on-one battle. One driver has run away from the field and no one else can keep up, but there is no reason to panic. We hadn't seen a season start like this in 45 years. It isn't a regular thing. Things are bound to happen again. In the same way, we had a driver win six of the first nine races. We hadn't seen that in 50 years! 

It just happens to be the same driver winning. 

That should not stop us from at least appreciating and celebrating Álex Palou. For as much as we celebrate the past, there is a reluctance to celebrate the present. There is a borderline disgust whenever something historic happens in the current time period. The problem is anything that does not lead to growth is seen as  a negative, but nothing is leading to growth.

Dominant season where a driver puts his name high up in the record books? No growth. Six-way championship fight into the season finale with a combinations of all-time greats and inspiring Americans? No growth. You can choose to be angry either way, or you can embrace what is happening and not worry about what it means for the bottomline of IndyCar.

It was nearly two years ago I was wondering when was the last great IndyCar championship season. We are seeing it right now. Palou did something not done since A.J. Foyt. 

Hello?! Are you paying attention?

When someone is in that company, you should be in awe. If it was easy to win six of the first nine races, everyone would be doing it. A vast majority didn't. Palou did. The bar has been reset and the next time it happens, whether it is next year or in 50 years, we will be praising Palou's name. 

If we aren't going to see something spellbinding in the championship, we mind as well see an astonishing individual performance. 

There is a chance Palou could set the record for most victories in an IndyCar season. Did anyone think that would be possible in their lifetime? Especially with a championship that is only 17 races long? 

The record is ten. Eleven is in play, but we cannot get too excited about it until Palou has nine victories with at least two races remaining. Even then it is a monumental ask. Even if he were to fall short by a few races, we don't see many eight-win or nine-win seasons. Sébastien Bourdais won eight in 2007, but those seasons during The Split are flawed. It isn't Bourdais' fault, but it doesn't feel complete. Palou is doing this against everyone in IndyCar and on a variety of circuits. Palou only helped himself with an Indianapolis 500 victory. This isn't going to be a case where Palou could win 11 times and the most noteworthy victory is Road America, which even that is 30,000 feet below the Indianapolis 500 in terms of prestige. 

We are watching one of the most complete IndyCar seasons in a long time. 

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Team Penske feels lost, and after the dismissals of Tim Cindric, Ron Ruzewski and Kyle Moyer, the team is in for its worst season in over 25 years. 

There are still plenty of races remaining. Penske could win the remaining four oval races and no one would be surprise. The team could win six of the remaining races and it will look like business as usual, but the changes at the team surely have not made this season easy. 

It is one thing needing to replace one person. It is another thing to replace the entire head of the table. Cindric, Ruzewski and Moyer weren't only men behind the scenes, they were key figures on the timing stand and moving the chess pieces during the race. As much as success came from the drivers, a fair portion belongs to those men calling strategy. Without those minds in the game, Penske has suffered. 

If there has been a key takeaway from this season, it is how much the timing stands and pit crews determine races. Conor Daly had a good run going at Gateway, but he lost the lead because his Juncos Hollinger Racing pit crew is nowhere close to those of Penske, Ganassi, Andretti and even McLaren. The same goes for David Malukas, Christian Rasmussen, and we saw Prema's pit woes play out in full sight when Robert Shwartzman won pole position for the Indianapolis 500. 

All the technical might and ingenuity cannot make up for what is simply taking four tires on and four tires off the car. That is an area IndyCar is not going to regulate. There is almost no way IndyCar can spread the talent around on pit lane. Do we want to get into refueling limits like we see in sports car? We could, but the resistance to it will be stark. It is a simple thing that could level the playing field, and it would not change how most people see the race, but it goes back to IndyCar's worst mantra, is it growing the series? If we used that as the deciding factor for everything, IndyCar would end up doing nothing. The series would cease to exist.

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For all the faults we can find with IndyCar and its inevitable championship conclusion, we must acknowledge it is still a series where anyone can be competitive in any given race. 

Prior to Mid-Ohio, there had been five different pole-sitters from five different organization in the previous five races. That includes Prema's debut pole position with rookie Robert Shwartzman. Another rookie, Louis Foster, running with one of the teams that has struggled the most over the last two seasons, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, won pole position at Road America. RLLR also had arguably the best car at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis with Graham Rahal, only for tire strategy to cost it a possible victory and podium finish. RLLR is also responsible for the car that led the most laps in the Indianapolis 500. 

A.J. Foyt Racing had its best run of finishes in over 20 years. In the month of June, Foyt, Meyer Shank Racing and Ed Carpenter Racing had more podium finishes than Team Penske. Dreyer & Reinbold Racing nearly won the Indianapolis 500. Prema also had a near-victory at Gateway, almost entirely down to fuel mileage, but Prema put itself in position to pull it off. 

IndyCar might not be perfect, but we can still go to a race weekend and a team, on its best day, has a legitimate shot at victory. 

Winners From the Weekend

You know about Scott Dixon, but did you know...

Lando Norris won the British Grand Prix, his fourth victory of the season.

Shane van Gisbergen won the NASCAR Cup race from Chicago, his second victory of the season. Van Gisbergen also won the Grand National Series race.

Jordan Pepper and Thomas Preining split the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters races from the Norisring. 

The #48 VDS Panis Racing Oreca of Oliver Gray, Charles Milesi and Esteban Masson won the 4 Hours of Imola. The #17 CLX Motorsport Ligier of Adrien Closemenil, Theodor Jensen and Paul Lanchè won in LMP3. The #82 TF Sport Corvette of Hiroshi Koizumi, Charlie Eastwood and Rui Andrade won in LMGT3.

Dennis Hauger won the Indy Lights race from Mid-Ohio, his fifth victory of the season. Max Garcia swept the USF Pro 2000 races. Caleb Gafrarar (race one)a and Jack Jeffers (race two and three) split the U.S. F2000 races.

Leonardo Fornaroli (sprint) and Jak Crawford (feature) split the Formula Two races from Silverstone. Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak (sprint) and Mari Boya (feature) split the Formula Three races.

Coming Up This Weekend

IndyCar has its only doubleheader weekend at Iowa. 

Formula E has its penultimate doubleheader in Berlin. 

MotoGP will be down the road at the Sachsenring.

World Superbike is at Donington Park. 

Supercars has a round at Townsville.

The FIA World Endurance Championship s back in action in São Paulo.

IMSA takes LMP2 and the two GT classes to Mosport. 

NASCAR is making a later trip to Sonoma.

The Goodwood Festival of Speed will also take place. 

First Impressions: Mid-Ohio 2025

1. Talk about highway robbery! Álex Palou had this race covered. Palou, using a three-stop strategy, spent the entirety of his penultimate stint opening a gap to cover the pit delta so he could exit the pit lane ahead of Scott Dixon, who was on a two-stop strategy. It worked! Palou made his extra pit stop and he re-emerged on the track two seconds clear of Dixon with 18 laps remaining. The race was effectively over. 

Palou was opening that gap in the final stint, and he was up four seconds, until six laps to go. Palou ran wide exiting turn eight, and in an effort to keep the car out of the grass and potentially being thrown into the barrier, the Catalan driver slowed, but it allowed Scott Dixon to blast through to the lead. It set up a five-lap battle for the victory with Palou having the advantage of fresher tires and a lighter car. Unfortunately, once the door was open, Dixon was never going to give it up. 

It proved to be about a 4.5-second mistake, because Dixon held on to take his 59th career victory, his first of the season and his seventh at Mid-Ohio, by 0.4201 seconds over Palou. It was a Chip Ganassi Racing 1-2 finish, but in the order we did not see coming with only a handful of laps remaining. 

Is this one of the luckiest victories of Dixon's career? An honorable man would acknowledge the fortune, but Dixon still had to make a two-stop strategy work. He got there on the first stint. On the second stint, he made sure to keep Palou honest, and Dixon did not lose chunks of time. Dixon still had to be there to capitalize if a mistake happened. A mistake occurred, and Dixon punished Palou for doing so. 

I was getting nervous this week about Dixon and his streak of seasons with at least one victory. With how good Palou has been, I was finding it difficult to see where Dixon could win. This felt like the prime race, but Palou is also really good at Mid-Ohio. I didn't feel good about Toronto. Palou has been outstanding at Laguna Seca, and Palou thrashes the field at Portland. That left the four oval races, and those are bigger wild cards because we have seen smaller teams run competitively at ovals, and it is just a lower chance at victory for everyone let alone Dixon. 

I am glad it happened now because I am not sure a greater opportunity would have come up for Dixon, as unexpected an opportunity this turned out to be.

2. You know what sucks? I had this lovely opening applauding Álex Palou's brilliance, and it is still brilliance, but of all times for him to make a mistake and in all positions to make a mistake, I don't think anyone would have scripted this one. Palou was gone! Why would we think he would drive off the road? Hey, he is human!

