Carlos Munoz secured his second podium finish of the Verizon IndyCar Series season and his first since the Indianapolis 500 in May as he got his strategy right to finish third at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on Sunday.
The Colombian pitted just before the first caution period to run towards the front of the field behind fellow early stopper Mikhail Aleshin, and although he wasn’t able to keep Team Penske duo Simon Pagenaud and Will Power behind him, he was able to finish third as Aleshin’s challenge faded with a pit stop error.
Munoz admitted his Andretti Autosport team played around with the set-up of his car during morning warm-up ahead of the race but reverted back to the set-up he ran during qualifying, and felt he had the pace to be a genuine podium finish throughout the race.
“Finally we pitted at the right time – this year we’ve had a lot of bad luck,” said Munoz. “After qualifying we tried another set-up for the warm-up and I didn’t like it so we just went back on the set-up.
“It’s nice to be back on the podium – it’s been a long time. Really happy to be third after how the weekend (went). I have to thank my team, Honda, everyone – they nailed the pit strategy.
“For Andretti (Autosport) it’s been quite a long time without (a podium finish) so it’s nice to be back. We had the track position and we had the pace – it was really physical, especially with the black (tires) I had to push a lot.”
