O'Ward Wins at Mid-Ohio, and Arrow McLaren Celebrates Its First 1-2 Finish

Pato O'Ward ended a streak of 15 races without a win in the IndyCar Series this Sunday at the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio. He started second, right behind pole‑winner Christian Lundgaard, and on lap 42 he found the gap he had been looking for since the start. Lundgaard ran wide exiting Turn 2, and O'Ward drew alongside, held off two taps at Turn 4 and chose the clean line toward Turn 5. From there he managed the race to the checkered flag to secure his 10th victory in the category and deliver the team its first 1‑2 finish in the series.

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The Mexican had not won since Toronto last year, and throughout the 2026 season he had not even stepped onto the podium, although he remained fifth in the overall standings with three fourth‑place and three fifth‑place finishes. The win at Mid-Ohio is his fourth victory on permanent road courses. Lundgaard is set to leave the team at the end of the year, with Scott Dixon and Felix Rosenqvist already announced as his replacements. O'Ward capitalised on the Dane's mistake and sealed the move with a clean pass on Dennis Hauger, a lapped car that gave him the breathing room he needed to reach the final pit stop with a margin.

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The championship is tightening with seven races remaining. Alex Palou finished fifth at Mid-Ohio after his streak of five consecutive poles was interrupted on Saturday; he started eighth and remains at the top of the standings, but Kyle Kirkwood cut five points by finishing third and is now 56 points behind. Lundgaard is 65 points back, and O'Ward is fifth, still with a chance to fight for the title. Rinus VeeKay scored his second fourth‑place finish in the last three races for Juncos Hollinger Racing, Will Power was sixth, Christian Rasmussen seventh for ECR, and David Malukas, who arrived second in the standings, dropped to eighth place and lost ground. Scott Dixon, the all‑time winner at this circuit with seven victories, started 23rd after a qualifying penalty and finished 17th.

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IndyCar returns on July 19 for the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway, an oval race that will test the title contenders on a different kind of track from Ohio.

Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio 

Pos.	No.	driver	team	time
1	#5	Pato O'Ward	Arrow McLaren	-
2	#7	Christian Lundgaard	Arrow McLaren	+0.988s
3	#27	Kyle Kirkwood	Andretti Global w/ Curb-Agajanian	+2.246s
4	#76	Rinus VeeKay	Juncos Hollinger Racing	+2.793s
5	#10	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	+7.545s
6	#26	Will Power	Andretti Global	+10.957s
7	#21	Christian Rasmussen	ECR	+15.841s
8	#12	David Malukas	Team Penske	+16.510s
9	#2	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	+21.067s
10	#6	Nolan Siegel	Arrow McLaren	+25.626s
11	#4	Caio Collet	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	+26.609s
12	#15	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	+30.791s
13	#60	Felix Rosenqvist	Meyer Shank w/ Curb-Agajanian	+31.356s
14	#66	Marcus Armstrong	Meyer Shank w/ Curb-Agajanian	+36.342s
15	#8	Kyffin Simpson	Chip Ganassi Racing	+37.054s
16	#3	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	+39.824s
17	#9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	+42.774s
18	#45	Louis Foster	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	+51.164s
19	#14	Santino Ferrucci	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	+56.652s
20	#20	Alexander Rossi	ECR	+1.000s
21	#28	Marcus Ericsson	Andretti Global	+1.000s
22	#77	Sting Ray Robb	Juncos Hollinger Racing	+1.000s
23	#18	Romain Grosjean	Dale Coyne Racing	+1.000s
24	#47	Mick Schumacher	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	+1.000s
25	#19	Dennis Hauger	Dale Coyne Racing	+1 LAP