This should have been a victory for Palou. We should have been talking about a seventh victory in ten races. We should have been talking about the single-season record for victories coming clearer into view. We should have mentioned that a driver with a 70% winning percentage just needed a 57.152% winning percentage over the final seven races to etch his name in history. A 60% winning percentage through ten races still puts Palou on track for a record, but the margin of error is gone. 

It sucks because this was a special race from Palou. His antepenultimate stint should still be spotlighted because it was incredible. Palou dipped into the 66-second bracket while a number of drivers were running in the low-68s because of their commitment to the two-stop strategy. Palou had to be on it for this race to work. He needed to be flying from the competition to make this victory easy. He could have come out in second or even third after his final stop and needed to erase a four or five-second gap in the final 20 laps, but why run that risk of getting into traffic? Palou made sure he kept everyone behind him. He did, until one unexpected slip up.

We are not going to see that mistake again. Even with those ten points he forfeited with his one error, Palou still increased his championship lead. He is 113 points ahead of Kyle Kirkwood with seven races remaining. All Palou lost today was possibly a shot at history and little bit of pride. He will be focused for the remainder of the season. 

3. Christian Lundgaard had a stellar day to finish third. Lundgaard was almost the only driver who could hang with Palou until Palou started dipping into the 66-second bracket. Lundgaard was always positioned for a podium result, but this race was reminiscent of Barber Motorsports Park. Lundgaard was second-best to Palou, but a distant second, which turned into third because of Dixon's two-stopper. Lundgaard drove a solid race, and he needed this result, but there is a wide gap from him and Palou. There is no shame at that. No one is close. It will require something mighty to defeat Palou this season.

4. Colton Herta had a good strategy to start on the primary tire, and it allowed him to close in on the leaders at the end of the first stint. It got him a number of positions, but the problem is Herta didn't quite have the pace on the alternate tire. Palou was running in the 66-second bracket on the primary tire. Herta couldn't get much quicker than the 67.2s. Palou was gone. Herta ended up over 13 seconds back before his final pit stop. His three-stop strategy wasn't going to turn into a victory. Herta started hitting the 66s in the final stint, but that is when he had a massive tire advantage and had plenty of fuel to burn. It was still a good day, but again, there is a wide gap from Herta to Palou.

5. I think Patricio O'Ward ran out of fuel on the final lap because he ran a 72.0644 and he had been fourth ahead of Herta. O'Ward had just enough to finish fifth, but he had just enough from this turning into a disappointing result. O'Ward ran a little off strategy and an alternate three-stop strategy. He stopped on lap 11, stopped on lap 30, just prior to the Christian Rasmussen caution, and he stopped with 28 laps to go. It was effectively a pseudo-two-stopper. I don't know how O'Ward cut it that close when Dixon made it with ease after stopping one lap earlier. This is still a good result for O'Ward considering he started 14th.

6. Felix Rosenqvist committed to the two-stop strategy under the Rasmussen caution, and Rosenqvist got to the finish, but he was saving the entire race. That was time lost, and it is still a sixth-place finish, but he was 27.6686 seconds off Dixon the same strategy. Again, good result for Rosenqvist...

7. And it was a great day for Meyer Shank Racing as Marcus Armstrong made it a double top ten day finishing in seventh. Armstrong was on the three-stopper and ran long before his final stop, but it worked out as he had to do seven laps after his final stop. Armstrong opened a large gap to the rest of the field, which allowed the New Zealander to come out in seventh. That last stop wasn't that costly after all. 

For a team that two years ago was scrambling to find a substitute driver at this race and could not put one car in the top ten to have both cars finish in the top ten of its home race is a massive boost for the MSR group.

8. Kyle Kirkwood struggled on the alternate tire to start the race. He lost a lot of time early and dropped out of the top ten after starting seventh. Kirkwood committed early to the three-stopper, stopping first on lap 13. It wasn't paying off massively. That Rasmussen caution actually helped Kirkwood. He made his second stop under that caution because it would allow his final stop to occur right when the final pit window opened. 

For most of this race, I didn't think Kirkwood would crack the top ten, but the strategy fell in his favor and he was able to gain spots on each cycle. He lost ground to Palou and O'Ward today, but this day could have been much worse.

9. This is starting to feel like a Dale Coyne Racing of old because Rinus VeeKay turned 26th on the grid into ninth in the final results, and it largely went unnoticed. VeeKay stopped on lap 30, like Dixon, and VeeKay ran a straight two-stop race. We weren't seeing this last year, or even the last two seasons from Coyne, and it was once strong at strategy. The pace might not have been there, but the team could figure out a way to get a boost by doing something different. If it wasn't for the Rasmussen caution, I don't know how many teams would have run the pseudo-two-stop strategy and stopped so the final pit stop was right inside the final window. Committing early benefitted VeeKay, and it is another top ten day! 

10. This could have been a podium for Kyffin Simpson. It probably should have been a top five finish, but on his final pit stop, Simpson stalled, and on his way out, he clipped VeeKay's right rear tire changer. Thankfully, Simpson only caught Nico Don's toes, and Don was rather unscathed. Simpson was not. He lost time for the stall and had to make a drive-through penalty. Thankfully, Simpson had opened enough of a gap to the rest of the field that he was able to re-join the race in 13th after serving his penalty, and as the final pit stops happened, Simpson got back in the top ten. 

This was Simpson's best day in IndyCar, even with the stall and the penalty. He was genuinely one of the five best cars today. It is shame it is only a tenth-place result.

11. Where do we go from here? Nolan Siegel was 11th and ran rather well, but like Armstrong, Siegel had to make his final pit stop late. Siegel stopped with ten laps remaining, and it cost him a top ten. 

Marcus Ericsson did nothing and finished 12th, which doesn't sound good, but considering where Ericsson has been, a 12th-place day is at least promising. It must get better though. This is a start. 

Callum Ilott was teasing a top ten finish today, but his final stop came with nine laps to go. It is good though. This is Ilott's best finish of the season. He has been improving really since the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. He would have been 12th at the "500" if it wasn't for the wing endplate penalty knocking him to 33rd. Prema should be feeling good. The team is making progress.

This feels like another day where Louis Foster got caught on strategy. The team committed to three stops, stopping on lap 22. The Rasmussen caution came out and Foster came in on lap 32. At that point, he is on the same pace as the two-stoppers, but he gave up track position, and what could have been a top ten day became a fight outside the top ten. Foster was ahead of Siegel, Ericsson and Ilott prior to that. He was ahead of Kirkwood and Armstrong as well. That was the difference between a top ten and 14th. 

It wasn't a good day for Alexander Rossi. He was 15th. He was on a three-stopper, but it didn't look like anything fell his way today.

12. The top five finish streak is over for Santino Ferrucci and A.J. Foyt Racing, but at least he got noticed. Ferrucci ran Conor Daly off the road exiting turn five, which earned Ferrucci a penalty that required him to drop three positions. This was reminiscent of last year's Grand Prix of Indianapolis, where Ferrucci got distracted driving Romain Grosjean off the track rather than trying to drive a productive race, and it ended up damaging Ferrucci's car and led to a retirement. This contact didn't end Ferrucci's race, but it was clear he wasn't interested in racing his way to the front today. Let's also not forget his moment in practice nearly blitzing into Newgarden. 

David Malukas was 17th and the Foyt cars were around each other all race. The team is likely feeling good ahead of Iowa. It likely believes it can win a race. If we are being honest, today was a better representation of this team's level than the last four races where it was finishing in the top five. 

13. Juncos Hollinger Racing was 18th with Sting Ray Robb and 19th with Conor Daly. Daly had some damage after the Ferrucci contact, but he wasn't going to run much better than 19th anyway. This is where JHR lives, but JHR likely feels confident for Iowa. Daly was fastest in the test there a few weeks ago. Today isn't going to hurt their confidence for next week.

14. Devlin DeFrancesco was 20th. That is all.

15. Robert Shwartzman was anonymous today in 21st, as was Jacob Abel in 22nd. They are rookies, but they need to have better days than this. I know Shwartzman has had good days, as we have seen with his Indianapolis 500 pole position and a tenth at Gateway. He also ran well at Long Beach, but we need to see Shwartzman have a road course race where he is pushing the top ten. He needs a race like the ones we have seen from Ilott the last two races. 

As for Abel, I think this is the ceiling. VeeKay has been fantastic, but I don't know how much else Abel can get out of this car. 

16. I didn't think it could get worse for Team Penske than Gateway. It did. 

Josef Newgarden... out on lap one spinning on his own.

Will Power... engine expired after 11 laps.

Scott McLaughlin... never a factor and for some reason this was a five-stop race that saw him finish a lap down in 23rd. Even Jacob Abel finished on the lead lap today! 

Will Power is the top Penske driver in the championship and he is ninth! The other two race outside the top ten. 

