Friday, August 2, 2013

IndyCar Preview -- Mid Ohio

Hello Internet! Oh, it does feel good to be back. I mean, I didn't really go anywhere, but it feels good to put out a race preview after having not done so for a while. Of course, there won't be another race preview for a good long while here. So, let's enjoy it while we've got it. Onward!


2012 Mid-Ohio

Here's what the scorecard at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course looked like last year:


Driver Qualifying Grid Laps Led Completed A.R.S.
Dixon 5 4 26 85 72.29
Power 1 1 57 85 79.53
Pagenaud 3 3 0 85 46.00
Bourdais 7 6 0 85 49.00
Hinchcliffe 16 15 2 85 64.18
Kanaan 19 18 0 85 65.00
Briscoe 6 5 0 85 35.00
Andretti 9 8 0 85 37.00
Hildebrand 14 12 0 85 42.00
Tagliani 4 14 0 85 30.00
Rahal 22 21 0 85 51.00
Newgarden 10 9 0 85 23.00
Sato 18 17 0 85 35.00
Pantano 24 24 0 85 44.00
Barrichello 15 13 0 85 20.00
Castroneves 13 23 0 85 24.00
Franchitti 2 2 0 85 -12.00
Wilson 12 11 0 85 3.00
Jakes 21 20 0 85 17.00
Viso 20 19 0 85 11.00
Conway 17 16 0 85 1.00
Carpenter 25 25 0 84 13.93
de Silvestro 23 22 0 83 5.02
Hunter-Reay 8 7 0 79 -26.67
Servia 11 10 0 78 -24.61


Observations

- This year, there are more laps to be run at Mid-Ohio, with 5 circuits tacked on with the hopes of avoiding a fuel mileage race. I think that fuel mileage is still going to matter. Better fuel economy gives a driver a better chance to make good moves with pit strategy, and at a place like Mid-Ohio pit road is an excellent passing location.

- Qualifying should matter a lot, but as last year's results (with Hinch and TK jumping up) show, it's not everything. Expect the winner to come from the first three rows on the grid.

- Lots of driver substitutions tend to happen at Mid-Ohio. Indycar.com wrote a story about it earlier this week. This would seem like a good opportunity for us to roll back out...


Driver Changes for Mid-Ohio

- Servia in for Briscoe at Panther Racing: This seat has been a revolving door since the un-seating of JR Hildebrand. Both of these guys have seen time in the cockpit of the Number 4 car. The only thing that makes this driver change a change is that Ryan Briscoe was supposed to be in there this week. I'm glad that Servia is getting some seat time to shop himself for a seat next year, and (owing to the fact that this is injury based) it shouldn't hurt Briscoe's odds to be in the National Guard Panther Racing entry in 2014.

- James Davison for TBA at Dale Coyne Racing: You can't really say that Davison's in for anybody as the Number 19 machine has been a revolving door all year (and it's going to get more revolving with Stefan Wilson hopping in at Baltimore). All that said, it's great to see Davison get a crack at it. He's won two Indy Lights races at Mid-Ohio, and so you can count me in as one, who is excited to see what he can do in the big cars.

- Luca Filippi for Alex Tagliani at Barracuda Racing: I hoped that I wouldn't be typing this, but I assumed that eventually I would. Tags has had a weird season. I talked about it a little bit in last week's Conway Line post. He just hasn't done much on this side of Indianapolis. Here's hoping there's a drive for him going forward in 2014 and beyond, but there always seem to be more qualified drivers than seats... But, on to Filippi himself. He's Italian, so that's a point for him in my book. He's had excellent results in GP2, so I'm willing to give him a look. If his performance looks anything like what Pantano did last year, you can call it a total win. That would be impressive, however, seeing as how Pantano had both more GP2 success and some IndyCar experience beforehand.


Stay Tuned

Well, that's all for this race preview. Follow @ScoringIndy on Twitter for predictions following qualifying on Saturday.

See you out there!

-- Guido

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