IMSA 2022 Mid-Ohio results: Wayne Taylor Racing wins again; Montoya triumphs in LMP2

By May 15, 2022, 7:00 PM EDT
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IMSA Mid-Ohio results: Ricky Taylor took the lead after contact with Renger van der Zande as the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura outdueled the No. 01 Cadillac of Chip Ganassi Racing in the Lexus Grand Prix at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

Taylor and co-driver Filipe Albuquerque delivered a second consecutive victory in the DPi category Sunday in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Series for WTR, which won two weeks ago at Laguna Seca.

“I just felt the touch and tried to give him room,” Taylor told NBC Sports’ Parker Kligerman. “I don’t know what happened. The whole Konica Minolta Acura team just executing at a track where we need to get everything right. They just nailed it.

RESULTS: Click here for overall finishing order l Click here for the class breakdown

POINTS: Standings after Mid-Ohio

“I think the great teams always find a way to win. We may not have been the fastest in qualifying, and I think that goes to show how strong our team is that we find a way no matter what.”

Starting at the start when Albuquerque got the jump on pole-sitter Sebastien Bourdais, the No. 10 and No. 01 traded the lead four times. Bourdais bumped his way past Albuquerque back into the lead on Lap 10, but Taylor led 51 of the final 56 laps as van der Zande faded to fifth.

“I think Seb did a fantastic job putting it in the lead,” van der Zande said. “When I got in I struggled with the tires on the restart. I tried to keep the position in first but lost control of the car by a little touch. It’s tough to keep a fast car behind when dealing with low grip. It’s a shame. I think we had a good shot at winning with a good car and a good strategy.”

Bourdais and van der Zande led a race-high 61 of 121 laps.

It was the 47th career win for Wayne Taylor Racing and its second at Mid-Ohio, where Acuras have won five consecutive. Taylor earned his fourth Mid-Ohio victory and 29th of his career, and Albuquerque scored his 10th career win and second at Mid-Ohio.

The No. 10 moved into the points lead with the victory as the No. 60 Acura of Meyer Shank Racing took second, and the No. 31 Cadillac of Action Express rounded out the podium.

A rundown of winners in other categories:

LMP2

A day after racing in the IndyCar race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, Juan Pablo Montoya scored his first victory in the No. 81 ORECA LMP2 07 for Dragonspeed with co-driver Henrik Hedman.

Montoya rebounded to take the lead after serving a drive-through penalty for an earlier pass into first.

” I saw an opportunity and went for it,” Montoya told NBC Sports’ Brian Till after his seventh career IMSA win (second at Mid-Ohio).

LMP3

The No. 54 Ligier JS P320 earned CORE Autosport’s first victory of the season and 43rd in IMSA. It was the first victory at Mid-Ohio for co-drivers Jon Bennett (19th career win) and Colin Braun (21st career win).

GTD

The No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 of Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley was awarded the class victory after a postrace inspection failure.

The No. 70 McLaren 720S GT3 of inception racing was ruled underweight after taking the checkered flag for the first time in its sixth IMSA start. Co-drivers Brendan Iribe and Jordan Pepper also were on the verge of their first IMSA wins as the team stretched its final fuel stint for 56 laps.

STATS PACKAGE FOR IMSA LEXUS GRAND PRIX AT MID-OHIO:

Fastest laps by driver

Fastest laps by driver after race (over the weekend)

Fastest laps by driver and class after race

Fastest lap sequence

Leader sequence

Lap chart

Race analysis by lap

Time cards

Pit stop time cards

Drive Time

Best sector times

NEXT: The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will head to the Detroit Grand Prix for a 100-minute sprint at 3 p.m. ET on June 4 with coverage on USA and Peacock.

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IndyCar Detroit GP starting lineup: Alex Palou wins first pole position on a street course

By Jun 3, 2023, 4:00 PM EDT
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DETROIT — Alex Palou won the pole position for the second consecutive NTT IndyCar Series race and will lead the Detroit Grand Prix starting lineup to green on a new downtown layout.

