LEXINGTON, Ohio  – If there were any questions that Simon Pagenaud was feeling the pressure of the Verizon IndyCar Series title battle, the Team Penske driver answered them emphatically with an aggressive victory at today’s Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio.

Simon Pagenaud celebrates in Victory Circle following his win in the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio — Photo by: Matt Fraver

Pagenaud, in the No. 22 PPG Automotive Refinish Chevrolet, banged his way past teammate and primary championship contender Will Power for the deciding pass of the race and drove on to a 4.1620-second victory. Coupled with winning the Verizon P1 Award in qualifying Saturday, Pagenaud extended his championship advantage to 58 points over Power with 12 of 16 races completed.

“The car was really good today, so when it was time to push, it was easy to lay down some fast laps,” said Pagenaud, who picked up his series-leading fourth win this season and eighth of his career. “The red Firestone tires were amazing today on the car. I just pushed as hard as we could and here we are. It’s awesome, four wins this year.”

Starting from pole, Pagenaud led only 17 laps through the first two-thirds of the 90-lap race –  the 32nd Indy car event on the permanent road course since 1980 – due to teams’ differing fuel strategies. Power, in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, even passed his teammate during a mid-race pit-stop sequence by staying on track two laps longer.

Simon Pagenaud on course during the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio — Photo by: Matt Fraver

The decisive moment of the race came on a Lap 66 restart with Power running second and Pageanud third. Pagenaud made repeated bold overtaking maneuvers throughout the lap, with the two Penske cars making side-to-side contact several times until Pagenaud finally forced his way past Power exiting the 13th and final turn on the 2.258-mile circuit.

Pagenaud pulled away from Power and then waited out race leader Conor Daly, who had to stop for a splash of Sunoco E85R ethanol six laps shy of the finish.

“It was an awesome battle with Will there,” Pagenaud said. “I knew that was my chance on that restart, it was time to go. It was a pretty interesting lap, fun driving like that. That’s racing. It was fair, it was clean, it was hard racing.”

Power, who collected his fifth straight top-two finish of the season, was mad at himself for not getting a good jump on the critical restart.

“I was sleeping on that restart and I regret that,” Power admitted. “I should have been on it, then I got marbles on the tires. It was a good, clean battle. It was tough but it sucked finishing second, all the effort you put into that race.

“But Simon did a bloody good job and it’s turning into a pretty good battle.”

Carlos Munoz used a fuel-saving strategy to finish third in the No. 26 Andretti Autosport Honda, the Colombian’s best showing since he placed second at the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil in May. Defending race winner Graham Rahal finished fourth in the No. 15 Steak ‘n Shake Honda.

Pagenaud has totaled 484 points in the 12 completed races to 426 for Power. The Team Penske duo achieved some separation from several other contenders who had issues in the race.

Five-time Mid-Ohio winner and 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon and two-time Mid-Ohio winner Helio Castroneves had contact on Lap 15, snapping Dixon’s left front suspension and damaging Castroneves’ left rear wheel guard. Castroneves ended up in 15th place and Dixon 22nd and last.

“I got alongside (Castroneves) and he kept edging me over until I just had nowhere to go,” Dixon said. “I braked when I was alongside him and then he just turned in.”

Josef Newgarden was forced to pit on Lap 22 to replace his entire rear wing assembly after contact with Power, finishing the race in 10th. Castroneves, Newgarden and Dixon now rank third through fifth in the point standings, but each has fallen more than 100 points in arrears of Pagenaud.

“It was tough day,” Newgarden said. “I feel bad for my guys because I think we had a good car. Pagenaud and Power would have been tough today, but I think we were a podium car, for sure.”

Daly, in the No. 18 Jonathan Byrd’s Hospitality Honda, wound up in sixth place after the late splash-and-go. Mikhail Aleshin led a race-high 33 laps in the No. 7 SMP Racing Schmidt Peterson Honda, but made contact exiting his pit with Newgarden on Lap 62. Aleshin was penalized for making an improper pit exit and hitting Team Penske crewman Vance Welker (who was uninjured) and finished 17th.

