IndyCar: 2010 Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio [SPOILERS]

2010 Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio – Click above for high-res image gallery

With just six races left on the schedule, the IndyCar Series moved to its penultimate road course event: Mid-Ohio. While series leader Will Power was in position to wrap up the inaugural Mario Andretti trophy for the series road course champion, he also had a good shot at putting the overall championship out of reach as well. While that was a pretty big deal, everyone was still talking about the crazy ending to the last race at Edmonton.

To recap, Helio Castroneves was black-flagged for taking the inside line while leading into turn 1 on a restart, but he ignored the order and stayed on track just in case. When he drove into the vicinity of victory lane three laps later, he was deflected aside. Helio jumped out of his car, looking for anyone with a headset who might be able to explain why the race leader would have to give up his hard-fought lead so late in the race. He didn’t get much of an answer – at least not right away. Chief Steward Brian Barnhart reviewed the tapes and stuck to his on-field call. For good measure, he fined Castroneves $60,000 for his tantrum.

While that pretty much eliminated Helio from championship contention, there was still a race to run this weekend. Follow the jump to see how things played out at Mid-Ohio.

[Images: Chris Graythen, Rick Dole, Robert Laberge/Getty Images, Jay LaPrete/AP]

While several incidents (both on-track and off) took out several competitors in the early rounds of qualifying, the Firestone Fast Six looked familiar: Dario Franchitti, Scott Dixon, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Helio Castroneves and Will Power. The other contender for the Peak Performance Pole Position was Takuma Sato, the former Formula 1 driver who has displayed great speed all season, albeit with few championship points to show for it. While these drivers swapped fastest times, Power wasn’t clearly out front until the last two laps.

When the session ended, the final order was Will Power, Dario Franchitti, Takuma Sato, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Scott Dixon and Helio Castroneves in spots one through six. Will Power crashed pretty hard in practice earlier in the day, and now, just by starting the race on Sunday, he would clinch the road race championship. Would anyone catch this guy?

When the green flag waved, Sato slipped past Dario for second, but Franchitti wasn’t about to let that stand. After a couple of exciting laps, Dario was back in second and reeling in the race leader. Everybody pretty much settled in after that, plugging away until the first pit window on lap 24. Although stops on a road course like this aren’t too painful under green, most of the drivers generally prefer to stop under yellow. As if on cue, Justin Wilson and E.J. Viso tangled, both cars sliding into precarious enough places to bring out the race’s first caution.

Mid-Ohio’s pit lane is very narrow and the pit boxes were extra-short because of the 27-car field, so a full-field stop was going to be interesting. While almost everybody avoided contact, Ryan Hunter-Reay wasn’t so lucky. The beleaguered driver got caught in the middle of a Penske sandwich trying to exit his slot, his left front suspension taking a bad enough bump to send him back into the pits the next time around. The team did a great job, swapping in the new parts along with a new nose and getting Ryan back out on the lead lap.

Up front, Will Power had the first pit box and his team gave him a perfect stop, but Dario Franchitti still managed to slip past him as they returned to the track… in third and fourth place. Two cars stayed out during the yellow – Tony Kanaan made an unscheduled pit stop much earlier in the race, and Alex Tagliani pitted just two laps before the caution. That left him at the front of the field on the restart with a good shot at staying up there. The tires barely had a chance to get warm on the restart, though, before Jay Howard was in the kitty litter, bringing out another full-course yellow. The incident also claimed Takuma Sato, unfortunately, who had made the best IndyCar start of his young career.

Halfway through the 85-Lap race, the top ten were Tags, T.K., Dario, Power, Helio, Ryan Briscoe, Simona de Silvestro, Marco Andretti, Scott Dixon and Bertrand Baguette. A lap later it was time for Kanaan to stop again, though, dropping him back to 21st and moving everybody else up a spot.

As the field entered the second pit window, the leaders started filing in one-by-one. Dario ended up out front after that round of stops, but just as the leaders came through the backmarkers, Milka Duno almost took out Will Power. She was on the inside line (as she was supposed to be), but that forced Will out into the marbles. He had a nasty wiggle but recovered and swept past her safely.

