Will Power Hot at Mid-Ohio

On a hot day in the heartland, Andretti Global had cars that were the hottest. Specifically, teammates Will Power and Kyle Kirkwood were 1-2 on the speed chart as the Fourth of July holiday weekend began with a 95-degree afternoon at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

Power turned a lap of 1 minute, 5.5540 seconds in the No. 26 TWG AI Honda as the 25-car field opened preparations for Sunday’s The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Presented by the 2027 CR-V Hybrid (12:30 p.m. ET, FOX, FOX One, FOX Deportes, INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls). Kirkwood’s best lap in the No. 27 Sam’s Club Honda was 1:05.6674.

If this practice was an indication, the 90-lap main event will tax the drivers. Temperatures are expected to remain in the low 90s at least through Saturday’s qualifying for the NTT P1 Award (2:30 p.m. on FS1, FOX One and INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls).

Power is always one to watch in NTT INDYCAR SERIES qualifying sessions. His mark of 71 career poles is handily the sport’s all-time best, and he will be seeking his first pole of the season. Kirkwood also has yet to start a race in the No. 1 position this season; he has won three poles in his career.

Rounding out the top five on Day 1 were series points leader Alex Palou in the No. 10 Open AI Chip Ganassi Racing Honda (1:05.7557) followed by Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard (1:05.8924) and Pato O’Ward (1:06.0340).

Lundgaard has won two of the three road course races this season; Palou won the other. “It’s pretty toasty out there, said Lundgaard after practice. “It was a good session. I feel like we are somewhat there. We need to find some time for the 10 car. Ultimately, I feel like it’s where we left off. We’re on the right path. I’m trying to stay hydrated and trying to stay cool. That’s the most important thing right now. We’ll keep digging.”

Power (2020), Palou (2023) and O’Ward (2024) are former Mid-Ohio race winners.

Through 10 of 18 races, Palou holds a 60-point lead over Team Penske’s David Malukas, whose best lap on this day (1:06.2534) ranked 10th. Kirkwood sits third in the standings (61 points out of the lead) with Lundgaard fourth (77 points in arrears).

This practice followed Meyer Shank Racing’s announcement that Marcus Armstrong had signed a multiyear extension beginning in 2027. Armstrong is in his second season with the Ohio-based organization, and he will move from the team’s No. 66 entry to its No. 60 driven by Felix Rosenqvist each of the past three seasons.

Rosenqvist, this year’s winner of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge, recently was confirmed to be leaving MSR for 2027. Armstrong finished fifth in that race after leading with one lap remaining.

But Armstrong’s Mid-Ohio weekend did not get off to a good start, as what appeared to be a mechanical failure in the rear of the Honda-powered car sent him into the Turn 2 barrier.

“What I felt was when I was braking there was one half of the car was just sliding across the ground,” Armstrong said. “From my (seat), one of the corners was hanging off on the rear, and I was just trying to decelerate quick enough. From what I was hearing, it was making a scraping sound so the floor was dragging.

“It’s a shame. I think we only did one push lap and the car felt really good. Fingers crossed that the tub’s all good and we can repair it without any major concerns for (the second practice).”

Armstrong’s best lap in the abbreviated session (1:07.3433) left him 24th. Rosenqvist, who was runner-up in 2019 at this 13-turn, 2.258-mile permanent road course, had the seventh-quickest lap.

Seven-time Mid-Ohio winner Scott Dixon is also having an interesting weekend. He and Chip Ganassi Racing are working together for the first time since it was announced that he would be leaving the organization after 25 seasons, the longest partnership in the sport.

Dixon, who won last year’s race when Palou drifted wide in Turn 9 with six laps to go, posted the 15th-fastest lap (1:06.5372).

Turn 9 was problematic for Dale Coyne Racing’s Romain Grosjean in this session. He lost control of the back end of the No. 18 BMax Honda late in the session, sliding off track and hitting the tire barrier with the rear. He, like Armstrong, was not injured.

Rinus VeeKay in the No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet, Nolan Siegel in the No. 6 NTT DATA Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, Josef Newgarden in the No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet and David Malukas in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet were the other Chevy drivers to end Friday’s practice in the top ten on the combined timesheet.

Lundgaard and his teammate O’Ward were quick on both compounds of tires with the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet leading Team Chevy on the Primary Firestone Firehawk racing tires (Black) and the No. 7 VELO Arrow McLaren Chevrolet going quickest on the Alternate Firestone Firehawk racing tires (Red).

Press Conference:

THE MODERATOR: Wrapping up practice today ahead of Sunday’s Honda INDY 200 at Mid-Ohio presented by the 2027 CR-V hybrid. Rinus VeeKay has joined us in the No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet. Sunday will be his eighth start at Mid-Ohio. Best finish was fourth in 2022. That was a good year for you. Fourth in group 2 here this afternoon.

You guys tested here last week. Obviously it may have paid off a little bit.

RINUS VEEKAY: Yes, we tested here last week. Went straight from Road America to here, and this is one of those places you test, you roll off the truck and you’re quick right away. Definitely enjoying that still. That carried over from the test to here. It’s about 30 degrees warmer now, so you can feel the whole car just behaves a little bit different because the heat has just been restricted by — just as an athlete, as a person, it’s hard to breathe through the car.