“I was the fastest car on the track so obviously the car was pretty good,” said Aleshin, who had led only four career laps prior to today. “I think the incident (with Newgarden) was unfortunate. … Sometimes these things happen in the race and we’re ready to win, but we just got a little bit unlucky today.”

The Verizon IndyCar Series returns to action for the ABC Supply 500 at Pocono Raceway on Aug. 21. Broadcast coverage of the 500-mile race on the 2.5-mile triangular oval begins at 3 p.m. ET on NBCSN and the Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network.

Drivers surprised with return of long-missing helmets

Drivers typically don’t care for surprises in their race day routine, but this morning provided an undeniably sentimental moment as four previously missing racing helmets were returned to their owners. Helio Castroneves, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Ed Carpenter and Sarah Fisher had just emerged from the drivers’ meeting for The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio. Jaws dropped and eyes widened as the helmets were uncovered.

“A blast from the past,” Andretti Autosport’s Hunter-Reay said of the Rahal Letterman Racing helmet he wore for his 2007 Verizon IndyCar Series debut, ironically at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. “This makes me feel old. Thank you.”

The helmets, as well as ones belonging to Danica Patrick and the late Dan Wheldon, were stolen in 2008 from an INDYCAR fan experience trailer parked in Speedway, Ind. All six were recently returned to INDYCAR.

“Helmets are important to any driver,” Hunter-Reay said. “It’s a piece of your career and a lot of memories come with it. This is a pretty important helmet. I kind of wrote it off. It’s nice to have it back.”

Fisher’s white helmet was also important – it was covered with fan signatures and worn in her series comeback race in 2006.

“It was my comeback helmet, my first race back after having driven some stock cars for Richard Childress,” said Fisher, who retired from racing in 2010 and is now the pace car driver at Verizon IndyCar Series events. “(Team owner) Dennis Reinbold put me back in an Indy car in 2006. It was such a quick turnaround; I didn’t have time to paint a helmet. My husband now, Andy (O’Gara), had this great idea to take my helmet to the autograph session and have the fans sign it so that it would kind of be painted.”

At the time of the theft, Fisher said, “I was devastated. It meant so much to me.”

Carpenter, now the series’ only owner/driver, wore his recovered helmet for Vision Racing in 2007.

“It’s nice we have all the INDYCAR tech stickers or otherwise I probably wouldn’t remember what year it was from anyway,” he said. “I had forgotten that it was stolen. I remember giving it to put on that trailer. It’s cool to have it back.”

Castroneves took his 2001 Team Penske helmet and gave it to an unsuspecting Vince Kremer, now vice president of operations at INDYCAR who was Bettenhausen Motorsports’ crew chief when Castroneves was an Indy car rookie in 1998.

“This one’s for you,” Castroneves said to Kremer, who was visibly stunned and emotional.

As their bond developed in 1998, Castroneves promised Kremer, “You’re going to get one of my helmets.” Each year since, Kremer enjoyed teasing the Brazilian with a reminder. Not anymore.

“He just totally shocked me and blew me away,” Kremer said.

Mazda Road to Indy recap

Santiago Urrutia (Schmidt Peterson Motorsports with Curb-Agajanian) completed a weekend sweep of wins in Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires races at Mid-Ohio to wrestle the points lead away from Ed Jones (Carlin), who finished 11th. Urrutia holds a 16-point lead with three races remaining.

Anthony Martin (Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing) made it a tripleheader weekend sweep in the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship powered by Mazda to take a 21-point lead over teammate Parker Thompson with two races go to.

In the Pro Mazda Championship presented by Cooper Tires, Nico Jamin (Cape Taylor with Wayne Taylor Racing) won both weekend races, but Team Pelfrey’s Aaron Telitz finished on the podium twice to pull 14 points ahead of teammate Pato O’Ward for the championship lead with three races left.

What They’re Saying from Honda Indy 200 Mid-Ohio Race

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA (No. 2 Hawk Performance Team Penske Chevrolet): “First, I want to say that I’m really glad that Vance Welker (No. 2 car chief mechanic – outside front tire changer) is OK, after the incident (in the pits between No. 7 and 21 cars) today. Secondly, the Hawk Performance Chevrolet was good all weekend and it definitely had the speed for a podium finish. For the race, we went with a different strategy and it didn’t work out as well as we would have liked. We went with a different set of (Firestone) red tires that we thought would work well for us during the latter part of the race, but the balance was off after that. We have to keep our heads up and look ahead. We just need to go back and look at things this week and see what we can do differently for Pocono.”

HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet): “The Hitachi Chevy was consistent. Unfortunately, I don’t understand yet what happened with the No. 9 (Scott Dixon) in Turn 2. Obviously, I went to move to the inside. He was on the push-to-pass. I was on the push-to-pass. Unfortunately, I felt a big hit on the back. I didn’t move anything. It is a shame. Not sure what happened. I have to ask him what happened. We stayed out but the sidepod was a little bit off and the rear of the car was moving a lot, especially in the high-speed section. I believe that is where I went off when I was passing the No. 8 car (Max Chilton), the rear just took off. Looks like some of my competitors had a bad day except for Will (Power) and (Simon) Pagenaud – great job for them. They are probably on their way to a good battle for the championship, but we will keep focused.”

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE (No. 5 Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda): “It was a solid result for the Arrow Electronics car. We had a really roller-coaster day, starting mid-field and ending up at the back after about mid-distance and then working our way back up to a top five. I have to give the guys a lot of credit. We had a bit of an evil balance in the first part of the race but every stop we worked on it and every stop we made it better. We got back on the (Firestone) red tires in the third stint and it really started to come to us. We picked off some guys in pit cycles and then picked off some guys on track in the last stint. We didn’t catch either of the lucky yellows, we had to earn it, but after falling to the back of the line for a pit-lane speed violation, which was one hundred percent my fault, we raced our way back up to a top five. Great work in the pits and I’m happy for everyone at Arrow, and at Honda at one of their home races. It was a tough break for Mikhail (Aleshin) and the No. 7 crew but it shows that we have the pace as a team and hopefully we can prove that moving forward.”

MIKHAIL ALESHIN (No. 7 SMP Racing Schmidt Peterson Honda): “The car was amazing. The team did a fantastic job to bring the No. 7 SMP Racing car up to speed. No one was really faster than we were. I felt quite competitive up there in the front and I wasn’t pushing like crazy because I was also saving fuel. Everything was going proper, perfect and I was saving fuel but at the same time, I was the fastest car on the track so obviously the car was pretty good. I think the incident (in the pits with the No. 21 car) was unfortunate. I don’t want to discuss it though. I want to just say that sometimes these things happen in the race and we’re ready to win but we just got a little bit unlucky today.”

MAX CHILTON (No. 8 Gallagher Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet): “It was a long day in the office. I tried everything I could and I felt that my pace was pretty strong, but around here you have to be really strong to get by even with push-to-pass. It made it even harder with the temperatures, but I really did enjoy it out there this weekend. I learned a lot. It’s one of those things where you need the luck of the draw to do well and we just didn’t have it this weekend.”

SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet): “Helio (Castroneves) was coming out of the pits on the pit exchange and we were trying to go off sequence. He was off pace and we caught him on the exit of Turn 1. I got alongside him and he kept edging me over until I just had nowhere to go. I braked when I was alongside him and then he just turned in. Had we had a little more room I think we could have gotten through there just fine. It was definitely an aggressive move but I should have known better trying that with Helio. It usually ends like this with him.”

TONY KANAAN (No. 10 NTT Data Chevrolet): “It was just one of those races where things didn’t fall the way we wanted them to. We made our way up into the top 10 after our last stop and we were in good position to keep it up there, but I was one of the only guys up front on blacks and we just couldn’t move forward or hold our position to the guys on red tires toward the end of the race. We had a really fast car in the No. 10 NTT Data Chevrolet and we showed it all weekend in practice, but it just didn’t play out for us in the end.”

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS (No. 11 Team Hydroxycut-KVSH Racing Chevrolet): “After a frustrating qualifying yesterday, we managed to find ourselves up front today after a good strategy call. Unfortunately, five laps to the end I felt I had a shot to get into the top four. I haven’t seen the replay, but I guess I just got frustrated and missed my mark on the braking when I was close behind him (Takuma Sato). He braked and I tried to brake later and unfortunately I touched him. My bad to Takuma (Sato). The Hydroxycut car was good and I was growing increasingly frustrated not to be able to make use of it because he was not very fast. It just tipped me over the edge and I made a mistake. I feel bad for the Hydroxycut guys. They did a good job in the pits and deserved a better result. We’ll just have to regroup now and see what we can do the last four races of the season.”