This team's psyche is off. Newgarden is making unforced errors. Power looked unhinged this weekend. McLaughlin has the best demeanor of the three, but this is completely foreign to him, need we be reminded that five years ago McLaughlin had never run full-time in an open-wheel car. He shouldn't be the leader. That is where Power and Newgarden should step in another neither appear mentally capable of doing so at the moment. It doesn't help that the mental support from the pit stand is gone. 

When the best team in IndyCar is a shell of its former self, how can you know what to do to get out of it?  I don't know if there is anyone at the organization that can figure out a way to work through this funk. Who is stepping up? It clearly isn't any of the drivers. 

We should be going into Iowa expecting Newgarden to be the man to beat and both his teammates being his biggest challengers. I don't know if we should feel that way. This is the worst this team has looked in 26 years. I don't know how much better it can get.

17. Graham Rahal was collateral damage when Newgarden spun. That was a real shame because Mid-Ohio is Rahal's home race, and he was starting 20th, but with the 90-lap distance and the pit stop dynamic, it could have turned into a promising result.

18. Christian Rasmussen had a pit stop issue. The team didn't get any fuel into the car on his first pit stop. Rasmussen ran out on the track and drew the second caution. Ed Carpenter Racing was told the car would not be towed back. I am fine that. I think if you run out on track or cannot drive back to the pit lane, your race should be over. Especially running out of fuel. If you ran out on track, too bad. Get your pit stops right!

19. What a difference ten laps will make! Mid-Ohio should have returned to 90 laps in 2021. This is a much better race when it is two-stop vs. three-stop. Even if it isn't two vs. three, the extra distance opens the pit windows so a three-stop strategy can begin early or late in the race. IndyCar increasing the distance in six races should not go unnoticed.

Prior to this weekend, we had only see one length-increased race, and that was Long Beach. Iowa has its own issues, but each race will be 25 laps longer than last year. Toronto being 90 laps should open that race up. 

I think the alternate tire was a little too good today. It lost time but it was a little too balance to the primary in the final third of a stint. We needed to see a little more fall off. It was a good balance, but it could have been a little better and mixed up this race a little more. 

20. IndyCar's busy July is only get busier. Cars will be back in action in five days for practice from Iowa and the only doubleheader weekend of the season. There is much skepticism for the Iowa race. We will cover that as we get closer. Let's see if this trip will be worth it. 

Morning Warm-Up: Mid-Ohio 2025

Álex Palou won his third pole position of the season after a lap of 65.0215 seconds around Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in the final round of qualifying, and Palou will lead the field to the green flag for the Honda 200. It is Palou's ninth career pole position. He has already won six times from pole position in his IndyCar career, the third-most among active drivers. Palou is attempting to win consecutive races for the third time this season. He won the first two races at St. Petersburg and Thermal before he swept the three races during the month of May between Barber Motorsports Park and the two at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The last driver to have three instances of consecutive victories in a season was Sébastien Bourdais in 2007.

Christian Lundgaard was 0.1911 seconds off Palou's top time, and Lundgaard has his second front row start of the season. The Dane started second at Thermal Club. Lundgaard is looking to avoid three consecutive finishes outside the top ten. He was 14th and 24th in the last two races. Last year, he had a four-race top ten finish drought from the Indianapolis 500 through Laguna Seca. The only other time he has gone at least three races without a top ten result were the first five races of his IndyCar career.

Kyffin Simpson made the Fast Six for the first time in his IndyCar career, and he will start a career-best third at the Honda 200 as Simpson was 0.7340 seconds off his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Palou. Simpson's previous best starting position was tenth. Simpson is coming off his third top ten finish of the season as he was sixth at Road America. Simpson has also finished outside the top twenty in three races this season.

Nolan Siegel made the Fast Six for the second time this season, and Siegel will start fourth, the best starting spot of his IndyCar career. Siegel was eighth in the last race at Road America, the first time he has been the best Arrow McLaren finisher this season. Siegel was 20th last year at Mid-Ohio, and in 16 Road to Indy races at the circuit, he never won a race with only four podium results. The Californian is looking for his first career top five finish in IndyCar.

Colton Herta rounds out the top five on the grid. This is the fifth consecutive Mid-Ohio race Herta is starting in the top five. Since his first Mid-Ohio start in 2019, Herta has led the second-most laps at Mid-Ohio. He has led 99 laps in seven starts. Only Álex Palou has led more laps at Mid-Ohio during this time. Palou has led 101 laps. Herta has never won from fifth position in his career. He has won from pole position five times, fourth on one occasion, ninth on one occasion and twice from 14th. 

Louis Foster takes sixth on the grid. This was the third time this season Foster has made the Fast Six. Foster matched his career-best IndyCar finish of 11th at Road America and that came after he started on pole position. Each time Foster has made the Fast Six, he has finished 11th in the race. In four Road to Indy starts at Mid-Ohio, Foster never finished worse than second.

Kyle Kirkwood ended up 0.0361 seconds short of advancing to the final round of qualifying, and this will place Kirkwood seventh on the grid. Kirkwood is going for his fourth consecutive top five finish, which would be the longest streak of his career. This is his second consecutive season with a three-race top five finish streak.

Marcus Armstrong will start to Kirkwood's outside on row four. This is the sixth time in ten races Armstrong has started in the top ten. Armstrong is coming off his first top five finish of the season, and he is looking for his fourth consecutive top ten result. Armstrong has yet to have four consecutive top ten results in his IndyCar career.

Scott Dixon has the #9 PNC Bank Honda starting ninth at Mid-Ohio. This is only the third time Dixon has started in the top ten this season. After the car suffered a hybrid issue last year on the pace laps, Dixon suffered his worst Mid-Ohio finish, placing in 27th. He had seven consecutive top ten finishes prior to last year's Mid-Ohio race and he had 18 top ten finishes in his first 20 Mid-Ohio starts.

Marcus Ericsson moves up to tenth on the grid after Christian Rasmussen's six-spot penalty for taking on his fifth engine. Ericsson's first top ten start since he started ninth for the Indianapolis 500. Ericsson has matched his worst top ten slump of his career at eight consecutive races. He has finished in the top ten in four of his last five Mid-Ohio starts. Only twice has Ericsson finished better than his starting spot this season. He went from seventh to sixth at St. Petersburg and from 23rd to 20th at Barber.

Alexander Rossi starts 11th, his best starting position since he started ninth for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. This will be the 12th consecutive race Rossi has not started in the top five. Rossi's average finish in his last three Mid-Ohio races is 11.667. Prior to that, he had five consecutive top five finishes at the circuit with an average finish of 3.2.

Conor Daly scored his best starting position on a road or street course this season, but Daly was 0.0388 seconds from advancing from the first round of qualifying. Thanks to the Rasmussen's penalty, Daly takes 12th on the grid. Daly had top ten finishes in his first two Mid-Ohio starts in 2016 and 2017. In his six Mid-Ohio starts since, his best result is 13th with an average finish of 16.5.

David Malukas was 0.0117 seconds from making it from group two to the second round of qualifying. This will have Malukas starting 13th. Malukas had started no worse than seventh in the last four races. In three career Mid-Ohio starts, Malukas' average finish is ninth, his best average finish among circuits where he has made at least three starts.

Patricio O'Ward fell 0.0541 seconds from advancing to the second round of qualifying, and this places O'Ward 14th on the grid. This will be the third time in four races O'Ward is starting outside the top ten. Seven times has a driver won consecutive Mid-Ohio races. O'Ward is attempting to become the eighth driver. No one has done it since Scott Dixon in 2011 and 2012. Only once has a driver won from 14th or worse at Mid-Ohio. Scott Dixon won from 22nd in 2014. 

Felix Rosenqvist was 0.0125 seconds shy of making it to the second round, and this places the Swede 15th on the grid. Rosenqvist was second in the most recent race from Road America. He has had at least one podium finish in six of his seven seasons. He has never had consecutive podium finishes in his career. Only once has he followed a podium result with a top five finish. That was in the final two races of his rookie year when Rosenqvist was second at Portland and fifth at Laguna Seca.

Christian Rasmussen ended up tenth after the second round of qualifying, but Rasmussen's six-spot grid penalty for taking on his fifth engine of the season drops him down to 16th on the grid. This was set to match his best starting position of the season. He had started tenth at Detroit last month. The Dane scored his first career top ten finish last year at Mid-Ohio when he finished ninth.

Santino Ferrucci finds himself starting 17th. Ferrucci has yet to start in the top ten this season, but Ferrucci has four consecutive top five finishes and his best start in that stretch is 15th. No A.J. Foyt Racing has had five consecutive top five finishes since A.J. Foyt had a nine-race top five finish streak spanning the final three races of the 1978 USAC season and the first six races of the 1979 season. 

Josef Newgarden is the top Team Penske starter, but the bad news is Newgarden is starting 18th. Newgarden has finished 25th in the last two races. He is looking to avoid three consecutive results outside the top twenty since the third, fourth and fifth starts of his IndyCar career. He went 26th, 23rd and 23rd over the Long Beach, São Paulo and Indianapolis 500 in 2012.

