IndyCar News: O'Ward holds off Palou to win Honda Indy 200

McLaren Chevy driver Pato O’Ward beat Ganassi Honda driver Alex Palou out of the pits on the final pitstop and held on to win the Honda Indy 200 IndyCar race at Mid-Ohio.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Pato O’Ward – Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio – Photo By_ James Black

“That was a hard-fought race,” said winner O’Ward. “We were really, really strong on the reds and Palou was strong on the blacks. All I needed to do was just keep him at bay in the first stint, then put those reds on to try to close the gap and then get him on-track. It was a great job all weekend by the Arrow McLaren Chevrolet team. It has been a while. I know we won at St. Pete, but this is a proper win and we earned it this weekend. Hats off to Arrow McLaren; they gave me a rocket.”

Palou led the most laps from pole but had to settle for 2nd on the near impossible track to pass on, coming home 0.499s seconds behind O’Ward.

Alex Palou fastest but nowhere to pass – Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio – Photo By Paul Hurley

Penske Chevy driver Scott McLaughlin was third, over 16-seconds behind O’Ward.

Andretti Global driver Colton Herta was 4th, 24 seconds behind O’Ward.

Herta’s Andretti Global teammate Marcus Ericsson rounded out the top-5, 31-seconds behind O’Ward.

Palou and fellow front-row starter O’Ward both began the 80-lap race on Firestone primary tires. Palou established his superiority quickly on the harder, more durable rubber, building a lead of approximately six seconds before O’Ward’s first pit stop at the end of Lap 27. O’Ward took the softer, grippier Firestone alternate tires on his first stop, and Palou followed suit on his stop one lap later and stayed out front after the first pit cycle concluded.

Two-time and defending series champion Palou built a lead of 4.2 seconds over O’Ward by Lap 43, but then O’Ward’s car came to life on the red-sidewall Firestone alternate tires. O’Ward trimmed the lead to just five-tenths of a second by Lap 54, and the race and dueling pit strategies were on.

“We couldn’t make the alternate tires last,” Palou said. “Pato started catching us, and I couldn’t really do anything. I just destroyed my front tires.”

O’Ward made his second and final stop for new Firestone primary tires at the end of Lap 54, while Palou pitted a lap later for scuffed Firestone primary tires. Those stops were crucial. O’Ward’s was clean, while Palou stumbled exiting his pit box and lost a second.

“We had a slow stop,” Palou said. “I couldn’t really engage first gear. Maybe I was trying to get it too fast, so probably my fault. Anyways, good race. Had fun. Good, solid day.”

That delay dropped Palou just behind O’Ward when Palou exited the pits on Lap 57, and O’Ward kept the lead for the rest of the race.

2024 Honda Indy 200 Results

Pos	No	Name	Laps	Behind	Gap	Led	ST	Engine	Points	Team
1	5	Pato O’Ward	80	0.000s	0.000s	24	2	Chevy	259	Arrow McLaren
2	10	Alex Palou	80	0.4993	0.4993	53	1	Honda	329	Chip Ganassi Racing
3	3	Scott McLaughlin	80	16.1558	15.6565	3	6	Chevy	224	Team Penske
4	26	Colton Herta	80	24.8725	8.7167	0	4	Honda	249	Andretti Global w/Curb Agajanian
5	28	Marcus Ericsson	80	31.6809	6.8084	0	5	Honda	180	Andretti Global
6	7	Alexander Rossi	80	32.2443	0.5634	0	7	Chevy	226	Arrow McLaren
7	45	Christian Lundgaard	80	32.5714	0.3271	0	9	Honda	182	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
8	27	Kyle Kirkwood	80	35.2218	2.6504	0	14	Honda	234	Andretti Global
9	20	Christian Rasmussen	80	40.3182	5.0964	0	8	Chevy	104	Ed Carpenter Racing
10	14	Santino Ferrucci	80	46.9084	6.5902	0	21	Chevy	174	AJ Foyt Enterprises
11	12	Will Power	80	48.6546	1.7462	0	15	Chevy	281	Team Penske
12	66	David Malukas	80	49.3906	0.7360	0	3	Honda	32	Meyer Shank Racing
13	51	Toby Sowery	80	49.8866	0.4960	0	24	Honda	17	Dale Coyne Racing
14	60	Felix Rosenqvist	80	51.8162	1.9296	0	19	Honda	192	Meyer Shank Racing
15	8	Linus Lundqvist	80	53.4794	1.6632	0	10	Honda	128	Chip Ganassi Racing
16	41	Sting Ray Robb	80	54.7413	1.2619	0	25	Chevy	92	AJ Foyt Enterprises
17	11	Marcus Armstrong	80	55.8399	1.0986	0	11	Honda	142	Chip Ganassi Racing
18	15	Graham Rahal	80	58.8681	3.0282	0	18	Honda	139	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
19	21	Rinus VeeKay	80	60.4550	1.5869	0	20	Chevy	125	Ed Carpenter Racing
20	6	Nolan Siegel	80	65.8591	5.4041	0	16	Chevy	35	Arrow McLaren
21	4	Kyffin Simpson	80	67.0413	1.1822	0	23	Honda	97	Chip Ganassi Racing
22	78	Agustin Canapino	79	1 LAPS	3.8294	0	22	Chevy	94	Juncos Hollinger Racing
23	77	Romain Grosjean	79	1 LAPS	7.2119	0	12	Chevy	151	Juncos Hollinger Racing
24	30	Pietro Fittipaldi	79	1 LAPS	2.5140	0	27	Honda	103	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
25	2	Josef Newgarden	79	1 LAPS	5.4074	0	17	Chevy	186	Team Penske
26	18	Jack Harvey	79	1 LAPS	24.0784	0	26	Honda	75	Dale Coyne Racing
27	9	Scott Dixon	40	Mechanical	20 LAPS	0	13	Honda	258	Chip Ganassi Racing

Race Statistics
Winner’s average speed: 116.071 mph
Time of race: 1:33:22.6191
Margin of victory: 0.4993 of a second
Cautions: 1 for 2 laps
Lead changes: 4 among 3 drivers

Lap Leaders:
Palou, Alex 1 – 28
McLaughlin, Scott 29 – 30
Palou, Alex 31 – 55
McLaughlin, Scott 56
O’Ward, Pato 57 – 80

NTT INDYCAR SERIES Point Standings:
Palou 329, Power 281, O’Ward 259, Dixon 258, Herta 249, Kirkwood 234, Rossi 226, McLaughlin 224, Rosenqvist 192, Newgarden 186, Lundgaard 182, Ericsson 180, Ferrucci 174, Grosjean 151, Armstrong 142, Rahal 139, Lundqvist 128, VeeKay 125, Rasmussen 104, Fittipaldi 103, Simpson 97, Canapino 94, Robb 92, Theo Pourchaire 75, Harvey 75, Tom Blomqvist 46, Siegel 45, Callum Ilott 39, Malukas 32, Luca Ghiotto 27, Helio Castroneves 26, Conor Daly 21, Kyle Larson 21, Takuma Sato 19, Sowery 17, Ed Carpenter 14, Tristan Vautier 12, Colin Braun 10, Ryan Hunter-Reay 6, Marco Andretti 5, Katherine Legge 5