With no cautions during the 90 laps at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, drivers didn’t have many chances to make a pass unless they truly were better than the car in front of them. So depending on their qualifying result and their pit strategy, that pretty much determined where a driver would finish. Christian Lundgaard and Pato O’Ward started 1-2 and finished 1-2 except flipped with O’Ward winning.
That vaulted O’Ward in these rankings. The series has the weekend off before racing July 19 on the Nashville Sueprspeedway concrete oval. Here are my rankings coming out of Mid-Ohio: Dropped out: Graham Rahal (Last Week: 10), Marcus Armstrong (Last Week: 9) On the verge: Armstrong, Scott Dixon, Rahal McLaughlin had a crummy weekend as he started 23rd because of a six-spot penalty for an engine change and finished 16th, which is considered a respectable result considering where he started.
He is ninth in the season standings. Rosenqvist started 13th and finished 13th on his second weekend with a team he knows he won’t return to next year. He is seventh in the standings.
Will Power followed his third at Road America with a sixth at Mid-Ohio for back-to-back top-10 finishes. He has led laps in six of the 11 races this year. What a great drive for VeeKay at Mid-Ohio as he started sixth and finished fourth.
It was his second fourth-place finish in the last three races and his third top-six in his last five. Newgarden gutted out a ninth-place finish despite still being on crutches and not being able to put weight on his left foot. He’s sixth in the series standings.
Chef Dave had a mid weekend at Mid-Ohio as he started fourth and finished eighth, partially the result of him stalling exiting pit road after one of his pit stops. He dropped to fourth in the standings. Kirkwood earned his first podium since a second-place run at Detroit as he crossed the line at Mid-Ohio in third.
He moved up to second in the series standings. O’Ward had not been on the podium since he won at Toronto last year, so he really needed the victory at Mid-Ohio. So he jumps in these rankings as it should give him a little extra confidence.
Lundgaard, now a free agent, drove a solid race in finishing second to O’Ward, who appeared clearly a bit stronger at Mid-Ohio. Lundgaard remains third in the standings. It was Lundgaard’s fifth podium of the season.
Palou started eighth and finished fifth, a serviceable result when you’re the points leader but don’t have a dominant car for the race. When you finish fifth on a bad day, that’s a good thing.
