Although they have not yet won this season, Target Chip Ganassi Racing has won the previous five races at Mid-Ohio. [John Wiedemann Photo]
For the 30th time in the history of the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Indy cars will take to the 13-turn, 2.25 mile track this weekend to contest the Honda Indy 200.
Penske Racing’s Helio Castroneves comes to the 52-year-old circuit hoping to defend his slim, 13-point lead over teammate Will Power with just four races (two road course/two ovals) remaining in the 2014 Verizon series’ season.
Castroneves has held the points’ lead since overhauling Power in Iowa last month and has had two wins here in central Ohio (2000,2001) along with two poles and three top-five finishes.
Penske’s other drivers have also done well here with Power having been top-five in four of five starts, but has yet to win. Juan Pablo Montoya won here (1999) prior to switching to F1 and NASCAR.
Charlie Kimball stood on top of the podium here at Mid-Ohio in 2013 for Target Chip Ganassi Racing after overtaking leader Simon Pagenaud late in the race. His winning speed of 117.825 mph stands as the 90-lap track record.
The Ganassi crew has won the previous five races at Mid-Ohio, but they have yet to win this season, with defending series’ champion Scott Dixon (-146) in sixth- place.
Andretti Autosport hasn’t won here since joining the IRL/ IndyCar Series in 2004, but Ryan Hunter-Reay; fifth, Marco Andretti, ninth, and James Hinchcliffe, 10th, were top-10 finishers last year. Mario and Michael Andretti have each won here, but third-generation driver Marco is still looking for his first Mid-Ohio victory.
Hunter-Reay is third in points (-69) and has a series-leading three wins along with one pole.
Four-time CART champion Sebastien Bourdais (KV Racing) and Mike Conway (Ed Carpenter Racing) were the series’ most recent winners two weeks ago in Toronto.
The Mid-Ohio circuit began hosting Indy car events in1980 and is the quickest road course on the schedule with its single-car qualifying record at 124.394 mph. Ryan Briscoe posted a speed of 125.030mph in Elimination Round 1 of “knock-out” qualifying for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis in May.
Takuma Sato recently noted that the fast Mid-Ohio circuit is also difficult to figure out due to its changeable personality.
“Since it has a few long straights, it’s not necessary to run with maximum downforce, but you need a good grip at the second half of the circuit, which has a series of very tricky corners. So the field is mixed up with various downforce levels on each team’s set-up philosophy” the A.J. Foyt Racing driver explained. “Also, this track is well-known for its very changeable track conditions, in other words, it has huge track evolution, so it’s important to plan ahead rather than chase the track.”
NOTES:
- Ten drivers have won at the track after starting on the pole.
- The usual 22 cars/drivers are entered here, with Conway back in his road-course role for Ed Carpenter. 18 drivers have raced here before, but rookies Mikhail Aleshin, Jack Hawksworth, Carlos Huertas and Carlos Munoz are making their first appearance.
- Bobby Rahal won here in 1985-86 and would like nothing better than to have son Graham become the next Rahal to win.
- The 90-lap, 203.2- mile race will feature a rolling start.
- Drivers seem to often win here in back-to-back years: Scott Dixon (2011-12), Helio Castroneves (2000-01), Alex Zanardi (1996-97), Al Unser Jr. (1994-95), Emerson Fittipaldi ( 1992-93), Michael Andretti (1990-91) and Bobby Rahal (1985-86). I can’t imagine this pattern has ever happened this often at another Indy car track.
- Dario Franchitti is the only driver to win at Mid-Ohio (2010), and go on to win the IndyCar Series title in the same year.
- There have been 10 street/road course races so far this season with Chevrolet power winning six and Honda four.
- TV: Race -NBCSN, 3:00 pm (ET), Sunday, Aug. 3/ Qualifying-NBCSN, 5:30pm (ET), Saturday, Aug. 2. Radio: XM 209, Sirius 213.
- Who will win? With five wins in a row here, you can bet that Target Chip Ganassi Racing will get its first victory of 2014. I’ll go with either Scott Dixon or Tony Kanaan to visit victory lane.
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