Sting Ray Robb takes 19th on the grid, his best starting position since he started 17th for the Indianapolis 500. Robb went from 19th to ninth at the Grand Prix of Long Beach earlier this season. Robb was 16th last year at Mid-Ohio, a six-spot improvement from his first Mid-Ohio start in 2023. 

Graham Rahal is going to start 20th, his worst starting position at Mid-Ohio since he was 22nd in 2013. Rahal has ten top ten finishes in his last 12 Mid-Ohio starts. However, he has not finished on the podium at the circuit since he was third in 2017. In only two of those 12 races did he finish worse than his starting position. 

Scott McLaughlin was over a tenth of a second from advancing from the first qualifying group, and this has McLaughlin in 21st starting position. This is the second time McLaughlin has started outside the top twenty this season. He rolled off from 25th spot at Thermal Club. He has started in the top ten of every other race this season. McLaughlin's current top ten finish drought of four races is his longest since a seven-race slump during his rookie season.

Will Power has his worst starting position ever at Mid-Ohio as he will start 22nd. Power did go from 21st to third in the 2022 Mid-Ohio race. Power has finished outside the top ten in the last two races. He has finished outside the top ten in the tenth race of the season in four consecutive seasons. His most recent top ten result in the tenth race of a season was his Mid-Ohio victory in 2020.

Devlin DeFrancesco is starting 23rd for the third time this season. He started 23rd at Long Beach before finishing 24th. He started and finished 23rd at Detroit. DeFrancesco has made 43 starts without a top ten finish, tied with Milka Duno for most starts without a top ten finish. The previous most starts before a first career top ten finish is Marco Greco on 42 starts. 

Callum Ilott starts 24th, his worst starting position since he started 27th, last place at the St. Petersburg season opener. Ilott has scored his best finish of the season in the last two races. He was 18th at Gateway and 15th at Road America. Ilott has finished worse than his starting position in the last four races. 

For the first time this season, Jacob Abel is the top qualifier for Dale Coyne Racing. Abel will start 25th for the fourth time this season. He started 25th at St. Petersburg, Barber and the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. In 16 Road to Indy starts at Mid-Ohio, Abel's best finish was third on three occasions, including last year in Indy Lights.

Rinus VeeKay has his worst starting position on a road or street course this season, with the Dutchman taking the outside of the 13th row next to his Coyne teammate Abel. VeeKay did cause a local yellow, which cost him his fastest lap. This is his worst starting position on a road or street course since he started 27th at Barber in April 2024. While VeeKay's best Mid-Ohio finish is fourth, his average finish at Mid-Ohio is 12.1667.

Robert Shwartzman will start last in 27th. This matches his worst starting position. He started 27th at Thermal Club and at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Shwartzman suffered his worst finish of the season at Road America when he had an accident at Canada Corner to finish 27th. It is only the second time he has retired from a race this season. The other was the Indianapolis 500. 

Fox's coverage of the Honda 200 from Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course begins at 1:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 1:22 p.m. The race is scheduled for 90 laps. 

Track Walk: Mid-Ohio 2025

The tenth round of the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season has the series moving into Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for this Independence Day weekend. Mid-Ohio starts a run of four consecutive weekends at the track with five races during that time. When the month of July is over, only three races will remain in the 2025 season. At time of publishing, there are only 59 days remaining in the IndyCar season. This will be the 42nd IndyCar race at Mid-Ohio, and there have been eight different winners in the last eight races at the circuit, the longest streak ever at the track. Three different teams have won in the last three years. 

Coverage

Time: Coverage begins at 1:00 p.m. ET on Sunday July 6 with green flag scheduled for 1:20 p.m. ET.
Channel: Fox
Announcers: Will Buxton, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will be in the booth. Kevin Lee, Georgia Henneberry and Jack Harvey will work pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule

Friday:

First Practice: 4:30 p.m. ET (75 minutes)

Saturday:

Second Practice: 10:30 a.m. ET (60 minutes)
Qualifying: 2:30 p.m. ET 
Sunday:
Warm-up: 9:32 a.m. ET (25 minutes)
Race: 1:20 p.m. ET (90 laps)

FS2 will have coverage of Friday practice session while FS1 will have coverage of Saturday's sessions and the Sunday morning warm-up. Fox will have race coverage.

How Will Ten Extra Laps Change Strategy?

This year's Mid-Ohio race sees a return to the 90-lap distance, which had previously been used from 2013 through 2019. When Mid-Ohio became a doubleheader for the 2020 season, a pair of 75-lap races were held, and for the past four seasons, Mid-Ohio was an 80-lap race. 

Ten laps make a big difference at Mid-Ohio. Each of the winners in 2018 and 2019, the last two 90-lap races, were won with two-stop pit strategies, but the 90-lap distance opens the door for multiple strategies to work. 

Scott Dixon won in 2019 making only two stops, but he was struggling on his tires at the end of the race, and it allowed then-Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Felix Rosenqvist to close in on Dixon. Rosenqvist had made three stops. On the final lap, nothing separated the two drivers, and at the finish line Dixon held off Rosenqvist by 0.0934 seconds for victory. 

Dixon was one of three drivers to run a two-stop strategy in that race. Will Power made two stops from pole position and finished fourth. Alexander Rossi made two stops from second on the grid and finished fifth. Meanwhile, Rosenqvist went from sixth to second on a three-stopper and Ryan Hunter-Reay went from tenth to third. It should be noted the 2019 race went caution-free.

Rossi won in 2018 on a two-stop, but he was the only driver in the field to run such a strategy. He won from pole position with 66 laps led in a flawless run. However, behind Rossi, everyone made three stops, and in another caution-free race drivers were able to drive forward. Sébastien Bourdais went from 24th to sixth. Simon Pagenaud went from 17th to eighth. 

From 2013 through 2017, each Mid-Ohio winner made at least three pit stops. 

Charlie Kimball won on a three-stop strategy in 2013 after starting fifth. Kimball and Simon Pagenaud, who started eighth, had a memorable battle, which saw Kimball overtake Pagenaud for the lead with 18 laps remaining. Dario Franchitti rounded out the podium on a three-stopper after he started sixth. The only drivers in 2013 to use a two-stop strategy were the front row starters. Ryan Hunter-Reay dropped from first to fifth, over 46 seconds behind Kimball, while Will Power went from second to fourth at the checkered flag, and Power was over 42.5 seconds behind Kimball in what was a caution-free race.

Scott Dixon won after making four pit stops in 2014. Dixon had started 22nd and he made his first pit stop on lap two as there was an opening lap caution for a three-car incident in turn four. He then made his final pit stop on lap 62 and was able to stretch his fuel the final 28 laps to win by 5.3864 seconds over Sébastien Bourdais.

From 2014 through 2017, no team attempted a two-stop strategy, including the 2015 race despite there being four cautions. 

In the past four seasons with the 80-lap race distance, all four winners have made only two pit stops. Only two out of 40 top ten finishers over those four races made three pit stops. Will Power, amazingly, used a three-stop strategy in 2022 to go from 21st to third in what was a six-caution race. In 2023, Patricio O'Ward went from 25th to eighth on a three-stopper with the only caution being for an opening lap incident. 

Of the 80 lead lap finishers over the last four Mid-Ohio race, 19 made at least three pit stops. Last year, all seven cars that made at least three pit stops finished 14th or worse. 

The Hybrid - One Year Later

Mid-Ohio marks the one-year anniversary of the first hybrid race in IndyCar history. Debuting on July 7, 2024, IndyCar's hybrid system has now gone a full calendar year in use. It has been used on all but one circuit on the calendar, and that would be Laguna Seca, which was the final race prior to the introduction of the system last year, and Laguna Seca has since moved to the end of July. 

Eighteen races have been held with the hybrid system. Eight of those have been oval races, six of which took place last season. Six permanent road course races have been held, two of which were in 2024 and four were in 2025. There have been four street races, three of which have happened this season.

In 18 races with the system, there have been seven different winners with the system. Álex Palou leads all drivers with six hybrid victories, but those six victories have all come this season. None of the five drivers to win with the hybrid in 2024 have won yet in 2025. We opened IndyCar's hybrid era with five consecutive different winers. Four of those were Chevrolet drivers. 

While Chevrolet won seven of the nine hybrid races in 2024, Honda has opened the 2025 season with nine consecutive victories, ten consecutive when you count last year's season finale, which Colton Herta won, giving Honda an 11-7 edge with the hybrid system. Only four teams have won during IndyCar's hybrid era, but in the 42 races prior to the introduction of the hybrid, a team other than Team Penske, Chip Ganassi Racing, Andretti Global or Arrow McLaren had won only once. That was Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing with Christian Lundgaard at Toronto in 2023.

Adding all the points earned since the first hybrid race, it is no surprise Palou has the most. He has scored 645 points over the 18 hybrid races, 118 points more than Patricio O'Ward, the next closest. Scott McLaughlin is third amongst all drivers with 507 points, 20 points behind O'Ward. Kyle Kirkwood sits in fourth having earned 503 points, which is 23 points more than his Andretti Global teammate Colton Herta, who rounds out the top five.

