Photo: Joe Skibinski / INDYCAR
By Aaron Bearden
After each NTT IndyCar Series race weekend, Motorsports Beat will share a piece breaking down the stories and takeaways from the weekend. This is a report on the the tour’s round at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
NTT IndyCar Series
Race: Honda Indy 200
Who Won?
Josef Newgarden… Finally.
Top Stories
Positioned to strike
It had to happen eventually, right?
For the third-straight week, Josef Newgarden had positioned himself as the de-facto favorite for an NTT IndyCar Series race. He snagged the pole, took off early and proceeded to dominate the event.
To this point that reads like a carbon copy of the prior two races at Detroit and Road America. But unlike those events, things didn’t fall apart in the final laps for the two-time champion in Ohio. Newgarden led 73 of 80 laps, including the final one, to finally break through for his first win of 2021 in the Honda Indy 200.
That’s not to say it wasn’t dramatic at the end. Detroit Race 1 winner Marcus Ericsson made a spirited late drive that nearly took him to the front of the field. He closed in on Newgarden over the final laps and pulled within a second of him at the white flag, but the Swiss ace fell .879s short of Newgarden at the race’s conclusion.
The end result was a landmark victory for Team Penske, coming as the team celebrated the 50th anniversary of its first IndyCar win with Mark Donahue in 1971. But more than that, it served as a reprieve for a team and driver that had done everything but win over the past month.
“This team has been doing the job,” Newgarden said. “Everyone has been giving me a hard time, asking what’s up with us not winning a race. But I don’t think these people at Team Penske could have done anything different.
“We’ve been in the game almost every race, had great performance. It’s great to seal a win here finally.”
Newgarden is going to need to continue the strong performances if he hopes to secure another series title. An unexpected 21st-place end to his dominant day in the prior race at Road America has left the Tennessean 69 points behind consistent championship leader Alex Palou with just six races remaining in the 2021 season.
The good news for Newgarden is that his recent run of form shows that he might be up for it. With Sunday’s finish, Newgarden has now led 83.9% of the laps in the past three races, all from pole position.
Now he finally has a win to show for it, too.
Ganassi’s good day
Chip Ganassi is famous for his love of winners – it’s the main bit he utilizes with his #ilikewinners tweets on Twitter, after all. But while Chip Ganassi Racing didn’t bring home a race win at Mid-Ohio, the team had much to smile about heading into the summer break.
First up was the latest in a string of consistent runs for Alex Palou, who continues to defy expectation in his first year with the team. The former Super Formula competitor finished third to tally his sixth podium in 10 races, two more than anyone else in the IndyCar field.
“Today the car was really good, Honda gave us great power and we were able to fight when the chances came,” Palou said. “The only way that we are going to be able to win this championship is to go out and keep putting the car on the podium every week, so that is what we are concentrating on.”
If Palou’s aim for his second IndyCar season is the win the title, then he’s on the right path. With six races left in the 2021 season, the Spaniard holds a 39-point edge on Arrow McLaren SP’s Pato O’Ward at the top of the standings. He’s one of just two drivers with multiple victories and has finished on the podium in five of the past six events.
That said, one of Palou’s teammates outperformed him in Mid-Ohio. Marcus Ericsson continued what’s been a resurgent season with Ganassi, rising to second and hunting down Newgarden in the closing laps. The 30-year-old ultimately fell short of victory lane, but continued to show the level of promise that’s elevated him to fifth in the standings heading into the summer break.
“I’m proud of the whole team,” he said. “Everyone has done a great job, and it was a true team effort. The #8 Husky Honda was feeling great out there and we were pushing really, really hard to catch Josef [Newgarden, race winner]. I saw with about 10 laps to go that he was starting to struggle and I went after him with everything I had.
“I think in a couple more laps, we could’ve challenged for the win. But, overall, second is a very good result today.”
He wasn’t as happy or content as his teammates, but CGR stalwart Scott Dixon also had pace. The defending series champion fell short of the podium in fourth, a disappointment given his six wins at the track. But the result was solid enough to keep his title hopes alive.
“Good job by all the Ganassi crew, congrats to Marcus and obviously Alex and Josef for the win there but … we’ve got to do some work,” Dixon said.
