Notes Taken During the 2012 IndyCar Race at Mid-Ohio

Notes taken during the ABC broadcast of the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on Aug. 5, 2012.

Welcome to Mid-Ohio. Holy confusion! We got the NBC Sports Network team calling the race but it's on ABC. Here's the deal: ABC had the time slot, but not the people to do the race what with NASCAR Nationwide in Iowa and NASCAR Cup in Pocono. NBC Sports Network had the team to do the race but not the air time since the Olympics is taking up every second of their air. So .. BANG, the two worked together.

pressdog® DRINK, ye BASTARDS Beer of the Race is Founders Brewing Pale Ale brewed in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Get your DRINK, ye BASTARDS drinkware here.

It rained earlier in the day at Mid-Ohio, so insert a lot of talk about "green track" here. But let's CUE THE HAT. Word to my peeps in the graphics-generating B UNIT. Glad you all got those beer holder hats so you can have hands free drinking! Efficiency.

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(Position, car number, driver, chassis/engine/tire, starting tire compound)
1. 12 Power, Will D/C/F Alternate
2. 10 Franchitti, Dario D/H/F Alternate
3. 77 Pagenaud, Simon (R) D/H/F Alternate
4. 9 Dixon, Scott D/H/F Alternate
5. 2 Briscoe, Ryan D/C/F Alternate
6. 7 Bourdais, Sebastien D/C/F Alternate
7. 28 Hunter-Reay, Ryan D/C/F Alternate
8. 26 Andretti, Marco D/C/F Alternate
9. 67 Newgarden, Josef (R) D/H/F Alternate
10. 22 Servia, Oriol D/C/F Primary
11. 18 Wilson, Justin D/H/F Alternate
12. 4 Hildebrand, JR D/C/F Primary
13. 8 Barrichello, Rubens D/C/F Alternate
14. 98 Tagliani, Alex D/H/F Alternate
15. 27 Hinchcliffe, James D/C/F Primary
16. 14 Conway, Mike D/H/F Alternate
17. 15 Sato, Takuma D/H/F Alternate
18. 11 Kanaan, Tony D/C/F Primary
19. 5 Viso, EJ D/C/F Primary
20. 19 Jakes, James D/H/F Alternate
21. 38 Rahal, Graham D/H/F Primary
22. 78 de Silvestro, Simona D/L/F Alternate
23. 3 Castroneves, Helio D/C/F Primary
24. 83 Pantano, Giorgio D/H/F Primary
25. 20 Carpenter, Ed D/C/F Alternate

(R) = Rookie

Pursuant to Rule 15.6.1, Cars 3 and 98 penalized 10 grid spots. Pursuant to Rule 14.14.6.4.1, Car 3 will start on Primary Tires. (Rule 14.14.6.4.1 says: "Within 30 minutes of the completion of final practice, an Entrant must declare via instant message system to INDYCAR which compound it intends to use at the start of the Race. Failure to comply will result in the Entrant being allocated the compound by INDYCAR.")

Chassis: D=Dallara | Engine: C=Chevy, H=Honda, L=Lotus | Tire: F=Firestone

Bob Jenkins, Jon Beekhuis and Wally Dallenbach Jr. in the booth. Pit peeps are Kevin Lee, Townsend Bell and Marty Snider. Let's light this candle. We're ... GREEN.

Festival of Three Wide into the first few turns. Nobody get bashed! We're through cleanly. The Circus Clowns are visibly upset that they didn't get to make an appearance.

Wilson has slight contact with Barichello and goes off, but keeps it fired and whips it around and back under way. Lot of dirt-tracky sliding out there. Simona De Silvestro and her pigged out Lotus even get some love for navigating the slick-ish track well. 

Lap 3 -- Servia may be toast. He's being worked on. Replay of Wilson popping into Rubens and then going ass around. One of them racing deals. JoeNew is up four positions and Conway also up four positions in the first three laps. (Sevia got back under way eventually.)

Kevin tells us JoeNew has never raced here before, ever, but liked the track after the first practices.

