“Would it have any more impact if I also said ‘He’s Human’, here?”
You know the drill gang, it’s time for Part 2 of my Dre’s Race Review Double Header and this time we’re looking at IndyCar’s Indy200 at Mid-Ohio. And it was looking like another familiar scene for Alex Palou in 2025, a race he qualified on pole position for, and led nearly every single lap that mattered, until he very, suddenly, didn’t. Let’s get into it.
Pal-NOOOOOO
As I said above in the intro, everything was going according to plan for a typical Alex Palou 2025 IndyCar race. He qualified on pole, his third of the season (No one else has more than one). His only real competition came from two places – Another on song Christian Lundgaard, who couldn’t stay with him in terms of pace, and Scott Dixon. More on him in a bit.
Lundgaard’s been one of the few that had the pace to be in Palou’s wheelhouse in 2025, but he couldn’t tire save like Palou could during the longer parts of the stints. Lundgaard had no intention of stretching his 3-stopper and was in first of the leading cars to stop. Palou being able to extend his opening stint to 27 laps was what set him up on the delta to not only pull away from Lundgaard in the middle stint, but also clear a pocket of traffic in the midfield.
By the end of their second round of pit stops, Palou had a seven second lead and a five lap tire delta over Lundgaard. The only major threat was Scott Dixon, who was now trying a 2-stopper to get to the front. He had a little help due to the Lap 1 caution, but the commentary box predicted that the race needed 12 laps of caution to make it a viable strategy, but with the Newgarden opening lap crash and Christian Rasmussen’s engine blowing, we only had 8 in total. Remember as well, Mid-Ohio was one of those races that had laps added to it in the off-season to open up more strategic options.
Dixon had to take the pain of a 30 lap middle stint on a used set of red tyres, and lost enough time that Palou got in front of him after his third and final stop, slotting in after generating a 28-second advantage. But it was not one, but two mistakes from the Champion that opened the door for Dixon to get back in front. One was running wide at China Beach up the hill, and then again at Turn 9 with just six laps to go, got Dixon back in front. And with Palou not being used to having to run in dirty air at any point across the race, couldn’t get close enough to attack his teammate. A gift from the racing god himself, Scott Dixon wins in Mid-Ohio for the sixth time in his career.
Palou was careless. Forgive me for making a Marc Marquez reference for the second DRR in a row, but it’s a carbon copy of how the other “That Damn Spaniard” chucked away a win at his signature track at Austin purely through a lack of concentration. Maybe it’s what happens when you’ve won six of nine to start the season and are rocking a two race lead going in. It was an uncharacteristic error, the sort of cock-up you’d expect to see in your favourite TV bloopers show*, but given he only dropped to second and Dixon isn’t really a threat at the moment, he still casually extended his Championship lead back to 113 points, pretty much what it was at the Indy 500 before the pair of rough weekends in Detroit and Gateway.
And while Scott Dixon got a little fortunate with how the race played out, his strategy was anything but. IndyCar intentionally pushed this race out another 10 laps to take the 2-stopper off the table and Dixon was one of only two men who were still able to pull it off, and it was a classic Dixon fuel save to get it done, even with a lack of cautions and the late pressure of Palou trying to atone for his mistake.
It takes Dixon to 21 consecutive winning seasons in IndyCar, and his 23rd season with a win in the 25 years he’s raced at the highest level of North American Motorsport. And with it being his 59th IndyCar win, he’s just 8 away from AJ Foyt’s all-time record of 67. Not sure if he can get there, there’s definitely been signs that Dixon is beginning to fade – He’s 45 in a fortnight’s time, but at his best, Dixon is still incredibly hard to stop.
And whatever you may think of this race, taking a fuel-save win when the series didn’t want you to, is a hell of a flex.
The Lightning Round
Note: I’ve not talked about Josef Newgarden’s Lap 1 crash too much because I want to save it for a future column on the man’s struggles as a whole. Stay tuned for that in the next week or so. But Team Penske had another atrocious day – 23rd, 26th and 27th. A rear lock-up into the wall, a mechanical breakdown with Will Power’s car, and McLaughlin dropped down the order off camera and I still don’t fully know how because FOX’s YouTube timing tower wasn’t working. Great.
Only one other person pulled off the 2-stopper in Ohio, and it was Rinus Veekay, gaining 17 positions as he went from 26th to 9th. Another excellent result for the Dale Coyne team and Veekay being 13th in the standings is very impressive given where this team was last year.
I love that people were so glad to see Alex Palou’s “dark mode” OpenAI livery lose and understandably so, but were completely fine with Scott Dixon’s OpenAI livery winning, with the latter’s logos having been on the orange car all season. Just say you’re bored of Alex winning, or else I’ll get David Beckham to poke his head through the door and say: “Be Honest!”
Santino Ferrucci drove himself and Conor Daly off the road at the China Beach as an act of alleged retaliation. Ferrucci is very lucky he only got a “Drop 3 positions penalty” for that complete tomfoolery. It’s even stupider when he’s actually starting to prove to people he has talent.
Is it a good sign that FOX Sports has to sponsor a car in the series? Asking for a friend.
Felix Rosenqvist has been sponsored by Creed and Black Sabbath this season… how much would it take for a Jamiroquai pairing? Asking for the same friend…
Dre’s Race Review: 5.5/10 (Meh) – I was going to score this one a 5, but the dramatic ending was worth an extra half point. Whisper it quietly, but Mid-Ohio has always been a tricky circuit to race and pass around, and this one was no different, with 90% of the race set in stone until Palou’s dramatic mistake. Not much else to say on this one otherwise. See you in Iowa. 🌽