WILL POWER (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet): “Great strategy by the Verizon Chevy team and we did a great job saving on fuel. It was an interesting battle there. I was sleeping on that restart and I regret that. I should have been on it, then I got marbles on the tires. It was a good, clean battle. It was tough but it sucked finishing second, all the effort you put into that race. But Simon (Pagenaud) did a bloody good job and it’s turning into a pretty good battle. Like Simon said, we’re not racing for 11th place. It’s for a win and for a championship and you have to go for it. It was my bad for not being on it on the restart. I regret that, but he’s got to push. I thought of the team on the last corner when we went side-by-side, I had to back out or we were going to crash. It’s racing. It’s tough.”

TAKUMA SATO (No. 14 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Honda): “Heckuva day. Incredible job from the team. (Strategist) Larry (Foyt) called the perfect strategy even though it was a little bit optimistic when we came to pit. Later on we caught a good yellow and gained track position. Then we were fighting the whole field! It was like qualifying every lap. My ABC guys gave me a super pit stop to get me out on the last stop — then we were fighting for fourth. It’s a real shame what happened at the end (getting hit by Bourdais). We were able to salvage a ninth so still a good result for second straight race. Looking forward to the last part of the season.”

GRAHAM RAHAL (No. 15 Steak ‘n Shake Honda): “I’m a little bit frustrated we couldn’t be a little better. I wanted to win today but I think we got the absolute most out of this thing. That first yellow kind of hurt us but that’s how racing goes sometimes. We rebounded nicely and got some points. It feels good to get another top five for the Steak ‘n Shake team. We have been pretty strong on the road courses this year. I wouldn’t say luck was completely on our side; that first yellow hurt us, but we rebounded pretty well. I’m really proud of my Steak ‘n Shake guys. We had our backs up against the wall after that first yellow but we kept our heads down. We had a great car today. It was faster than most but it was just hard to pass. It’s always great to come back home. Thanks to everyone who came out to support the Steak ‘n Shake team and the IndyCar Series.”

CONOR DALY (No. 18 Jonathan Byrd’s Hospitality Honda): “I figured out the car in the middle of the race. We kept locking the right front up so easily and I kept sailing off, even in the race. As soon as I sorted the brake bias, the car was amazing. We had to pit because the right front tire was destroyed. Because of that, we were about seven laps short of making it to the end at that point. We knew we couldn’t make it to the end so why not keep going and pushing. I tried to nail every single lap. We had a good enough car to stay up front and pull the gap that we needed. Sixth is about as good as we could’ve done in that scenario. I was just happy to pull away and lead like that for a stint. These guys kept their faith in me because I have driven the car off course all weekend. I’m just glad we could have a good finish.”

RC ENERSON (No. 19 Boy Scouts of America Honda): “We were really quick out there. The guys gave me a great car. We were the fastest Honda so that’s a plus side and we were quick all race but it just didn’t turn out our way. A lot of excitement today, but also a little bit of disappointment because I know we had a good car and we could have done a lot better. But I’m pretty tired, my neck and my hands, so I have to work on that but we’ll keep pushing for it. For my debut, it really couldn’t have gone any better. Of course we would have liked to finish further up, but this was a good start.”

SPENCER PIGOT (No. 20 Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevrolet): “I was happy with the amount of cars we were able to jump on strategy and pass on track. We moved up to seventh so I was happy with that. We had a good strategy and also really good pit stops so a big thanks to them. I also have to say thanks to Fuzzy’s Vodka, Rising Star Racing, Mockett and everyone that helped me get here. I think we can keep moving forward. If we can qualify a bit better on Saturday, we won’t have to try and save as much fuel and do these alternate strategies. Today it worked out, but hopefully in Watkins Glen we can start by qualifying a bit higher up.”

