It was a remarkably intense race, highlighted perhaps more by the disasters of three teams in particular than by the successes of others. The 200 miles from Mid-Ohio They did not leave anyone indifferent and offered an event with several hot spots, almost as much or more than the boxes of Andretti, McLaren SP and Foyt, who saw how all their drivers were victims of bad luck, bad decisions or their own fault. of care.
None of that exemplified the performance of Scott McLaughlinwho seized his opportunity with both hands and again deprived a victory of a Alex Palou that he could well have won if the first yellow card had come out a few seconds later. Both drivers have made it clear that they are not ruled out of a title fight that promises to add multiple contenders, and nobody wants to give an inch. You can check it out at half hour race highlightswhich we complement with a shorter version of five minutes and several onboards, as well as the statistics most prominent.
– The start of Scott McLaughlin’s second season in IndyCar, where he was one curve away from linking two wins in a row, seemed to be the culmination of his adaptation process to the championship, but that was followed by a series of disappointing results, without a top 5 in the next six races. The New Zealander has ended up burying these ghosts in Mid-Ohio, with the second win of his career and his fourth podium in the categorywhich also allows him to hook into the tail train of the fight for the championship.
– The triumphs of Scott Dixon, Will Power and Ryan Briscoe since the return of the event in 2007 have placed Mid-Ohio as a fertile ground for ocean pilots. With the conquest of McLaughlin, the competitors from Australia and New Zealand have taken the victory in nine of the 17 races played in this period. Interestingly, in all these years there has only been a single non-Anglo-Saxon winner of this race, a fact that has not occurred in any other circuit on the calendar. The exception corresponds to Simon Pagenaud, who achieved in Mid-Ohio one of the five victories of his triumphant 2016.
– Last year, Penske it failed to win any of the first nine races, something highly unusual throughout its history. In this 2022, the award-winning team has already won six wins in this same periodsomething that in the last 17 years they had only achieved themselves in 2006 and 2016, and only one victory less than in their sweeping start in 1994. If the other previous modern precedents are included (Andretti Autosport in 2004 and 2005, Chip Ganassi Racing in 1998), all these teams ended up adding between eight and twelve wins at the end of the yearso expect Josef Newgarden, Will Power and Scott McLaughlin to add at least two more to the roster in the remaining eight races.
– With his pole position, Pato O’Ward made history by becoming the ninth different poleman of the year in nine races. An event that equals the absolute record at the start of a season, registered in 1952 and 1961, and which had not occurred in consecutive IndyCar races since a streak in the Indy Racing League between 2001 and 2002. However, a mechanical failure in his car made this the seventh race in a row without a winner from pole. In four of them the one who started second won, as has been the case with McLaughlin. In turn, his victory implies that the last six races have had different winners.
– After four races outside the top 5, Alex Palou he returned to the podium, which he stood for the fourth time this year and for the 13th time in his career. Twelve of those have been on road courses, with the only exception to date being last year’s Indy 500. Nevertheless, his first pole and victory of 2022 continue to resist. Since 2005, the only reigning champion that took as long or longer to break the ice was Scott Dixon, which in 2014 left empty in its first eleven races, and did not win until the 15th. The New Zealander was precisely the last champion to complete a title defense without wins (or poles) in 2004, and the only one since Nigel Mansell’s 1994, who did achieve three poles.
With a masterful comeback, another one this year, from 21st place on the grid (and 27th after the second lap), Will Power He has obtained his fourth podium of the season, a section that he leads ex-aequo with Palou, and number 89 of his career, two behind historical seventh place of his former rival Dario Franchitti. 68 of those podiums have been on road courses, where he extends his lead over Scott Dixon to four. With extraordinary consistency, Power has finished seven of the nine races contested among the top fourone more than in 2007 and 2011, as well as one more top 5 than in 2010 and his champion year in 2014.
Despite driving for a team that has historically performed better on the ovals, Rinus VeeKay continues to find his best performances on the road, earning his seventh career top-five finish at Mid-Ohio. In the previous three races, no other driver outside of the four ‘big’ championship teams in terms of resources (Penske, Ganassi, Andretti and McLaren SP) had managed to finish in the top five. Despite this, VeeKay he only leads his teammate Conor Daly by five pointsfor his greatest irregularity and his accident at the Indy 500.
For the seventh consecutive race, the overall leader did not finish in the top five. In fact, he only managed to finish in the top 10 twice, and both times it was the same driver: Marcus Ericsson, whose sixth place finish makes him the first leader since March to defend his status. The Swede has lost some of the advantage he gained at Road America, but his 321 points still give him a good cushion on Power’s 301, Newgarden’s 287 and Palou’s 286. Already more than one race away, O’Ward (256), Dixon (254) and McLaughlin (252) will need to return to wins or achieve podiums on a regular basis so as not to fall off the hook definitively in the second half of the year.
With his eighth place Helio Castroneves was one place away from his best position of the year (7th in the Indy 500), while David Malukas added his first top 10 as an IndyCar driver finishing ninth. From that same position started Kyle Kirkwood, who obtained his best starting position in the category, but was unable to take advantage of his own mistake on a track where he has won a dozen times as a junior. something further back, Jimmie Johnson got his best result in an IndyCar roadster, and his second best position in the championship, finishing in 16th position. A scale that Dalton Kellett and Devlin DeFrancesco have failed to match all year.
On a fateful day of uncontrolled implosion in which all their cars collided with each other, the best final position of Andretti Autosport it was Colton Herta’s 15th place finish. All outside the top 10, as happened in Texas between breakages and various incidents. Although at the image level it is difficult to remember a more Dantesque race, it is not the worst in the history of the team in terms of results, since in the Indy 500 last year none of his five cars went beyond the 16th place finish. In turn, in 2017 all four of his machines left Long Beach and Phoenix.
Photos: IndyCar Media