LEXINGTON, OH (Pittsburgh Racing Now) – Alex Palou won his third straight NTT INDYCAR SERIES race taking the victory in the Honda Indy 200 at the Mid-Ohio Sport Car Complex.  Palou beat teammate Scott Dixon by ?.????-seconds to pick up his fourth win in five races.

“We knew that we had the pace, but we needed clean air,” said Palou, who started fourth.  “That’s why we went for the primaries at the beginning, which we thought it was probably a bit risky, but if we were able to cross the first lap on position, we were going to be good for our strategy.”

The strategy involved staying out longer on the Primary Firestone Tires and leapfrogging front row starters Colton Herta and Graham Rahal when it came time for Palou and the No. 10 American Legion ‘Be The One’ Honda to come to the pits for their first service.

“We saved a little bit of fuel,” explained Palou. “Waited until the 27 struggled a little bit on tires. We were able to pass and then just run a bit longer than Colton and Rahal to get the lead.”

Palou led 48-of-80-laps en route to Chip Ganassi Racing’s record-tying 12th win at Mid-Ohio, tying Team Penske.

Dixon started sixth in the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda and his second place finish was his best of the 2023 season, which moved him up to second place in the Championship standings.

“It was definitely a good day,” said Dixon, who trails Palou by 110-points in the title fight. “The pace of the PNC Bank No. 9 was really good. Fuel mileage was super easy, so Honda definitely stepped it up here this weekend. But huge credit to the 10 car and obviously Alex. He is on a hell of a run.”

Team Penske’s Will Power finished third in the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet.

“Solid day. No mistakes,” said Power. “Yeah, not much more we could have got out of the day. That was kind of what we had. Obviously Palou is very quick.”

Power, the defending Series Champion, and Dixon, a six-time Series Champion, marveled at how Palou and his team has been able to outpace everyone in the most-competitive open wheel series in the world.

LEXINGTON, OH (Pittsburgh Racing Now) – Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta is on the pole position for Sunday’s NTT INDYCAR SERIES Honda Indy 200 presented by The 2023 Accord Hybrid.

Herta’s fast lap of 1 minute, 6.3096 seconds around the 13-turn, 2.258-mile permanent road course in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda was just .0432 seconds quicker than Graham Rahal turned in the No. 15 Fifth Third Bank Honda.

The pole position is the second straight for Herta, who won the pole in the series last race at Road America and 11th of his career.

“Really happy to get two in a row,” said Herta, who credited using the Primary Firestone Tire and not the Alternate tire choice as the difference maker.  “After practice 1 it didn’t seem like a big enough jump, and it got a little bit bigger in qualifying than it was in practice, but we were in a position where we weren’t happy with our first set of tires that we ran on reds so we didn’t want to run on them and we didn’t want to run on our second, so we only had one choice, and it kind of made the choice for us, and I think it was the right one.”

Rahal, who was born an hour south of the track, was obviously disappointed to miss out on the pole position.

“I’m not going to lie — it was a good lap, and I knew it was solid,” said Rahal said. “I was bummed to not get a pole. But man, I was just walking up the stairs wondering where four/hundredths is. But at the same time that’s INDYCAR racing today. I think the top four of us were only separated by less than a tenth. It’s unbelievable.”

The Firestone Fast 6 were all powered by Honda Performance Development engines, the first time one manufacturer has swept the final qualifying group since 2016 when Chevrolet did at Watkins Glen International. It was Honda’s first such sweep since the format was implemented more than a decade ago.

“I just think they’re (Honda) doing a really good job right now of pushing the envelope again, you know, more.”

Herta’s teammate Kyle Kirkwood qualified third in the No. 27 AutoNation Honda with a fast lap of 1-minute, 6.3693 seconds.

INDYCAR Championship Points Leader Alex Palou, who has won three of the last four races, will start fourth in the No. 10 American Legion Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.

“I’m really happy, I would say this is my best qualifying here at Mid-Ohio,” said Palou. “Last couple of years I wasn’t able to make it to the Fast 6. Only a tenth off, really close, we tried hard, but just missed a little bit on my best lap. Happy to be starting P4 and with 80 laps to go, it’ll be an exciting race tomorrow.”

Rahal’s teammate Christian Lundgaard will start fifth in the No. 45 Hyvee Honda.

Palou’s teammate, Six-time Series Champion Scott Dixon will line up sixth in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.