You can feel that for sure. But I think we didn’t test the reds and we were quick on reds, so we were happy with that.

Good start overall? What do you think can happen for you this weekend when it’s all said and done on Sunday night?

RINUS VEEKAY: We need a good road course. We struggled in Indy on the road course. We definitely struggled in Road America. You roll off not good and you’re scrambling to get something together, a package that can work. The test really paid off, but also I think we found some things that we can carry to the other road courses this season.

Now it’s just coming off a really good May, a fourth place in Gateway. I want to carry that through on road and street courses.

I think this is our time to do it. Of course you need a fast car, and we have that this weekend, so that makes my life a bit easier.

What has been the biggest issue when it comes to road and street? Obviously you said the speed, but what other extraneous factors have there been?

RINUS VEEKAY: The speed can come from many things. Our biggest issue in Road America was we had decent balance. We were just waiting too long to go back to throttle because of an imbalance, because of understeer. Just how do we — we could find that understeer or that front grip and fix the understeer, but then the entries got exposed. We were always kind of balancing between an imbalance of some kind.

I think we’ve figured out what we need to do. You’ll just feel more grip to the car. It’s just like you put on a faster pair of running shoes. You will go faster.

First year with Juncos Hollinger, but obviously with Scott Dixon and Felix Rosenqvist hitting the market in back-to-back weeks, it seems like there’s a big scramble in the paddock in terms of seats. What’s been your reaction to it all, and what are you anticipating?

RINUS VEEKAY: I think I’ve seen that coming for a while. I’ve paid attention.

It’s definitely one of the craziest silly seasons so far. I think it’s only 14 cars that are confirmed right now, 15? So definitely a lot of open seats.

But yeah, we’ll start seeing dominos fall this week. We saw two fall yesterday and today. We’ll see.

Rinus, you said earlier if you understood you correctly, the temperatures were not so extreme at testing like they were today. Can you use the results of testing for the weekend, or is the car totally different in behavior considering the hot temperatures?

RINUS VEEKAY: Even though it’s a lot quicker, the track still goes the same way, so a fast car will be a fast car, doesn’t matter the temperature, I think.

You have to dial it in a little bit. It’s fine-tuning to conditions. But it’s not completely different. It’s also the wind that’s a little bit different, as well.

Like I said, a fast car is a fast car on a road course.

Hot temperatures has a different effect on aerodynamics?

RINUS VEEKAY: For sure, yes. We had to dial in the car for sure. We made some good changes in practice, and we found things that were — we found that the balance wasn’t perfect to start with, but even though the balance wasn’t perfect, we were still quick. We got it dialed in pretty well for reds.

How about the heat?

RINUS VEEKAY: I think the gym I train in is another 10 degrees warmer than this, so that’s been nice. I’ve been sweating a lot this week. But it is nice when you’re used to something that’s worse than this. We’ve got a cool suit in the car that I ran already, just precautionary. The team does a good job for me, as well, to keep me cool and keep me fresh in the car.

The silly season discussion, has the speed at which everything is moving maybe increased your sense of urgency to figure out your situation for next year?

RINUS VEEKAY: Well, it is usually kind of June, July when you see things starting to happen. For me, I think we’ve been working towards finding our best decision for next year but also the future. Of course with dominos falling you look at things a little bit differently, and it moves things. But in the end I think we’ve got a pretty good idea of what we want to do.

What was your reaction to finding out officially that Scott was leaving?

ALEX PALOU: Yeah, it’s sad. It’s sad because of what he has done for the team, for everybody at Chip Ganassi Racing. I’ve not been since the beginning, obviously, but I know I would not be here today without him and also with the results I had. It’s big-time due to him.

Very sad, but at the same time, it’s okay. It’s just part of life. It’s part of the sport. I wish him the best, honestly. I’m going to try and keep on learning as much as I can throughout the races that we still have. But yeah, nothing I can do, right? I think it’s been incredible to be his teammate, and I’m sure the next drivers that will be sharing teams with him, they’re going to be very lucky.

Rinus, a lot of guys were doing short runs because of the heat. Do you find that hard to get the car dialed in with your balance when you’re running short runs because of heat?

RINUS VEEKAY: We didn’t do it necessarily for the heat. We did do short runs more because you’re short on time. You want to go through as many changes as possible. With the track temperature being as high, you will build tire temperature quicker, so you don’t need as many warm-up laps.

Seems like the reds don’t like many laps anyway, so yeah, that’s going to be something we have to look into for sure. But for sure there was no prediction on temperatures or my body heat or anything in the car during this session.

Can you both talk a little bit about track conditions today and also the potential for rain, how that might impact your plans?

RINUS VEEKAY: Yeah, it’s hot. Tires are going to be overheating for sure. That’s one thing that will happen in the race.

We’re working hard on making sure we can manage that during the race. If it rains, you can always have a backup plan, but it definitely changes everything a lot. I think as a driver from the Netherlands where it rains probably 250 days a year, 300 days a year, I’d be happy in the wet for sure.