Mid Ohio

I got lazy and didn't watch qualification, and after finding out about the weather wished I had. I still have it on DVR but watching it after the race just kind of kills things for me.

The racing was good, but I surely could have lived without that first caution that just tossed so many qualification results into a bag and shook them up. Although a lot of people were lucky to miss any real damage, doing so just killed the positions for quite a few drivers, with a couple getting really lucky as well. Without a lot of passing opportunities on track, it's hard to make up a lot of positions on that track.

Things were looking really good for Newgarden.... right until things went wrong in the pits. I think he was good to go with a clean stop, as his pace on track was excellent. I'm sure if they can find their groove and he scores a couple of wins things will start coming together for him long term. He's got a good career ahead of him IMO.

Power usually does well on the tracks left for the season, and he may be back in the drivers seat with the title his to take or lose. Guess we'll see.


One thing is for sure, after a vacation away from IndyCar for me for a while, I'm enjoying the racing again. There is a lot of talent in the current field and they have a great platform to race with. I'm still not a huge fan of the short ultra rough street courses, but they manage to still make good racing out of them.

I thought Power's race was kind of anonymous. He just hanged up there in sixth-senth place without much action. Perhaps he decided to take it easy with Helio in the back of field.

Personally, I thought the race was quite average, maybe even boring. Very little on-track battles or passing. They'd end in the same order they started without the yellows.

These cars outgrew MidO quite a while back. The track is a bit too small and narrow for them. Still, looked like it was a decent race. I missed it since I was at a SCCA event at Summit Point.

If Newgarden didn't have bad luck he'd have none at all. He really needs a change, perhaps in the next contract cycle (When is his up?). SFH is a good underdog team to root for, but he needs an upgrade pretty badly.

Good observations regarding Power and the track. I was actually surprised Power wasn't more aggressive, but I think with Helio knocked back he just opted to stick with a decent result. There were a lot of good drivers back behind Power too.

As for the track, sad but true that the cars have outgrown it. Part of me still wants to love the potential that Mid Ohio should have, but in reality the racing is much better there with lesser cars.

Not the best race this year, but there was still lots of action.

I'de like to see them drop Mid Ohio and go to Road Atlanta, Road America or even Laguna. Mido Ohio has almost never produced good racing whereas the others always have.

I'de love to see them run a 300 miler at Atlanta the day after the Petite Lemans. Great circuit, captive audience ... I think it would be a classic.

I like Road Atlanta, but not as much since the bridge turn (eleven) was sanitized.

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Originally Posted by Starter

I like Road Atlanta, but not as much since the bridge turn (eleven) was sanitized.

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They had to slow the speed going into the bridge turn or they were just going to kill someone. I'm not sure when they put the chicane in, but the way the Mercedes and Porsche FIA cars were blowing over and flying off into the woods, they could not just leave that kind of high speed elevation change alone.

The big excuse for not going to Road Atlanta is that there is not enough run off area in the last turn. It looks to me like there is more than enough room to put a SAFER barrier there, and those seem to be good enough when the Indycars run on ovals.

I think the real reason that Indycar doesn't go there is because no one showed up in the 80s when cart ran on the oval at (Hampton?) just outside of Atlanta. I was there and the place was deserted.....maybe 5000 people.....maybe.

There's already a race 150 miles away in Birmingham, doing Road Atlanta would be covering the same market area.