INDYCAR RACE REPORT: Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio
Race Results
| Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio |
| Will Power | P6 |
| Kyle Kirkwood | P3 |
| Marcus Ericsson | P21 |
Race Notes
- The green flag waved this afternoon as the NTT INDYCAR SERIES took on the 90-lap Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio.
- The all-green 11th race of the season saw Kyle Kirkwood earn his fourth podium of the season with a third-place finish, while Will Power crossed the line in sixth and Marcus Ericsson finished 21st.
- With his third-place finish, Kirkwood delivered Andretti Global’s first podium at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course since 2020, when the team earned podium finishes in both Race 1 and Race 2 of the Mid-Ohio doubleheader weekend.
- After a short break in the schedule, Andretti INDYCAR returns to Nashville Superspeedway on July 18 to take on the 1.33-mile oval. The race will air live on FOX and FOX One at 5:30 PM ET.
Will Power
No. 26 TWG AI Honda
P6
| Started | P3 |
| Standings | P14 (209 points) |
- Following a strong qualifying effort yesterday, Will Power led the Andretti trio to green this afternoon from the second row for his 19th career INDYCAR race at Mid-Ohio.
- Getting pushed to the outside at the start, Power dropped three positions on the opening lap before working his way back into the top five ahead of his first pit stop on Lap 13. As the race continued and the field finished the first sequence of pit stops, Power moved into eighth place.
- The Australian worked his way back into the top five by Lap 39 before returning to pit lane for his second pit stop just one lap later.
- Despite his best efforts to return to fifth place following his second stop, Power couldn’t navigate his way through traffic, and began falling further down in the top 10. Following his last stop of the race on Lap 67, Power managed to work his way to sixth place, where he took the checkered. This result marks Power’s 204th career INDYCAR top-10 finish.
“That was hectic. We did a lot of qualifying laps the whole time. I started getting the fuel number at the beginning on the reds, then they started dropping, and I was immediately saying, ‘We’re not gonna make it’. We lost a lot of time trying to get that number. The No. 26 TWG AI Honda was still a very fast car. We had a couple of good battles with Palou and Rasmussen. I’m happy with P6. It could have been worse, it could have been better.”
Kyle Kirkwood
No. 27 Sam’s Club Honda
P3
| Started | P10 |
| Standings | P2 (348 points) |
- Rounding out the top-10 starting spots on the grid, Kyle Kirkwood utilized a strong start to vault up to seventh place by Lap 3 for his fifth INDYCAR start at Mid-Ohio.
- Following a clean pit stop on Lap 9, Kirkwood made a pass for 13th on Lap 15, putting him in a strong position to continue working his way up the field. Once the entire field took their first pit stops, the No. 27 driver cycled up into fifth place by Lap 28 before returning to pit lane for his second pit stop shortly after on Lap 36.
- After breaking into the top four by Lap 51, a quick, final pit stop on Lap 63 allowed Kirkwood to gain a position in pit lane, putting him in third place. From then on, the No. 27 driver managed to put on an impressive drive to hold off the field behind him over the closing laps to secure his first INDYCAR road course podium and best result at Mid-Ohio.
“ I think that was the most physical race I’ve ever driven, especially with the track being faster than in the previous couple of years. Running under green for the entire race gave us no breathers at all. It was hard to even take a drink of water with it being so busy around here. But nonetheless, I’m happy to have driven this Sam’s Club Honda from 10th to third. That’s a good podium finish. Big hats off to Honda and the Honda plants out here in Ohio because they gave us the power and fuel economy to do what we needed to make our strategy work. Super thrilled with my day. Big thanks to Andretti Global and the crew—they got us that podium on that last pit stop sequence. The car was phenomenal all weekend.”
Marcus Ericsson
No. 28 Delaware Life Honda
P21
| Started | P7 |
| Standings | P10 (222 points) |
- Lining up seventh on the grid this afternoon for his ninth Mid-Ohio race, Marcus Ericsson fell down a few spots in the opening laps, but quickly worked his way back up to eighth within the first 10 laps of the race.
- Continuing to make his way up the field, Ericsson came to pit lane for his first pit stop on Lap 11, but a stall during the stop cost him valuable track position, forcing him to fight from the back of the pack.
- After making some progress back up the field after his second stop on Lap 33, and running as high as 17th, Ericsson was unfortunately issued a penalty for avoidable contact with the No. 9 car, costing him two track positions, which he served on Lap 48.
- Now on the back foot for the remainder of the race, Ericsson was unable to make up the spots lost by the penalty, falling back to 21st after his final pit stop on Lap 61, finishing the day near the back of the field.
“It was a tough race for us in the No. 28 Delaware Life Honda. We started okay, but on the first stop I stalled leaving the pit box, and that pretty much lost us the race. We were recovering, but then we got a really tough penalty that I thought that dropped us back again. Then we had a problem on the last pit stop. It was just one of those days where nothing really went our way, so it was tough. But we kept fighting all the way through, and we’ll take that with us and look to bounce back in Nashville.”
Ron Ruzewski
INDYCAR Team Principal
“Solid day today for Andretti. Great to get one of the cars on the podium. Our cars certainly had a lot of pace today. It was really tough to get the strategy right with all the green flag running and to make moves with everybody being so good and the INDYCAR field being so competitive. We’ve got a big string of races coming, and we’ve just got to continue this momentum and not give up.”
