Dixon cashes in on Palou bobble at Mid-Ohio

Alex Palou had an easy lead of four seconds in hand with five laps to go at the Honda Indy 200 and threw his seventh victory of the season away with an unforced error. It allowed Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon to make the pass and capture his first triumph of the year and seventh win at the 2.2-mile Mid-Ohio road course.

It also marked the 21st consecutive season where Dixon has won a race and extended Honda’s unbroken win streak to 10 races in 2025 and 11 dating back to the season finale in 2024.

Palou led from pole, led the most laps, controlled every aspect of the race, and drove away from every rival who drew near during the 90-lap contest, but made his first mistake approaching his last pit stop when he briefly slid off track at Turn 4 and lost two seconds while building a lead over Dixon who’d saved a lot of fuel and cut one stop from his race.

With Dixon and the rest of the field covered and the checkered flag just minutes away from being waved, it happened again on entry to Turn 9 on lap 85 as Palou got loose and slid off the circuit. This time, he wasn’t as fortunate and lost the lead as he scrambled to steer off the grass and watched as the six-time champion shot by and motored away.

Palou would bring the gap down to 0.4s at the checkered flag, but Dixon would not be denied.

“Just so much fun to try and pull off what we did, and do it with what we had was, was fantastic,” Dixon said.

Dixon crossed the finish line with the No. 9 Honda holding 0.42s on Palou in the No. 10 Honda and 2.12s on Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard, who earned his fourth podium of 2025 in the No. 7 Chevy.

“Big mistake,” said a visibly disappointed Palou. Despite the mistake and loss of first-place points, the three-time title winner took his 94-point lead over Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood and punched it out to 113 points – more than two full races of maximum points – with seven races left to run.

Kirkwood was eighth on the day as teammate Colton Herta was best among the Andretti squad in fourth, 7.2s shy of Dixon, but back in a more familiar place in the finishing order. Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward was fifth after starting 14th; his chasm to Palou from third in the standings grew from 111 points to 125. Meyer Shank Racing had a strong day at its home race with Felix Rosenqvist taking sixth and Marcus Armstrong following him home in seventh.

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Elsewhere, Rinus VeeKay produced another back-to-front drive for Dale Coyne Racing during his trip from 26th to ninth, and Kyffin Simpson was on pace to earn his first IndyCar podium after running third coming into his final pit stop, but he made two costly mistakes, the first by stalling the car and the second by running over the foot of VeeKay’s outside tire changer Nico Don. Don was in pain but gave a thumbs-up after being tended to by medical staff. Simpson was invited by IndyCar to take a slow drive through pit lane to pay for the error on the way to placing 10th.

Team Penske’s summer to forget refused to relent at Mid-Ohio when Josef Newgarden spun on his own – the rear brakes appeared to lock – entering the first corner on the opening lap, which led to a crash and exit from the race. Just 10 laps later, Penske’s Will Power trailed into the pits with smoke and fire emanating from the left side of his engine bay.

With Newgarden relegated to his second straight last-place finish and Power the next driver out in 26th, all hopes fell on Scott McLaughlin, but adversity dominated his race as well and he ended up a lap down in 23rd.

The season gained a new winner, expanding the pool to three with Dixon joining Palou and Kirkwood and extended Honda’s ownership of the year-to-date at its home track. The field reconvenes in a few days at Iowa Speedway for a doubleheader where Penske and Arrow McLaren drivers have been the ones to beat with their Chevy-powered cars. It didn’t happen at the 10th race in the championship, but it just might next Saturday or Sunday in the cornfields of Newton, Iowa.

RESULTS

AS IT HAPPENED...

An afternoon of 90 laps around Mid-Ohio in 90-degree heat got off to an orderly start with Alex Palou on pole position, who led the field into Turn 4 but behind him Josef Newgarden’s nightmare season continues as he locked the rear brakes and spun and crashed on his own. Caution.

Behind him, Graham Rahal went off in avoidance and got stuck in the gravel trap. Callum Ilott also went off at Turn 4 but rejoined the track atop the hill at Turn 5.

Lap 5 and Devlin DeFrancesco pitted on lap 3 to replace damaged front wings and Will Power pitted on lap 4. It’s Alex Palou, Kyffin Simpson, Christian Lundgaard, Nolan Siegel, Colton Herta, and Louis Foster in the top six.

Lap 6 restart and Palou fires away. Lundgaard is hounding Simpson to take back second which happens atop Turn 5.

Lap 8 and Lundgaard’s taken Palou’s 1.0s lead down to 0.6s.

Lap 10 and the lead is sitting at 0.7s to 0.8s. Simpson’s struggling to stay connected at 3.3s back from Palou. Siegel’s at 4.9s to Palou.

Lap 11 and the lead is up to 1.0s. These two are flying but Palou appears to have a touch of extra speed.

Lap 13 and Scott McLaughlin, Power and O’Ward pit. For Power, who complained of losing power, the left side of his engine bay is on fire. He climbs out of the car.

Lap 13 and Palou’s lead is 2.0s. Is he doing a better job of saving his alternate Firestones or is Lundgaard seeing his alternates fall off faster?

Lap 15 and Kirkwood pits. The lead is 2.1s on Lundgaard, 5.3s on Simpson and 7.2s on Siegel. Herta, the first on the harder primary tires, is 9.8s down.

Lap 16 and Palou’s lead is 2.4s.

