IndyCar Mid-Ohio: O’Ward beats Palou by 0.5s after thrilling duel

Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward fended off Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou to win the first race of the hybrid era in a thriller at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

The 25-year-old Mexican came back from over a 6s deficit to lead 24 of 80 laps and capture victory by 0.4993s at the 2.258-mile, 13-turn natural terrain road course.

It was the second victory of the season for O’Ward, who was credited with the St. Petersburg win following Josef Newgarden’s disqualification in the push-to-pass scandal. It also marks the sixth win of O’Ward’s career.

Palou, who started on pole after beating O’Ward by 0.0024s in qualifying, fell behind at the start of the final stint after opening the race with dominant pace to lead a race-high 53 laps. But a poor second stop cost him crucial time, and allowed O’Ward to gain track position.

Scott McLaughlin took a distant third to join O’Ward and Palou on the podium. Andretti Global’s Colton Herta and Marcus Ericsson captured fourth and fifth, respectively.

Palou continues to hold the championship lead following Mid-Ohio with 329 points. O’Ward moves up to second with 259 points.

The Race 

The first race laps of the hybrid era began under caution after the No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda of Scott Dixon stopped on course in Turn 5 due to an electrical glitch that shut down his engine. A six-time winner at Mid-Ohio, he was pushed behind the wall before the green flag waved.

Dixon came into the weekend sitting third in the championship standings, 32 points off leader and team-mate Palou.

Palou led the field to the green flag at the alternate start finish line on the back straight on lap 3, making a clean getaway through Turn 4 and putting an early gap on the field.

Buried in the middle of the pack after starting 17th, Penske’s Josef Newgarden opted for an early pit stop – putting him on the three-stop strategy – on lap 12 and switched from the softer alternates to a set of lightly-used harder primary tires.

By lap 18, the lead for Palou grew to 5.5s over fellow front-row mate O’Ward, with Malukas and Herta still in tow running third and fourth, respectively. Malukas was a distant 12.8s back.  Dixon was able to return from his suspected early hybrid issue, albeit over 20 laps down.

O’Ward made his first pit stop on lap 28, with Malukas following. Although O’Ward got away clean after swapping from primary tires to alternates, Malukas stalled getting out of his pit box to drop him out of the leading battle.

Palou pitted from the lead the following lap, opting to switch to alternates and handing off the top spot to McLaughlin, who pitted on lap 30 and gave the lead back to Palou.

The top five after the first wave of pit stops was led by Palou, with O’Ward at 5s back, followed by McLaughlin, Herta and Newgarden.  

Newgarden handed the fifth position to Ericsson after diving in for his second pit stop on lap 36, remaining on primaries and returning to the track 15th.

 The lead for Palou began to shrink as O’Ward closed the gap to within 3.5s by lap 45. Although O’Ward got to within 0.4s of Palou over the next few laps, he dove to pit lane on lap 54 and changed to the harder primary tires.  

Palou then came in on lap 55 and had a slow exit after receiving a set of alternates as he struggled to engage first gear. O’Ward steamed past Palou, with the former carrying on-track momentum with a pass on the outside of Turn 1, leaving a trail of kicked up dust for Palou to drive through.

After McLaughlin brought his No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet into the pits on lap 56, the lead was handed to O’Ward, who held a 1.6s advantage on Palou.

Following the second wave of pit stops for the field, the top five was led by O’Ward, followed by Palou, McLaughlin, Ericsson and Newgarden. Herta sat sixth, ahead of Chip Ganassi Racing rookie Linus Lundqvist.

Following a brief off track excursion, Newgarden made his final pit stop on lap 62 and swapped to the softer compound. Race Control handed him a drive-through penalty after a pit lane speed violation, compounding his rough weekend.

The battle for the lead began to heat up with 15 laps to go as Palou caught up to the rear wing of O’Ward. However, it widened back moments later as Palou got slightly out of shape after touching the curbing in Turn 13.  

O’Ward and Palou remained within 0.5s of each other, with McLaughlin a distant third at 17s behind with eight laps to go.

Traffic came into play as O’Ward caught backmarkers Agustin Canapino and CGR’s Kyffin Simpson, which brought Palou closer at just 0.3s behind with seven laps to go.

O’Ward was still unable to move by the backmarkers as the laps ticked down but managed to keep Palou behind him to record a hard-fought victory by just under half a second.

IndyCar Mid-Ohio results