Scott Dixon and Will Power are next, each one point apart since last year's Mid-Ohio race. Dixon has scored 434 points over that span to Power's 433 points. Santino Ferrucci has scored 397 points with Christian Lundgaard next on 384 points. Felix Rosenqvist rounds out the top ten with 361 points. Josef Newgarden is just on the outside of the top ten as Newgarden has scored 357 points in the hybrid races, five more than Marcus Armstrong and 14 more than Rinus VeeKay. 

Alexander Rossi (329) and David Malukas (308) are the final two drivers to have amassed over 300 points. Marcus Ericsson has scored only 270 points, 12 more than Graham Rahal and 23 more than Nolan Siegel. Kyffin Simpson has scored 235 points while Conor Daly and Christian Rasmussen are on 231 points, but Daly did not run in three hybrid races last year, Mid-Ohio the first Iowa race, and Toronto. Sting Ray Robb rounds out the hybrid regulars with 200 points to his name. 

Palou's Look at the Record Book

Álex Palou has been the man of 2025 in IndyCar. Palou's victory at Road America was his sixth of the season. He is the first driver with at least six victories through the first nine races since A.J. Foyt did it in 1975. Six victories is a high-bar in contemporary IndyCar.

Palou is the first driver to win six races in a season since Will Power in 2011. No driver has won at least seven races in a season since reunification. The last driver with at least seven victories in a year was Sébastien Bourdais, who won eight of 14 races in the 2007 Champ Car season. When it comes to unified series, Al Unser, Jr.'s eight victories in 1994 is the last time a driver won at least seven times in a single series. 

While Palou has these milestones within view, all-time records are plausible for the 2025 season. With a winning percentage of 66.667%, he is on pace to win at least 11 races this year. The most victories in a single season is ten. A.J. Foyt did it in 1964 and Al Unser did it in 1970. The remaining eight races line up particularly well for Palou. 

The Catalan driver has won at three of the remaining seven circuits. Palou won at Mid-Ohio two years ago and he was finished on the podium in all four of his starts at the track with Chip Ganassi Racing. He has never finished worse than sixth in three Toronto starts, and he was second there in 2023. He has finished on the podium in two of the last three Iowa races. His four visits to Laguna Seca have ended with finishes of fourth, first third and first. He has won twice in four Portland starts, and he was second last year. 

Milwaukee and Nashville are the only real question marks for Palou, and last year was his first visit to both circuits. He was fifth in the first Milwaukee race, and then gearbox issues prevented him from starting the second race on time. At Nashville, he only needed a ninth-place finish to clinch the championship and he finished 11th. 

One more victory would make him only 16th driver to win at least seven times in a season. He is currently tied with Ralph Mulford, Danny Sullivan and Tony Kanaan in the all-time record book with 17 career victories. One more victory would move him into a tie with Ryan Hunter-Reay for 27th all-time. 

Aside for victories, Palou has seven podium finishes this season, and he is on pace for at least 13 podium finishes in a season. Only five times in IndyCar history has a driver had at least 13 podium finishes in a season, and only six times has a driver had at least 12 podium finishes, most recently was Scott Dixon in 2008. The last driver with at least 13 podium finishes was Alex Zanardi, who had 15 podium finishes in 1998. The most podium finishes in a season was 16, which Mario Andretti achieved in 1968.

Who Needs a Win?

Through nine races, there have only been two winners this IndyCar season: Álex Palou and Kyle Kirkwood. It is the fewest winners through nine races since the 1980 season when Johnny Rutherford and Bobby Unser had a 5-4 split. We have not seen only two winners through ten races since the 1964 season when A.J. Foyt won nine of the first ten races, and Parnelli Jones had won the eighth race of the season at Milwaukee. Foyt and Jones combined to win the first 12 races of the 1964 season. 

Over two-dozen drivers need a victory, and time is running out as there are fewer races remaining than have been contested. Six drivers from last season have not won yet in 2025.

Patricio O'Ward won at Mid-Ohio last year, and it was his second of a series-high three victories in 2024. O'Ward has been one of the closer drivers to victory this season. He has finished runner-up three times, and no other driver has multiple runner-up finishes this season. At Thermal Club, O'Ward led 51 of 65 laps, and at one point was over ten seconds clear of the field before Palou had the better tire compound for the final stint, allowing Palou to run down and pass the Mexican driver.

O'Ward has seven career victories, but he has yet to win at a track multiple times. Prior to his victory last year, he had not finished better than eighth in his first six Mid-Ohio starts. 

Team Penske has been the biggest notable absence in the 2025 season. Its trio of drivers all have a bagel in the victory column after the three combined for eight victories in 2024. The team has not failed to win one of the first ten races since Penske went winless in 1999. 

Will Power is currently the best Penske driver in the championship, and he is ranked in seventh on 197 points. After rebounding with four consecutive top ten finishes from Thermal Club through the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, Power has finished outside the top ten in three of the last four races. He has finished on the podium in four of the last six Mid-Ohio races, which include his only victory at the circuit in the second race of the 2020 doubleheader.

Scott McLaughlin is seven points behind Power in the championship, and he is heading into Mid-Ohio on one of his worst slumps since his rookie season. In the last four races, McLaughlin has an average finish 19.5. He has failed to finish two of those races and he has finished 12th in the other two. The good news is McLaughlin has finished in the top five in the last three Mid-Ohio races, which started with his victory at the circuit in 2022.

Josef Newgarden is having a nightmare of a season. Seventeenth in the championship, Newgarden's only top five finish was third in the season opener at St. Petersburg. He has finished outside of the top twenty in three of the last four races. Mid-Ohio is likely not the place Newgarden was hoping to see. He has finished outside the top ten in the last two race, though he had finished in the top ten of the previous four Mid-Ohio races and he has won twice at the circuit, most recently in 2021.

Scott Dixon is fourth in the championship, but he enters this weekend 20 races removed from his most recent victory. While Dixon is the all-time leader in victories at Mid-Ohio with six, he has not won at the track since 2019. Five races is longest winless streak at the 2.258-mile circuit. He has only one podium finish through the first nine races, his fewest since 2022 when he had one through the first nine races in that year as well. Dixon went on to win the tenth race in 2022 at Toronto, ending a 22-race winless streak. 

Colton Herta is in a similar rut as Will Power. Like Power, Herta has finished outside the top ten in three of the last four races with a third at Detroit mixed in, one spot better than Power. Herta is tenth in the championship on 184 points, tied with Santino Ferrucci, but Ferrucci holds the tiebreaker as his best finish this year was second at Detroit. Herta has not won on a permanent road course since the 2022 Grand Prix of Indianapolis. His fourth-place finish last year at Mid-Ohio ended a three-race top ten finish drought at the circuit. 

Road to Indy

It is another full weekend of competition for the junior series as the Road to Indy will complete a pyramid this weekend. U.S. F2000 will race three times, USF Pro 2000 will race twice, and Indy Lights has one race from Mid-Ohio. 

Caio Collet scored his second career victory in Indy Lights two weeks ago at Road America, and now Collet heads to where he scored his first career victory. He won at Mid-Ohio last year, and he could become the first driver to win at Mid-Ohio in consecutive years in Indy Lights since Santiago Urrutia swept the 2016 doubleheader and won the first race in 2017. 

Collet's victory has him third in the championship, 70 points behind championship leader Dennis Hauger. Hauger was second at Road America, his fifth podium finish of the season and he has started on pole position in five of seven races. The only time he did not start on pole position were the two races on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

Hauger has 317 points and a 28-point advantage over Andretti Global teammate Lochie Hughes. Hughes has raced at Mid-Ohio the last three years in the Road to Indy, but in eight starts he has never finished better than fourth. Hughes was third at Road America, and he has finished in the top five of every race this year. 

Myles Rowe is fourth in the championship on 216 points. Rowe had six top five finishes in seven races. Josh Pierson matched his best finish of the seaosn with fourth at Road America. Pierson sits on 194 points, three ahead of Salvador de Alba. There is a 30-point gap from de Alba to Callum Hedge in seventh. There is a further 27-point gap from Hedge to Jack William Miller.

Indy Lights will race on Sunday July 6 at 10:35 a.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 35 laps.

Max Garcia won two of three Road America races in USF Pro 2000, and his championship lead is 72 points over Mac Clark. Garcia has finished inside the top four of every race this season while Clark has four consecutive podium finishes and seven consecutive top five finishes, but Clark has yet to win a race this year. Clark has not won in Road to Indy competition since the second race of the 2023 Mid-Ohio triple-header in U.S. F2000.

Ariel Elkin is a point behind Clark in the championship while Alessandro de Tullio is 19 points off Elkin on 234 points. Max Taylor's victory in the Road America capper moved Taylor into the championship top five on 202 points, one more than Jacob Douglas. There is a 54-point gap from Douglas in sixth and Michael Costello in seventh.

