
Alex Palou claims Mid-Ohio pole, as others stare at championship that could 'start drifting very fast'
But the driver sitting second in points through nine races and the other driver in the paddock to win this year not named Alex Palou knew on Friday ahead of the weekend-opening practice that the clock was beginning to tick on whittling down the deficit to the Chip Ganassi Racing driver.
Though he said it's not yet time in the title fight to dictate his team's in-race strategy on what Palou isn't doing, finishing ahead of the driver who's won six times already through nine races this year is becoming paramount to maintaining any hope in the race for the Astor Cup. More than ever, it's about execution and maximizing speed and tracks where Andretti Global has it in spades.
'We need to get good finishes at places like this,' Kirkwood told IndyStar on Friday, referencing the track where Palou is yet to finish off the podium in his four starts with Chip Ganassi Racing, including a win in 2023 and a runner-up from pole a year ago. 'I'd say the only think we're focused on with (Palou) is we know he's really good at road courses.'
Saturday afternoon, Palou yet again proved exactly that, snagging his third pole of the season (no other driver has more than one) and the ninth of his IndyCar career. Ahead of this weekend, Palou has won six of the eight previous poles, not including his exhibition victory a year ago at The Thermal Club where he led the field to green.
And yet, in the wake of his experience a year ago, where Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward started alongside Palou on the front row and watched on as the race's polesitter opened up a six-second lead in the first stint, only to be able to eat up virtually all that deficit in the second stint and then jump Palou in the final pit exchange, Palou said Saturday his starting spot isn't nearly as important as the overall performance of the car he'll wield.
'It's one of those tracks where you think it's huge (to get pole), and it's a very, very big advantage, but it's not one of the most. For sure it's good, but I think a fast car or a fast pace, car and driver, is more beneficial,' he said. 'The other years, I've never started on pole, and we were still able to make it on pace.
'I like where we start for sure, but I know it's just going to make it easier the first lap, hopefully.'
Pit lane skirmish: Breaking down Will Power's exchange with Alex Palou during IndyCar at Mid-Ohio practice
Palou leads IndyCar in average starting position (4.2 after his pole Saturday) by more than two spots (Colton Herta is closest at 6.8). As so often has been the case this year, the IndyCar points leader will start Sunday with a multi-row gap to all his closest championship challengers, with Kirkwood narrowly missing out on a Fast Six appearance and settling for seventh and O'Ward (third in the championship, starting 15th Sunday), Felix Rosenqvist (fourth; 16th) and Scott Dixon (fifth; ninth) a ways further back.
After a rough stretch of five races, including 24th last time out at Road America, that followed his three consecutive podiums early in the season, Christian Lundgaard finds himself 158 points back of Palou in sixth, meaning barring a truly historic gap from the points leader, his hopes of title contention have disappeared, despite starting with Palou on the front row Sunday.
With perennial front-runners like Team Penske's trio starting a ways' back Sunday (Josef Newgarden 18th, Scott McLaughlin 21st and Will Power 22nd) and the addition of 10 laps to the Mid-Ohio race length, Sunday's action is bound to be a high-intensity affair at a track where early yellow flags are more than common. Add in a pair of unexpected second-year drivers making their first (Kyffin Simpson) or second (Nolan Siegel) Fast Six appearances in their careers, and the combination of veterans trying to work their way up and young guys attempting to hold them back could make for some fireworks and perhaps some surprise results after the checkered flag falls.
In that sense, at least, Palou being able to start ahead of the fray could be a saving grace, he said.
'Racing at the front is kinda a different animal,' Lundgaard said. 'As soon as you're starting to check out, it's the small details that matter. Some of the (younger drivers) haven't been exposed to that in the past, and that's why I think you see the veterans always kind of making their way forward in the race, even if they're having a bad qualifying.'
Insider: Buckle up, IndyCar's silly season revolves around wily veteran Will Power. What we're hearing
O'Ward, who sits 111 points back of Palou at third in the championship entering this weekend, said Friday he knows a track like Mid-Ohio that he counts as one of his best is pivotal to his title hopes, knowing that tracks like Toronto, Laguna Seca and Portland — all where he's yet to stand on a podium — loom ominously in the distance.
