Mid-Ohio IndyCar: O’Ward takes pole, bad day for Power, Newgarden

Firestone Fast Six

Pato O’Ward was the first driver to set a representative time on used reds, a 67.0852sec, before pitting immediately to grab another set of worn reds. His time withstood the first efforts by Scott McLaughlin of Team Penske-Chevrolet and his own teammate Felix Rosenqvist. Then he lowered the mark still further to 66.7054, a brilliant lap of 121.861mph around the 2.238-mile course in Lexington, OH. that ensured he was over 0.13sec ahead of McLaughlin, and half a second up on Rosenqvist, who in the previous two segments had looked faster than the 2018 Indy Lights champ. In fact, Rosenqvist was sent to the outside of the second row by Andretti Autosport-Honda’s Colton Herta.

The result means O’Ward is the ninth different polesitter in nine races in the 2022 NTT IndyCar Series.

Scott Dixon was the fastest of the Chip Ganassi Racing-Hondas at the track where he has won six times, albeit 0.7sec off the ultimate pace, while Simon Pagenaud’s decision to run two sets of reds on his Meyer Shank Racing-Honda in Q2 helped get him into the Fast Six but obviously hampered him in the final shootout.

P	Name	FTime	Diff	FL	Laps	FSpeed	Engine	Tire	Team
1	Pato O'Ward	1:06.7054	-	4	4	121.861	Chevy	A	Arrow McLaren SP
2	Scott McLaughlin	1:06.8382	0.1328	3	3	121.619	Chevy	A	Team Penske
3	Colton Herta	1:07.0262	0.3208	4	4	121.278	Honda	A	Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian
4	Felix Rosenqvist	1:07.2163	0.5109	2	3	120.935	Chevy	A	Arrow McLaren SP
5	Scott Dixon	1:07.4047	0.6993	3	3	120.597	Honda	A	Chip Ganassi Racing
6	Simon Pagenaud	1:07.4199	0.7145	3	3	120.570	Honda	A	Meyer Shank Racing

Q2

Scott McLaughlin, Simon Pagenaud and Callum Ilott started this session on Firestone’s alternates, and sure enough they went to the top, perhaps surprisingly with Ilott at the top initially, before McLaughlin beat him by 0.12sec. However, while he was still on primaries David Malukas was able to send the Dale Coyne Racing w/HMD-Honda to the top of the speed charts with a 67.1309sec.

Then Pagenaud and Alexander Rossi each then took turns at the top, before Colton Herta ducked down to 66.7953sec, and was then shaded by Scott Dixon – by a mere 0.0007sec!

The times continued to tumble, with the AMSP cars of Felix Rosenqvist and Pato O’Ward again 0.2sec apart, pushing Dixon down to third, before McLaughlin launched the #3 Penske-Chevrolet to the top of the times with a 66.5341.

Herta and Pagenaud completed the top six, but defending champion Alex Palou was pushed out of the top six.

Malukas was disappointed that O’Ward wasn’t penalized for holding him up, leaving him eighth, although just ahead of the driver who beat him to the Indy Lights title, Kyle Kirkwood. The AJ Foyt Racing-Chevy driver was ninth, but could be happy with being able to beat two surprise non-graduates to the Firestone Fast Six, Rinus VeeKay of Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet who has looked strong this weekend, and the man who Kirkwood will replace at Andretti Autosport next year, Rossi.

P	Name	FTime	Diff	FL	Laps	FSpeed	Engine	Tire	Team
1	Scott McLaughlin	1:06.5341	-	7	7	122.175	Chevy	A	Team Penske
2	Felix Rosenqvist	1:06.5438	0.0097	7	7	122.157	Chevy	A	Arrow McLaren SP
3	Pato O'Ward	1:06.7504	0.2163	7	7	121.779	Chevy	A	Arrow McLaren SP
4	Scott Dixon	1:06.7946	0.2605	7	7	121.698	Honda	A	Chip Ganassi Racing
5	Colton Herta	1:06.7953	0.2612	6	7	121.697	Honda	A	Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian
6	Simon Pagenaud	1:06.7955	0.2614	7	7	121.697	Honda	A	Meyer Shank Racing
7	Alex Palou	1:06.7965	0.2624	7	7	121.695	Honda	A	Chip Ganassi Racing
8	David Malukas	1:06.8201	0.2860	6	7	121.652	Honda	A	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD
9	Kyle Kirkwood	1:06.9506	0.4165	6	7	121.415	Chevy	A	AJ Foyt Enterprises
10	Callum Ilott	1:06.9534	0.4193	6	7	121.410	Chevy	A	Juncos Hollinger Racing
11	Rinus VeeKay	1:06.9843	0.4502	6	7	121.354	Chevy	A	Ed Carpenter Racing
12	Alexander Rossi	1:07.0155	0.4814	6	7	121.297	Honda	A	Andretti Autosport

Q1 Group 2

Josef Newgarden and Felix Rosenqvist were the fastest drivers on primaries, but somehow Newgarden couldn’t summon up the speed to remain in the top six on the alternate compounds. Rosenqvist could, however, and he delivered a 66.5379sec to edge Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet teammate Pato O’Ward by 0.2237sec. Behind these two were Colton Herta (Andretti Autosport), six-time Mid-Ohio winner Scott Dixon, his Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda teammate Alex Palou, and a great effort from Kyle Kirkwood of AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolet.

