Team Penske driver Scott McLaughlin won the Honda Indy 200 on Sunday at Mid-Ohio. This was his second win of the year after he won the season opener at St. Petersburg. McLaughlin started Sunday’s race right behind Arrow McLaren SP driver and pole sitter Pato O’Ward, who lost power at the end of the pit lane and had to drop out of the race early.
Chip Ganassi Racing driver Alex Palou finished in second place behind McLaughlin by 0.5512 seconds. McLaughlin’s teammates — Will Power and Josef Newgarden — also had top-ten finishes. Power surged from near the back and recovered from a spin in Turn 9 on the first lap to claim third. Newgarden came in seventh.
Mid-Ohio hasn’t typically seen a lot of caution flags come out in the past, but Sunday was an exception. The race saw a large amount of yellow flags, with six full-course cautions being the grand total for the day. No one was seriously injured.
One of the standout storylines of Mid-Ohio came prior to the start of the race during qualifying. The series has seen many different pole winners this year — nine through nine races. The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio marks O’Ward’s first pole of the year and the first time in 61 years that the pole winner has been different through the first nine races.
After Sunday’s race, Chip Ganassi Racing driver Marcus Ericsson leads the championship with 321 points. Power is right behind him with 301 points, and Newgarden trails Power with 287 points.
The 2022 NTT IndyCar Series season is at its halfway point. The next race is Honda Indy Toronto at 3 p.m. on July 17, which will be the first time in three years the series has visited the Canadian city. The race will be streamed on Peacock Premium.