Lap 18 and Lundgaard is down by 2.6s on Palou.

Lap 22 and the gap is down to 2.3s as Palou is running a few tenths slower in clean air. Not much happening elsewhere.

Lap 24 and Foster pits to take alternates.

Lap 25 and Lundgaard pits with the gap at 2.4s to take primaries.

Lap 26 and Palou stays out. Simpson is 7.3s back, Siegel’s 8.6s down, and Herta is 9.4s arrears.

Lap 27 and Palou’s lost a half-second to Simpson and pits at the end of the lap. He’s taking used primaries. Siegel pits as well.

Lap 28 and Palou returns to the track in front of Lundgaard but with Felix Rosenqvist and Christian Rasmussen in front of him. Herta pits for alternates.

Lap 29 and Palou’s lead over Lundgaard is just 0.4s. Herta leaps past Siegel in the pit exchange. Simpson pits for primaries.

Lap 30 and Scott Dixon leads as the last driver to stay out. Rasmussen pulls off and sits in his car. Dixon pits at the end of the lap.

Lap 31 and Palou’s lead over Lundgaard is 0.5s. Caution for Rasmussen. His team boss Ed Carpenter says the team failed to get fuel into the car during the pit stop and he ran out of fuel.

Lap 36 restart and it’s Palou, Lundgaard, Simpson, Herta, Siegel, and Dixon. All but Herta are on the harder primary tires.

Lap 37 and Palou’s lead is 0.9s on Lundgaard and 2.0s on Simpson.

Lap 39 and Palou’s up by 1.4s as Herta’s pressing Simpson for third. Simpson drops to seventh in one lap.

Lap 41 and Palou’s lead is 1.8s on Lundgaard and 3.8s on Herta. Rough day for P2 championship runner Kyle Kirkwood who’s a distant 19th, 18.4s behind Palou.

Lap 42 and the lead is 2.2s. Feeling a lot like some of the early road races of 2025…

Lap 43 and Santino Ferrucci takes himself and Conor Daly off track at Turn 5.

Lap 44 and Palou’s lead is 3.1s on Lundgaard and 4.8s over Herta. Dixon, wanting to do the race on one more stop, is 8.6s back in fifth.

Lap 45 and Ferrucci is ordered to surrender three places and falls from 18th to 31st.

Lap 47 and Palou just turned a 1m07.1s lap to the 1m07.5s of Lundgaard on the same primaries and 1m07.4s to Herta on alternates.

Lap 48 and the lead is 4.1s.

Lap 49 and Palou sets the fastest lap of the race at 1m07.098s. The gap is up to 4.2s.

Lap 50 and Lundgaard’s down 4.5s, Herta’s 7.4s shy, and Dixon is 12.5s back.

Lap 52 and Lundgaard pits for used alternates. Palou’s lead on Herta is 9.7s and Dixon’s at 14.9s.

Lap 54 and new fastest lap for Palou of 1m06.945s. He’s flying and trying to stretch his lead over Dixon who is hoping to win by doing one less pit stop. Palou slides off at Turn 4 with the left-side tires.

Lap 55 and Palou lost almost two seconds to Dixon with the Turn 4 off.

Lap 56 and Siegel pits.

Lap 57 and Palou pits for primaries with 13.4s over Herta and 17.6s on Dixon at the time of the stop. Herta also pits for primaries.

Lap 61 and it’s a Ganassi 1-2-3 with Dixon leading Simpson by 4.0s and Palou by 9.0s. Dixon pits at the end of the lap along with Simpson. Slow drive-off for Dixon and Simpson stalls. Simpson clips the left foot of Nico Don, Rinus VeeKay’s right-rear tire changer, who gets up limping and in pain.

Lap 62 and Palou leads O’Ward by 5.0s and Lundgaard by 5.8s. O’Ward pits at the end of the lap. Slow stop.

Lap 64 and Palou is up 6.0s on Lundgaard, 14.0s on Herta, and 22.8s on Dixon. Palou needs to stretch the lead if he’s going to pit and return in the lead over Dixon.

Lap 68 and Palou’s lead in Dixon is 25.7s and he’d coming up on traffic.

Lap 69 and Simpson serves a drive-through penalty for hitting Don.

Lap 70 and the gap to Dixon is 26.4s. Kirkwood is up to 11th.

Lap 72 and Lundgaard pits.

Lap 73 and Palou pits with 27.0s on Dixon. New primaries and a quick stop for Palou who returns with a comfortable lead over Dixon.

Lap 74 and Herta leads with Palou in second and Dixon 1.7s behind him.

Lap 76 and Herta pits with 13.4 over Palou. Slow stop again with the car needing to be lifted a second time to have the left-front wheel tightened; it was dropped before the mechanic was able to affix the wheel nut. He returns in ninth.

Lap 77 and Palou holds 1.8s over Dixon and 2.9s on Marcus Armstrong.

Lap 82 and the lead is 4.0s.

Lap 85 and Palou slows after running off course. Dixon takes the lead.

Lap 87 and Dixon leads Palou by 0.7s. Lundgaard is 3.6s back.

Lap 88 and the lead is 0.5s.

Lap 89 and Dixon’s up 0.4s with one lap to go. Did Palou just throw away a victory?

Lap 90 and yes he did. Dixon wins his first IndyCar race of the season with Palou in tow and Lundgaard in third.