Shortly thereafter, on Lap 63 first-time IndyCar runner Francesco Dracone spun into the gravel. Although Graham Rahal had done basically the same thing a corner or two ahead of him, Rahal was able to continue while Dracone wasn’t. That brought out the third full-course yellow of the day and set up a final dash to the checkers with the field bunched up, topped off and aching to grab some points.

Dracone was pulled out of the sand, but right after the field went back to green he was pirouetting again. This time, he avoided the beach but came to rest right across the track. The field was once again reset and ready for the run to the finish. Dario must have felt the pressure up front with successive restarts and Will Power filling his mirrors.

The next restart was clean, and everybody was on their best behavior to keep it green until the checkered flag flew. Dario Franchitti led Will Power, Helio Castroneves, Alex Tagliani and Scott Dixon for the run to the finish with 13 laps to go. With just two laps left, Will had cozied up to Dario’s rear, the two drivers a few seconds ahead of Castroneves in third place . Power pushed hard into every corner, but Dario managed to stay ahead as they crossed the finish line.

Franchitti picked up some sorely-needed points, but Will Power wasn’t too far back. Power clinched the road-racing title for 2010 with one more race to go at Sonoma before the final four oval contests of the season. Power hasn’t been as good on the left-turn-only circuits, so who knows whether Franchitti will be able to make a run at the overall championship by the time things wrap up in Miami on October 2.

Join us in two weeks for the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma – and don’t forget to check out the tables and high-res gallery below.

Qualifying:

QP	Car	Driver	Sponsor	Team	Time	Speed
1	12	Will Power	Verizon Team Penske	VerizonTeam Penske	1:07.1997	120.965
2	10	Dario Franchitti	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	1:07.2846	120.812
3	5	Takuma Sato (R)	Lotus-KV Racing Technology	KV Racing Technology	1:07.4337	120.545
4	37	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Team IZOD	Andretti Autosport	1:07.4411	120.532
5	9	Scott Dixon	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	1:07.4711	120.478
6	3	Helio Castroneves	Team Penske	Team Penske	1:07.5370	120.361
7	6	Ryan Briscoe	Team Penske	Team Penske	1:07.4687	120.483
8	8	E.J. Viso	PDVSA KVRT	KV Racing Technology	1:07.4713	120.478
9	26	Marco Andretti	Meijer	Andretti Autosport	1:07.5436	120.349
10	78	Simona de Silvestro (R)	Team Stargate Worlds/HVM	HVM Racing	1:07.6190	120.215
11	22	Justin Wilson	Team Z-Line Designs/DRR	Luczo Dragon/de Ferran Mtrsprts	1:07.6239	120.208
12	06	Hideki Mutoh	Formula Dream/Panasonic	Newman/Haas Racing	1:07.7491	119.984
13	4	Dan Wheldon	National Guard Panther Racing	Panther Racing	1:08.2415	119.118
14	77	Alex Tagliani	CV Logistics/FAZZT Race Team	FAZZT Race Team	1:07.7789	119.931
15	36	Bertrand Baguette (R)	Conquest Racing RACB	Conquest Racing	1:08.3069	119.004
16	32	Mario Moraes	KV Racing Technology	KV Racing Technology	1:07.7821	119.925
17	27	Adam Carroll (R)	Team AFS	AFS Andretti Autosport	1:08.4825	118.699
18	24	J.R. Hildebrand (R)	Roll Coater/DRR	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	1:07.7943	119.904
19	2	Raphael Matos	HP de Ferran Dragon	de Ferran Dragon Racing	1:08.5386	118.602
20	11	Tony Kanaan	Team 7-Eleven	Andretti Autosport	1:07.9321	119.661
21	19	Alex Lloyd (R)	Boy Scouts of America	Dale Coyne Racing	1:08.7818	118.182
22	7	Danica Patrick	Team GoDaddy.com	Andretti Autosport	1:07.9780	119.580
23	34	Francesco Dracone (R)	Conquest Racing	Conquest Racing	1:11.3968	113.854
24	14	Vitor Meira	ABC Supply Co./A.J. Foyt Racing	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	1:08.0414	119.468
25	02	Graham Rahal	National Tire & Battery	KV Racing Technology	1:08.0459	119.461
26	66	Jay Howard (R)	Service Central/Sarah Fisher Racing	Sarah Fisher Racing	1:09.5028	116.956
27	18	Milka Duno	CITGO	Dale Coyne Racing	No time	No speed