Lap 5 -- Bourdais goes to the power to pass and inhales RHR. Jon gives a viewing-enhancing explanation. The deal is, IndyCar put a five second delay on Power to Pass for this race. When a driver hits the button, the other teams won't know he's on the Power to Pass until it actually activates, at which time it will be too late for the car in front to use P2P to defend. That's the thinking, anyway. Worked like a charm for Bourdais on RHR.

Lot of overtaking in the early going, especially for Mid-Ohio. Extreme amounts of overtaking for Mid-Ohio.

Marty says RHR says something is wrong with his car and he's being inhaled. Marty says he's also in fuel saving mode. Jon said the drivers can't go full rich here because of ... wait for it ... fuel strategy. YAY!

Lap 6 -- Bourdais is on the button (Power to Pass) again and round the outside of JoeNew. CLEAR. More televised overtaking.

Lap 7 -- Wilson overtakes Viso. Wilson has driven from P24 to P18 in about five laps after his spin.

Lap 7 -- Pitting starting. Cars that are going on a three pit-stop strategy will start pitting now. Those on a two pit stop strategy will pit around lap 28. This race is going to be about comparing and contrasting the one-stoppers versus the two-stoppers.

Lap 9 -- Helio pits to ditch primary tires and go to alternates. Alternates are allegedly more grippy but don't last as long as primary tires. Replays of a pit guy almost getting his foot run over by another car coming in due to the tiny pit stalls.

Lap 10 -- Power, Dario, Pagenaud, Dixon, Bourdais, Newgarden, RHR, Marco, Briscoe, Rubens.

Lap 11 -- Kevin says Graham Rahal wants to get a deal done for 2013 in the next couple weeks. Rahal has sponsor cash and is shopping it around to teams, I guess. Not real fond of being one of the Ganassi Death Star Satellite teams, allegedly.

Lap 13 -- Viso got a drive-through penalty for speeding on pit lane. Bob says Sato got one two but the race summary says NO. No penalty listed for Sato.

Lap 15 -- Festival of lock step sets in here. Pagenaud working on Dario for P2. Marty says Dario says his front tires are shit (paraphrasing).

Justin Wilson in. Right rear tire changer has issues! Major long stop. JWill not happy. The right rear must be beeeeyotch to get on this car because we've had about five right rear tire change issues so far this year alone.

I see a Ferris Wheel in the background. Crowd driver!* (*Denotes sarcasm and/or chagrin)

Lap 18 -- Ed Carpenter is up six spots ... (all due to pit stops in front of him).

Replay of Rubens under Marco ... CLEAR. Jon says Dario is on the button! Has used 25 seconds of his 100 allotment. Bog hits us with the points-as-they-run info for the first time today. WITH ONLY THREE RACES LEF.

Lap 20 -- Power, Dario, Pagenaud, Dixon, Bourdais, Newgarden, RHR, Briscoe, Rubens, Marco.

Lap 21 -- Simona pits. Sticker blacks. Wally says a three-stopper is good strategy to keep fresher tires on the car as well, something I had not thought about. Viewing enhanced.

Power is 3.1 seconds ahead. Driving with his feet while eating a Vegemite sandwich.

More lock stepping here.

Lap 26 -- JoeNew is P6. Pits and gets primaries. Was as high as P5. The two-stoppers will start to pit now.

Power may have dialed it back because he's lost two seconds Dario.

Lap 27 -- Dario pits with Pagenaud and others. Power, Dixon and Bourdais stay out.

Lap 28 -- Power, Dixon and Bourdais pit. Power and Dixon come back out P1 and P2. Bourdais back out in P4 behind Hinch who is a three-stopper. Dario slouches to P6.

Festival of three wide as cars overtake struggling Briscoe.

Lap 32 -- TK overtakes Bourdais. Bourdais stayed out until the leaders pit and TK is a three-stopper, so TK will have to pit soon.

Three Stop vs. Two Stop has evolved into The Big Story. If it stays green the whole way, the three-stoppers are screwed.