JOSEF NEWGARDEN (No. 21 Fuzzy’s Ultra Premium Vodka/ECR Chevrolet): “It was tough day. I feel bad for my guys because I think we had a good car. (Simon) Pagenaud and (Will) Power would have been tough today, but I think we were a podium car for sure which would have been really good points for us. It’s tough having two races in a row where we have our rear bumper taken off. It’s no fault of our own but it ruins our race, it happened in Toronto and now here. I think it’s probably a question for INDYCAR of how that’s going to be handled. It’s really hard for us to recover after those incidents. We did everything we could, our guys were lightning fast in the pits to get us back out with a new bumper. We tried to do some damage control and got a top 10 out of it, we’ll take that and move on to try and win the next one.”

SIMON PAGENAUD (No. 22 PPG Automotive Refinish Team Penske Chevrolet): “I can’t feel anything right now so it’s all good. My back was fine all race, thanks to INDYCAR Medical. Whew, that was a race there, that was fun. It was an awesome battle with Will (Power) there. I knew that was my chance on that restart, it was time to go. It was a pretty interesting lap, fun driving like that. That’s racing. It was fair, it was clean, it was hard racing and I’m just glad I won, really. The PPG Chevrolet was really good today so when it was time to push it was easy to lay down some fast laps. The red Firestone tires were amazing today on the car. I just pushed as hard as we could and here we are. It’s awesome. Four wins this year.”

CARLOS MUNOZ (No. 26 Andretti Autosport Honda): “Finally we pitted at the right time – this year we’ve had a lot of bad luck. After qualifying we tried another setup for the warmup and I didn’t like it so we just went back on the setup. It’s nice to be back on the podium – it’s been a long time. Really happy to be third after how the weekend (went). I have to thank my team, Honda, everyone – they nailed the pit strategy. For Andretti (Autosport) it’s been quite a long time without (a podium finish) so it’s nice to be back. We had the track position and we had the pace – it was really physical, especially with the black (tires) I had to push a lot.”

MARCO ANDRETTI (No. 27 Snapple Honda): “One of these days I’m going to catch a yellow to help us. We worked on strategy and had made it from P21 to P2, but that first yellow killed us. We had pace – after every time somebody pitted, we’d leap frog them and then we had to pit and then you’re green. So it didn’t work out for us in the end.”

RYAN HUNTER-REAY (No. 28 DHL Honda): “I’m so infuriated and frustrated with today’s race. I don’t really want to get into details or discuss it. The DHL car started P4, was strong and should have been on the podium today.”

JACK HAWKSWORTH (No. 41 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Honda): “At the beginning of the race we were holding steady but we weren’t great on the used reds (tires). Unfortunately, we decided to stay out at the beginning and the yellow came out and we got hosed and sent to the back. On the new blacks, I was fine running in the pack with Graham (Rahal), (Charlie) Kimball and (Tony) Kanaan. Then we had a bobble on the second stop which was unfortunate because the first stop was very good. For some reason on the new reds the left front tire went away and I had no grip that stint. I was just hanging on at the end of the stint. I think I dropped an outside rear wheel into the grass going into Turn 1 trying to open up the corner and the car snapped when it was in the grass and off I went.”

CHARLIE KIMBALL (No. 83 Tresiba Chevrolet): “I feel really badly for the No. 83 crew – they did such an awesome job in pit lane. They gave me positions in every single pit stop and really gave me the opportunity to go for the podium. I got a little aggressive trying to pass the No. 26 car on that last restart and lost some spots. We ended up eighth which is definitely a fight back from where we were out there in the dirt with 30 (laps) to go. It’s just difficult because the No. 83 Tresiba Chevrolet was quicker than that today. I’m disappointed, but I have to give so much credit to the guys and everyone at Chip Ganassi Racing this weekend.”  

ALEXANDER ROSSI (No. 98 Castrol Edge/Curb Honda): “The opening part of the race was quite good. We got up to P8, I think. Then we had an issue in the pit stops. To have issues in the pits when you’re in yellow, you lose all track position. It’s almost impossible to pass and that pretty much sealed our fate. I think we had OK pace, but when you go to the back of the line on a yellow flag, it’s pretty much your day set.”

Story and photos courtesy of the Verizon IndyCar Series