Finishing Order:

FP	Car	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Status	Points
1	10	Dario Franchitti	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	85	01:54:32.2568	Running	50
2	12	Will Power	Team Penske	85	01:54:32.7802	Running	41
3	3	Helio Castroneves	Team Penske	85	01:54:36.3451	Running	35
4	77	Alex Tagliani	FAZZT Race Team	85	01:54:37.8991	Running	34
5	9	Scott Dixon	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	85	01:54:38.1718	Running	30
6	6	Ryan Briscoe	Team Penske	85	01:54:38.7668	Running	28
7	2	Raphael Matos	de Ferran Dragon Racing	85	01:54:39.0086	Running	26
8	78	Simona De Silvestro	Team Stargate Worlds/HVM	85	01:54:42.4019	Running	24
9	26	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	85	01:54:43.2123	Running	22
10	37	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	85	01:54:45.4912	Running	20
11	36	Bertrand Baguette	Conquest Racing	85	01:54:47.0828	Running	19
12	32	Mario Moraes	KV Racing Technology	85	01:54:48.3029	Running	18
13	19	Alex Lloyd	Dale Coyne Racing	85	01:54:48.8138	Running	17
14	4	Dan Wheldon	Panther Racing	85	01:54:51.6086	Running	16
15	14	Vitor Meira	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	85	01:54:52.3350	Running	15
16	24	J.R. Hildebrand	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	85	01:54:52.4737	Running	14
17	11	Tony Kanaan	Andretti Autosport	85	01:54:57.6854	Running	13
18	06	Hideki Mutoh	Newman/Haas Racing	85	01:54:58.8486	Running	12
19	27	Adam Carroll	Andretti Autosport	85	01:54:59.5870	Running	12
20	02	Graham Rahal	Newman/Haas Racing	85	01:54:59.8909	Running	12
21	7	Danica Patrick	Andretti Autosport	85	01:55:00.4667	Running	12
22	34	Francesco Dracone	Conquest Racing	82	01:55:33.6012	Running	12
23	18	Milka Duno	Dale Coyne Racing	81	01:55:14.2990	Running	12
24	66	Jay Howard	Sarah Fisher Racing	38	01:20:36.1373	Contact	12
25	5	Takuma Sato	KV Racing Technology	28	00:38:26.0119	Contact	10
26	8	E.J. Viso	KV Racing Technology	22	00:26:17.1562	Contact	10
27	22	Justin Wilson	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	22	00:26:17.5596	Contact	10

Driver’s Standings:

CP	Driver	Champ Lead	Oval Lead	Road Lead	Points	Gap
1	Will Power	X		X	461	0
2	Dario Franchitti				420	-41
3	Scott Dixon		X		379	-82
4	Ryan Briscoe				352	-109
5	Helio Castroneves				340	-121
6	Ryan Hunter-Reay				336	-125
7	Tony Kanaan				304	-157
8	Marco Andretti				266	-195
9	Justin Wilson				262	-199
10	Dan Wheldon				259	-202
11	Danica Patrick				245	-216
12	Raphael Matos				229	-232
13	Alex Tagliani				228	-233
14	Mario Moraes				221	-240
15	Vitor Meira				220	-241
16	E.J. Viso				203	-258
17	Alex Lloyd				187	-274
18	Simona De Silvestro				179	-282
19	Hideki Mutoh				179	-282
20	Takuma Sato				152	-309
21	Mario Romancini				149	-312
22	Bertrand Baguette				138	-323
23	Graham Rahal				137	-324
24	Milka Duno				124	-337
25	Mike Conway				110	-351
26	Tomas Scheckter				63	-398
27	Paul Tracy				61	-400
28	Sarah Fisher				53	-408
29	John Andretti				35	-426
30	Ana Beatriz				33	-428
31	Jay Howard				32	-429
32	Adam Carroll				26	-435
33	Ed Carpenter				20	-441
34	Townsend Bell				18	-443
35	Sebastian Saavedra				15	-446
36	Davey Hamilton				14	-447
37	J.R. Hildebrand				14	-447
38	Bruno Junqueira				13	-448
39	Francesco Dracone				12	-449
40	A.J. Foyt IV				0	-461

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