Strategic pit box choices for Mid-Ohio IndyCar race

The tight confines of Mid-Ohio have once again led to some unusual pit box selections for this weekend’s ninth IndyCar race of the season.

The Lexington venue is not only narrow on the race track proper but also features a short pit lane, and hence crews have to cram themselves into the 35-foot (10.7-metre) boxes.

Colton Herta’s #26 Andretti Autosport crew have chosen Box 4 despite having the first pick thanks to qualifying on pole position for the previous race of the season, at Road America.

IndyCar rules are such that pit lane order changes from event to event, with crews choosing in order of qualifying results for the previous race weekend.

Herta would ordinarily be expected to take Box 1 for the weekend after a pole position, but Car #26’s choice for Mid-Ohio is certainly not unprecedented.

In fact, it matches the choice for then-team-mate Alexander Rossi 12 months ago, when his crew also used first pick to take Box 4.

Then and now, 27 cars have been entered for the race, and there are once again four boxes squeezed between pit exit and the first gap in the wall, as opposed to three in 2021.

Herta’s crew has presumably decided that the clearer entry into Box 4 is more valuable than what some consider a relatively tight exit from Box 1.

The crew of his fellow Road America front row qualifier, the McLaren IndyCar Team’s Pato O’Ward (Car #5), has nevertheless decided that Box 1 is the next-best option.

However, after Alex Palou qualified third a fortnight ago, the #10 Chip Ganassi Racing crew has propped for Box 5, directly behind the gap in the wall and hence making for an easier exit than from Box 2.

Box 2 is taken by Josef Newgarden (#2 Team Penske), who qualified fourth at Road America, and Box 3 by Alexander Rossi (#7 McLaren), who qualified fifth.

The other driver to make the Fast Six at Road America, Kyle Kirkwood (#27 Andretti), is all the way back in Box 11, but that so happens to be directly in front of another gap in the wall.

Christian Lundgaard’s #45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing crew used seventh pick for Box 6, but Marcus Armstrong’s #11 Ganassi crew used eighth pick for Box 12.

Six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon is in the very last box, which has a clear entry, having qualified 23rd at Road America.

Pit box selection was also highly strategic two races ago on the new Detroit street circuit, which has a double-sided pit lane, and will be something to watch out for again in a fortnight given Toronto’s snakes through a car park.

Practice at Mid-Ohio starts on Friday (Saturday morning AEST).

Mid-Ohio IndyCar pit assignments