INDYCAR: Mid-Ohio Rewind

IndyCar

INDYCAR: Mid-Ohio Rewind

Marshall Pruett breaks down this year’s IZOD IndyCar Series race at Mid-Ohio and says it had a little bit of everything—good and bad.

Marshall Pruett | Posted August 07, 2012

Target Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon drove to victory while using a helmet livery that had been parked for years... (Photo: Marshall Pruett)

This year’s IZOD IndyCar Series race at Mid-Ohio had a little bit of everything—good and bad.

• It had plenty of pre-race drama thanks to Helio Castroneves who, while sitting second in the points, took the green flag with an injured hand, a cold and a 10-spot grid penalty. By the end of the 85-lap event, he was third in points, 26 behind Team Penske teammate Will Power.

• Like HCN, Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay also left Mid-Ohio slightly worse for wear, losing his points lead to Power and his twin-turbo Chevy V6 engine that was installed only two weeks prior in Edmonton. RHR entered Mid-Ohio on engine No. 4 of the five that are allowed per season. There’s no penalty for suffering an in-race engine failure, but had he been on No. 5 and needed to use No. 6 for the next race at Sonoma, he’d be facing a 10-spot deduction from wherever he qualified.

• Second-place finisher Will Power drew an unlucky card in terms of pit box selection after him and race-winner Scott Dixon qualified next to each other at Edmonton (Power seventh, Dixon eighth), which played out in Dixie’s favor on Lap 57 at Mid-Ohio when he had a straight shot into his Target Chip Ganassi Racing stall and Power was slightly delayed by making a sharp left/right into his box.

Even without the lead change in the pits that ultimately put the win in Dixon’s hands, it’s likely the Kiwi would have been able to overcome Power before the end of the race. After sitting a car length or so off the Aussie’s bumper (sorry, off topic rant, but never in my life—not until the Dallara DW12 was unveiled--did I think I’d use the terms “IndyCar” and “bumper” in the same sentence) between the first and second round of pit stops, Dixon clearly had more pace and chose to save fuel while Power did his best to hold onto his lead while also trying to limit his fuel usage.

Once Dixon got into the lead, he pulled out a giant gap and maintained it while saving more fuel. No one is better than Dixon at the art of setting wickedly fast laps while sipping fuel, and with more E85 in his tank than Power in the closing laps, he had the option to either grow his lead or, if he'd been in second, to put the hammer down and get past Power who spent the last few laps backing off to ensure he made it to the checkered flag.

I can’t say if Dixon’s car was any faster than Power’s, but with fuel governing how hard they could charge, the Ganassi driver had more options to improvise.

• Coming off of a storming drive to second at Edmonton, Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s Takuma Sato all but disappeared at Mid-Ohio, qualifying 17th and finishing 13th after a general lack of pace and a three-stop strategy failed to put him on the map.

• The same was true for Mike Conway who was on the podium just two races ago at Toronto, yet fought through a weekend-long handling imbalance and excessive fuel consumption in the race on his way to 21st, the last car on the lead lap.

Simona de Silvestro gave everything she had at Mid-Ohio, but was let down by a lack of power. (Photo: Marshall Pruett)

• Simona de Silvestro was praying for Sunday’s morning showers to continue into the race, but had no such luck and took 23rd.

• Sebastien Bourdais was a beast on the slower Firestone Blacks after using the stickier Reds during his first two stints. Closing the race on Blacks, Bourdais was the only driver in the top 6 not to use Reds on the run the finish, yet held onto fourth.

• Tony Kanaan did his usual pass-everybody-in-sight routine on the way from 18th to sixth, Graham Rahal patterned his performance after the Brazilian’s by going from 21st to 10th and Oriol Servia sank like a rock after starting 10th and pitting right away to have gearbox issues tended to.

• Misjudging the gap to James Hinchcliffe ruined Dario Franchitti’s day after he broke his front wing on the back of the Go Daddy Guy’s car, Ryan Briscoe fell two positions from fifth to seventh, JR Hildebrand gave up a top 6 with a late splash-and-go and Rubens Barrichello endured another quiet midfield run to 15th.

• Compared to the “Go Like Hell Edmonton Grand Prix” where it felt like 99 percent of the field spent the entire race in attack mode, Mid-Ohio was a gambler’s nightmare. Putting money on Dixon is never a bad idea, but beyond the first two steps of the podium, the rest of the finishing order defied prediction.

Hey Man, Nice Lid

Although the sight of Dixon winning his fourth Mid-Ohio race in six years wasn’t a total shocker, his choice to go retro with his helmet livery was a pleasant and unexpected surprise.

After starting out with a livery that used a blue base in the Firestone Indy Lights Series, CART and the IndyCar Series through the 2006 season, Dixon went for a matte black design that was seen through Edmonton, but he told SPEED.com it was time for ‘Ol Blue to make a return.

“I think it will go from now through to Indy next year, but there will be some different variations of it,” he said. “I saw one down in the basement the other day at my house and said I’m going back to the blue. It looks pretty cool.”

Push To Meh

The concept behind IndyCar’s five-second delay in Push-to-Pass power delivery to prevent it from being used as a defensive tool? A good one.

The application of the concept? Not so much, according to Will Power.

“I think it was stupid, honestly,” he said. “Because the way they got it, you have to have a certain throttle percentage [for it to work]. You'd hit it and get in the corner and it would unclick itself it was useless. Honestly. I didn't find it useful at all.”

Simon Pagenaud explained that unless a driver stays on full throttle after engaging P-t-P with the five-second delay, it would immediately disengage, which rendered it somewhat useless in instances where it was needed.

“If you touch the throttle half[way], come back off of it of it just a touch, it shuts itself down.”

Tweaks to the activation of the system will hopefully take place for Sonoma.

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