Honda Indy 200 Mid-Ohio Preview

Graham Rahal takes a victory lap around Mid-Ohio.  [Andy Clary Photo]

Just a year ago Honda’s Graham Rahal scored his second victory of the season at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on his way to a career-best fourth in the Verizon Indy Car Series point standings.

Rahal’s RLL Racing  team returns to his home track this Sunday hoping to capture another win and stop Team Penske-Chevrolet’s season-long dominance in the Honda Indy 200.

The Penske team placed just two cars in the top 11 in that race a year ago, but the 2016 season finds The Captain’s squad holding the top three spots in the point standings with Simon Pagenaud, Will Power and Helio Castroneves leading the ledger.

Penske-owned cars have won seven times so far in 2016 while Ganassi, Andretti Autosport, Ed Carpenter Racing and KVSH have each visited victory lane once.

Sunday’s race on the 13-turn, 2.258-mile natural road course finds Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon having won here five times, the most of any driver. CGR also has the most wins by a team at Mid-Ohio (10), with seven of those coming since 2007.

Rahal started third in that race a year ago and took the lead for good after a pit stop on lap 68. He held off Justin Wilson, Pagenaud and Dixon on a restart at lap 84 and won by 3.40 sec. over a 24-car field.

Twenty-two cars will compete for 90 laps (203.2 miles) Sunday in race 12 of 16, at a track that saw Johnny Rutherford win the inaugural race in 1980; 31 races ago. Of the active drivers entered who have won here, Dixon leads with five, while Castroneves has won here twice. Juan Pablo Montoya, Charlie Kimball and Rahal have each won once.

So, will Rahal start another strong season-ending run this week, or will the Penske/Ganassi dominance continue?

NOTES:

• In a recent Indy Car test session at Mid-Ohio, Scott Dixon split time in his car with Indy Light’s driver Felix Rosenqvist. Other young drivers being tested by teams included: Zachary Claman De Melo and Jack Harvey (Schmidt Peterson), RC Enerson (Dale Coyne) and Robin Frijas (Andretti Autosport).
• There was much concern in the Indy Car paddock when Target announced that it would cease sponsoring Scott Dixon’s #9 after this season; a program that has lasted 27 seasons. Chip Ganassi calmed things down by indicating that apparently a new sponsor for 2017 will be announced soon.
• Keep a close eye on the crowd at the upcoming Indy Car race at Pocono. Many feel that the race there might be in jeopardy beyond this season if attendance there doesn’t begin to pick up.
• Mazda Road to Indy graduate RC Enerson will get his first Verizon Indy Car ride Sunday in Dale Coyne’s #19 Honda.
• TV: NBCSN, Practice: Friday, 2:00p.m. ET. Qualifying: Saturday, 2:00 p.m. ET.  Race: Sunday, CNBC, 2:00 p.m. ET (Live). NBCSN, 5:30 p.m. ET (Re-air).

QUOTES:

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE, ARROW SCHMIDT Peterson Honda: “Mid-Ohio is one of the best races all year. The track is incredible for us as drivers, but I love the vibe there for the fans as well. It’s got that big camping culture with natural seating all around the place…I was on the podium last time I raced there so I’m hoping to get the car up front again.”

WILL POWER, VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET: “After a bit of a slow start this season, the team has built a lot of momentum in the middle part of the season and we’ll look to keep it going at Mid-Ohio. The natural terrain creates a fast, but technical circuit. It is not a track that I’ve won at before, so this would be a great time to do it. We’ve gotten ourselves into the championship fight, but it’s still a little early to be counting points.”

GRAHM RAHAL: STEAK ‘n SHAKE HONDA: “Mid-Ohio is home to me. I grew up there and spent so many days watching races there. To win it is a great accomplishment that I’ll never forget or take for granted. Last year was probably the best crowd I’ve seen there…I expect that we’ll be very competitive and our performance from the other road courses should carry over to Mid-Ohio.”

JOSEF NEWGARDEN, FUZZY”S ULTRA PREMIUM VODKA CHEVROLET: “Mid-Ohio is a great road course track, one of the best we have in North America. I’m excited to get in the car and see what we can do points-wise. It’s a really good shot for the team to get a win there…and see where we are in the points going into Pocono.”

Paul Gohde

Paul Gohde heard the sound of race cars early in his life.

Growing up in suburban Milwaukee, just north of Wisconsin State Fair Park in the 1950’s, Paul had no idea what “that noise” was all about that he heard several times a year. Finally, through prodding by friends of his parents, he was taken to several Thursday night modified stock car races on the old quarter-mile dirt track that was in the infield of the one-mile oval -and he was hooked.

The first Milwaukee Mile event that he attended was the 1959 Rex Mays Classic won by Johnny Thomson in the pink Racing Associates lay-down Offy built by the legendary Lujie Lesovsky. After the 100-miler Gohde got the winner’s autograph in the pits, something he couldn’t do when he saw Hank Aaron hit a home run at County Stadium, and, again, he was hooked.

Paul began attending the Indianapolis 500 in 1961, and saw A. J. Foyt’s first Indy win. He began covering races in 1965 for Racing Wheels newspaper in Vancouver, WA as a reporter/photographer and his first credentialed race was Jim Clark’s historic Indy win.Paul has also done reporting, columns and photography for Midwest Racing News since the mid-sixties, with the 1967 Hoosier 100 being his first big race to report for them.

He is a retired middle-grade teacher, an avid collector of vintage racing memorabilia, and a tour guide at Miller Park. Paul loves to explore abandoned race tracks both here and in Europe, with the Brooklands track in Weybridge England being his favorite. Married to Paula, they have three adult children and two cats.

Paul loves the diversity of all types of racing, “a factor that got me hooked in the first place.”

racingnation.com

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