IndyCar: A crucial weekend to commence at Mid-Ohio - MotorSportsTalk

This weekend’s Honda Indy 200 (Sunday, 3 p.m. ET, NBCSN) will go a long ways to determining the 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series championship.

With just four races remaining, the top four drivers in the standings are within 71 points. Helio Castroneves leads Will Power by 13 points, with Ryan Hunter-Reay third at 69 behind and Simon Pagenaud fourth, 71 back.

Interestingly, Castroneves is the only one of that quartet who has won at Mid-Ohio in an IndyCar. The Brazilian won back-to-back in 2000 and 2001.

The other three have Mid-Ohio podiums, but are yet to win. Power has been second in 2010 and 2012; Hunter-Reay third in 2003 and 2011 and Pagenaud third in 2012 and second a year ago.

If any of these four win, they’ll break the streak currently held by Chip Ganassi Racing – which has won the last five races running at Mid-Ohio.

CGR is in the unusual position at Mid-Ohio where none of its four drivers are in realistic championship contention. Scott Dixon ranks best of the quartet in sixth, but 146 points back of Castroneves.

So if CGR makes it a six-pack – with either Dixon, defending race winner Charlie Kimball, Tony Kanaan or Ryan Briscoe – they’ll be doing damage in the standings by taking points away from any of the key title contenders.

Realistically, Hunter-Reay and Pagenaud need to make some headway in points this weekend before the final three races occur in weekly succession.

Hunter-Reay must be considered favorite at Milwaukee IndyFest in two weeks, where he has won the last two weeks in a row; that’s also traditionally been a Castroneves bogey track.

But for this weekend, seeing the ebb and flow between the title contenders and the Ganassi quartet will be the most interesting thing to watch.

It’s worth watching the progress of drivers like James Hinchcliffe, Carlos Munoz, Marco Andretti, Justin Wilson and Josef Newgarden this weekend as well. None have won this year but this group of drivers tend to run stronger on the permanent road courses compared to the temporary street courses. Consider them your top sleepers this weekend.

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INDIANAPOLIS – Roger Penske spoke with Dallara executives Monday morning about the loose tire that went flying over the Indianapolis Motor Speedway catchfence and into a Turn 2 parking lot.

The left-rear wheel from Kyle Kirkwood’s No. 27 Dallara-Honda was sheared off in a collision at speed as Kirkwood tried to avoid the skidding No. 6 Dallara-Chevrolet of Felix Rosenqvist on Lap 183 of the 107^th Indianapolis 500.

No one seriously was hurt in the incident (including Kirkwood, whose car went upside down and slid for several hundred feet), though an Indianapolis woman’s Chevy Cruze was struck by the tire. The Indy Star reported a fan was seen and released from the care center after sustaining minor injuries from flying debris in the crash.

During a photo shoot Monday morning with Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden at the IMS Yard of Bricks, Penske met with Dallara founder and owner Gian Paolo Dallara and Dallara USA CEO Stefano dePonti. The Italian company has been the exclusive supplier of the current DW12 chassis to the NTT IndyCar series for 11 years.

“The good news is we didn’t have real trouble with that tire going out (of the track),” Penske, who bought Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2020, told a few reporters shortly afterward. “I saw it hit. When it went out, I saw we were OK. I talked to the Dallara guys today. We’re going to look at that, but I guess the shear (force) from when (Rosenqvist’s) car was sitting, (Kirkwood’s car) went over and just that shear force tore that tether. Because we have tethers on there, and I’ve never seen a wheel come off.

“That to me was probably the scariest thing. We’ve got to fix that. We’ve got to fix that so that doesn’t happen again.”

Asked by NBC Sports if IndyCar would be able to address it before Sunday’s Detroit Grand Prix or before the next oval race at Iowa Speedway, Penske said, “The technical guys should look at it. I think the speed here, a couple of hundred (mph) when you hit it vs. 80 or 90 or whatever it might be, but that was a pinch point on the race.”

In a statement released Monday to WTHR and other media outlets, IndyCar said that it was “in possession of the tire in Sunday’s incident and found that the tether did not fail. This is an isolated incident, and the series is reviewing to make sure it does not happen again. IndyCar takes the safety of the drivers and fans very seriously. We are pleased and thankful that no one was hurt.”

IndyCar provided no further explanation for how the wheel was separated from the car without the tether failing.

IndyCar began mandating wheel suspension tethers using high-performance Zylon material after a flying tire killed three fans at Charlotte Motor Speedway during a May 1, 1999 race. Three fans also were struck and killed by a tire at Michigan International Speedway during a July 26, 1998 race.

The IndyCar tethers can withstand a force of more than 22,000 pounds, and the rear wheel tethers were strengthened before the 2023 season.