LEXINGTON, OH – In the final 10 minutes of Friday’s opening NTT INDYCAR SERIES practice session of the Mid-Ohio race weekend, Pato O’Ward shot up to the top of the speed charts with a top time of 1:06.4935-seconds in his No. 5 Dallara-Chevrolet. The Arrow McLaren Racing driver is out for redemption this weekend to make up for how last year’s Honda Indy 200 went.
So far, he’s off to a great start.
On the Firestone alternate tires, O’Ward ended the day P1 on a lap that was faster on Friday than his pole winning one of a year ago.
Points leader Alex Palou (1:06.8558-seconds) was P2 in his No. 10 Dallara-Honda while his teammate Marcus Ericsson (1:06.9779-seconds) was third in his No. 8 Dallara-Honda.
Christian Lundgaard (1:07.0262-seconds) and Kyle Kirkwood (1:07.0269-seconds) rounded out the top five in the 1-hour and 15-minute long session.
Josef Newgarden led the way early before Felix Rosenqvist knocked him off the top spot near the midway point of practice. Lundgaard then went to the top on blacks before the field came down pit road to swap the primary blacks for the alternate reds.
O’Ward With A Rare Gap On The Field
INDYCAR is a series that’s determined by gaps of tenths of a second. What’s wild about Friday is, O’Ward’s margin was .3623-seconds clear of the rest. Normally, it’s half that margin if not more. That bodes well for O’Ward for the rest of the way.
Last year, he and Rosenqvist had 2 of the top 4 starting spots including his pole. On race day, they had 2 of the bottom four including last with both exiting the race early due to mechanical failures.
“Mid-Ohio is the exact halfway point of the season. As a team, I feel like we have some unfinished business there because of what happened last year with our cars,” O’Ward said. I can’t wait to get back and keeping building our momentum.”
O’Ward has been stellar on natural road courses like this one this season and I expect he could be a threat for a win on Sunday. He was fourth in Barber, runner-up in Indy and third in Road America.
Points Favorites Up Top
3 of the top 4 in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES points standings were in the top three of practice on Friday. Points leader Alex Palou was second. Second in points Marcus Ericsson was third. Fourth in points Pato O’Ward was fourth.
This could set up an epic battle on Sunday as both Ericsson and O’Ward don’t want to let Palou get too far out in front of them.
Palou won the last two races on the season (Detroit, Road America) and was runner-up here a year ago. Ericsson was runner-up here in 2021. O’Ward has three runner-up this year alone.
Lundgaard, Kirkwood Both Sleepers
I knew coming into the weekend that Christian Lundgaard and Kyle Kirkwood would each be sleepers. On Day 1, they look the part.
Lundgaard was fourth fastest on the board while Kirkwood was .0007-seconds slower in fifth.
In Lundgaard’s case, he qualified sixth in Barber and seventh at Road America. He’d finish in those same spots. At Indy, he qualified on the pole and finished fourth.
For Kirkwood, he has 8 wins in 10 Mid-Ohio tries including his Road to Indy days.
Honda’s Quick Early
Pato O’Ward led a strong Honda brigade behind him as position 2-6 were all Honda power. Among them were two Ganassi’s, two Andretti’s and one RLL car. The next best Chevy was the pair of Penske’s in Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin being 7th and 8th respectively. But, they were over a half second back at .6466-seconds in Newgarden’s case and .6596-seconds for McLaughlin. Alexander Rossi was 9th .7018-seconds back with two more Andretti’s (10th, 12th) and a RLL car (11th) behind them.
That’s 8 Honda’s in the top 12 with going to that aspect, all four Andretti’s (5th, 6th, 10th, 12th), two Ganassi’s (2nd, 3rd) and two RLL cars (4th, 11th).
Off The Track Topics
As the green flag dropped on the 1-hour, 15-minute session, a couple of interesting off track storylines surfaced. Rob Edwards told INDYCAR Radio Network that he was now going to be Colton Herta’s new strategist. That move comes in wake on an unfortunate pit call by his predecessor, Scott Harner, to call Herta down pit road one lap too soon in Road America. It cost Herta not only a win, but a podium too as he slid from first to fifth in the final 14 lap stint.
So, in comes Edwards from Devlin DeFrancesco’s pit box. Harner goes to the 29 car. Michael Andretti is on the 28 pit box while Bryan Herta remains on Kyle Kirkwood’s.
More to this story here
Also, Nathan Brown from the Indy Star broke a story that David Malukas is likely departing Dale Coyne Racing following the current season. Malukas signed a two-year deal going into the 2022 season and barring something changing drastically, he will be on his way out.
He’s admittedly frustrated. After a strong rookie season and even a strong start to his sophomore campaign, the results have taken a nose dive. Malukas comes to Mid-Ohio on the heels of four consecutive DNF’s with finishes since Long Beach of 20th, 19th, 26th, 29th, 23rd and 27th respectively. He’s fallen from fifth to 19th in points as a result.
It’s not the fact that Malukas is seeking to go elsewhere, the story is if his dad is following his footsteps out.
Malukas joined DCR with HMD moving up with him from Indy Lights to INDYCAR. His dad, Henry Malukas, funds several Indy NXT teams as well as a full season on the 18 car. If Malukas leaves, you have to wonder if his dad and his partnership does too.
HMD is teamed with Chip Ganassi Racing for Kyffin Simpson’s Indy NXT entry. We know CGR has three cars open for 2024. How much of a role do the Malukas’ play into that?
Does David end up in a car and Henry and HMD remain at DCR? Do both come out and get Ganassi the funding needed? I mean if Huski Chocolate follows NTT Data out for a second straight year, HMD could fill a massive gap that Ganassi needs.
Also does David go to Ganassi and HMD leave a pipeline from INDY NXT to DCR and then DCR to Ganassi with this being a junior team?
You have to imagine though that if David is going to venture into free agency, HMD’s funding has to come in his back pocket because why head into a cutthroat world of free agency without it?
Up Next: Practice 2 on Saturday morning (9:45 a.m. ET, Peacock, INDYCAR Radio Network)
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