'We had pretty sporadic wins last year and are yet to have one this year, so this month is going to be huge with the championship,' O'Ward said. 'There's only three more races after this month, so this will be a big tell. If Palou wins another two (races) this month, they should just give him the championship.
'There's some challenging tracks coming up for us and some good ones as well, so if we can somehow find a way to get on the winning train here, I think it could be pretty big for our championship. But if (Palou) keeps finishing on the podium every race, those chances will start drifting very fast.'
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Indianapolis Star
30 minutes ago
- Indianapolis Star
Doyel: Unlike recent Boiler greats, Omer Mayer will come to Purdue with greatness expected
Normally we don't have any idea what's about to happen with the Purdue basketball team. Well, slow down. We know what's going to happen, in the larger sense: Purdue's going to win. That's just about all the Boilermakers have done under Matt Painter since 2006. We just don't know exactly how. Because most of the time, we don't know who. Painter tends to recruit players slightly off the beaten path, players with more game than name, players who come to Purdue with little fanfare and leave with school records or All-American honors or both. Some of these players tend to surprise Painter himself, recruits like Carsen Edwards in 2016 and Jaden Ivey in 2020. Painter liked both out of high school, obviously, but did he see Edwards scoring 1,920 career points in three seasons, or Ivey being a two-and-done lottery pick in the 2022 NBA Draft? No chance. Did he see current Purdue senior Braden Smith, mostly a mid-major recruit out of Westfield until Purdue offered a scholarship, becoming the best point guard in college basketball? Did any of us? No chance. Doyel: Meet the other Braden Smith: 'One of the most misunderstood players in college basketball' And don't get me started on Zach Edey, the No. 429 recruit in the high school class of 2020 who became one of the most decorated, most dominant players in college basketball history. All of this makes what will happen this season in West Lafayette so unusual. Because this time, we see the guy coming. This time we know how. This time, we know who. But in some ways, this is the most Purdue basketball story ever. Because until a few months ago, most people had never heard of Omer Mayer. Thing is, Omer Mayer might not even start for Purdue as a freshman. The Boilermakers are that loaded, returning four starters from last season's 24-win team, including the backcourt of seniors Smith and Fletcher Loyer, who have started since they were freshmen. Thing is, Omer Mayer could be gone after one season, a first-round pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. The noise around him is that loud, and while I'm not calling that likely, I'm not calling it impossible either. I mean, did you see what he did at the FIBA Under-19 World Cup the last few weeks in Lausanne, Switzerland? These are the best young prospects in the world, from the United States and Germany, Slovenia and Serbia, Canada and France. And Omer Mayer was just about the best player there. Seriously. Did you see what he did? We were posting highlight links almost every time he played, because here at the IndyStar we couldn't believe what we were seeing and there on your cell phone, wherever you are, you couldn't get enough of … what's his name again? Omer Mayer. Big games: Omer Mayer showcased at FIBA U19 World Cup what he brings to Purdue basketball backcourt He's a 6-foot-4 guard for Israel, and it occurs to me that this is awfully late in the story for me to be telling you his height, position and nationality. But it also occurs to me: Most of you know who he is, now. Which is the point of this story. This is the first time Purdue has had one of these — a potentially great college player — show up with the name to match his game since … well, since when? Since Caleb Swanigan in 2015? Biggie Swanigan reported to Purdue with the highest of expectations. The Purdue greats who came after the beloved Biggie (Edwards and Ivey, Edey and Smith) had no such burden. They were able to catch us by surprise. Mayer won't surprise anyone. He's already done that. You see what he did in Switzerland? Mayer played just four games in the FIBA U19 World Cup, but entering his final game he was leading the whole tournament in scoring. Sixteen teams, the best of the best young players from around the world, and nobody was scoring as much as Omer Mayer's 23.3 ppg. Mayer injured his finger early in the fourth game, Israel's quarterfinal loss to Slovenia. He scored just nine points, dropping his tournament scoring average to third in the competition at 20 ppg — and then missed the next two games. X-rays were negative, so this doesn't sound like a major concern entering his freshman season at Purdue, with