Lap 34 -- Dixon is pressing Power. Eyebrows raised. Is power "saving fuel?" Hmmm. Both may be saving fuel. Jon said both are "racing to a fuel number." Go about your business; nothing to see her except exhibition fuel saving driving.

Lap 35 -- Power, Dixon, Bourdais, Dario, Pagenaud, Tagliani, RHR, Briscoe, JR, Newgarden.

Lap 38 -- Bourdais hanging around in third. Dario moved up to P4 when cars in front of him made pit stops.

Rahal overtakes Sato ... for P18. Briscoe and Newgarden fight for P8.

Lap 41 -- Wilson has another crap pit stop. Loses SEVEN spots in the pits.

Still no yellows. Back-to-back yellowless IndyCar races? Last happened in 1987.

Lap 44 -- Panther claims -- via Twitter -- that Briscoe is throwing a block party for JR. They have reported same to the authorities.

Lap 51 -- John raises the possibility that people lie on their radio and to the media about if they have enough fuel to make it. Nooooo. I'm SHOCKED* (*I am actually not shocked.)

Marty says RHR has no power. RHR is slowing down. Misfiring. Engine is a festival of shit. RHR is getting inhaled by everyone.

Lap 57 -- Power, Dixon, Bourdais and Dario (P1-4) all pit together. This could be the race ... Dixon out first. Dixon bests Power out. P1. P1. Second race in a row the ultimate pass for what should be the win happened on pitting. This time it was actually in the pits. Bourdais back out in P3. Replays. Dixon Fueler had a fraction of a second harder time getting in there.

Lap 57 -- Jon calls it "definitely a defining moment" of the race. True.

Lap 59 -- Dario bashes into the back of JR as he was trying to overtake. Dario swung out and hit is wing on the rear wheel guards. Will have to pit for a new nose.

Lap 60 --Dixon, Power, Bourdais, Bagenaud, Dixon, Hinch, JR, Newgarden, TK, Tag.

Lap 61 -- RHR into the gravel, gives it the dirt track slide and keeps it going. Back onto the rack. No yellow. Impressive job there.

Bourdais also did some off-roading. Actually cooked a corner and let Pagenaud under him on Lap 61.

Bell says it's easy when you are used to judging passes based on how close you are to the rear gear box to forget the wheel guard things which stick back another foot until you pull out to pass and clip them.

Replay of RHR. Tapped by Sato and went into the dirt track mode.

Lap 64 -- Marty says RHR's engine's fuel injectors are injecting too much fuel, making it misfire, etc.

Dario gets a new wing and is back out. Jay Penske gets air. JAY PENSKE. When Jay gets air you know we got some time on our hands. Next they will talk to Sarah Fisher, right before the sun freezes and drops from the sky.

Lap 73 -- Dixon is three seconds up. Will win barring air strike or horrid fuel calculations.

Kevin says Pagenaud's people are not sure if he can make it on fuel.

Lap 75 -- Dixon, Power, Pag, Bourdais, Hinch, JR, TK, Jakes, Marco, Briscoe.

Lap 76 -- RHR pits. Pull the engine cover. Can't fix it easily. Send him back out. He limps around until there's no more positions to lose then comes in and calls it a race. Jon makes a good observation that by doing that he can claim the engine issue cost him a DNF and won't have to pay a 10-grid-spot penalty to replace it because it technically blew during the race.

Lock step. Dixon told to conserve just in case.

Lap 81 -- Dixon, Power, Pag, Bourdais, Hinch, TK, Maco, Briscoe, JR, Tag.

White flag. Dixon wins. Dixon, Power, Pagenaud, Bourdais, Hinch.

Wow. Last half of that race: not stirring. Just gotta be up front with you. Wasn't putrid, by any means. There was some overtaking well back in the pack and Bourdais choked away P3, but other than that ... The race was caution free, first time IndyCar had back-to-back zero-yellow races since 1987 per IndyCar PR.

