1. The first half of the 2024 Honda 200 appeared to be set as one of the dullest races of the season and decade, but the second round of pit stops shook up the race and turned it in a gripping battle between two of IndyCar's brightest talents.
Álex Palou was gone, spending most of the first half of the race over four seconds clear of the field with Patricio O'Ward in second. Third place was over ten seconds behind about 15 laps into this race and never got closer than that. This was Palou's race to lose.
During the second stint of the race, Palou lost chunks of time to O'Ward as the final pit stop approached for both drivers. What went from a four-second lead was less than a second when O'Ward peeled into the pit lane on lap 54. Running long proved to be the better strategy on the first stint. Palou didn't need any extra advantage going a lap longer than O'Ward, but it all went pear-shaped as Palou was slow getting away from his pit box and it allowed O'Ward to sweep into the lead.
It was a tight battle over the final 24 laps with little more than a second between the two drivers to the finish. Back-markers played a role, and it was going to remain a battle until the final lap. Palou pushed but could not break O'Ward, who took his second victory of the season, his first won on the road in nearly two years.
O'Ward expressed great relief after this race, and rightfully so. He has been good, but not necessarily showing enough to be the best driver. Prior to this race, he had only led 11 laps all season, all in the Indianapolis 500. This result keeps O'Ward's championship hopes alive, but he has much work to do over the final eight races.
2. It is a victory loss for Palou, but he is still a big winner this weekend. Palou exits with a 48-point lead over Will Power in second of the championship. O'Ward is now third but 70 points back. It isn't over, but Palou is in a comfortable position and controls serve with eight races remaining.
Palou doesn't make mistakes and there is no one else in IndyCar at the moment that can go on a tear that would scare the Catalan driver. Knowing Palou, he is going to finish eighth or better in final eight races. Maybe he has one off-day. Palou is going to score at least 180 points over the final eight races. He is already up 48 points on everyone. Is Will Power really going to score 228 points over the final eight races? Is O'Ward going to score 250 points over the final eight races?
It is not quite over, but boy is Palou in control.
3. This was a two-horse race and if you had no clue Scott McLaughlin was third, 16.1558 seconds back, no one would blame you. McLaughlin ran 30 laps on his first stint, and he used that to leapfrog Colton Herta and Marcus Ericsson. That's it. That is all McLaughlin did all race and it got him a podium finish. Nothing flashy. Nothing outstanding. Just one long stint and never coming close to the top two.
4. We could cover Colton Herta and Marcus Ericsson right here because they were fourth and fifth, and we will. Andretti Global is good. This has been a good season, arguably a better season across the board than the previous two years, but fourth and fifth has never felt so far away from first. They got beat on one stint and lost out on a podium position. Both Herta and Ericsson struggled on the alternate tire. It cost Herta on the second stint. It cost Ericsson on the final stint. It is good, but there is a lot of work to do.
5. Frankly, once you get beyond Palou and O'Ward, there is not much to say about the rest of the finishers. We will try. It will be brief. For example, Alexander Rossi finished sixth. That's about all you can say. I am not sure Rossi was featured once on the broadcast. Did you have see Rossi isolated on your screen or in a battle with someone? I cannot recall once seeing him featured on screen. It is not a bad result. It isn't a great result when your teammate wins the race immediately after it was announced you would not be retained by your team for the 2025 season. C'est la vie.
6. If there is anything Rossi can celebrate it is he finished a spot ahead of the man that will be replacing him in 2025, as Christian Lundgaard was seventh, but this is why Lundgaard is going to Arrow McLaren next year. Lundgaard carried Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing all weekend. The Dane has been carrying RLLR for three years. He was comfortably in the top ten. His two RLLR teammates couldn't even break the top fifteen.
7. Kyle Kirkwood did nothing flashy and was eighth. The top five streak is over but the top ten streak continues. Three top ten finishers is a great day for Andretti Global. Last season, the team had one triple top ten day. This season, Andretti has four triple top ten days and this was the third consecutive race all three Andretti cars have finished in the top ten. Progress, but I am sure the organization would love to progress to a victory soon.
