The NTT IndyCar Series heads to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, a 13-turn, a 2.258-mile road course in Lexington, Ohio. The 90 laps / 203.22 miles race gets underway this Sunday at 4:05pm local time.
Scott Dixon appears confident of his chances having previously won five times at Mid-Ohio in 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2014.
“Mid-Ohio is a place that we as a team have always felt that all of our cars have a shot at winning, and there aren’t many tracks out there where your confidence level is that high as a team,” said Dixon. “It’s a track that really feels like home to me. I’ve said over the years that it’s a rhythm track, and it’s very technical.
“You have to get a lot of things right to go to victory lane there. We need a big finish for the championship with five to go starting this weekend in the PNC Bank car. Mid-Ohio would be a great place to start a run of strong results.”
Here are the fast Facts from Indycar.com
There have been six different winners in 12 NTT IndyCar Series races in 2019: Josef Newgarden (Streets of St. Petersburg, Raceway at Belle Isle Park-1, Texas Motor Speedway and Iowa Speedway), Colton Herta (Circuit of The Americas), Takuma Sato (Barber Motorsports Park), Alexander Rossi (Streets of Long Beach and Road America), Simon Pagenaud (Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Oval and Streets of Toronto) and Scott Dixon (Raceway at Belle Isle Park-2). The record for most different winners in a season is 11 in 2000, 2001 and 2014.
There have been seven different NTT P1 Award winners in 2019. Will Power (Streets of St. Petersburg and Circuit of The Americas), Takuma Sato (Barber Motorsports Park and Texas Motor Speedway), Alexander Rossi (Streets of Long Beach, Raceway at Belle Isle Park-1), Felix Rosenqvist (Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course) Simon Pagenaud (Indianapolis Motor Speedway Oval, Streets of Toronto and Iowa Speedway), Josef Newgarden (Raceway at Belle Isle Park-2) and Colton Herta (Road America) have won poles in 2019. The record for most pole winners in a season is 12 set in the 1999 CART season.
The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio will be the 35th Indy car race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Alexander Rossi won the race in 2018. Johnny Rutherford won the first Indy car race at Mid-Ohio in 1980.
The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio will be the 10th race on a road/street course in 2019. The first eight races were won by Josef Newgarden (Streets of St. Petersburg and Raceway at Belle Isle Park-1), Colton Herta (Circuit of The Americas), Takuma Sato (Barber Motorsports Park), Alexander Rossi (Streets of Long Beach and Road America), Simon Pagenaud (Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course and Streets of Toronto) and Scott Dixon (Raceway at Belle Isle Park-2).
Scott Dixon is the winningest Indy car driver at Mid-Ohio with five victories (2007, 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2014). Emerson Fittipaldi won at Mid-Ohio three times, while Michael Andretti, Helio Castroneves, Teo Fabi, Bobby Rahal, Al Unser Jr. and Alex Zanardi all won at Mid-Ohio twice. Past winners Dixon, Graham Rahal (2015), Simon Pagenaud (2016), Josef Newgarden (2017) and Alexander Rossi (2018) are entered this year.
Will Power and Michael Andretti have each won three pole positions at Mid-Ohio. Power won the pole in 2010, 2012 and 2017. Mid-Ohio pole winners entered in this year’s race are Power, Scott Dixon (2011 and 2015), Ryan Hunter-Reay (2013), Sébastien Bourdais (2014), Simon Pagenaud (2016) and Alexander Rossi (2018).
Twelve drivers have won the race from the pole – Mario Andretti (1984), Bobby Rahal (1985), Roberto Guerrero (1987), Teo Fabi (1989), Michael Andretti (1990 and 1991), Al Unser Jr. (1994), Alex Zanardi (1996), Patrick Carpentier (2002), Paul Tracy (2003), Scott Dixon (2011), Simon Pagenaud (2016) and Alexander Rossi (2018).
Nineteen drivers entered in the event have competed in past Indy car races at Mid-Ohio. Tony Kanaan (17) has the most starts at Mid-Ohio among the entered drivers. Ten drivers have led laps at the track (Scott Dixon 223, Will Power 113, Josef Newgarden 78, Alexander Rossi 66, Sebastien Bourdais 38, Simon Pagenaud 37, Ryan Hunter-Reay 33, James Hinchcliffe 30, Graham Rahal 26 and Kanaan 13).
Chip Ganassi Racing has won 10 times at Mid-Ohio, including seven of the 12 races sanctioned by INDYCAR at the track. Ganassi’s winning drivers are Alex Zanardi (1996 and 1997), Juan Pablo Montoya (1999), Scott Dixon (2007, 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2014), Dario Franchitti (2010) and Charlie Kimball (2013).
Team Penske has nine wins at the track with Emerson Fittipaldi (1992 and 1993), Al Unser Jr. (1994 and 1995), Helio Castroneves (2000 and 2001), Ryan Briscoe (2008), Simon Pagenaud (2016) and Josef Newgarden (2017).
Scott Dixon has finished in the top five in 10 of his 14 races at Mid-Ohio, including five wins between 2007 and 2014 … James Hinchcliffe has three top-five finishes in seven career starts at Mid-Ohio … Will Power has finished in the top five in seven of his 10 starts at Mid-Ohio … Simon Pagenaud has finished on the podium four times in his previous eight starts.
Rookies Marcus Ericsson, Santino Ferrucci, Colton Herta and Felix Rosenqvist will race an NTT IndyCar Series car at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for the first time this weekend. RC Enerson, who made his series debut at the track in 2016 is also entered and is classified as a rookie.
Tony Kanaan seeks to start his 313th consecutive race this weekend, which would extend his Indy car record streak that began on June 2001 at Portland. Kanaan is second all time in career starts after making his 370th start at Road America on June 23. Mario Andretti holds the record with 407.
Scott Dixon has made 253 consecutive starts heading into the weekend, which is the second-longest streak in Indy car racing. Marco Andretti has made 229 consecutive starts, which is the third-longest streak in Indy car racing.
Scott Dixon, the longest-tenured driver for Chip Ganassi Racing, is third on the all-time Indy car victory list with 45 wins. Sebastien Bourdais is sixth on the all-time list with 37 wins and Will Power is tied with Bobby Unser for seventh on the all-time list with 35 wins.
NTT IndyCar Series point standings:
Newgarden 487, Rossi 458, Pagenaud 429, Dixon 389, Power 322, Rahal 290, Sato 311, Hunter-Reay 298, Hinchcliffe 279, Bourdais 255
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