O’Ward beats Palou in big Mid-Ohio fightback, McLaughlin third

The first event of IndyCar’s hybrid era looked somewhat similar to those which had come before it, except for a technical drama which saw Scott Dixon miss the start by 20 laps and he was ultimately classified last.

His Chip Ganassi Racing team-mate, Palou, looked untouchable in the opening stint but was caught by O’Ward and then passed during the second pit stop cycle.

The Mexican drove the #5 Chevrolet on to a 0.4993s victory after 80 laps, despite being tucked under the rear wing of another Ganassi car in backmarker Kyffin Simpson at the finish, and no help from Cautions.

Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin took the chequered flag a distant third, from Andretti Global team-mates Colton Herta and Marcus Ericsson.

As for Penske’s other entries, Will Power hardly recovered from qualifying and ended up 11th while Josef Newgarden was 25th after three pit stops, an off at Turn 11, and three penalties.

Power remains second in the series standings but is now 48 points behind Palou, with O’Ward up to third at another 22 back and Dixon fourth.

IndyCar’s hybrid era was off to an ironic start when Dixon stopped on-track before the warm up lap.

Although the hybrid system allows self-starting, neither he nor the recovery crew were able to fire up the #9 Honda and it was towed off-track.

The first two laps were officially run under Caution, but it was still double-file for the ‘restart’ on Lap 3, at which point pole-sitter Palou (#10 Honda) led O’Ward and David Malukas (#66 Meyer Shank Racing Honda).

Herta (#26 Andretti Global w/ Curb-Agajanian Honda) retained fourth, holding off McLaughlin (#3 Chevrolet) at Turn 6, just after the Turn 4 restart zone.

As Palou pulled clear, some of those running deep in the pack started to roll the dice on early stops.

Newgarden (#2 Chevrolet), who qualified 18th, was effectively 16th when he pitted on Lap 11 to swap to blacks.

With 20 laps in the books, Palou led O’Ward by five seconds and Malukas by 13, as Power (#12 Chevrolet) ran on graining reds in 12th after qualifying 16th.

Dixon returned to the track on Lap 21 after his Ganassi crew recharged the hybrid system, as Palou’s lead grew beyond six seconds.

O’Ward had pared it back to 5.6s when he stopped on Lap 27 and was followed in by Malukas, who had drifted to 16 seconds from the lead.

Both took reds and O’Ward had to wait to exit his box for Malukas, who then stalled when he was supposed to depart.

Palou was in a lap later for reds, with a small delay changing the right-front, and he was ‘followed’ into the lane by Herta at some distance.

That gave McLaughlin the lead until he finally stopped on Lap 30 for reds, meaning Palou was back in the lead by more than five seconds relative to O’Ward.

McLaughlin was 12 seconds off the pace but up to third, from Herta and the three-stopping Newgarden, with Malukas 13th and Power 18th.

Newgarden pitted for another set of blacks on Lap 36 as O’Ward started to catch Palou.

Only a little of that could be explained by traffic, given the Mclaren driver had slashed it to less than a second on Lap 52 but McLaughlin was almost 14 seconds behind Car #10.

O’Ward pitted from half a second behind on Lap 54 to swap back to blacks as Palou had to pass Power on-track with the Australian having just made his second stop.

Whether that delayed Palou on his in lap or not, the 2023 champ was certainly slow to exit his box and O’Ward swept around his outside upon the rejoin in a change for the effective lead.

The Mexican was officially leading by 1.6s once McLaughlin pitted on Lap 56 and resumed in third, with Marcus Ericsson (#28 Andretti Global Honda) fourth, Newgarden fifth, Power 15th, and Malukas 16th.

Newgarden then ran off at Turn 11 and, while he retained position, he lost some time relative to Ericsson.

He made his final pit stop on Lap 62 and resumed 11th, just ahead of Power and Malukas, as Palou closed within a second of O’Ward.

They were nose-to-tail on Lap 66 while Newgarden lost a lap when he had to serve a drive-through for speeding in pit lane, then was issued another for speeding while serving the first one, and then a stop-go penalty.

Palou touched the dirt and got loose exiting Turn 13 on Lap 67 as he started to lose touch with the #5 McLaren entry.

He fell 1.3s back before the tide turned yet again as O’Ward tailed backmarkers including Palou’s team-mate Simpson (#4 Honda).

The top two were nose-to-tail with three laps to go, having still not cleared Agustin Canapino (#78 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet) and Simpson.

Romain Grosjean (#77 JHR Chevrolet) spun off and hit the barriers at Turn 9 but was able to drive away, although it was a somewhat close call on the rejoin as the leaders arrived on the scene.

Canapino ran out of fuel and was passed by the leader on their final lap, but O’Ward had enough for Palou to take a first on-track victory of the year, after inheriting the St Petersburg victory due to the Penske disqualifications.

McLaughlin finished 16 seconds in arrears, from Herta, Ericsson, Alexander Rossi (#7 McLaren Chevrolet), Christian Lundgaard (#45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda), Kyle Kirkwood (#27 Andretti Honda), Christian Rasmussen (#20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet), and Santino Ferrucci (#14 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet).

Power ended up 11th, Malukas 12th, Newgarden 25th, and Dixon 27th with 40 laps to his name.

A double-header at Iowa Speedway takes place next weekend (July 12-14, local time).

Results: Race, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course

Race winner: 80 laps

Series points