“The first sector went really well, but second one was kinda tight,” said Dixon. “I think the car had better speed. Honestly, I think we just went with the wrong tire strategy at the end there, using maybe the wrong set of reds. It looked like the blacks should have been the way we went, because we ran a lot quicker in Q1 on a new set of blacks. I think that would have got us maybe fighting for the front there. Starting sixth, the car’s got good pace.”

Meyer Shank Racing’s Simon Pagenaud was held out of qualifying as a precaution following a scary accident in Turn 4 during Saturday morning’s practice that saw the No. 60 AutoNation/SiriusXM Honda suffer brake failure and barrel-roll through the gravel trap multiple times before coming to a stop against a tire barrier.

A wild ride for @simonpagenaud.

Another angle of Simon's scary incident from Practice 2 at @Mid_Ohio.#INDYCAR // #Honda200 pic.twitter.com/gtW6WFLrtp

— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) July 1, 2023

The 2016 INDYCAR Series Champion was evaluated and released by the INDYCAR Medical team, although per protocol he was not cleared to return to action Saturday. He will be evaluated Sunday morning. The team has asked series veteran Conor Daly to be on standby in the event Pagenaud can’t drive in the race.

The next on-track activity will be Sunday’s morning warm-up from 10:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Pre-race activities start at 1:00 p.m. with the green flag dropping at 1:30 p.m.  The race will be televised on USA Network and Peacock and can be heard on the INDYCAR Radio Network and SiriusXM Satellite Radio.

Mid Ohio Starting Lineup

INDIANAPOLIS, IN (Pittsburgh Racing Now) – Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden passed Chip Ganassi Racing’s Marcus Ericsson on the backstretch going into Turn 3, on the last lap, to win Sunday’s 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500.

“Everyone just kept asking me ‘why I haven’t won this race?’ and they look at you like you are a failure if you don’t win it and I wanted to win it so bad I knew we could, I knew we were capable,” said Newgarden.  “This is a huge team effort as everybody knows.”

The last lap shootout was set-up after the race’s third red flag of the day following a caution on Lap 196.  Ericsson and Santino Ferrucci split Newgarden on the restart and Ericsson was in front of Newgarden when the yellow flag flew.  If NTT INDYCAR SERIES officials didn’t red flag the race, Ericsson would have back-to-back 500 wins.

“I think I did everything right behind the wheel,” said Ericsson.  “I had an awesome restart.  I think I caught Josef completely off guard and filled a gap and got the lead.”

Ericsson was not happy with Race Control’s decision to red flag the race for one green flag lap.

“I don’t think there were enough laps to go to do what we did,” said Ericsson.  “I don’t think it’s safe to go out of the pits on cold tires for a restart when half the field is sort of still trying to get out on track when we go green.  I think we did everything right today.  I’m very proud of the No. 8 crew and everyone at Chip Ganassi Racing. If they (INDYCAR) wanted red they should have called red earlier. I think when they kept it going, then I think they should have called it.”

The red flag mattered to Newgarden, who was the victim on the previous restart, so he knew where he wanted to be.

“One lap to go you want to be second,” said Newgarden.  “It actually worked out great that I got a run on him on the backstraight I knew that if I could clear him getting into three maybe we could hold him off because he was so fast on the straights.”

A.J. Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci brought the No. 14 Homes for Troops Chevrolet home in third place for the four-time 500 winner.

“We had such a great day, I’m very happy for the boys.” said Ferrucci.  “Sitting there in third it’s tough. There is nothing you can do but watch. We worked so hard to be where we were. Just bummed because I think — I’m sure Marcus thinks the same thing I do. We definitely, all three of us could have won it at any point in time. Yeah, it’s bittersweet.”

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou rallied for a fourth place finish after starting from the pole, leading several laps in the first half of the race, and being sent back to 30th place after being hit in the pits by Rinus Veekay midway through the race.

“It was a tough day for myself, for the team,” said Palou.  “Nothing we could have done differently there on pit lane. We restarted thirtieth and came home P4. We had a really fast car and tried to make the most of it.”

Arrow McLaren Racing’s Alexander Rossi, the 2016 Indianapolis 500 winner, rounded out the Top 5 in the No. 7 Chevy.

Palou leaves Indy with the Championship points lead (219) followed by Marcus Ericsson in 2nd, 20-points back.

The next race for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES is the Detroit Grand Prix June 4th at 3:00 p.m.

Indy 500 Results