More Laps, Less Banking: What To Know About INDYCAR Race At Mid-Ohio

Fox News

21 hours ago

As INDYCAR heads to another road course, it goes to the road course that has been on the circuit's schedule on-and-off since 1980.
The Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course is nestled in the fields just west of Lexington, Ohio (think halfway between Columbus and Akron). It's a 2.258-mile, 13-turn road course and is used for everything from sports cars to open-wheel cars to motorcycles and stock cars. NASCAR's Xfinity Series ran there from 2013-2021 and the trucks raced there from 2022-2023.
Here's some info and insights to get fans ready for the race weekend, with INDY NXT race set for a 10:36 a.m. ET green flag on Sunday for 35 laps (or 55 minutes) on FS1 and then the NTT INDYCAR race with a green flag of 1:22 p.m. ET on FOX for 90 laps.
Is the race 90 laps this year?
Yes. It has been 80 laps the last four years but is going back to 90 laps (the distance of the race from 2013 to 2019) for 2025. The reason? It should mean that every driver will have to make three pit stops during the race, as the fuel window is around 26 to 28 laps.
But what if it goes green most of the way?
If things worked out perfectly with enough cautions, it could still be a two-stop race. But banking on several laps of caution isn't something to gamble on at Mid-Ohio. Last year, there was just one caution and that was early in the race. The year before, there were six caution flags for 17 laps. But that was an anomaly. In 10 of the 12 races prior to 2024, there were no more than two cautions thrown during a Mid-Ohio race.
OK, the big question: How does Alex Palou do there?
So you want to know if Palou will win his seventh? He won the 2023 race at Mid-Ohio and arguably should have won last year, as he sat on the pole and seemed in control of the race until a bad pit box where he was slow to launch out of his box allowed Pato O'Ward to snag the lead. O'Ward went on to win the race, and has won just once since that Mid-Ohio race in 2024.
Who are the other favorites based on recent Mid-Ohio results?
While O'Ward won at Mid-Ohio last year, that was the first year that he had a solid weekend from start to finish. He started second and ultimately won the race. He was also on the pole there in 2022.
"I'm excited to head back to Mid-Ohio to defend my win from last year," said O'Ward, coming off a disappointing 17th at Road America. "This is a great race track, and I know we're capable of coming away with another victory here this weekend.
"We didn't have the weekend we wanted in Road America, so this is the place to get back on the right footing and fight near the top."
Scott McLaughlin has a win (2022) and three consecutive top-five finishes.
Scott Dixon has six wins at the track (the most of any driver) with the last coming in 2019. He has top-five finishes in 14 of his 21 starts at the track.
In fact, this race will have nine former winners: O'Ward (2024), Palou (2023), McLaughlin (2022), Josef Newgarden (twice, last in 2021), Colton Herta (2020, Race 2), Will Power (2020, Race 1), Dixon (six times, last in 2019), Alexnader Rossi (2018) and Graham Rahal (2015).
Kyle Kirkwood isn't on this list, but he has eight wins at Mid-Ohio in various series.
And when talking about wins, both the Penske and Ganassi organizations have 12 wins apiece here.
Is there a sentimental favorite?
Yes. With the Rahal family having its roots in Ohio and Graham Rahal having grown up about an hour from the track, this is Rahal country. Rahal Letterman Lanigan team co-owner, Bobby Rahal, will give the command to start engines. And wouldn't it be cool if Graham Rahal could win it? His last INDYCAR victory came in 2017 and he won at Mid-Ohio in 2015.
And maybe not as sentimental but still worth noting, this is also a home race for Meyer Shank Racing, which is based in Pataskala, Ohio, about 55 miles from the track.
Is there anything new about the course?
Yes. In the esses that start in turn four, the banking was reduced from four to two degrees by removing 520 feet of track surface and excavating up to 18 inches along the outside edge. That meant that section was also repaved (the entire course was repaved in October 2023). The Turn 4 runoff area was also reshaped.
"It looks a lot flatter, a lot less banking. It looks a little bit more open, but I think it's about the same for everybody," Graham Rahal said. "We're all going to be finding out together for the first time.
"Obviously, the track was just repaved, what, 18 months ago, so now you've got another section that's going to be fresh. I would anticipate it being quite fast. My biggest hope is it doesn't affect the racing there. At the end of the backstraight was a pretty hard-brake zone, and if it's a little bit more open, it might not be so much."
Are there any new drivers this week?
Nope. It's the same 27 drivers who have entered all year (the Indy 500 had an additional seven). One change to note is that Kyle Moyer, the former strategist for Scott McLaughlin, will mark his first race as strategist for Arrow McLaren driver Nolan Siegel. Moyer was team manager of Penske's INDYCAR program and was dismissed after the attenuator seal issue at Indianapolis.
How busy is the next month in INDYCAR?
Really, really busy. This race starts a five-race-in-four-week stretch for the series. After Mid-Ohio, the series heads to the 0.875-mile oval Iowa Speedway for a doubleheader weekend with races Saturday and Sunday. It then goes to the street course (the final street course of the year) in Toronto and then to the road course at Laguna Seca.
So can anyone catch Palou during this stretch?
Mathematics says they can. But in reality? It's going to be tough. Palou, with his six wins this year, has a 93-point lead on Kyle Kirkwood (who has won the other three INDYCAR races this season). Palou has an 111-point lead on Pato O'Ward. No other driver is within 150 points.
With eight races left in the season, Kirkwood would need to gain 11 to 12 points a race on Palou to catch him. O'Ward would need to gain 13 to 14 points a race. That's not impossible, but one of them would have to go on a Palou-like stretch over the second half of the season and hope Palou has a few races where he doesn't finish.
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.