the first day of practice more than three months away. For the tournament Mayer averaged 20 points, 5 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 2 steals. He also averaged 3 turnovers per game, but that was inflated by the six he committed against Slovenia, when he was 1 for 7 on 3-pointers. In the first three games, before the finger injury, Mayer committed six turnovers, total, and was 12 for 27 on 3-pointers (44.4%). These are small sample sizes, obviously, which is why — to get a better feel for Mayer — you need to talk with NBA scouts and college coaches who've seen him play. And here's what you'll learn: That he's a future pro. Gold in Switzerland: Sophomore returning to Purdue basketball as gold medalist after FIBA U19 World Cup After one year at Purdue? Nobody's saying he will do that. But nobody's saying he won't, either. He was that good at Switzerland, and he was impressive at the 2025 Nike Hoop Summit in Portland in April, when he had seven assists for the international team playing against top U.S. prospects. Before that Mayer was playing for Maccabi Tel Aviv in the EuroLeague, and he was playing more and more as the season went along. In the final game of the season, against Bayern Munich — led by Carsen Edwards, who set a EuroLeague record that day with eight 3-pointers in one quarter — Mayer had 11 points and three assists. Mayer's 18. That's the highest level of pro basketball outside the NBA. If you want a comp, this will have to do until we can see the 6-4, 215-pound Mayer with our own eyes: His production in the EuroLeague, and in FIBA age-group events, dovetails nicely with that of Kasparas Jakucionis. Ring a bell? Jakucionis was a freshman this past season at Illinois. He's big guard like Mayer — taller at 6-6, lighter at 200 pounds — and more reliant on strength and guile than explosion, and Jakucionis averaged 15 ppg, 5.7 rpg and 4.7 apg for the Illini before turning pro and being selected 20th overall by the Miami Heat in the 2025 NBA Draft. Is Omer Mayer on a similar career path? Probably not, no. Illinois needed Jakucionis, its best player, to play 32 minutes per game. Purdue will ask no such thing of Mayer, not with Smith and Loyer back for their fourth season, and with All-American candidate Trey Kaufman-Renn also back as a senior, and with 7-4 sophomore Daniel Jacobsen coming off his own standout performance at the FIBA U19 World Cup. Purdue was entering the 2025-26 season as a Final Four favorite, and that was before Mayer's play last week in Switzerland. Smith and Loyer are lineup locks, but you can see a scenario where Mayer eventually starts alongside them in a three-guard lineup, getting minutes that went last season to wings Myles Colvin (who transferred to Wake Forest) and Camden Heide (gone to Texas), and to returning sophomore guards C.J. Cox and Gicarri Harris. What you can't see, not anymore, is a scenario where Purdue has found its long-term replacement for Braden Smith. Perhaps in 2026-27, sure. Smith will be an NBA rookie next year. Mayer would be a sophomore at Purdue. Will he stick around for his junior season? That might be the only way Omer Mayer surprises folks around here. Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Threads, or on BlueSky and Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar, or at Subscribe to the free weekly Doyel on Demand newsletter.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Grit, Gains, and Setbacks for Lottery.com and Sports.com Drivers in Fourth of July Weekend Battle at Mid-Ohio
A Media Snippet accompanying this announcement is available by clicking on this link. LEXINGTON, Ohio, July 07, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Inc. (Nasdaq: LTRY, LTRYW) (' or 'the Company'), a leading technology company transforming the intersection of gaming, sports and entertainment, today announced their drivers' results from the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. In sweltering summer conditions, the trio of and drivers took on one of the most technical and physically demanding road courses on the NTT INDYCAR SERIES and INDY NXT by Firestone calendars. With 90 laps of elevation, strategy, and heat, the Fourth of July holiday weekend brought both breakthroughs and heartbreaks to the paddock. Callum IlottCar No. 90 – PREMA Racing (INDYCAR SERIES)Finished: P13 | Best Result of the Season | Sponsored by: Callum Ilott delivered a superb recovery drive from P24 on the grid to P13, notching his best result of the 2025 season in a race that tested both patience and performance. After being forced off-track to avoid an incident at the start, the PREMA Racing driver went off-strategy, switching early to alternate red-sidewall tires under the first caution. Ilott executed a well-managed three-stop strategy, making his final pit stop on lap 82 and pushing hard in the closing stages to gain multiple positions. 