IndyCar
Will Power Wins Race 1 Of Honda Indy 200 At Mid-Ohio
LEXINGTON, OH (Pittsburgh Racing Now) – Verizon Team Penske’s Will Power started on the pole position and dominated race 1 of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES Honda Indy 200 Doubleheader Saturday at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
Power led 66-of-75-laps and crossed the start/finish line 7.4523 seconds ahead of his teammate Josef Newgarden to pick up career victory No. 38.
“This is probably the first race in 10 years that I’ve just gone hard the whole time,” said Power. “So many other races, we try and save fuel and play the strategy game, and a lot of times it just doesn’t work out. Today, we said, ‘Let’s just go hard.’ We said let’s just go hard and use my race pace and see what happens – and we won the race.”
Newgarden said after the race he didn’t have the pace to match power but was happy cut into Scott Dixon’s Championship points lead.
“It was a pretty straightforward day,” said Newgarden. “Where we started is where we finished with the PPG Chevrolet. But congrats to Will (Power) – he is still Will Power. He’s been knocked down a little bit this year, but he drove really well, and that was a clinic he put on out there today. I’m really happy for him, but we were just a couple of tenths slower than him all day long today. We just need to be a little better. We picked up some good points today, which is good.”
Andretti Autosports Alexander Rossi rounded out the podium with a third place finish in the No. 27 NAPA Auto Parts Honda.
“The 27 NAPA/AutoNation guys did a great job,” said Rossi. “The car was good. Had we been able to clear Ryan (Hunter-Reay) a bit sooner and get Josef (Newgarden), we could have had a shot at it. The car’s pace was really good.”
Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s Graham Rahal, racing at his home track, finished fourth in the No. 15 United Rentals Honda.
“I’m awfully proud of the United Rentals guys,” said Rahal. “I thought our strategy was great, and the car was very good in race trim. I think we were a little quicker than (Josef) Newgarden and (Alexander) Rossi, but I got held up by (Simon) Pagenaud there coming out of the pits on that last stop or otherwise I think we had him (Rossi).”
Dixon had an uncharacteristic start to his Mid-Ohio weekend, qualifying 17th and finishing 10th in the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda.
“It’s was just OK for us today in the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda,” said Dixon. “It just didn’t play out the way we thought it would. We went with a cautious move and made sure we ran the red tires first based on what we saw in qualifying. I guess looking back maybe we should have gone the other way, but who knows? I guess at the end of the day we made up seven or so spots, and that’s a small win.”
Dixon lost 20-points in the title fight and now leads Newgarden in the Championship standings by 76-points (436-360) with Pato O’Ward in third place with 316-points with four races left in the season.
Race 2 of the Honda Indy 200 takes place on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET and will be televised by NBC and can be heard on the INDYCAR Radio Network.
LOS ANGELES, CA (Pittsburgh Racing Now) – Fox Sports, the new television partner for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, is aggressively getting the word out that INDYCAR has a new home for 2025.
Sunday Fox Sports debuted the first promotional ad during the network’s NFL coverage, featuring two-time Series Champion and two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden.
This is the first of three promotional ads that Fox Sports will be rolling out between now and the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding on March 2, 2025. The remaining two spots will feature three-time and reigning series Champion Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing and the series most-popular driver Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren.
PLAINFIELD, IL (January 13, 2025) – Dale Coyne Racing is adding INDY NXT by Firestone Vice-Champion Jacob Abel to it’s 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES roster.
Abel will drive the No. 51 DCR Honda for the entire 2025 season beginning in March with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding.
“We are excited about running another Indy NXT by Firestone Vice-Champion here at Dale Coyne Racing,” said team owner Dale Coyne.
Abel, a Louisville Kentucky native, won three races in 2024 and finished on the podium in 10-of-14-races, which placed him second in the final standings – a steady progression from his 5th and 8th place Championship finishes the previous two seasons.
“It’s a lifelong dream come true… I can’t thank everyone who’s helped out along the way enough,” said Abel, who impressed in an evaluation day at Sebring last fall.
“We have watched Jacob over the years and did an evaluation test with him at the end of the 2023 season, where he showed great promise in these cars,” said Coyne. “It will be good to run one driver in the #51 car for the whole season, so that we can work on the consistency needed in the highly competitive NTT IndyCar Series.”
“I’ve had a great relationship with Dale for the last couple of years, and I’m very thankful for the confidence he has in me,” said Abel. “The team has some very experienced personnel joining and returning to the program, and I have full confidence they will deliver a great race car and help me learn the ropes of the NTT IndyCar Series. It’s going to be a fun but challenging journey, and I can’t wait to get started.”
Coyne said talks are progressing to fill the other vacant seat in the DCR stable.
“Our plans for our second driver are coming along quite nicely, and we will have more news on that in approximately three weeks.”
The 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season kicks off February 28 – March 2 with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding.
LEBANON, TN (September 15, 2024) – Andretti Global’s Colton Herta passed Pato O’Ward with four laps to go in the Sunday’s Big Machine Music City Grand Prix to claim his first oval NTT INDYCAR SERIES victory of his career.
“I’m so happy,” said Herta, whose No. 26 Gainbridge Honda crossed the finish line 1.8206-seconds ahead of O’Ward. “We knew we were going to have a hot rod in the race. It’s been an amazing year.”
The victory also vaulted Herta a couple of spots up in the final standings of the year.
“I just saw I finished second in the championship, which is awesome,” said Herta. “Hoping to do a little bit better next year.”
The second place finish was the sixth of the year for O’Ward and the twenty-sixth of his career and said afterwards he was lucky to finish there.
“Yeah, I wish I could have done it a little bit harder on him,” said O’Ward. “Those reds (Firestone alternate tires) at the end, I couldn’t see straight with so much vibrations. Could barely talk to the team with just how much was going on in the car. I think one more lap, Josef would have gotten me for sure. I was dying.”
Josef Newgarden finished third in the No. 2 Hitachi Chevy. The Tennessee native was not in the Championship hunt after being stripped of a season-opening win at St. Petersburg after he and teammate Scott McLaughlin were found to have illegal software that allowed them to use push-to-pass when others couldn’t.
“Team did a great job today,” said Newgarden. “They put a good car on the track, a great car. We’re going to come back next year and hopefully have a little different cadence would be nice. I’m going to be happy to leave all this in 2024.”
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou finished 11th and claimed his second straight Championship and third overall in four years. Dario Franchitti was the last driver to win three championships in four year, winning three straight for CGR from 2009-2011.
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