โLong time coming,โ was Pato OโWardโs message to his team after producing a masterful performance to turn the tables on Alex Palou and secure his first on-track victory since Iowa in 2022.
Although the Arrow McLaren driver was credited with the win in St. Petersburg after Josef Newgarden was disqualified, there was no satisfaction taken from the result since it didnโt come with a trip to victory lane. On Sunday at the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio, the Mexican appeared to be playing for second place as Palou streaked away from pole on the first stint.
The Chip Ganassi Racing driver had an advantage on Firestoneโs primary tires, but when both pitted and went to the faster but less durable alternates, OโWardโs No. 5 Chevy started cutting into Palouโs lead, and with the gap cut to almost nothing, their final stop is where their respective fortunes rose and fell.
With a 5s lead cut to 0.5s, OโWard stopped one lap before Palou, got in and out of the pits with haste, and had hot tires to attack Palou who pitted on the next lap. But OโWard wouldnโt need to do anything courageous to snatch the lead; Palouโs stop was clean from his No. 9 Honda pit crew, but he sat idle for an extra moment or two while trying to engage the transmission and fire back onto the circuit.
That tiny bobble was all it took for the charging OโWard to power around Palou and hold onto a diminishing lead of his own to bring his on-track winless streak to an end after 714 days.
โThat was a hard-fought race,โ OโWard said after handing Chevy the first win of IndyCarโs hybrid era. โGreat job by the team. Itโs been a while. This is a proper win. We earned this one.โ
Just 0.4493s separated Palou from earning his second straight win.
โShame,โ he said. โIt was a good race. We couldnโt make the alternate tires last. I destroyed my front tires. We had a slow stop; couldnโt engage first gear.โ
Scott McLaughlin, 16.1s shy of OโWard, salvaged the day with a third for a Team Penske squad that had its share of struggles with Will Power running out of the lead pack in 11th and Josef Newgarden who tried to make a three-stop pit strategy work before receiving three straight penaltiesโthe only penalties in the raceโfor speeding on pit lane, failing to heed instructions from IndyCar, and another speeding penalty while serving a penalty. Heโd end the day a distant 25th.
With OโWard and Palou in a world of their own, McLaughlin and the Andretti Global duo of Colton Herta in fourth and Marcus Ericsson in fifth ran smart races while lacking the pace to chase the leaders. OโWardโs teammate Alexander Rossi completed the top six.
Elsewhere, Ed Carpenter Racingโs Christian Rasmussen turned his strong qualifying performance of eighth into his best race finish of ninth, and not far behind him on the road in 13th, IndyCar rookie Toby Sowery was nothing short of impressive as he took his Dale Coyne Racing car from 25th to 13th.
IndyCarโs new energy recovery system was almost flawless in its first race.
Ganassiโs Scott Dixon was bitten by some form of hybrid-related issue before the green flag which ruined his race, but his was the only car among the 27 in attendance to encounter adversity with the system.
As it happened
The first hybrid IndyCar race got off to a disastrous start for perennial Mid-Ohio contender Scott Dixon whose No. 9 Ganassi Honda died on the final warmup lap, which forced Dixon to sit and wait for his powerless car to be pulled off the course where he climbed out and watched for 22 laps from the sidelines.
The proper race start on lap three saw polesitter Alex Palou lead into Turn 5 and build a 1.0s lead over Pato OโWard. The jousting between ChristiansโLundgaard and Rasmussenโover seventh place on lap four went to Rasmussen as Palou stretched his lead over OโWard to 1.5s on lap five. David Malukas sat 2.2s back in third.
By lap 10, Palou was disappearing into the distance with 3.3s over OโWard and 6.5s over Malukas.
Pit lane got busy starting on lap 11 as Kyffin Simpson dove in and committed to a three-stop strategy; Josef Newgarden and Rinus VeeKay did the same on lap 12. Marcus Armstrong, Felix Rosenqvist, and Nolan Siegel pitted on lap 13. Palou held 4.4s over OโWard on lap 14 and Malukas was 9.9s arrears.
OโWard was 5.7s back on lap 20โthe one-quarter markโand Malukas was a full 13.0s behind Palou, who was cruising. In fourth, Colton Herta was down 14.4s, Scott McLaughlin was fifth at 15.6s, and Marcus Ericsson was 17.4s shy of the leader.