P	Name	FTime	Diff	FL	Laps	FSpeed	Engine	Tire	Team
1	Felix Rosenqvist	1:06.5379	-	7	7	122.168	Chevy	A	Arrow McLaren SP
2	Pato O'Ward	1:06.7616	0.2237	6	6	121.759	Chevy	A	Arrow McLaren SP
3	Colton Herta	1:07.0058	0.4679	7	7	121.315	Honda	A	Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian
4	Scott Dixon	1:07.0347	0.4968	7	7	121.263	Honda	A	Chip Ganassi Racing
5	Alex Palou	1:07.1155	0.5776	6	7	121.117	Honda	A	Chip Ganassi Racing
6	Kyle Kirkwood	1:07.2377	0.6998	6	7	120.896	Chevy	A	AJ Foyt Enterprises
7	Josef Newgarden	1:07.3338	0.7959	7	7	120.724	Chevy	A	Team Penske
8	Christian Lundgaard	1:07.4207	0.8828	6	7	120.568	Honda	A	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
9	Graham Rahal	1:07.5909	1.0530	7	7	120.265	Honda	A	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
10	Devlin DeFrancesco	1:07.6475	1.1096	6	7	120.164	Honda	A	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
11	Conor Daly	1:07.6745	1.1366	6	7	120.116	Chevy	A	Ed Carpenter Racing
12	Jack Harvey	1:07.9362	1.3983	7	7	119.653	Honda	A	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
13	Tatiana Calderon	1:08.4370	1.8991	6	7	118.778	Chevy	A	AJ Foyt Enterprises
14	Jimmie Johnson	1:08.5318	1.9939	7	7	118.614	Honda	A	Chip Ganassi Racing

Q1 Group 1

On the harder Firestone primaries, Team Penske-Chevrolet’s Will Power set the fastest time turning a 67.5559, 120.327mph, beating Rinus VeeKay of Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet by 0.3172sec, turning just 3 laps before ducking into the pits before pitting for the alternate tires.

However, an incident between Power and Helio Castroneves of Meyer Shank Racing-Honda, who started the session on reds, was under Steward’s review because Power was seen weaving to get the shine off his tires on his out lap as he made the run down to Turn 2. He had accidentally impeded his former teammate, and sure enough, Power had his best laps taken away and will start only 21^st. According to Power, Castroneves walked down pitlane to apologize for causing him a penalty since the MSR car wasn’t on a strong lap.

With their first truly representative times on reds, the times ducked into the 66s, and Power led the way but alas, in vain.

That left teammate Scott McLaughlin at the top of the group, ahead of VeeKay, the MSR car of Simon Pagenaud, Alexander Rossi of Andretti Autosport-Honda, Callum Ilott’s Juncos Hollinger Racing-Chevy, and David Malukas of Dale Coyne Racing with HMD-Honda, who has impressed throughout the weekend.

On the outside looking in were a disappointed Marcus Ericsson, Castroneves, Romain Grosjean and of course, Power.

P	Name	FTime	Diff	FL	Laps	FSpeed	Engine	Tire	Team
1	Scott McLaughlin	1:06.5897	-	7	7	122.073	Chevy	A	Team Penske
2	Rinus VeeKay	1:06.8191	0.2294	6	7	121.654	Chevy	A	Ed Carpenter Racing
3	Simon Pagenaud	1:06.9474	0.3577	6	7	121.421	Honda	A	Meyer Shank Racing
4	Alexander Rossi	1:06.9501	0.3604	6	7	121.416	Honda	A	Andretti Autosport
5	Callum Ilott	1:06.9627	0.3730	7	7	121.393	Chevy	A	Juncos Hollinger Racing
6	David Malukas	1:06.9932	0.4035	6	7	121.338	Honda	A	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD
7	Marcus Ericsson	1:07.1475	0.5578	7	7	121.059	Honda	A	Chip Ganassi Racing
8	Helio Castroneves	1:07.1798	0.5901	6	7	121.001	Honda	A	Meyer Shank Racing
9	Romain Grosjean	1:07.2573	0.6676	7	7	120.861	Honda	A	Andretti Autosport
10	Takuma Sato	1:07.4645	0.8748	6	7	120.490	Honda	A	Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR
11	Will Power	1:07.5559	0.9662	3	7	120.327	Chevy	A	Team Penske
12	Dalton Kellett	1:08.2444	1.6547	5	6	119.113	Chevy	A	AJ Foyt Enterprises
13	Simona De Silvestro	1:08.4995	1.9098	6	7	118.669	Chevy	A	Paretta Autosport