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.