8. Christian Rasmussen had his best day in an IndyCar, finishing ninth, his first career top ten finish. Rasmussen lost a few spots in the first pit cycle, but he remained in the top ten. He didn't overdrive the car and cost himself on track. He has been prone to that. Rasmussen didn't make any enemies in this race. He is prone to that as well. Nice showing for the Dane.
9. Nine drivers decided to try a three-stop strategy, and when cars were diving to pit lane between lap 11 and lap 16, it felt like this was going to be a different race. Perhaps tire wear was greater than anticipated and we would see everyone on three-stop strategies that varied wildly.
Instead, the three-stop strategy was a foolish gamble and of the 17 drivers that ran a two-stopper, 13 took the top 13 positions, including Santino Ferrucci in tenth. Ferrucci didn't do anything noteworthy but run a two-stop strategy, and it got him another top ten finish. Don't over think it and sometimes you get good results.
10. Will Power, David Malukas and Toby Sowery rounded out the top 13, all on two-stop strategies. Power wasn't great this weekend. He started 15th, spent the entire race about 13th and finished 11th. Malukas stalled on his first pit stop and it cost him a top ten position. He wasn't necessarily going to finish in the top five, but if Malukas nails that first stop he is likely in the top ten and might have been seventh or eighth.
Sowery had a respectable debut. He was handcuffed driving for Dale Coyne Racing. The speed isn't going to be there, and Sowery came in with no testing time whatsoever let alone any time with the hybrid system. The team didn't do anything flashy. It stuck to a two-stop strategy, and that was the right strategy. Sowery kept it on the road and he got 13th, matching Dale Coyne Racing's best finish of the season.
11. Felix Rosenqvist was the best of the three-stoppers in 14th. Rosenqvist rolled the dice after starting 19th due to a grid penalty. It got him five spots. Could have been worse.
12. Sting Ray Robb ran a two-stopper and was 16th. That sums up Robb's day.
13. We can lump most of the three-stoppers here. Marcus Armstrong was 17th ahead of Graham Rahal, Rinus VeeKay, Nolan Siegel and Kyffin Simpson. When a number of teams were on the alternate tire and not losing seconds each lap, it was clear the three-stop strategy was doomed. The three-stoppers were not flying through the field. They all got stuck in traffic. It was a shame because for about ten laps it felt like we were going to see this race get mixed up even as Palou pulled away and that didn't happen.
14. Somehow, Agustín Canapino did 31 laps on his final stint. Romain Grosjean spun while running about 15th with two laps to go. The Juncos Hollinger Racing cars ended 22nd and 23rd. JHR had a good two-race run prior to this. It was back to reality this weekend.
15. An extra word for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing because this was its home race. Lundgaard did great, Graham Rahal looked good in practice, all that pace vanished when it came time for qualifying and the three-stop strategy didn't work. Pietro Fittipaldi was anonymous for the ninth consecutive race. This was RLLR's home race and next week is RLLR's most important race with Hy-Vee sponsoring the Iowa weekend. Iowa has historically been one of RLLR's worst tracks. If the rumors are true and Hy-Vee is following Christian Lundgaard to Arrow McLaren, it could be the beginning of a difficult transition for RLLR.
16. Josef Newgarden is broken. Newgarden attempted a three-stop strategy today. Nothing wrong with that. It looked like Newgarden was the one driver who could turn a three-stop strategy into a respectable finish. However, Newgarden clipped the curb in turn ten a few laps prior to his final stop and that cost him a handful of seconds. That easily cost him about five or six spots in the pit cycle.
However, Newgarden picked up a pit lane speeding penalty, a stop-and-go for failure to follow IndyCar's direction and then another pit lane speeding penalty exiting the stop-and-go, and that was all in three laps! Newgarden went from possibly coming out about tenth or 11th to coming out about 20th to a lap down in 25th.
