All posts by Christopher DeHarde

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer LEXINGTON, Ohio — Takuma Sato has been a man on the move since the Verizon IndyCar Series arrived at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for Sunday’s Honda Indy 200. The Andretti Autosport driver was 16th at the end of the first Friday practice session, more than three quarters of a second off of the fastest time. In the second practice session, Sato jumped to 11th fastest and despite the gap to the leader increasing, his lap time was a half second faster andRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer LEXINGTON, Ohio — Parker Thompson followed up on a Friday podium in the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship powered by Mazda with a win in Saturday’s race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Thompson led from the start over Rinus VeeKay with Askew falling from third to fourth as Lucas Kohl got around Askew. Kaylen Frederick also got around Askew, dropping the series points leader to fifth after Askew had an issue with his steering rack during the race. Frederick and Askew got aroundRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer LEXINGTON, Ohio — Will Power earned his 49th career Verizon IndyCar Series pole for Sunday’s Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, tying him with Bobby Unser for fourth on the all time pole list. Power leads teammate Josef Newgarden on the front row while Honda occupies the second row with Takuma Sato and Graham Rahal starting third and fourth, respectively. 2015 Mid-Ohio winner Graham Rahal and five time Mid-Ohio winner Scott Dixon start fifth and sixth, respectively. Qualifying began withRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer LEXINGTON, Ohio — Friday practice for the Verizon IndyCars Series at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course indicated that it would be a very competitive weekend across Honda and Chevrolet for Sunday’s Honda Indy 200. In the first session, Simon Pagenaud and Graham Rahal topped the chart for Chevrolet and Honda respectively with Pagenaud going around the 2.258 mile road course with a lap time of 1:04.9079. Rahal was .0343 seconds behind while Marco Andretti’s Honda was third fastest ahead of the Team PenskeRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer LEXINGTON, Ohio — Graham Rahal is the hometown hero looking for another win at his home track. Born in Columbus, he earned a victory at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Verizon IndyCar Series competition in 2015, beating Justin Wilson and Simon Pagenaud in that year’s Honda Indy 200. Returning to his home track always brings back the good feeling of having a home field advantage and seeing everybody as Rahal spoke to the media before the second IndyCar practice on Friday afternoon.Read More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer LEXINGTON, Ohio — Anthony Martin won his fourth straight race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course as he picked up the victory in the first of three races this weekend in the Pro Mazda Championship presented by Cooper Tires. Martin took the lead from polesitter Carlos Cunha on the first green flag lap after an aborted start as Franzoni slotted into second place. Both drivers would trade fastest laps back and forth until Martin was able to gap Franzoni during the middle partRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer LEXINGTON, Ohio — Oliver Askew bounced back from a less than ideal weekend at Toronto by winning the first of two races for the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship powered by Mazda at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. The Floridian led from the start, building a gap over fellow front row starter Lucas Kohl. Kohl would fall back behind his Pabst Racing Teammate Rinus VeeKay and Exclusive Autosport driver Parker Thompson. Thompson would get into second place early with VeeKay following and turned theRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer LEXINGTON, Ohio — The Verizon IndyCar Series heads to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for the Honda Indy 200 and a closing championship battle can become even more complex at the track metaphorically owned by Scott Dixon. Dixon leads the IndyCar series points by three over three time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves, but Dixon’s biggest advantage is that he knows how to win at this track. From 2007 to 2014, Dixon won five times in eight runnings but did not finish lastRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer After getting through some light technical gremlins early in the day, Chevrolet and Honda managed to complete their objectives for the initial test for the 2018 IndyCar aerodynamic package at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Tuesday. Juan Pablo Montoya (Chevrolet) and Oriol Servia (Honda) were able to complete their respective manufacturer test programs that were slated to be completed on Tuesday and Wednesday if necessary. Team Penske was preparing the Chevrolet car, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports was preparing the Honda car. Top speedsRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer On any street circuit gaining positions is difficult, but on the streets of Toronto, Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay and Schmidt Peterson Motorsports’s Sebastian Saavedra did that better than anybody by gaining ten and nine spots respectively from where they began the race. Hunter-Reay took the green flag in 16th place and moved to 14th following the opening lap incident between Scott Dixon and Will Power. The No. 28 DHL Honda then saw pit lane on Lap 21 before a caution for TonyRead More