Both USF Pro 2000 races will be run on Saturday July 5. The first of which will be at 11:55 a.m. with the second at 5:15 p.m. Each race will be 30 laps or 50 minutes. 

U.S. F2000 has the closest championship battle with Thomas Schrage up 27 points on Jack Jeffers. Neither driver had an outstanding Road America weekend. Schrage won the first race but was 13th in the second race. Jeffers started each race on pole position, but he was 22nd and seventh at the checkered flag of each respective race. 

Teddy Musella made a big gain, finishing second and first at Road America. Musella is on 192 points, 36 points behind Musella. G3 Argyros has six consecutive top five finishes and he is fourth on 175 points. 

The still-absent Liam McNeilly remains fifth on 165 points despite missing the last five races. McNeilly is ten points ahead of Evan Cooley. Caleb Gafrarar is seventh on 139 points, ten points ahead of Indianapolis Raceway Park winner Anthony Martella.

U.S. F2000 will race on Friday July 4 at 2:05 p.m. The second race of the weekend will be Saturday July 5 at 4:20 p.m. The final race of the triple-header will be Sunday July 6 at 8:20 a.m. All three races are scheduled for 20 laps or 40 minutes.

Fast Facts

This will be the seventh IndyCar race to take place on July 6, and the first since Juan Pablo Montoya won at Pocono in 2014. It was Montoya's first victory since returning to IndyCar.

This Sunday will also mark the 22nd anniversary of Bryan Herta scoring his first victory for the Andretti Green Racing organization at Kansas Speedway. It is also the 17th anniversary of Ryan Hunter-Reay winning at Watkins Glen for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. For both drivers, this was their third career victories.

Chip Ganassi Racing and Team Penske each have 12 Mid-Ohio victories.

Americans have won six of the last 13 Mid-Ohio races. American drivers had not won any of the 14 Mid-Ohio races prior to this stretch. 

The only driver to pick up a first career victory at Mid-Ohio was Charlie Kimball in 2013. 

In the last two races, the winner has led eight laps or fewer, and in four of nine races this season the winner has led fewer than 15 laps.

The fewest laps led for a Mid-Ohio winner is ten by Bobby Rahal in 1986. In only four Mid-Ohio races has the winner led fewer than 20 laps (Johnny Rutherford 1980, Rahal 1986, Roberto Guerrero 1997 and Al Unser, Jr. 1995).

In nine consecutive Mid-Ohio races, the final lead change has occurred with over 20 laps remaining. 

In only five Mid-Ohio races has the final lead change occurred with ten laps or fewer remaining (1986 - ten laps to go, 1987 - ten laps to go, 1995 - four laps to go, 2007 - nine laps to go, 2016 - six laps to go).

The average starting position for a Mid-Ohio winner is 3.414 with a median of second. 

Eight of the last ten Mid-Ohio races have been won from the front row. 

Sixteen of 41 Mid-Ohio races have been won from pole position. Twenty-five Mid-Ohio races have been won from the front row, including five of the last six races.

The average number of lead changes in a Mid-Ohio race is 4.707 with a median of five.

Five of the last six Mid-Ohio races hav had five lead changes or fewer. 

Every Mid-Ohio race has had at least one lead change.

The average number of cautions for a Mid-Ohio race is 1.9 with a median of two. The average number of caution laps is 7.15 with a median of 6.5. 

Seven Mid-Ohio races have been caution-free. Another ten Mid-Ohio races have had only one caution, including the last two Mid-Ohio races. Nine of the last ten Mid-Ohio races have had two cautions or fewer.

Predictions

Álex Palou makes it seven victories and he will lead at least 50 laps in the process. Scott Dixon will be on the podium. At least one driver will gain at least ten spots from their starting position. Josef Newgarden will be the best finishing Penske driver. A.J. Foyt Racing's top five streak will come to an end. Every team will make three stops. Christian Lundgaard is again the top finishing Arrow McLaren driver. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing will have all three of its cars finish better than their starting positions. There will be at least one case where a top five runner gets a pit lane penalty. Sleeper: Felix Rosenqvist. 

Musings From the Weekend: Spoiler Alert!

Here is a rundown of what got me thinking...

Lando Norris led a McLaren 1-2 in Austria. Red Bull did not have a great day at the Red Bull Ring. Liam Lawson did have a great day at the Red Bull Ring. Someone got hurt in the Netherlands. Now, it is tourney time, and eight of the 16 teams that advanced in the NASCAR In-Season Challenge were in the bottom half of the seeds! IndyCar will not be going to Thermal Club next year. How long the spring break will be remains unknown. At least the Grand Prix of Arlington, has a "foundational partner" in Toyota, and of course that has led to wild speculation! Just be prepared for disappointment. However, I went to the movies, and you have been warned. 

Spoiler Alert!

What if Martin Donnelly attempted a comeback? 

That is what F1 The Movie asks. Rolled into an American folklore of motorsports hero, F1 takes a real-life accident and uses it for an unthinkable comeback story. 

Much of the story and what we see on-track does not fit reality. It is a movie though. It is supposed to be fictional, a foot in reality but allowed to exist outside what we see on a daily basis. While a motorsport fans' stomach for creative license will be pushed beyond its limits, a savant must appreciate the cinematography and how it captures an already breathtaking sport in a more astonishing light. As immersive as a current television broadcast is with its plethora of camera angles and onboards, F1 finds a way to go a step further. 

Plurids aside, oh boy! This movie is good. Comedic at times, even if it uses actual incidents as inspiration for what we see in the film, it pushes the limits on the drama. Based on reality, it is flawed, but there was something about it going beyond what is realistic that makes it entertaining. I have seen it compared to Driven. That is asinine. Though some racing sequences are ridiculous, F1 has good acting and depth to its characters. In Driven, you could see the strings while the technical advancements of F1 allows for a clean blend of a fictional race team into real race footage. 

It is hard to forgive some of the liberties taken. In this film, it is a world where the stewards see nothing and do less. There are certain expectations from the real world that we must see to ground the film in reality. When you do not see those, it is disappointing. It is like if we saw a football movie and the quarterback was body-slammed in front of the referee five seconds after the whistle, and no penalty was given. There is a good chance Sonny Hayes would have earned enough penalty points in his first two races that he would not be allowed to make a third start. We were watching a Yuji Ide situation! 

But Hayes isn't that bad of a driver. His years of experience, including a stint in Formula One 30 years prior, has him a step ahead of the APX GP team, and some of the competition. It is almost a step too far as we do not see drivers this intertwined in strategy to the point of manipulating a race. But Hayes is not your typical Formula One driver. He has spent decades competing everywhere, almost in a way of conquering all the summits of the motorsports world. He has raced in the top levels of NASCAR and sports cars. He probably has also run in some low-budget efforts and had to do more with less, forcing Hayes to be more cerebral than a man who just slams his foot down on the throttle with countless numbers of engineers and strategists studying telemetry.

Hayes wants to win for himself, but he can see how his role is to elevate the team. His finishing position is not the be-all, end-all even if it is what he wants the most. He can selflessly put the team ahead of himself. If the team can get a win, he will do what he was brought in to accomplish. 

Can a big-budget racing film live without a spectacular crash sequence? 

Regardless of what film it is, they all have it. Grand Prix, Le Mans, Driven. Even Cars had two! Rush was centered on an actual crash. That film needed it. If it didn't show it, the story would be incomplete. I didn't see Gran Turismo, but that is based on Jann Mardenborough's career, and I know he had a big accident in his career that seems like it could only be in a movie, but it actually happened. It has to be in the film at that point. I guess Ford v Ferrari doesn't have one, but that is another film centered on real events. When it comes to fictional films, the immediate instinct is to get a big accident onto the screen. F1 goes for the spectacle, but the accidents are believable because they are based ones that happened. One was practically a recreation with an aspect of a different accident added for dramatics to complete this one moment in the film.

It is hard to say it is unrealistic when it is based on something we saw. We know it is possible, but what strains the motorsports lovers in the audience is why it is necessary to include it in the story. 

Motorsports is on the ragged edge enough. It does not need the spectacular each time out. It can be visually staggering but still hit hardest on the emotional anguish from a bad result. It does not require physical injuries to feel pain. 

The crash doesn't need to be a car flying through the air. A driver can have a shunt while battling for the lead and break a wrist because he didn't get his hands off the wheel in time. Both are possible. One is more conceivable. It can look like a regular racing accident and have consequences. The audience would still get it. They didn't need to go to the next level to have people catching their breath. 

If we remove two accidents from the film, would the motorsports audience be more accepting? It is the biggest barrier. There are other elements of the film that push expectations. Could a team of that level improve as much as it could in a short period of time? We don't see it so we would likely have a gripe with it, but it isn't inconceivable. In theory, it could happen. In practice, it never does. 