Part of that work will involved closing in on his teammate in the championship race. With six races left in 2021, Dixon sits a quiet third in the standings, 56 points behind Palou.
As a six-time champ, the New Zealander is lurking menacingly as the leader of the old guard, trying to chase down a pair of young title hopefuls.
But whether he prevails, Palou holds on or Ericsson makes a late run, CGR has plenty of success stories to be proud of from Mid-Ohio and many potential paths to another IndyCar title.
Early chaos
The biggest mess of Sunday’s race came shortly after it began.
A pair of separate crashes hampered the days of multiple competitors in the opening three laps of the the Mid-Ohio race.
James Hinchcliffe was first to find issue, colliding with Andretti Autosport teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay in Turn 4 and sending both drivers spinning into the grass. Hunter-Reay slid into the outside barrier, suffering damage that relegated him to 24th at race’s end after losing two laps for repairs. Hinchcliffe was hurt by the lost track position and came home in 17th.
The returning Felix Rosenqvist was also involved in the incident, going for a spin on-track as the field stacked up behind the shunting teammates. In his return race from injury after a hard crash at Detroit, the Swiss star wound up losing a lap for repairs and finishing 23rd.
REPLAY: Incident shortly after the green flag on lap 1 at @Mid_Ohio.
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📺: @nbc
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With minimal damage sustained in the opening-lap melee, INDYCAR officials were able to resume green-flag competition on Lap 3. But in Turn 5 things went awry again, as Scott Dixon and Will Power came together, Power being squeezed on the inside and then sent into a spin before being hit from behind by Ed Jones.
Both Power and Jones were knocked out of contention in the incident, finishing 25th and 26th, respectively. Power emerged from the infield care center with a wrap on his right hand, though no injury prognosis was given.
“Super disappointed to be out that early,” Power told NBC Sports. “(Scott Dixon) squeezed me down, and I had nowhere to go. I was on the curve.
“I should have known he would be aggressive.”
The race progressed in more standard fashion from that point, running from Lap 8 to the checkered flag after Lap 80 without another caution.
Notes
- Former Indy Lights competitor Ryan Norman made his IndyCar debut at Mid-Ohio, competing for Dale Coyne Race w/ RWR. He had a quiet, clean day and finished 20th.
- Alexander Rossi didn’t have front-running pace in Sunday’s race, but he made the most of his day to score a fifth-place finish that stood as the best result in what’s been a challenging year for the Californian. The result is Rossi’s first top-five and first instance of back-to-back top-10s since the Indianapolis road course doubleheader in 2020.
- Santino Ferrucci made the most of a bad situation on Sunday, coming from 22nd to score a ninth-place finish. He has four top-10s in as many starts during a partial 2021 effort, the most he’s ever managed in a row.
- Like Rosenqvist, Rinus Veekay also made a return from injury at Mid-Ohio after suffering a cycling crash that kept him out for Road America. The Ed Carpenter Racing star didn’t have the pace to contend in the race, dropping from 11th to 16th at race’s end.
- Romain Grosjean had a brutal outing in the doubleheader at a tricky Belle Isle circuit. But look beyond that and the French Formula 1 transplant has finishes of second, fifth and seventh in his other three most recent races. It’s not infeasible to say that Grosjean could score another podium this year if he continues to bring top-10 pace.
- Colton Herta and Simon Pagenaud endured bad days at Mid-Ohio, finishing 13th and 14th at race’s end. The results were killer for their championship ambitions, leaving Pagenaud 113 points behind Palou and Herta 124 points back in sixth.
Race Results
- Josef Newgarden
- Marcus Ericsson
- Alex Palou
- Scott Dixon
- Alexander Rossi
- Graham Rahal
- Romain Grosjean
- Pato O’Ward
- Santino Ferrucci
- Takuma Sato
- Sebastien Bourdais
- Scott McLaughlin
- Colton Herta
- Simon Pagenaud
- Conor Daly
- Rinus VeeKay
- James Hinchcliffe
- Max Chilton
- Jack Harvey
- Ryan Norman
- Dalton Kellett
- Jimmie Johnson
- Felix Rosenqvist
- Ryan Hunter-Reay
- Will Power
- Ed Jones