Again, pretty classic road course stuff. Fuel saving, some overtaking in the pack (amazing for Mid-Ohio), strategy (two-stop vs. three-stop). A lot of people would hold this race up as "proper road racing." Whether or not you dig that is a matter of personal choice and preference, for sure.

IZOD IndyCar Series
Honda Indy 200
LEXINGTON, Ohio - Results Sunday of the Honda Indy 200 IZOD IndyCar Series event on the 2.258 mile Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, with order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, chassis-engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):

1. (4) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 85, Running
2. (1) Will Power, Dallara-Chevy, 85, Running
3. (3) Simon Pagenaud, Dallara-Honda, 85, Running
4. (6) Sebastien Bourdais, Dallara-Chevy, 85, Running
5. (15) James Hinchcliffe, Dallara-Chevy, 85, Running
6. (18) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Chevy, 85, Running
7. (5) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Chevy, 85, Running
8. (8) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Chevy, 85, Running
9. (12) JR Hildebrand, Dallara-Chevy, 85, Running
10. (14) Alex Tagliani, Dallara-Honda, 85, Running
11. (21) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 85, Running
12. (9) Josef Newgarden, Dallara-Honda, 85, Running
13. (17) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 85, Running
14. (24) Giorgio Pantano, Dallara-Honda, 85, Running
15. (13) Rubens Barrichello, Dallara-Chevy, 85, Running
16. (23) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Chevy, 85, Running
17. (2) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda, 85, Running
18. (11) Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 85, Running
19. (20) James Jakes, Dallara-Honda, 85, Running
20. (19) EJ Viso, Dallara-Chevy, 85, Running
21. (16) Mike Conway, Dallara-Honda, 85, Running
22. (25) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Chevy, 84, Running
23. (22) Simona de Silvestro, Dallara-Lotus, 83, Running
24. (7) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Chevy, 79, Mechanical
25. (10) Oriol Servia, Dallara-Chevy, 78, Running

Race Statistics
Winners average speed: 115.379
Time of Race: 01:39:48.5083
Margin of victory: 3.4619
Cautions: 0
Lead changes: 2
Lap Leaders:
Power 1 - 57
Hinchcliffe 58 - 59
Dixon 60 - 85

Point Standings: Power 379, Hunter-Reay 374, Castroneves 353, Dixon 351, Hinchcliffe 316, Pagenaud 311, Kanaan 307, Franchitti 271, Briscoe 267, Rahal 256.

Results and lap chart courtesy of IndyCar PR.

That's it for Mid-Ohio. Tune in again in three weeks for the race at Sonoma. Aug. 26 at 4:30 p.m. on NBC Sports Network.

Comments

[Dylan]

Mid Ohio needs a new rule: No Open Wheel Cars Allowed. Motorcycles are great, it's one of the best tracks the AMA races, and ALMS is usually good, but put Indycar's on the track and it's just not very good. It was just a fuel parade with Red Cars out front, and about as exciting as Pocono, which is to say, not very.

[ThatGuy]

Local preacher who apparently can't be preempted/moved to another timeslot ruined the pre-race and first two laps here. Then Mid-Ohio was Mid-Ohio in spite of all the built-in Wacky Races gimmicks. If this race is untouchable, at least those Ohioans a chance to see a better show in Cleveland too.

[The Speedgeek]

"Not very good"? Dude (Dylan), what? Did you not see any of the passing that went on today? To my eye, that was a pretty darn good race. No, there was but one lead change, but there's a reason for that. Sit down and brace yourself: it's because the two fastest cars (Dixon and Power) got out front, and then nobody could pass either of them. Why? Because they were the two fastest cars. Faster car (those two guys) vs. slower car (everybody else) is a comparison that even my 2 1/2 year old can understand. Unless said faster car that is in front of a slower car makes a mistake, it is never going to get passed by the slower car. That is true in racing, all forms of racing, on all types of tracks, and unless we're going to go and invert the field at half distance, or some other screwy thing, that's something that's never going to get "fixed".

