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IndyCar visits iconic tracks in back-to-back weeks, but the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course is only a little more than half as long as Road America. That tends to keep the racing tight, even though this is a race with a tendency for one racer to drive away from the field in the middle stages.
The free-to-play IndyCar Pick ‘Em game is simple to play, but with equally matched drivers in each category, it’s not always easy to determine who will lead their group. Each week, players will decide which drivers run the best and how the statistics will play out.
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Team With Most Top-10 Finishes
Top-10s were evenly distributed among the top teams last week and that makes this matchup difficult to handicap. If one looks to the past two weeks, however, Andretti Autosports it gaining an advantage. Six of their 14 top-10s in 2022 came in the past two races.
Advantage: Andretti Autosport
Owner | 2022 | Road |
Chip Ganassi | 21 | 2 |
Andretti Autosport | 14 | 3 |
Roger Penske | 14 | 2 |
Arrow McLaren | 8 | 1 |
Bobby Rahal | 7 | 2 |
Michael Shank | 6 |
|
Ed Carpenter | 5 |
|
Dale Coyne | 2 |
|
A J Foyt | 1 |
|
Ricardo Juncos | 1 |
|
Dreyer / Reinbold Racing | 1 |
|
Starting Position of Winning Driver
The pattern at Mid-Ohio is clear. Drivers want to start on the front row if to have a shot at winning this race. Since 2016, five of seven races have been won from the pole and one more from the outside of the front row. Josef Newgarden was the latest driver to do that in this race last year.
Advantage: 1st-4th
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Drivers Leading Laps
One driver tends to dominate at Mid-Ohio. The only time the laps led were evenly distributed in the past five years was 2019 when Scott Dixon led 38, Will Power 26, Felix Rosenqvist 15 and Newgarden 11. Otherwise, these have been runaway affairs. Still, lead changes will happen and the fewest in the past five years has been three, which occurred four times.
Advantage: 3
Time Lapse 1st – 5th (in seconds)
Last year’s margin of victory was less than a second. That also happened in 2019, but most of the races in the past five seasons have shown a significant gap from first to second. One of the surprising facts from last year is that the Honda Indy 200 went caution free for the last 73 laps and yet Colton Herta managed to stay in contact with Newgarden
Advantage: 8.0001 – 9.5 seconds
Lead Lap Finishers
The last three races at Mid-Ohio had 19 drivers on the lead lap. That seems like more than just a coincidence. Full disclosure demands you know that from 2017 through 2019 there were between 13 and 17 drivers who went the full distance.
Advantage: 18-19
Best Rookie
Last week, rookie honors were up for grabs between Christian Lundgaard and Callum Illott. The drivers finished nose-to-tail with Lundgaard taking the 10th position. Both drivers have top-10 finishes to their credit, but Lundgaard gets the nod this week because he has two on the season.
Advantage: Christian Lundgaard
Best Finish, Former Winner
The last five races at Mid-Ohio featured a different winner each time and there is a reason to recommend each of them. Alexander Rossi won in 2018 and has not been outside the top five since, Scott Dixon earned his sixth win on this track in 2019, and the 2020 winners Herta and Power have been solid on road courses in 2022. But Newgarden is the most recent winner as well as the most recent driver to repeat with victories in 2017 and 2021.
Advantage: Josef Newgarden
Race Winner
Newgarden would seem the obvious pick this week and if not him, then Rossi’s long streak of top-fives makes him attractive. But we will go with “Other”, primarily because Ryan Hunter-Reay has 13 top-10s in 15 starts on this track and three of his last four attempts were top-fives. He could be due this week.
Advantage: Other
Round 8: Sonsio GP [Road America]
Round 7: Chevrolet Detroit GP [Belle Isle]
Round 5: GMR Grand Prix [Indy road]
NASCAR Predictor Road America
