Yahoo Autos What Scott McLaughlin's IndyCar Win at Mid-Ohio Means for the Championship Chase
It was a stout display of New Zealand, Australian and Team Penske power as Kiwi driver Scott McLaughlin won and Australian native and teammate Will Power finished third in Sunday’s Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
The 29-year-old McLaughlin captured his second career IndyCar win and the second of 2022, having previously won the season-opening race at St. Petersburg, Florida.
He celebrated by climbing out of his car and performed a somersault in the grass area in front of his parents, who were on hand for the first time to see their son race in North America (they had previously been prevented from seeing him in-person due to COVID-19 restrictions in either the U.S. or New Zealand).
“It’s amazing, I really wanted to get a win here for Mom and Dad,” McLaughlin, now in his second season racing for Team Penske and in North America, told NBC Sports. “To have Mom and Dad here was super special, America’s weekend. Last night I was dressed up (in a costume) as a bald eagle. Maybe I need to do that every Fourth of July weekend.
“It was tough. We’re thinking about fuel (mileage) but thankfully Chevy gave us great fuel mileage and drivability off the restarts that allowed me to get a little bit of a gap from (runner-up Alex) Palou and Honda there.
“I’m really proud of the guys, the car they gave me, it was a little hard to drive at the end. I would have liked to make it a little easy on myself.”
McLaughlin was followed in the top-10 by Palou, Power, Rinus VeeKay, Scott Dixon, Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson, Josef Newgarden, Helio Castroneves, highest-finishing rookie David Malukas and Simon Pagenaud.
Power was unquestionably the second-biggest story of the race. He qualified a poor 21st, then was involved in a first-lap solo spin that dropped him to the back of the 27-car field in the 80-lap event.
But the veteran driver used savvy and smart pacing, as well as excellent strategy, to not only crack the top 10 but ultimately finished third behind McLaughlin and Palou.
“Amazing day, amazing day,” Power told NBC Sports. “I said in a strategy meeting, which I have a few times this year when we qualified badly, a top-10 would be great.
“Some good restarts, good exchanges, good pit stops, good strategy and a great job by the team. I’m over the moon. Starting at the back is certainly more entertaining than leading from the front. We have to get on top of the qualifying. … I’m stoked. We’re having such a great year.”
Power is having a great year, indeed. He remains second in the NTT IndyCar Series driver standings, just 20 points behind Indianapolis 500 winner and points leader Marcus Ericsson.
“You just have to keep your head in these races,” Power told NBC. “As you see every week, so much happens. If you don’t make any mistakes, even if you don’t pass anyone, you’re going to make up positions. You just have to be smart.
“This is IndyCar racing and you can never, ever predict what’s going to happen, even in qualifying. Loving it and I hope the fans are too because I don’t think there’s any series in the world like it.”
The season has now passed the halfway point, with nine races in the books and eight more events still to go. Chevrolet has absolutely dominated things with wins in seven of those events, including six by Team Penske drivers (Josef Newgarden with three wins, McLaughlin with two, and Power with one). Patricio O’Ward is the other Chevy driver to drive to victory lane this year.
Meanwhile, Palou was the highest-finishing Honda-powered driver Sunday.
Ericsson Still in IndyCar Points Lead
Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson remains atop the point standings for the third straight race. Power is still in second, 20 points behind, followed by teammate Josef Newgarden (-34), Palou (-35), Pato O’Ward (-65), Scott Dixon (-67), McLaughlin (-69) improved from ninth to seventh, followed by Alexander Rossi (-92), Simon Pagenaud (-104) and Colton Herta (-109).
Eight races remain on the schedule, with the next event on July 17, the first Honda Indy Toronto event north of the border since 2019 (the 2020 and 2021 races there were canceled due to COVID-19 restrictions).
O'Ward Fails to Capitalize on Pole
It was arguably the worst day of the year for Arrow McLaren SP as both its drivers—Felix Rosenqvist and pole-sitter Pato O’Ward—suffered mechanical issues that left them with a rare double DNF.
Rosenqvist was the first victim of mechanical malady, his car going up in smoke on Lap 10, ending his day with a last-place finish in the 27-car field.
Rosenqvist’s car began chugging and losing power, then seemed to rid itself of the problem for a few seconds, before it fully gave up the ghost and came to a stop, his day and race over. Speculation on the problem centered around either an electrical issue or motor or gearbox failure.
“Came out of Turn 2 and it felt kind like I was on the pit limiter,” Rosenqvist told NBC Sports. “Then we got going again after I pulled the clutch, for some reason, and then on the straight it completely lost drive. I’m not sure what happened. It’s just unfortunate. We had a real, real good run. Yeah, big loss for us today. You never know what might have happened later on, but we were sailing out there. I think we showed we were up there and fighting for position. We’ll have to come back and do it again.”
Then on Lap 31, O’Ward began screaming on his team radio, ‘I’m losing power, I’m losing power.” He promptly pitted for new tires and fuel, but there was little that could be done mechanically and he was sent back out on-track to do whatever he could.
As it turned out, O’Ward managed to get 24 more laps out of his car before it died while exiting pit lane on Lap 55, the car retired for the day, finishing with a disappointing 24th-place showing.
