Round 9: Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio. Lexington, Ohio. July 1-3.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Round 9: Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio. Lexington, Ohio. July 1-3.

The 2022 IndyCar season returns this weekend, after its three week break, with Round 9 at Mid-Ohio.

Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, was the idea of local business man Les Griebling, who convinced a number of friends from the local business community, to invest in a road course for weekend sports car racing. The
course, which followed the contours of the land, was designed by Griebling and was opened in 1962.

From 1970 to 1976, Mid-Ohio became an event on the SCCA/USAC Formula 5000 Championship calendar and from 1977 to 1980, hosted a round of the revived Can-Am series. AOWR returned when CART initially raced at Mid-Ohio in 1980, with Johnny Rutherford taking victory in the Chaparral-Cosworth DFX.

The track was bought by road racing enthusiast Jim Trueman in 1981, the owner of Red Roof Inns and Mid-Ohio underwent its first major renovation. Permanent grandstands, new pit garages with spectator balconies, a media/hospitality center, underground tunnels and a new paddock were built as well as the Goodyear Tower. CART returned in 1983 racing there until 2003.

Mid-Ohio underwent further renovation in 2006, with the whole track and pit lane being completely resurfaced and adding a 75,000 seat grandstand. In 2007, after a 3 year absence from AOWR, Mid-Ohio returned as a venue for the IndyCar series.

In March 2011, the track was purchased from Truesports by Green Savoree Racing Promotions, who promote the IndyCar street races at St Petersburg and Toronto.

More recently, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Mid-Ohio was initially rescheduled for August 9 and 10, hosting Round 7 of the then revised 2020 calendar, as well as being the season's fourth double header. It was also to be a ticketed event. However, due to concerns with social distancing the race was initially dropped, though promoters Green Savoree Racing Promotions hoped it would be reinstated at a later date.

On August 1, Ohio governor Mike DeWine decided the race could go ahead on the weekend of Sept 12 - 13, hosting Rounds 10 and 11 of the now updated revised calendar. It remained a ticketed event, though capacity was capped at 6000 for the weekend.

Some Trivia:
Driver with most wins, Scott Dixon: 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2019.
Team with most wins, Chip Ganassi Racing: 1996, 1997, 1999, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2019.

Track Layout:
Mid-Ohio features two track configurations, one of 2.25 miles (3.621 km) and 13 turns, the other of 2.4 miles (3.862 kms) and 15 turns. The track runs clockwise, with the start line located on the back stretch after Turn
3 and the finish line in front of the pits. In 1963 the original sports car course was modified, as drivers were concerned it was too slow. Oak Tree Bend, which literally went around an oak tree, was removed and replaced
by the Thunder Valley section.

In 1990, there were further modifications, with the track being widened, creating the 13-turn, 2.250 mile (3.621 km) layout, adopted by CART and which is now used by IndyCar. During the 2006 renovations, new link roads were added to the track's famous Keyhole section, creating three separate road course configurations.

Original track layout:



1963-1985 track layout:



Current IndyCar track layout:


Length: 2.250 Miles (3.621 km)
Turns: 13

Lap record:
Simon Pagenaud, 30 July, 2016. 1:03.870, 127.271 mph (204.822) km/h.
Team Penske,
Dallara DW12-Chevrolet IndyCar V6.
Verizon IndyCar Series.

Last year's race:
https://www.motorsport.com/indycar/n...ought/6625734/

Pole
Josef Newgarden, 01:06.6739, 121.919 mph ( 196.209 km/h)
Team Penske
Dallara IR18-Chevy IndyCar V6

Winner
Josef Newgarden
Team Penske
Dallara IR18-Chevy IndyCar V6

Laps: 80
Distance: 180.64 miles (290.7119 km)
Race Time: 1:39:58.8551.
Average Speed: 108.405 mph (174.461 km/h)
Fastest lap: Jack Harvey, Meyer Shank Racing. Lap 65, 68.7341 sec. 118.264 mph (190.327 km/h)

Cautions: 2
Lap: 1 - 2, 4 - 7.

-

Practice and Qualifications

Practice 1.
Friday, Jul 1. 3:30 PM - 4:45 PM ET

Practice 2.
Saturday, Jul 2. 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM ET

Qualifications - Round 1 Group 1
Saturday, Jul 2. 2:45 PM - 2:55 PM ET

Qualifications - Round 1 Group 2
Saturday, Jul 2. 3:05 PM - 3:15 PM ET

Qualifications - Round 2
Saturday, Jul 2
3:25 PM - 3:35 PM ET

-

TV race coverage:
NBC: 12:45pm ET, 4:45pm UTC, 5:45pm BST
Sky Sports F1: 5:30pm BST

[NaBUru38]

Ouch that's an early race start. I will probably miss all or at least most of it.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Qualifying is underway, with the Fast Six. If you have access to INDYCAR LIVE!, you can watch it live.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Qualifying result:

Pato O'Ward gets Pole, the 9th different Pole, in 9 different races so far this season. This is the first time this has happened since 1961. Scott McLaughlin completes a Chevy front row.

