2016 Honda Indy 200

The Verizon IndyCar Series returns to Lexington for the 32nd CART/IndyCar race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course since 1980. Next to Road America, Mid-Ohio is arguably one of the best tracks on the schedule for the live spectator experience.

Last year, Graham Rahal took the victory at his home racetrack 29 years after his father's second and final Mid-Ohio win in CART, fending off a charge from the late Justin Wilson on the final restart of the event in order to do so. Wilson would stand alongside Rahal on the podium as the runner-up, as well as third-place Simon Pagenaud. Tragically, it was the final time that Wilson would ever stand upon a podium.

This year, Pagenaud and Rahal were both fast enough to make the Firestone Fast Six in qualifying, with Pagenaud winning the Verizon P1 Award for the sixth time in 13 races this year (Texas included). The order of the front row matches that of the championship standings, as his teammate Will Power will start from second. Josef Newgarden is looking to recover from a crash at Toronto and will start from third. Ryan Hunter-Reay starts 4th, Charlie Kimball (whose only victory to date came here in 2013) from 5th, and Rahal from 6th. Scott Dixon has always been so consistently fast at this circuit (winning in five of his nine attempts) that the fact that he qualified in 11th was almost a headline of its own.

Car #19 for Dale Coyne Racing will be piloted by its third driver of the year; RC Enerson of Florida. Enerson began his second season of Indy Lights this year for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, but departed the series following the Freedom 100 in the hopes of focusing on achieving a ride in IndyCar. This will be his first career start, and he has already surprised many with a 7th-place rank in practice on Saturday. He will start from 18th today. His only victory in Indy Lights came last year at this very circuit, in the first of that weekend's two races.

The green flag waves at 2:45 P.M. (ET).

Welp, if Dixon's championship hopes weren't cooked before, they are now.

My heart just broke seeing what just happened to Mikhail Aleshin

Damn, being an RHR fan hasn't been fun for a while.

O_o Bourdais

As a Sato and RHR fan, that race stunk. Thanks, France.

Well, the start of the race was good, and the restarts were good, but everything in between was kind of boring, to say the least. It looked like the racing in the mid-pack was good, but the battle for the lead was pretty much non-existant for the entire race.

The moment of the race was when Simon Pagenaud got super aggressive with Will Power on the final restart, and there was some rubbing, but Pagenaud finally putting his foot down and showing that he wants to win this championship.

Star of the Race: Simon Pagenaud. Finally showing that championship form that had been missing for a little while.

Reject of the Race: Mikhail Aleshin's crew chief for releasing him into the path of Josef Newgarden and costing him his first win.

Overall, this race was pretty uninteresting to me. 3.75/10 is what I'll give it.

Aleshin's pit exit was depressing, especially after the run he had.

Pagenaud vs Power without a doubt for the title now.

I don't think that it was obvious that Newgarden was about to turn in until after Aleshin was released, but regardless, that was absolutely heartbreaking for the #7 team.

Pagenaud proved that he's not points racing with that unconventional pass that he made on Power for what was essentially the win. Not all drivers with as big of a points lead as him would have driven so aggressively, and it's nice to see title-contending teammates race each other hard, yet clean.

A lot of bad luck came this weekend for drivers who have already experienced plenty of it this year: Dixon, Hawksworth, Hunter-Reay, and Sato to name four. I was thinking to myself that it was nice to see both Sato and Bourdais in the top 5 just before they crashed. That was pretty upsetting for me.

On the other hand, there was some good racing to follow. There were a few points where not much was happening, but everyone in 4th-12th were going at it pretty hard for most of the day, which was a lot of fun to watch. Also enjoyed seeing another great drive from Daly and a 4th-place finish for Rahal.

Also, on an unrelated note, Robin Miller's pre-race interview of David Letterman was entertaining.

I just realised - JPM's slipped to 12th in points and has only been on the podium twice all year. What a shocker of a season he's had.