If we remove two accidents from the film, would the non-motorsports audience love it as much as they do? I think so. It goes back to motorsports being naturally on the ragged edge. A slightly worse than average accident is still startling to watch. It doesn't have to be over the top to leave someone breathless. 

While being a film about the biggest motorsports series in the world, F1 quietly champions other forms of motorsports, and uses Sonny Hayes as the archetype for what we want all drivers to be. The dream is Formula One, but Hayes must find a way to fill a void after an accident nearly ended his career before his prime. We meet a man who is not obsessed with the mountaintop but has come to find joy chasing the next challenge. Once he has conquered it, he can move on. 

We see Hayes competing in sports cars. He grew up in IndyCar circles. The film states that he has raced in NASCAR and other sports cars. We know his eye is on Baja. For all these drivers who say they would love to compete here, there and everywhere, Hayes is doing it, and apparently he has done very well. This is a driver who will not be saying, "Aw, shucks," when it is all said and done. He has practically raced it all while most compete in barely enough to fill a thimble. 

If the audience is paying attention, they understand there is a world beyond Formula One, and one that can be fulfilling. Whether that leads others to explore what is going on in different corners of the world and perhaps right under their noses is unknown, but hopefully they take away there is more beyond the glitz of a grand prix weekend, it is rewarding, and they are welcome to give it a try.

Winners From the Weekend

You know about Lando Norris, but did you know...

Marc Márquez won the Dutch TT, his sixth victory of the season. Márquez also won the sprint race. Diogo Moreira won in Moto2, his first Moto2 victory. José Antonio Rueda won in Moto3, his sixth victory of the season. Andrea Mantovani and Alessandro Zaccone split the MotoE races.

Chase Elliott won the NASCAR Cup race from Atlanta. Nick Sanchez won the Grand National Series race, his first career victory. Corey Heim won the Truck Series race at Lime Rock Park, his fifth victory of the season.

The #63 GRT - Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini of Mirko Bortolotti, Jordan Pepper and Luca Engstler won the 24 Hours of Spa.

Ott Tänak won the Acropolis Rally.

Pepe Martí (sprint) and Richard Verschoo (feature) split the Formula Two races from Austria. James Wharton (sprint) and Martinius Stenshorne (feature) split the Formula Three races.

Coming Up This Weekend

IndyCar opens up July in Mid-Ohio.

NASCAR will be in Chicago.

It will be British Grand Prix weekend from Silverstone.

Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters will be at the Norisring

The European Le Mans Series has a trip to Imola.

Best of the Month: June 2025

Halfway done. Another year is halfway done. Summer is here. It has been a scorcher across most of the United States. Some relief is on the way. Before we know it, we will be wishing for a little extra warmth.

For this moment, we are in the heart of the season. Every series is competing. Most are around halfway through. Some are just beyond that point. There is plenty of racing to keep as busy, but it will soon be dwindling as 2025 slowly comes to an end. 

IndyCar Tidbits

We are beyond the halfway point in the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season. Nine races down, eight races to go, and this has been a stunning season to say the least. We are on the verge of July and only two drivers have won a race. For the better part of two decades, we knew an IndyCar season would not fully play out until the final rounds. This year, we have already come to terms with who will be champion. 

We might not see a historic title fight in 2025, but the door is open for plenty of history, and records being matched that we have not seen in decades. The drama might not be a battle for the ages but it could be something most have never seen in the IndyCar series. 

We will cover the history as the season moves on. There have been a few pieces of history and milestones that have already happened through the first half of the season. It will not surprise you that a certain driver was involved. 

Fastest to 50 Career Top Ten Finishes

Regardless of what else is accomplished this season, 2025 will be remembered as the season of Álex Palou. 

Through nine races, he has won six times. Palou has a 93-point lead in the championship. A third consecutive title is inevitable at this point. It would also be the fourth in his career, and it would make him the sixth member of that club. There is still time for it to go wrong, but there is no reason to believe after the first nine races it will flip upside down in the final eight races. 

Championship aside, Palou is already joining special clubs. Moving away from victories for a second, though he has 17 now in his career, the same total as Danny Sullivan, Jimmy Murphy and Tony Kanaan, only one fewer than Ryan Hunter-Reay, and two behind Sam Hornish, Jr. and Jimmy Bryan, Palou hit a milestone at Road America that might not appear to be that significant. 

With his victory in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, Palou reached 50 career top five finishes. It was his 90th start. Only 33 other drivers have hit the half-century mark in top five results. It isn't the most exclusive club, but it is not a long list either when you consider the century-plus history of American open-wheel racing's highest division.

Fifty-in-90 is a breathtaking batting average. Each race Palou has better than 50% odds he will finish in the top five. A great day is a high probability for the Catalan driver every time he gets into the race car. 

Not many drivers could have had the same hit rate as Palou through 90 races. That begs the question, "What is the fastest a driver has reach 50 career top ten finishes?"

And I know what you might be thinking, but the answer is not Álex Palou, though he is up there. 

Palou became one of six drivers to reach 50 top five finishes within his first 90 starts with his most recent victory. 

The fastest?

The Split made some of these facts easy because it is Sébastien Bourdais. Bourdais reached 50 top five finishes in 71 career starts. That was at Circuit Zolder in Belgium on August 26, 2007. Bourdais would make three more starts in his Champ Car career before leaving after the 2007 season. In 74 starts over those first five seasons, he only had 15 results outside the top ten, eight of those were in his rookie season in 2003. 

Many drivers benefitted in the record book thanks to The Split. Really every driver did. If there had been one series the entire time, no one has the same totals they currently have. That goes for Bourdais, Kanaan, Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti, Paul Tracy, Sam Hornish, Jr. and everyone else. 

We cannot hold that against Bourdais. He is the fastest to 50 top five finishes. He broke Rick Mears' record to get there. Mears hit 50 in his 76th start. Then comes Mario Andretti, who hit 50 in his 81st start, A.J. Foyt's 50th was in his 85th start, and Dan Wheldon had 50 top five finishes in his first 88 starts. Then add Palou. 

That's it. That's the list. 

If you want to knock it up to 50 top five finishes within a driver's first 100 starts, you add Hornish, Jr. (92 starts) and Bobby Rahal (94 starts). That is still only eight members. 

When it comes to drivers who began their career after reunification, Josef Newgarden is the only other one to have reached 50 career top five finishes, and it took Newgarden 143 starts to get there. If you want to chuck Simon Pagenaud in there, who only compete in one season during The Split, the final Champ Car season in 2007, it still took Pagenaud 115 starts to reach 50 top five finishes. That is just over an extra season and a third compared to Palou.

It is not easy to hit this milestone in such a quick period of time. Palou is magnificent.

Kirkwood Rules The Streets

Back in April, we touched up Kyle Kirkwood's street course trend. With his victory at Long Beach, he became the fourth driver in IndyCar history to have his first three career victories come in street races. At the start of June, Kirkwood made it four street course victories in his first four career victories when he was first in Detroit. 

That made Kirkwood the third driver to do such a thing. Will Power was the first to do it as Power's first six victories were street races, though the temporary circuit at Edmonton City Centre Airport is included in that. Technically not city streets but recognized as a street course. Mike Conway was the other driver to achieve such an accomplishment. Conway's four career victories all came on street courses, and they were all proper street courses. 

Unfortunately, Kirkwood's run at Power's accomplishment ended when Kirkwood won at Gateway, his first career oval victory, and fifth in his career. He has a place in the history book, but just not the largest section of peculiar facts in IndyCar history. I still think he has a few more street course victories in his over the remainder of his career.

The Swedes

Marcus Ericsson and Felix Rosenqvist both made history in June, and you probably didn't even notice it. To be fair, no one really mentioned it. I am not sure anyone else was keeping track. 

We do know about the milestone both drivers reached. In the span of two races, they each made their 100th start. Ericsson hit the century mark at Long Beach. Rosenqvist followed at Barber Motorsports Park. That's not the history I am talking about. They each did something that you probably would not have guessed. 

Entering this season, the most experienced Swede in IndyCar roster was Kenny Bräck. Bräck had made 104 starts from his first start on March 23, 1997 at Phoenix to his final start on May 29, 2005 in the 89th Indianapolis 500. 

Ericsson became the most experienced Swede at Gateway. Rosenqvist moved ahead of Bräck into second at Road America.

It is a small thing, but it does capture a bit of IndyCar's place in the motorsports world in the 2020s. While we had Bräck, and Stefan Johansson was also a regular in the 1990s, there wasn't a Swedish pipeline of drivers to the United States. Sweden had a bit of a lull across the board in open-wheel racing until the arrival of Ericsson in GP2, which led to Formula One.

Bräck and Johnasson were the Swedes many IndyCar fans would have recognized, but then there was nearly a 15-year gap until another competed in the series. There is a cyclical nature to driver origins. For a while, Frenchman were common on the IndyCar grid. Now, there are none. We have seen fewer British drivers in recent years. I was stunned to find out Louis Foster's pole position at Road America was the first for a British driver in IndyCar since Dario Franchitti in 2013. Could it really have been that long? That feels like yesterday. 

