O’Ward tops Lundgaard to lead Arrow McLaren 1-2 at Mid-Ohio

Christian Lundgaard owned the first half of the Honda Indy 200, teammate Pato O’Ward owned the second half, and together, they completed a weekend of dominance at Mid-Ohio for Arrow McLaren as the duo delivered a 1-2 for the team to easily defeat their rivals.

The only question to answer was whether Lundgaard was going to run away from pole and lead all of the 90-lap contest, but an error in the No. 7 – running too deep into Turn 3 on lap 42 – provided the answer and allowed O’Ward to pounce and produce a flawless performance in the No. 5 Chevy that propelled him to the top step of the podium.

It was the team’s first 1-2, a 1-2 for Team Chevy at one of Honda’s home races, O’Ward’s first podium of the year and his second win at Mid-Ohio since 2024.

“It’s been a year,” an exhausted O’Ward said after completing 90 caution-free laps. “It’s been a tough one for sure. Today is just a perfect example of execution. I waited for the perfect time to pounce, and from there we just controlled it. The guys were amazing in the pits. I know they've been working really, really hard to give me that every single weekend, and this car has been a joy to drive all weekend. So, thanks for Team Chevy. It's the best result as a team we've ever had.”

Lundgaard had no answer for O’Ward on the way to finishing 0.9s behind his teammate and securing his 11th podium for the team since 2025 and 14th of his career.

“That was a very long, very tough race,” Lundgaard said. “We were very loose, and these (hot) conditions, when you're loose, one, it makes the car a lot heavier to drive. I wasn't really happy with the rear of the car all race, but again, congrats to the team for the 1-2.”

The biggest title-contending mover was Kyle Kirkwood, who was stunned to start 10th and used an almighty charge in the middle stanza of the race to draw down the gap to the leaders and finish the day in third with the No. 27 Honda.

"I'm super happy with that result, to be honest,” said Kirkwood, who earned his first career IndyCar road course podium. “Starting 10th, everybody knows this place is so hard to pass. Third place after qualifying 10th, having to drive through the field, passing some big hitters and taking the Sam's Club Honda towards the front, very proud of that. Not proud to say that's my first podium, but I'm proud to say that we got a podium today.”

Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Rinus VeeKay was the unexpected star of the event after starting sixth and finishing fourth in the No. 76 Chevy, just 2.7s behind O’Ward as he delivered the team’s best result since its debut in 2017. Behind him, championship leader Alex Palou was surprisingly uncompetitive on Sunday in his progression from eighth to fifth, but was fortunate to see O’Ward take the win, which mitigated a lot of the potential points loss in No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.

Despite the distant finish 7.5s behind O’Ward, Palou’s lead only shrank from 60 points to 56 over Kirkwood, but those in pursuit of the four-time champion behind the Andretti driver drew closer to make the seven remaining races a more heated contest to follow.

Elsewhere, Will Power’s return to form continued with a run to sixth for Andretti ahead of ECR’s Christian Rasmussen who started fifth and remained strong on the way to taking seventh. Team Penske’s David Malukas was running closer to the front but lost a lot of ground with a slow pit stop and held on to take eighth, while teammate Josef Newgarden continued his gutsy output by keeping hold of ninth. Arrow McLaren’s Nolan Siegel took 10th in front of AJ Foyt Racing’s Caio Collet, who lost out on a top 10 when he was pitched into the grass while challenging Dennis Hauger.

The biggest retreat belonged to Marcus Ericsson who started seventh, stalled during an early pit stop and fell backwards for the rest of the race, which ended with the Andretti driver in 21st.

It wasn’t a classic race in terms of exciting passes and constant drama, but the excellence of Arrow McLaren on the day – and across a weekend – where its lead driver got back to a familiar place in front of the field, and while his pole-sitting teammate came close to taking back-to-back victories, added a lot of energy to the championship.

Palou’s here-we-go-again form through May has hit a number of speed bumps to give his rivals real hope of overtaking the leader when the action resumes in two weeks at Nashville Speedway.

The 90-lap Honda Indy 200 got under way with Lundgaard holding the lead and Palou improving from P8 to P7 on the opening lap.

Lap 2 and Palou takes P6 from Rasmussen.

