Simon Pagenaud increased his lead over Will Power in the IndyCar standings to a 58-point margin with only four races remaining in the season thanks to winning Sunday at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course’s Honda Indy 200.
In a race featuring seven lead changes, Pagenaud was in first for the opening 16 laps and the final six, but only was in front for one other lap in the race.
Mikhail Aleshin held first place for 33 laps in the event, but was doomed by penalties in pit road that wound up dropping him to 17th place. After Aleshin’s mishap, rookie Conor Daly took the lead for 22 laps, but would be passed in the final five laps and faded to sixth place. Power took second in the race, while Carlos Munoz finished third, defending champion Graham Rahal was fourth and James Hinchcliffe placed fifth.
Scott Dixon, who has five Mid-Ohio wins to his name, had a rough outing. He was involved in an early collision with Helio Castroneves and had to eventually withdraw on the 27th lap with mechanical issues.
The IndyCar race capped a busy weekend of action on the Morrow County race track, as five different support series all competed at least twice over the three days.
Santiago Urrutia had a dominating weekend in the Indy Lights series, winning both races. On Saturday, he held the lead for all 30 laps to win by over six seconds against Andre Negrao. Dean Stoneman was third. In Sunday’s race, Urrutia once again led the entire way, this time 38 laps. Stoneman was second and Negrao finished third.
There was also a two-time winner in the Pro Mazda series, with Nico Jamin finishing first on both Saturday races. In the first one, he led all 23 laps, while Aaron Telitz was second and Will Owen took third. Jamin also led the entire distance in the second race, with Owen running second and Telitz following in third.
There were three races in the USF2000 series, with one taking place on each of the three days. Continuing the trend of the support series races, the same driver took the checkered flag in each of the races.
Anthony Martin won on Friday, leading all 19 laps in the process, while Victor Franzoni was second and Luke Gabin took third. Martin also was in front for all 21 laps of Saturday’s race. Parker Thompson finished second and Franzoni claimed third. On Sunday, Martin once again was in first from beginning to end, this time for 22 laps. Thompson ran second, only failing to take first by three-tenths of a second. Garth Rickards placed third.
There also were several races featuring the Pirelli World Cup. Due to stormy weather conditions Friday evening, the first of the GTS series’ races was postponed.
On Saturday, they were able to compete, with Lawson Aschenbach leading the distance to earn the win. Nate Stacy was second and Brett Sandberg claimed third place.
On both Saturday and Sunday were races featuring both the GT-GTA groups and the GT Cup. Saturday saw Alvaro Parente finish as the top overall and GT driver, while Michael Schein was the first GTA driver (ninth overall). The GT Cup race was won by Alec Udall, who was 12th overall.
There was a change at the top on Sunday, as the top GT and overall driver in the day’s race was Michael Cooper, with Parente not figuring into the mix, finishing a lap behind. Schein (10th place) and Udell (18th) repeated as GTA and GT Cup winners, respectively.