Lap 22 saw Dixon emerge from the pits in an attempt to salvage his day in any way possible. Palouโs march continued as his gap to OโWard grew to 6.3s on lap 25. By lap 27, OโWard cut the lead down to 5.6s as he prepared to pit at the start of lap 28 and move from Firestone primaries to alternatesโlike the other leading drivers — on his two-stop strategy.
Third-place Malukas pitted as well, which forced OโWardโs team to hold him as Malukas pulled into his pit box. The time loss for OโWard wasnโt great, but Malukas stalled, which lost him even more time.
Issues for @malukasdavid and the No. 66 in the pits!
: #Honda200 on NBC and Peacock pic.twitter.com/BA31m0lVdd
โ NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) July 7, 2024
Palou was in at the start of lap 29 and had a slightly slow stop as a wheel gun issue added a few seconds to the stop. With the top three having pit stop issues, the damage varied as Palou returned with 5.7s over OโWard and Malukas fell from third to 13th.
McLaughlin went for the overcut by pitting at the start of lap 31 and was rewarded by emerging in third ahead of Herta and Newgarden, who was in need of stopping soon on his three-stop plan. Fellow three-stoppers Siegel and VeeKay were in on lap 33.
Newgarden was in on lap 37 and resumed in 16th. Palouโs lead fell to 4.5s on lap 38 as he worked through traffic; McLaughlin was 11.5s back in third.
Palou focused on conserving his alternate tires in the raceโs middle phase as OโWard did the same, but on lap 42, Palouโs lead was down to 4.0s as OโWard slowly drew the margin down. Was it a case of OโWard catching, or Palou giving up outright speed to get more life out of his tires?
Running sixth on a three-stop strategy, Linus Lundqvist pittedโheโd need one more stopโon lap 45 and resumed in 17th. Without a caution at an opportune time, the three-stoppers were facing some rough results.
By lap 47, OโWard had Palouโs lead down to 3.2s and McLaughlin was only 6.3s back. Second- and third-place drivers were going forward and the leader was going backward. lap 49 and it was down for Palou to 2.7s. OโWardโs charge continued as 2.3s separated him from Palou on lap 50 as traffic was on the horizon.
Lap 52 and OโWard was down by just 1.4s. Ericsson also took fourth from teammate Herta. The start of lap 53 had only 0.8s between Palou and OโWard. OโWard was in Palouโs wheel tracks on lap 54 with 0.5s between the contenders. The McLaren pitted at the end of the lapโthe start of lap 55โto take primaries as Palou stayed out and lost a bit of time trying to get around Will Power.
Palou was in at the end of lap 55 and the race for the lead was on. A delay dropping the clutch gave OโWard the lead as Palou watched OโWard sweep by on pit exit. By lap 57, OโWard held 1.5s over Palou. Could Palou summon his earlier pace on primaries, or would OโWard hold firm in the lead?
Palou got the lead down to 1.1s on lap 59, but he spent the next lap stuck behind Pietro Fittipaldi and saw it swell to 1.6s. A bobble by Newgarden who hit the inside curb at Turn 11 slowed his progression as he flew across the grass but he didnโt lose an immense amount of time and resumed in fifth while preparing to make this third and final stop.
SKETCHY MOMENT for Josef Newgarden.
โ INDYCAR on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) July 7, 2024
Lap 63 and Palou carved OโWardโs down to 0.8s. McLaughlin was 12.3s behind OโWard and Ericsson — on alternates — was 17.0s back in fourth.
Sixty six laps down and now Palou was in OโWardโs wheel tracks, 0.3s behind. Newgarden was in for his final stop and back in on lap 67 for speeding. He returned in 25th.
OโWard was pushing and drew the lead out to 1.0s on lap 68, and imprecise driving from Palou and a slide out of Turn 13 had his deficit grow to 1.3s on lap 69. OโWard was back in control with greater comfort.
Catching traffic, including Palouโs teammate Simpson, the leaders had a 0.7s separation on lap 70. Herta reclaimed fourth from Ericsson and Alexander Rossi was in sixth.
Lap 74 and it was 0.5s. Palou was close, but heโd need something remarkable to happen to get by OโWard. Lap 77 and Palou was within one car length but he slid off the course and gave away a few tenths. Lap 78 and it was 0.5s, which was close for Palou, but not close enough as Romain Grosjean spun off the course on his own.
When the white flag flew, a 0.4s lead was in store for OโWard, and he held onto it to claim his second race of the year.
RESULTS