[mstets]

Nine different teams represented in the fast 12 by my count. That isn't a statistic that I have followed but I'm guessing that it's fairly unusual. I'm not sure that it is a true indication of the pace of many in the rest of the field, as much as it indicates who was able to get clean laps late in their qualifying sessions.



What could be done to even out the conditions for qualifying? In my day the sessions were long enough that traffic was not much of a factor. I would like to see them go back to an hour long (no knock out) qualifying session and get a better representation of the fastest cars at the front of the grid. I don't think that the knock out format adds anything to the show. In the CART era there were plenty of late session fast times recorded, and I don't remember traffic being much of a factor.

[bjohnsonsmith]

The start is waved off.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Clean start second time round.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Rosenqvist out with a blown engine. First FCY.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Kirkwood out, 2nd FCY.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Cautions breed cautions. Harvey runs into Kellett who goes off. 3rd FCY.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Pato O'Ward grinds to a halt by the pit exit, just having made his stop. FCY. Not the race AMSP envisioned, with both cars out.

[bjohnsonsmith]

5th caution, as Grosjean and Rossi bang wheels, with Grosjean going into the tyre barrier.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Congrats to Scott McLaughlin, ending that winless spell.

[broadrun96]

Had to watch on a delay, didn't realize it was so early today. Bit just ok overall with moments that were good racing, think NBC missed a lot. Was a decent number of oh look, a pass at the corner of the screen. Good side by side with only a few stupid moments

Ok, has McLaren decided to be the Dyson of Indy racing? Seems like they alone have engine and electrical problems at this rate. Pato sounding like he wants to blame Chevy for the engine is a cheap cheap shot unless he was talking sht about McLaren. It's like Andretti trying to be cute with radio, multiple times they've missed pitting because the code words were wrong. Just say pit, no one cares enough to listen to each other's radio at a yellow. Penske and Ganassi win cause they get rid of the little stuff with consistency.

McLaughlin seemed to be the class of the race, any time he was on it he was fine and could take anything any one tried.

Good day of good tracks for all series, even NASCAR with Road America got involved so time to compare who wants to watch what with Indy and IMSA getting OTA coverage

[joeb]

I enjoyed the race overall but certainly not a classic. Feel really bad for Felix and Pato, through no fault of their own they missed out on what seemed like sure top fives.

One comment on the officiating though, when Kirkwood went off and they decided to wait to throw the yellow until the three cars you hadn't pitted on the previous lap had the chance to pit. At first the announcers mentioned that this was something IndyCar does to make sure everyone has a fair shot, but really it made all of the early pit stops a disadvantage and gave the folks who got in while the yellow was being called an advantage.

And WTF was going on with the andretti cars today? Why do they all hate each other? Rossi and grosjean were the worst, hit each other multiple times as well as other cars. I can't even imagine what they're going to do after the race as a team.

sent during haircut

[bjohnsonsmith]

Not a bad race but not a great race either. Shame both AMSP retired, as it sort of took the edge off.

As for AMSP, that's a weekend they would rather forget. Both cars qualified well, but then to have both go out like that is very harsh. However that was a good, solid drive from McLaughlin, getting out of the winless doldrums and good to see Power get up onto the podium, after a bad start that sent him to the back of the field. Both Penske and Chevrolet will be pleased with that result.

What is going on at Andretti Autosport, particularly with Grosjean and Rossi? Michael Andretti needs to sort that out before Toronto.

[broadrun96]

From the way Andretti is covered it appears they are each little kingdoms and no one talks. It always sounds like setup conversation is a trade-off between the teams and they have to go ask cause there's no prior discussions. Feels like upper management may be a bit distracted trying to spend others' money to buy more toys and haven't put people between Mikey and the teams, ala Tim Cindric/Chad Knaus at Penske/Hendrick.

[fieldodreams79]

it was indeed a goat show from Andretti drivers, which made for some entertainment but this one had too many FCYs, for my liking.

Speaking of goat shows, i wonder if Will Power's boneheaded move on the first lap actually helped him by getting off strategy.

Good work from Penske and Scotty Mac.

[broadrun96]

Well that's not good for Indy, or IMSA but it will be over there too.

Cup on USA drew almost 2 million, F1 drew 1.25 mil on ESPN2, SRX on CBS at night drew 975k, Indy on NBC managed 877k TV only, but chance of 100k streamers? Seems even on OTA the numbers ain't great. Next round ain't gonna be great either with it being Peacock only.

https://racer.com/2022/07/06/tv-rati...a-silverstone/

[chunterer]

Pato must be gettimg pretty peeved with AMSP. Last weekend it was reliability, accepted, but I just don't see them matching his ability to challenge for the title again?

Why are they so hellbent on trying to sign more lead drivers? Could it be that Pato is moving on within Mclaren next year after all?

[Teretonga]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Pato must be gettimg pretty peeved with AMSP. Last weekend it was reliability, accepted, but I just don't see them matching his ability to challenge for the title again?

Why are they so hellbent on trying to sign more lead drivers? Could it be that Pato is moving on within Mclaren next year after all?

It seems Seidl would like to sign Piastri so Pato is staying where he is....

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by Teretonga

It seems Seidl would like to sign Piastri so Pato is staying where he is....

That is one of many rumours doing the rounds!