Four months ago, we left St. Petersburg believing Newgarden had found something spectacular after dominating the season opener and being outspoken about cutting away the distractions to solely focus on his driving and his family. Outside of one magical May afternoon, Newgarden has been a disaster this season. He has six finishes outside the top fifteen through nine races. If this is Newgarden without distractions then he must return to being distracted. Focusing is clearly not his strength.
17. I don't know how Jack Harvey ended up a lap down in 26th, but we will talk about Dale Coyne Racing tomorrow. You are likely not going to like what you hear. That is what we call a tease.
18. We expected someone would have a bad first day with the hybrid system. Unfortunately, it was Scott Dixon, who broke down on the final pace lap and missed the first 21 laps before running a de facto 40-lap test session. I am sure we will fine out what the exact issue was but on the broadcast it was said to be a quick fix, albeit a quick fix that cost him 21 laps.
This was the one issue in the entire race for the hybrid. We saw a few longer pit stops. Conor Daly speculated on Twitter that, because Mid-Ohio requires a long first gear combined with the added weight from the hybrid system, it left cars more prone to stalling and having bogged down pit box releases. That really isn't an issue but more something everyone must adjust to.
For all the fears about cars dropping out due to an abundance of hybrid issues, there was one, and if Dixon run two or three more laps in the morning warm-up, he might have not even experienced it in the race.
19. Let's take about the tires because we spent the first half of the season noticing the lack of tire wear in races because Firestone had built harder compounds expecting the extra weight of the hybrid for the start of the season, and that weight wasn't there.
In the first race with the hybrid system, the wear wasn't there either. This was also the first race on fresh asphalt at Mid-Ohio. That might have played a role and cancelled out any effect of the extra weight. Iowa has some fresh asphalt next week as well. We might not truly know how the tires wear until Toronto in two weeks.
The key thing with the second half of the season is we will all be learning. We have seen one race with the hybrid system. We have no conclusions to draw on how it will change races, whether that be in on-track action or tire wear or fuel conservation, until the end of the season. Even then we will really won't know much because six of the final nine races are ovals. We will likely have a good idea of how it runs on ovals when the season is over, but still be learning about road courses and street courses into 2025.
Mid-Ohio was one of three road/street courses for the hybrid this season. Its only street course is Toronto and the only other road course is Portland. We will still be learning into 2025 and, with an offseason in-between, adjustments will be made.
20. This is a repeated note about Mid-Ohio. You have likely heard this one before.
From 2013 to 2019, every Mid-Ohio race was 90 laps. We regularly saw two-stop vs. three-stop strategy races during that time, and it allowed for some thrilling finishes and wonderful drives. Since 2020, every Mid-Ohio race has been 80 laps or fewer. Can we please increase Mid-Ohio back to 90 laps? None of those seven 90-lap races exceeded two hours. Five of those seven races were an hour and 50 minutes or shorter.
Ten laps make a big difference at Mid-Ohio.
Could we at least split the difference and run 85 laps? From 2007 to 2012, Mid-Ohio was 85 laps. I understood when it was a doubleheader in 2020 and both races were 75 laps. I do not understand how it became an 80-lap race in 2021 and has remained 80 laps ever since when that only produces a two-stop race with very narrow pit windows.
When it comes to race lengths, IndyCar knows what it takes to produce a compelling race. Mid-Ohio was increased to 90 laps in 2013 because the series knew an extra five laps would open up the race and make a three-stop strategy more enticing to teams. The 80-lap distance leans toward it more likely being a dull race. The series controls its race distances. There is no way ten laps at Mid-Ohio are that costly to the teams. The financial margins cannot be that tight. There are much greater problems if that is the case. For all that is good, please return to 90 laps in 2025!
I know IndyCar won't increase it, but silence isn't going to change anything. Mind as well make some noise even if I am the only one who can hear it.
21. Next up is a doubleheader at Iowa. Everyone gets the night race they clamored for, but remember the second race is going to be about 14 hours later, so no whining about the teams being overworked. You wanted this. Now it is time to choked down your medicine.
