As we creep ever close to the end of the 2025 IndyCar Season, Alex Palou’s fourth Championship looks more and more within reach. At last weekend’s race in Mid-Ohio however, the Championship leader made a couple of uncharacteristic errors. Teammate Scott Dixon took full advantage of this to become only the third race winner of 2025. But will Palou’s mistakes be enough for the likes of Kirkwood and Arrow McLaren behind to catch up? Or is it all too little too late?
Here are the key takeaways from Mid-Ohio.
Scott Dixon Victorious
Capitalising on the mistakes from Palou and finally putting together a great weekend, Dixon won his first race of 2025. The 44 year old Iceman extended his own record of winning at least one race in every season of IndyCar that he’s competed in – 21 consecutive seasons now. The six time IndyCar Champion also beat his own record for the most wins in the series. The new total is now 58. It was also his seventh victory at Mid-Ohio where he’s only finished outside the top ten twice in his career.
“Dixon is a beast. And an absolute legend. One of racing’s all time greats. No question.” – Will Buxton
Palou Vs Everyone Else
Last time out, Alex Palou was back to his winning ways at Road America. In Mid-Ohio, he looked set to win again after qualifying in pole position. But a combination of rare driving errors that saw him off track alongside being stuck behind Sting Ray Robb for a number of laps essentially cost him the victory. That being said, he still finished in second and the man who beat him isn’t realistically fighting for the Championship. As damage limitation goes, it was pretty good.
The Championship contenders seem to have been whittled down now to Kyle Kirkwood and Pato O’Ward. Despite finishing in third in Mid-Ohio, Christian Lundgaard is almost two hundred points away from Palou. Unless something incredible happens, Lundgaard has now, for all intents and purposes, been relegated to a rear gunner for Pato O’Ward.
O’Ward though could only manage to get into P5 in the race. A bad qualifying session saw him start the race down in P15. Kyle Kirkwood finished in eighth. While he retains P2 in the Championship, P8 on a weekend where Palou made mistakes for him to capitalise on isn’t good enough.
Still, could be worse.
Meyer Shank Shine
With the exception of Felix Rosenqvist qualifying in P16, Meyer Shank Racing had a fantastic weekend. Both drivers finished comfortably inside the top ten. Marcus Armstrong was even running in P3 for portions of the race at Mid-Ohio.
He finished in seventh with Rosenqvist in sixth. There’s not much else to say here other than this outfit is flying under the radar really nicely and it’s great to see them succeeding. With form like this, Rosenqvist might even be able to catch Lundgaard and Dixon in the standings and claim the title of best of the rest.
Stand Out Drives
Rinus Veekay was another driver who had a great day at the office. Qualifying near the back of the pack, the Dayle Coyne driver drove a superb race. He carved his way through the field and managed to come home in a tremendous P9. Drives like this for a small outfit like Dayle Coyne is why motorsport fans love motorsport.
Another driver with a feel good story from Mid-Ohio was Kyffin Simpson. Some haven’t been sure where to place Simpson so far this season. Some were even wondering if his performances on track justified him being in IndyCar. But after a stonking qualifying where he lined up in P3 for Sunday’s race and a P10 finish at the end of race day, there’s no denying that the Cayman is improving as the year goes on.
The Bad, the Ugly and the Unfortunate
Team Penske continue to outperform themselves in terms of how bad they can get their weekends to go. Josef Newgarden made a rookie error before the race even truly got going. He careened off the track, collecting poor Graham Rahal as he did at the latter’s home race. There’s a chance he won’t be on Rahal’s Christmas card list this year.
Will Power retired some time later with engine issues and Scott McLaughlin finished down in P23. Power is the lead of the three Penske drivers in the Championship with 202 points. The irony of this isn’t lost on even the most casual of observers. Rumours continue to swirl about Malukas replacing him in 2026. But perhaps they should look at Newgarden instead – don’t worry McLaughlin, you’re safe. This is Newgarden’s third essential DNF in a row and in 2025, he’s only had three top ten finishes. He’s P19 in the Championship, sixty points away from Power and only three ahead of Rahal.
One point behind him is Marcus Ericsson. He doesn’t even have the excuse of DNFs to help him though – the Swede has just been on a terrible run of form all year.
All of the above drivers will be hoping for a much better time of things next time out in Iowa – and quite frankly, they can’t get much worse for some of them. The only way is up.
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IndyCar Returns July 12th for the double header at Iowa.
Feature Image: IndyCar Media Centre
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