Lap 3 and Lundgaard leads Palou by 0.8s as Kirkwood takes P7 from Rasmussen. VeeKay is up to P4.

Lap 5 and Lundgaard on Firestone primaries leads O’Ward on primes by 1.2s and Malukas by 2.4s on primes. VeeKay in P4 is the first on alternates and back by 3.1s. Power in P5 is 4.1s down and Palou in P6 is 5.0s arrears.

Lap 9 and Lundgaard leads Palou by 1.4s. He’s dropping the drivers on alts as VeeKay in P4 is 6.8s down.

Lap 10 and Kirkwood pits to dive off of alts for primes.

Lap 11 and VeeKay pits for primes.

Lap 12 and Palou takes P4 from Power. Ericsson pitted for primes but stalled and lost time.

Lap 13 and Lundgaard leads O’Ward by 1.7s, Malukas by 3.9s, Palou by 11.1s, and Power by 13.6s. Palou turned a 1m07.2s to match Lundgaard on that lap.

Lap 14 and Power pits for primes.

Lap 15 and Palou pits for primes.

Lap 16 and Kirkwood gets by Palou; the hold P13 and P14, respectively.

Lap 17 and Lundgaard leads O’Ward by 1.7s, Malukas by 3.9s, and Rasmussen by 14.4s.

Lap 25 and Malukas pits from P3 to take another set of primes. Lundgaard leads O’Ward by 1.6s and Newgarden by 19.1s.

Lap 27 and O’Ward pits to try and undercut Lundgaard on new primes. Newgarden pits for primes.

Lap 28 and Lundgaard pits for primes.

Lap 31 and Lundgaard leads O’Ward by 1.3s, Malukas by 4.3s, VeeKay by 9.9s, Kirkwood by 12.3s, Rasmussen on alts by 13.7s, Palou by 16.4s and Power by 19.2s. The McLarens are in a league of their own today.

Lap 37 and VeeKay pits from P4. Kirkwood pits as well.

Lap 41 and Power pits from P5. Lundgaard in traffic leads O’Ward by 0.5s, Malukas by 2.8s, and Palou by 12.3s. Palou pits.

Lap 42 and Lundgaard runs long at Turn 3 and O’Ward gets by to take the lead at Turn 5.

Lap 48 and Lundgaard pits to take alts.

Lap 49 and O’Ward pits for alts. Malukas pits as well.

Lap 53 and O’Ward leads Lundgaard by 0.9s, VeeKay by 2.7s, Kirkwood by 4.8s, Malukas by 8.3s, Rasmussen by 9.6s and Palou by 10.7s.

Lap 58 and O’Ward leads Lundgaard by 0.7s, VeeKay by 1.8s, Kirkwood by 3.4s, and Malukas by 9.4s.

Lap 61 and O’Ward leads Lundgaard by 0.6s as they continue to try and lap Hauger. VeeKay is 1.4s back in P3 and Kirkwood is down 2.4s.

Lap 62 and Malukas in P5 is down by 8.9s, Rasmussen is 10.1s shy in P6, and Palou is a distant 10.8s in P7.

Lap 63 and O’Ward finally clears Hauger.

Lap 64 and Lundgaard, VeeKay, and Kirkwood pit. Kirkwood beats VeeKay out.

Lap 66 and O’Ward pits. Huge effort to go long on alts to build a big gap to Lundgaard.

Lap 67 and Palou and Newgarden pit.

Lap 69 and O’Ward leads Lundgaard by 2.8s, Kirkwood by 4.7s, VeeKay by 6.1s, and Palou by 12.6s.

Lap 76 and O’Ward leads Lundgaard by 2.1s, Kirkwood by 4.2s, VeeKay by 6.0s, Palou by 10.1s, and Rasmussen by 16.1s.

Lap 84 and O’Ward leads Lundgaard by 1.0s, Kirkwood by 2.6s, VeeKay by 4.4s, and Palou by 8.5s.

Lap 88 and O’Ward is cruising home with 1.2s over Lundgaard, 2.3s over Kirkwood, 2.9s over VeeKay, and 7.9s over Palou.

Lap 90 and it’s a master class by O’Ward, winning at Mid-Ohio for the second time in three years.

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