'A really strong race. We had a bit of contact at the beginning and I was just put in a bad position on the outside,' said Ilott. 'We gambled and did an early stop onto the Reds. The first stint wasn't anything special, but once we came in and got going again on the next set of Reds, it was super fast. The car was really strong. We maximised everything from P24 — great pit stops and solid strategy.' Louis FosterCar No. 45 – Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (INDYCAR SERIES)Finished: P14 | Rookie of the Year Leader | Sponsored by: Louis Foster continued his impressive rookie season by qualifying in P6—his third Fast Six shootout appearance this year—and finishing 14th in a challenging fuel-saving race. Despite not having a fresh set of tires for his final qualifying run, Foster again proved his one-lap speed and now holds an average starting position of 12.2 across a 27-car field. In the race, Foster was initially in contention for a top-10 before a pit stop stall cost valuable time. Nonetheless, his strong performance earned him top rookie honours on the day and moved him into the lead of the Rookie of the Year standings. 'I think I did a good job saving fuel,' . 'That was the first time I did a proper fuel save race so that was good experience for me. Top rookie in the race by some margin. There are worse days for sure, but it's disappointing.' Sebastian MurrayCar No. 2 – Andretti Global (Indy NXT)Started: P18 | DNF (Lap 4) | Championship Standing: P10 (140 points)Sponsored by: Rookie Seb Murray's weekend ended early after making contact on Lap 4 with teammate Ricardo Escotto, causing race-ending damage. After a strong opening phase where Murray climbed from P18 to P12, the collision brought a premature end to what had been a positive start. 'A super unfortunate end to today. I'm not really sure what happened — we'll have to watch the replays and look at the data — but I'm just glad everyone's okay,' . 'A massive thank you to the AMR Safety team. They were on the scene incredibly quickly. Obviously, apologies to the team. It was a good weekend until the incident, and we were hoping to work our way forward.''We're incredibly proud of how our drivers have performed this season so far. From pole positions to breakthrough race results, Louis, Callum, and Seb have truly delivered. This Fourth of July weekend, the and brands were flying the flag — with strong visibility on the cars and in the paddock throughout a high-profile holiday event. 'It was also exciting to see Callum and Louis racing wheel-to-wheel for P13 and P14 — both fighting hard but keeping it clean, which speaks volumes about their professionalism and respect. Keep it shiny side up, race smart, and above all, stay safe. We're behind you every step of the way.''The performances so far this season have been nothing short of staggering. The entire and family wishes Louis, Callum, and Seb the very best as the season heats up. Mid-Ohio was a test, and now we look forward to Iowa and beyond with pride and confidence.'The Inc. (Nasdaq: LTRY, LTRYW) family of brands — including Tinbu and WinTogether, comprise a unified ecosystem that integrates gaming, entertainment and sports. Follow the Company on X, Instagram and Facebook. This press release was published by a CLEAR® Verified individual. CONTACT: For more information, please visit or contact our media relations team at press@ in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data


Fox News
4 hours ago
- Fox News
Alex Palou's Rare Miscue Gifts Scott Dixon Win At Mid-Ohio: 'A Stupid Mistake'
Scott Dixon captured his first victory of the season, ending his teammate Alex Palou's dominance on road courses this year. Palou appeared as if he would cruise to his seventh win of the INDYCAR season, but he went off course on Lap 85 of the 90-lap race Sunday at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Dixon pounced, speeding by Palou and then holding him off — while still needing to save fuel — for the win. It was a rare mistake for Palou during this season, where he has still won six of the first 10 races. He extended his points lead to 113 points ahead of Kyle Kirkwood with seven races left in the season. "Just a stupid mistake, honestly," Palou said. "A mistake on my part. ... Nobody to blame by me. It sucks. It hurts a lot." It was the first win in more than a year for Dixon, who has won six series titles and celebrated his 59th victory. The veteran Dixon has now won in 23 different seasons and extended his streak of consecutive seasons with a win to 21. "It was definitely a tough race," Dixon said. "Full credit to everybody at Chip Ganassi Racing. ... It was just a joy to drive." Palou still finished second as the Chip Ganassi Racing driver continues to eye a fourth series title. Christian Lundgaard, who had started on the front row beside pole-sitter Palou, finished third with Colton Herta fourth and Pato O'Ward fifth. Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.