O’Ward Paces Field in Second Mid-Ohio Practice; Newgarden and Herta Within a Tenth

Pato O’Ward led the final practice session ahead of Qualifying for the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio on Saturday, with the Mexican getting the better of Friday’s pacesetter Josef Newgarden.

O’Ward, one of only two drivers to have won twice during the 2021 NTT IndyCar Series season, set a best lap of 1:06.0911 to lead the way for the Chevrolet-powered Arrow McLaren SP team, although he was only 0.0082 seconds ahead of Team Penske’s Newgarden.

Colton Herta was third for Andretti Autosport, just 0.0928 seconds off the pace as the top twenty-one cars of the twenty-six cars racing this weekend were within a second of O’Ward’s best time.

Fourth went the way of Graham Rahal of the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team, 0.2437 seconds off O’Ward’s best, while fifth was Ryan Hunter-Reay of Andretti Autosport, just ahead of Team Penske duo Will Power and Scott McLaughlin, the latter the first of the rookies in the field.

Jack Harvey, who will be looking to get his season back on track after a torrid run of bad luck and bad results since the Indianapolis 500 in May, was eighth fastest, while Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon was only ninth, just ahead of Arrow McLaren’s returning driver Felix Rosenqvist.

Dixon and Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi both had off-track moments at turn four, while Carlin Racing’s Max Chilton and the fourth Penske of Simon Pagenaud had moments of their own at turn one.

Romain Grosjean missed out on the top ten by just 0.0218 seconds for Dale Coyne Racing, while championship leader Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing was down in twelfth, 0.6759 seconds off the pace but ahead of Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus Veekay.

Debutant Ryan Norman of Dale Coyne Racing was down in twenty-fifth, ahead only of Chip Ganassi Racing’s Jimmie Johnson, with the former NASCAR champion again struggling compared to the rest of the field, 2.1941 seconds off the outright pace of O’Ward and seven-tenths of a second back on Norman.

Mid-Ohio Free Practice 2 Result

POS.	NO.	DRIVER	NAT	TEAM	TIME/GAP	LAPS
1	5	Pato O’Ward	MEX	Arrow McLaren SP	1:06.0911	22
2	2	Josef Newgarden	USA	Team Penske	+0.0082	19
3	26	Colton Herta	USA	Andretti Autosport	+0.0928	20
4	15	Graham Rahal	USA	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	+0.2437	22
5	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	USA	Andretti Autosport	+0.2746	24
6	12	Will Power	AUS	Team Penske	+0.3032	23
7	3	Scott McLaughlin	NZL	Team Penske	+0.3453	26
8	60	Jack Harvey	GBR	Meyer Shank Racing	+0.4044	19
9	9	Scott Dixon	NZL	Chip Ganassi Racing	+0.5044	24
10	7	Felix Rosenqvist	SWE	Arrow McLaren SP	+0.5904	19
11	51	Romain Grosjean	FRA	Dale Coyne Racing	+0.6122	18
12	10	Alex Palou	ESP	Chip Ganassi Racing	+0.6759	23
13	21	Rinus VeeKay	NED	Ed Carpenter Racing	+0.7002	23
14	27	Alexander Rossi	USA	Andretti Autosport	+0.7358	19
15	8	Marcus Ericsson	SWE	Chip Ganassi Racing	+0.7639	26
16	14	Sebastien Bourdais	FRA	AJ Foyt Enterprises	+0.7784	23
17	29	James Hinchcliffe	CAN	Andretti Autosport	+0.8679	21
18	22	Simon Pagenaud	FRA	Team Penske	+0.8716	25
19	18	Ed Jones	UAE	Dale Coyne Racing	+0.9547	16
20	59	Max Chilton	GBR	Carlin	+0.9785	22
21	45	Santino Ferrucci	USA	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	+0.9918	21
22	30	Takuma Sato	JAP	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	+1.2539	26
23	20	Conor Daly	USA	Ed Carpenter Racing	+1.2956	21
24	4	Dalton Kellett	CAN	AJ Foyt Enterprises	+1.3773	25
25	52	Ryan Norman	USA	Dale Coyne Racing	+1.4009	21
26	48	Jimmie Johnson	USA	Chip Ganassi Racing	+2.1941	26