With all of that out of the way, I thought the race was pretty damned interesting. Multiple strategies, some different names (Josef, Bourdais, etc.) running toward the pointy end at times, a couple of guys (TK, Hinch) running from deep in the pack via strategery and passing (including TK passing THREE cars in ONE corner) to the top-6, a basic lack of general driving ass-hattery...that's a good race. Instant classic? No, but I'd give it a solid B to B+. A compelling race for the lead closes the loop and kicks it up to the A-range, but sometimes you can't have everything. That's sports.

[Dylan]

Sorry but a 2 hour race with 2 lead changes is a race I can't say I'm too thrilled about

[Sean]

The ALMS race was crap. I was there. Team Muscle Milk won the race by a full lap over the only other truly competitive team, Dyson Racing, in its category.

The morning warm up gave me hope for a wet race, cars were sliding everywhere. But the rain stopped and the track was completely dry by race time.

The only thing wrong with this race is the friggin' fuel knob.

Finally, that's enough of the whining about Cleveland. Ditto for MIS, Road America, and PIR. IndyCar is on record as wanting to go back to all of those places but they don't just wish it and make it so. The tracks have to pay the cash. If the fans want it, they should be writing the tracks.

[Bill]

Tried to watch due to the NASCAR rain delay.
Cars look very slow compared to F1. Maybe it's just the camera angles. But it was like a typical F1 "race". He who starts up front and makes the fastest pit stop wins. About all that can be expected from IndyCar these days.
Send those NBC/Versus guys back to where they came.
I had to turn the TV sound off!!!!

[GeorgeK]

I have to admit they look more and more like go-karts to me, and they look about as slow.

Bill, my abbreviated race notes: They started, they ran, they finished.

Spec car racing at it's finest :(

[The Speedgeek]

Ah, now I see. The only metric I should use as to whether or not a race was any good is "how many lead changes were there?" Duly noted. I'll adjust my attitude accordingly.

George, for what it's worth, those slug-like go karts were only about 0.3 seconds off the all time CART-era track record in qualifying. With, I might point out, 17% less engine displacement and a fraction of the cost for engine lease price. I guess I just think that's fairly cool. I could be wrong, though.

[Jack The Root]

0.6 TV rating for the Mid-Ohio Fuel Saving Grand Prix.

That's all that needs to be said.

This is a racing product that, for various reasons, fewer and fewer people care enough about to watch. No matter how "great" the racing may or may have not been this year.

You can't sell millions of dollars worth of sponsorship, when only a few hundred thousand people are watching.

[GeorgeK]

Sorry Geek, don't mean to come off as such a downer, but the whole concept of Indycar racing seems to be slipping past my personal WTF threshhold. Me thinks the rest of the country seems to be in a similar mode, hence the lack of general interest. I appreciate your speed comparo insight, they just look like Matchbox toys.

Promise not to come up with any more comments until I can find a positive issue to jump on.

If the sport is to survive it needs the support of true believers such as yourself, Bill, and other loyal fans who drop by this site.

[Leigh O'Gorman]

"Cars look very slow compared to F1."

Probably because they're less powerful than GP2 cars maybe...?

[Oranpark]

I think the race distance has had to be increased to make it impossible to complete it with 2 stops only. The longest stint at MO was 29 laps so 29*3=87 laps is the theoretical maximum for a 2-stops race under green. Laps under yellow counted as 50% in terms of fuel mileage. In my opinion, the race distance has to be proceeded to make it impossible to run with 2 stops unless the 10% of a distance would been went under yellow. So 29*3+5 laps (additional fuel laps in case of 10% race went under yellow). So we have 92 laps. Just add 7 more laps - and you'll get the way better show

[Dennis]

Guess I'm in the minority but I thought the race was fairly decent. I like the suggestion to increase distance so a 2 stop mileage saver won't work. Also, really liked the NBC camera work.

What hurts IndyCar in my eyes are the street courses. I know they get the crowds but I find them unwatchable on TV.