For basically the entire 1990s and 2000s, Brazilians were as common, if not more common than American drivers on the grid. In 2025, the only Brazilian to race in IndyCar was Hélio Castroneves at the Indianapolis 500. The most recent Brazilian to debut in IndyCar was Pietro Fittipaldi at Phoenix in 2018. Matheus Leist debuted the race prior to that at St. Petersburg. 

At one point, it looked like Brazilians would also be frequent in IndyCar. Now, they are not here. We see two Danes on the grid, and prior to 2021, there had only been two Danes to ever compete in an IndyCar race. A Spaniard is leading the championship, but there have only been four Spaniards to ever start an IndyCar race. Scott Dixon was the only New Zealander for the longest time, and now we have three. Canadians have not been common on the grid and we have gone multiple seasons in recent years without a full-time Canadian driver. Mexican drivers had been lacking for over a decade before Patricio O'Ward came around. There is no full-time Japanese driver, and for almost 30 years Honda made sure it had a Japanese driver competing in the series. A decade ago, there were five Colombians in IndyCar. Now, there are none. 

One hundred starts is quite a bit. You have made a presence in IndyCar if you have been around for 100 starts. There is no sign that Ericsson and Rosenqvist will be going anywhere anytime soon, but we must keep in mind that someday they will be gone, and so might be this Swedish contingent that has embraced IndyCar and also had a respectable following in their home country, something we do not see from other international countries. 

Cherish it now because we do not know if it will continue.

No Repeat Finishes

An oldie, but a goodie. 

Dating back a few seasons ago, I have noted which drivers have not had a repeat finish through certain points in a season. 

Three seasons ago, Alexander Rossi became the first driver since Eddie Cheever in the 2001 Indy Racing League to not have a repeat finish over an entire season. Rossi went 17-for-17. The last two seasons have seen the longest streak without a repeat finish hit 13 races. Graham Rahal did it in 2023 and Felix Rosenqvist did it last year. 

Where are we through nine races in the 2025?

Scott Dixon (Second, tenth, eighth, 12th, fifth, 20th, 11th, fourth, ninth)

David Malukas (13th, 18th, 17th, 16th, 23rd, second, 14th, 12th, seventh)

That's it! That's the list! Only two drivers remain. That isn't crazy. Through nine races last year, only three drivers had yet to have a repeat finish, and in that ninth race itself, four drivers had their first repeat finish occur. 

In recent races, many drivers have had their first repeat finish. 

Santino Ferrucci was fifth in Indianapolis and fifth two races later at Gateway. Josef Newgarden has finished 25th in the last two races. Marcus Ericsson was 13th in consecutive races over Detroit and Gateway. Even if you throw Jacob Abel in, who failed to qualify for the Indianapolis 500, Abel had his first repeat finish of the season at Road America, where was 23rd after previously finishing 23rd at St. Petersburg. 

Who is more likely to have their streak go the longest?

Dixon has three of the top five spots covered, as well as six of the top ten. That is not a lot of room left for the remaining eight races. You expect Dixon to finish in the top ten regularly. He could win, but he could be second again. He could have a good day and finish third, or he could lose a spot in the final pit cycle and suddenly be fourth for the second time this season. 

Malukas is a bit of a wild card. He has eight top ten finishing positions remaining. He could click off a few more of those, but over the final eight races he will likely have four or five finishes outside of the top ten. That is a pretty wide net. That could be on the verge of the top ten, or those could be dreadful days where he is never a factor. The problem is Malukas has six spots between 11th and 20th already covered. 

I am leaning toward Malukas because he could practically finish 19th, eighth, sixth, 22nd, 15th, 11th, ninth and 25th over the final eight races and that would be 17 different positions in 17 races. He could do well on the ovals or he could overstep and a poor day would check off one of the final positions in the box score. 

The last time we didn't have a driver open a season with at least ten different finishing positions was in 2019 when Marcus Ericsson opened with nine different. Every season since reunification has seen at least one driver open with at least nine different finishing positions.

Caution Finishes

You might not have realized something at the end of the Indianapolis 500. Álex Palou came off of turn four and within the final few hundred yards of the finish line, lights flashed, Nolan Siegel was in the turn two wall, and the caution flag was waving. You probably did see that, but you probably did not realize what that caution also ended. 

The race was effectively over at that point. Marcus Ericsson wasn't going to make a run on Palou and beat him in a drag race to the yard of bricks, but this year's Indianapolis 500 was the first race to end under caution since Texas 2023, over two years prior. IndyCar had gone 37 consecutive races with a green flag finish prior to this year's Indianapolis 500.

Since reunification, that was the most consecutive races without a finish under caution. Prior to that, the longest streak was 23 races, beginning with the first Mid-Ohio race in 2020 and going through the 2022 Texas race.

There have been 294 races since reunification. Of those 294 races, 35 have finished under caution. That is 11.904%. Eight of those races have been weather-related, whether it be the race being called under red flag conditions or the race finishing under caution while reaching a time limit. Twelve of those 35 races had the caution come out on the final lap of the race.

That doesn't seem so bad.

Earliest Title Deciders

It is early to think about the championship, but it is on all of our minds. Álex Palou will be the 2025 IndyCar champion. When will he be the 2025 IndyCar champion? We are all expecting for the second time in three seasons the title to be clinched early. This is something we are not used to after having 16 consecutive years with at least one championship going to the finale unclaimed. The question becomes, "How early could Palou clinch?"

Up 93 points with eight races remaining, Palou is 16 points away from passing the threshold needed to clinch the title with two races to spare. On average, Palou's championship lead over second has increased by 10.375 after each race. At that rate, Palou would still only clinch the championship with two races in hand. With three races to go, Palou's lead would be around 145 points. With 54 points on the table for each race, 162 points would still be out there. However, Palou would be in a position where he would not need much to clinch the championship.

For some of you, this is the end of the world. How will anyone watch IndyCar if the championship is decided with two races to go?

Well, we had nearly two decades of championships going to the wire and all those title fights didn't really bring the masses to the racetrack or in front of their television screens to see the drama. I think IndyCar will be fine either way. This will just be one of those seasons that stand out, and it has been a long time since a championship was clinched with multiple races remaining. 

The last time was the 2002 CART season. Cristiano da Matta claimed the title with three races remaining. 

That is pretty early, but it is not the earliest. 

Since 1946, a total of 44 out of 93 seasons have seen the championship clinched with races to spare. In 23 of those season, the championship was sealed with multiple races remaining. On six occasions has the championship been clinched with at last four races remaining, but the earliest a championship has been clinched was with five races in hand, and that happened in consecutive seasons.

In 1969, Mario Andretti clinched the championship with his victory at Trenton on September 21, 1969. There were five races after that, and Andretti would win two of them. 

The following season, Al Unser clinched the championship with his victory at DuQuoin on September 7, 1970. DuQuoin was the first in a five-race winning streak for Unser, and that winning streak was snapped when he was second in the season finale at Phoenix behind Swede Savage. 

The other seasons where the title was over with at least four races remaining were Jimmy Bryan in 1954, A.J. Foyt in 1964, A.J. Foyt in 1975 and Alex Zanardi in 1998.

Álex Palou has some work to do if he wants the title decided that early. Clinching with three races in hand seems like a stretch, but clinching with two looks pretty practical with eight races left\t. 

July Preview

The first NASCAR race of the month will be the Chicago street course, and considering this will likely be the final edition of the race, I think it deserves to be recognized for being a respectable track while also being a significant achievement. 

NASCAR shut down Grant Park, right in the heart of the city. It didn't run around some parking lot on the outskirts of the city. It took a significant area and put on a race, and the track is pretty good. It is a bit of a shame that in two years we have not seen a completely dry race that was allowed to reach the scheduled distance. It is also a shame that this is a part of NASCAR's plan to be a limited time only with some of these events. 

I don't know how practical Chicago's Grant Park could be as a permanent NASCAR Cup Series venue, but it would not be a bad thing if NASCAR made a commitment that one of these street race events will stick around for years to go. There is a chance Chicago's exit will see the return of Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois, but that is an hour outside the city. 

San Diego appears to be the next destination for NASCAR's street race, though that still must be confirmed. Street races do not have a long shelf life to begin with, but if NASCAR has one that works, it should not be afraid to stick it out and make it own. If it keeps jumping around, it will run the risk running out of cities sooner rather than later. 

Let's hope Grant Park gets a deserving send out, one full of sun.

Other Events of Note in July:

NASCAR will conclude its in-season tournament with races at Sonoma, Dover and the Brickyard 400. 

Formula One has two historic venues, Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps.

Formula E ends its season with a pair of doubleheaders at familiar venues, Berlin and London. 

MotoGP has a round in Germany and the Czech Republic, and then it is on summer break for a month.