The NTT IndyCar line spent Independence Day weekend at the Mid-Ohio Motor Speedway for the Honda Indy 200 in Mid-Ohio. Those who have watched can easily forget that there is an internal raceTeam fireworks on the track between Andretti Autosport drivers.
The race soon fell apart for the Arrow McLaren SP despite their excellent starting position. Felix Rosenqvist started the race from fourth and worked his way up to third, but he had a late engine problem on lap 10 of 80. His teammate Pato O’Ward will start to have problems. with his powertrain more than ten laps later.
Penske’s Scott McLaughlin inherited the lead after O’Ward was pitted. Later in the race, O’Ward’s car failed to come out of the pit on the last stop. McLaughlin faced pressure from Ganassi’s Álex Palou throughout the race. He held off the defending champion to take home his second win of the season and his IndyCar career.
The race to win mostly took place against the backdrop of the Andretti Autosport boom. The long-running tension between Alexander Rossi and Romain Grosjean finally boiled over. Rossi contacted Grosjean three times during the race. The second time the couple went into a gravel trap. The last time Rossi hit Grosjean cautiously.
Grosjean will also hit his other teammate, Colton Herta. Rossi also ran into Andretti’s fourth driver, Devlin DeFranceco. The top-ranked Andretti driver will be Herta in 15th place. After the race, Grosjean called Rossi “an absolute idiot” while Rossi insisted the clashes were just racing incidents. It will be interesting to see how Andretti deals with their drivers.
Race results – Top 10
- Scott McLaughlin
- Alex Palou
- Spirit
- Rinus VeeKay
- Scott Dixon
- Marcus Ericsson
- Josef Newgarden
- Helio Castroneves
- David Malukas
- Simon Pagenaud
Marcus Ericsson leads the championship with 20 points ahead of Will Power. IndyCar will be back in two weeks for the Honda Indy Toronto.
