For the first time since July 2022, Pato O’Ward saw the chequered flag first to record his sixth win in the NTT IndyCar Series, holding off Alex Palou by just 0.499 seconds to win the Honda Indy200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

Despite winning in St. Petersburg after Newgarden’s disqualification, O’Ward had craved the feeling of crossing the line first, and celebrating the victory with his team in victory lane at the track.

O’Ward had chipped away at Palou’s commanding six second lead after the first round of pit stops before undercutting the reigning champion during his se and stop. Palou emerged from pit-lane to find that O’Ward had swept around turn 1 in front of him, and although he closed, he could not find a way past.

Scott McLaughlin finished a distant third, unable to match the relentless pace of the leading pair. Colton Herta passed Marcus Ericsson late in the race for fourth, after Andretti Global inexplicably fitted alternate tyres onto Ericsson for the final stint, putting him at a disadvantage.

Ericsson was just about able to finish ahead of Alexander Rossi, who came home in sixth, as Christian Lundgaard came home in seventh for RLL.

Kyle Kirkwood once again maintained his record of finishing every race of 2024 in the top eleven by finishing eighth, as rookie Christian Rasmussen finished an excellent ninth, scoring his best result of the season.

Santino Ferrucci scored another top 10 finish for AJ Foyt Racing, just ahead of Will Power who finished a disappointing eleventh.

It was a terrible day for championship hopefuls Scott Dixon and Josef Newgarden: Newgarden attempted an ambitious 3 stop strategy but went off on lap 61 chasing Marcus Ericsson, and eventually ended up 25th.

Scott Dixon suffered a complete failure of his hybrid power unit before the race had even begun, resigning him to 27th and last in the race, dropping him to 4th in the championship, 71 points off teammate Palou.

O’Ward takes victory at Mid-Ohio with stunning drive

Having qualified on the outside of the front row, Pato O’Ward would have felt optimistic about his chances of taking victory at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. However, despite attacking Palou into the opening corner of the race, O’Ward saw his rival disappear into the distance throughout the first stint.

After the first round of pitstops, O’Ward’s Arrow McLaren looked to be better suited to the softer alternate tyre, slowly reeling in Palou and cutting the gap down from over six seconds to just 3.3 by lap 47.

The more O’Ward began to see of Palou, the faster he was able to close in – by lap 52 he was just 1.1 seconds behind, before then taking another half second out of the lead on the following lap.

O’Ward decided to undercut Palou in order to give himself an opportunity to grab track position, making his final stop on lap 54, and Palou stopped one lap later. Despite a fast stop from Chip Ganassi Racing, Palou had a slight hiccup upon leaving the pits, costing his vital fractions of a second.

O’Ward swooped around Palou at the first corner taking the lead, and although Palou closed to within half a second of O’Ward, the Mexican driver stood firm for Arrow McLaren.

Palou hounded O’ward looking for any gap to pass, but no opportunity presented itself and Palou had to settle for second.

O’Ward said ‘this feels like the first win of the season. I know St. Pete we were P2 and ultimately ended up getting the win because Penske cheated, and yeah, the 500 was two corners short.’

‘Watching Palou kind of trying to run away with it in the first stint, I said no way, no way. For some reason they are so quick on the primes, the Ganassi cars. They’re in a different stratosphere. But I knew as soon as we got the reds on, that was my chance to close the gap and ultimately beat him.’

Palou remains firmly in championship control following strong second place

After taking a third NTT P1 award of the season, Alex Palou would have been confident in extending his commanding championship lead as the reigning champion seeks a third NTT IndyCar Series title in four years.

Despite holding the lead throughout the opening stint on primary tyres, Palou seemed to struggle a little on the alternate tyres, allowing O’Ward to close in.

A small hiccup upon leaving the pits allowed O’Ward past, and although Palou closed in and kept O’Ward honest, it was simply not enough allow Palou to find a way past. Palou dropped a couple of wheels in the grass at Thunder Valley, and squirmed around the fast and flowing road course trying to carve an opening, but in vain.

Palou did, however, increase his championship lead to 38 points of Will Power, rounding out a solid day for Chip Ganassi’s driver.

Palou said ‘It was fun until it wasn’t as much for me. I had a great car. Had a lot of fun in the race. Ran really good in the first stint on primaries.’

‘We were a bit worse than we anticipated on the alternates. Couldn’t really have the pace I wanted. I was trying to baby those tires, and they didn’t like me. I had big blisters on the front tires, and the 5 (Pato O’Ward) started catching us.’

‘We tried to get it back on the last stint. We were a bit close, not enough. It was honestly a good day for the 10 car.’

Championship heads into oval season after promising hybrid debut

After much talk about the controversial decision to introduce the hybrid engines mid-season, the debut of the new package had a solid weekend. Scott Dixon’s failure was unique to him, and no other driver suffered a similar issue.

Furthermore, Romain Grosjean spun on lap 78, but thanks to the new technology within the engine he was able to retire himself, and made sure the race did not finish under an unnecessary caution.

This moment was a positive for Indycar, whose races have so often seen lengthy caution periods for cars stalled and needing assistance to refire, most notably in Detroit this year. As a result, this can be seen as a net positive for the series.

There are more questions to be answered surrounding the hybrid, such as how it will perform on ovals, and the scoring graphics were constantly buzzing with colour as drivers were using the system every lap.

Once these problems are sorted, there is much optimism that the hybrid package will be a success as the series heads into its final stretch of the season, with six of the final eight races on ovals. Will Josef Newgarden, the master of the short oval, be able to catch Alex Palou in the championship?

The NTT IndyCar Series continues on July 13th at Iowa Speedway for HyVee’s doubleheader weekend, with the HyVee Homefront 250 on Saturday night.