O’Ward Outduels Palou At Mid-Ohio To Win First IndyCar Race Of Hybrid Era

Source: Paul Hurley/Penske Entertainment / other

LEXINGTON, Ohio. — In a compelling duel between two young stars of the NTT IndyCar Series, Pato O’Ward was able to hold off a late charge by Alex Palou in the closing laps to win the Honda Indy 200 of Mid-Ohio, in what was the first race of the era of hybrid engines in North American open-wheel racing.

O’Ward, who started second behind pole-sitter Palou, had brilliant execution of his hybrid system and also his pit strategy as he put himself in position to contend for and then defend the race win.

“That was a hard-fought race,” Palou said. “We just had to close the gap and the pit stops were great. It’s been a while. This is a proper win. I felt very comfortable in the car this weekend.”

It was a proper win indeed for O’Ward, who did get credited with the win at St. Petersburg this season due to the win being stripped from Josef Newgarden, but O’Ward had not won a race on the track since Iowa in 2022.

The day appeared to belong to Palou from the start, even despite technical issues for his teammate, Scott Dixon, who did not see the start of the race after his engine died during the pace laps. The growing pains of the hybrid engine reared its head for the veteran driver who has raced every iteration of InyCar the power unit since the early 2000s.

Palou, had an excellent command of his machine as he stretched his lead to more than eight seconds on O’Ward who was running along in second place. It wasn’t until the first round of pit stops that O’Ward finally had a chance to catch Palou by switching to the red alternate tires on which his car was better suited.

“We were really strong on the reds (tires), and Palou was really strong on the blacks (tires),” O’Ward said.

“Pato started catching us and we couldn’t do much of anything,” said Palou.

O’Ward slowly, but surely reeled in Palou and by Lap 57 O’Ward was the first to flinch to try and undercut Palou. The decision paid off as O’Ward’s crew had a brilliant stop. That was followed up by Palou one lap later, who unfortunately had trouble getting the car into gear to exit the pits. That little hiccup costs Palou the lead as O’Ward was able to get back around the course in enough time to put Palou behind him.

Both drivers were now locked in a dual that could only be settled between them and them alone.

Both were on the black primary tires at this point, which Palou had proven to be better on. However, Palou was also caught in the dirty air of O’Ward who kept finessing his hybrid deployment of energy and his traditional Push-To-Pass to keep Palou behind him.

Nonetheless, it was not a leisurely drive for O’Ward up front as by Lap 70 of the 80 total laps, he caught the tail end of lead lap traffic, and among those drivers was Palou’s Ganassi teammate in Kyffin Simpson. With dirty air impeding both O’Ward and Palou now, it was a matter of defensive driving as Palou was unable to make the winning move.

O’Ward hung on to claim the win after what tuned into a classic battle between two of IndyCar’s young talents.

Despite his second-place finish, Palou was able to grow his lead in the championship standings due to a poor result from Will Power, who came into the weekend second in the standings. Power finished 11th, which ballooned Palou’s points lead to 48-points. The race win catapulted O’Ward into a contending spot for the title though as he moved from sixth to third in the standings, 69-points behind Palou.

Scott McLaughlin salvaged a third-place result in the race in what was overall a forgettable weekend for the Penske stable.

The series will return to some oval racing in the coming weekend as they head to Iowa Speedway for a doubleheader on the short oval. It will be a weekend in which many drivers will either see their championship hopes bolstered or dash in a matter of two days.

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