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Preview

IndyCar’s Mid-Ohio double-header preview – facts, schedule

All you need to know ahead of the 10th and 11th rounds of the 2020 NTT IndyCar Series – the Honda Indy 200 at Mid Ohio Sports Car Course, near Lexington, OH.

Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

Phillip Abbott / Motorsport Images

Event date: Saturday, Sept. 12 – Sunday, Sept. 13

Track: Mid-Ohio, 2.258-mile 13-turn road course

Race distances: 2 x 75 laps / 2 x 169.35 miles

Firestone tire allotment: Nine sets of primary tires are available for each entry across the weekend, with rookies getting one extra set. These are the same construction as used at this venue in 2019 but use a slightly more durable compound which Firestone nonetheless says will offer the same amount of grip as last year. The same is true of the alternate compound red-sidewalled softer tires of which each entry will receive five sets.
Each car has seven sets of rain tires available.

Push-to-pass parameters (per race): 200 seconds of total time with a maximum time of 20 seconds per activation.

At-track schedule (local/Eastern Time) and broadcast details

Saturday, Sept. 12
10.45am – 12.00pm
 Practice NBC Sports Gold (live)
2.00pm – 2.30pm Qualifying (two groups) for Race 1 NBC Sports Gold (live)
4.30pm NBCSN on air
4.53pm
Honda Indy 200 Race 1 NBCSN (live)

Sunday, July 12
10.15 – 10.45am Qualifying (two groups) for Race 2 NBC Sports Gold (live)
1.00pm NBC on air
1.05pm
Honda Indy 200 Race 2 NBC (live)

Leigh Diffey is the NBCSN/NBC announcer alongside analysts Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy.

Pennzoil IndyCar Radio Network broadcasts: Mark Jaynes is chief announcer alongside analyst Davey Hamilton. Jake Query and Nick Yeoman are the turn announcers. All IndyCar races air live on network affiliates, Sirius 211, XM 205, indycar.com and the IndyCar Mobile app powered by NTT DATA. Live coverage of IndyCar qualifying is available on XM 205, indycar.com and the IndyCar Mobile app.

Race Notes

2019 race winner: Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda) 

2019 NTT pole winner: Will Power (Team Penske-Chevrolet), 1min04.6802 seconds, 125.677mph

Qualifying record: Simon Pagenaud (Team Penske-Chevrolet), 1min03.8700 seconds, 127.271mph (2016)

This event will mark the 36th and 37th times that the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course has hosted an IndyCar race, with Mario Andretti, Michael Andretti and Emerson Fittipaldi scoring the most wins here – three each.

Scott Dixon holds the record for wins at Mid-Ohio, with six between 2007 and ’19. Emerson Fittipaldi won here three times, with Michael Andretti, Helio Castroneves, Teo Fabi, Bobby Rahal, Al Unser Jr. and Alex Zanardi having all won at Mid-Ohio twice.

Six of this weekend’s drivers have won at Mid-Ohio. Aside from Dixon, there are Charlie Kimball (2013), Graham Rahal (2015), Pagenaud (2016), Newgarden (2017) and Alexander Rossi (2018).

Power holds the record of poles at Mid Ohio – four between 2010 and 2019. Other pole-winners competing this weekend are Dixon (2011, 2015), Ryan Hunter-Reay (2013), Pagenaud (2016) and Rossi (2018).

Chip Ganassi Racing has won 11 times at Mid-Ohio thanks to Zanardi, Juan Pablo Montoya, Dixon, Dario Franchitti and Charlie Kimball. Team Penske has nine wins at the track with Fittipaldi, Al Unser Jr., Helio Castroneves, Ryan Briscoe, Pagenaud, and Josef Newgarden.

There are four IndyCar rookies in the field – Oliver Askew (Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet), Alex Palou (Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh-Honda), Rinus VeeKay (Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet) and Dalton Kellett (AJ Foyt Racing). Askew won both Mid-Ohio Indy Lights races last year and also has a USF2000 victory here to his name. VeeKay scored podium finishes here in Indy Lights and USF2000 but won both of the Pro Mazda (now Indy Pro 2000) rounds in 2018. Kellett took a podium here in 2018. Palou has no U.S. junior formula experience, but Mid-Ohio was the site of his first ever IndyCar test, last summer.

 

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