The 2021 series champion, who finished fourth in the 107th Indy 500 after qualifying first, earned his third career pole position as the first of three Chip Ganassi Racing drivers in the top four (Scott Dixon qualified fourth, and Marcus Ericsson sixth).

Scott McLaughlin will start second, followed by Romain Grosjean. Coming off his first Indianapolis 500 victory, Josef Newgarden qualified fifth.

INDYCAR IN DETROIT: Entry list, schedule, TV info for this weekend

It’s the third career pole position for Palou and his first on a street course — a big advantage on a nine-turn, 1.645-mile track that is expected to be calamitous over 100 laps Sunday (3 p.m. ET, NBC).

“It’s going to be a tough day for sure,” Palou told NBC Sports’ Marty Snider. “It feels good we’ve had a great car since the beginning, and it was just about maximizing. They did a great strategy on tires and everything. We need to finish it (Sunday).

“I got off a lot in practice. We wanted to see where the limit was, and we found it. It’s a crazy track. I think it’s too tight for Indy cars and too short as well, but we’ll make it happen.”

QUALIFYING RESULTS: Click here for Detroit GP qualifying speeds | Round 1, Group 1 | Round 1, Group 2 | Round 2 l Round 3

The narrow quarters (originally listed as a 1.7-mile track, its distance shrunk by a couple hundred feet when measured Friday) already were causing problems in qualifying.

Colton Herta, who has four career poles on street courses, qualified 24th after failing to advance from the first round because of damage to his No. 26 Dallara-Honda. It’s the worst starting spot in an IndyCar street course race for Herta (and the second-worst of his career on the heels of qualifying 25th for the GMR Grand Prix three weeks ago).

Andretti Autosport teammate Kyle Kirkwood also found misfortune in the second round, damaging the left front of his No. 27 Dallara-Honda despite light wall contact.

“I’m disappointed for the crew because that was a pole-winning car,” Kirkwood told NBC Sports’ Kevin Lee. “Man, I barely touched the wall. I touched it way harder in all the practices, and it’s just like the angle at which the wall was right there, it caught the point and just ripped the front off the car.

“If the wall was rounded, that wouldn’t have happened. That’s just unfortunate for the guys, but it’s my mistake. It’s hard enough to get around this place let alone race around it. We’ll see how it goes.”

Many IndyCar drivers are expecting it to go badly, which isn’t uncommon for a new street layout. The inaugural Music City Grand Prix in Nashville, Tennessee, was the biggest crashfest of the 2021 season with 33 of 80 laps run under caution plus two red flags.

It could be worse at Detroit, which is the shortest track on the IndyCar circuit. It also features the series’ only split pit lane (with cars pitting on opposite sides and blending into a single-lane exit), a 0.9-mile straightaway and a hairpin third turn that is considered the best passing zone.

“If there’s one day you need to be lucky in the year, it’s tomorrow,” Grosjean told NBC Sports’ Dave Burns. “A lot is going to happen, and it’s being in the right time at the right place.”

Said Dixon: “Expect probably a lot of unexpected things to happen. We’ll try and get through it. I think it’ll be similar to Nashville and maybe the last man standing is the one who gets the victory.”

With the field at 27 cars, Palou estimated the length of the course leaves a gap of about 2.4 seconds between each car, which he preferred would be double. During practice Friday, there were six red flags and 19 local yellows as teams tried to sort out the tricky and tight layout.

“I don’t know what the perfect distance is, but I would say adding 30 seconds to a track or 20 seconds would help a lot,” said Palou, one of many drivers who also said the streets were too bumpy despite work to grind down some surfaces. “We have a lot of cars. It’s crazy. It’s really good for the series, for the racing. But when it comes to practice, and we have 10 red flags, 25 yellows, it’s traffic all the time.”

It seems certain to be a memorable reimagining of the Detroit GP, which was moved downtown by IndyCar owner Roger Penske after a 30-year run at the Belle Isle course a few miles north.

McLaughlin, who drives for Team Penske, believes the race will be very similar to Nashville, but “it’s just going to be up to us with the etiquette of the drivers to figure it out along the way. I think there’s going to be a lot of passes, opportunities.

“With the track, there’s been a lot of noise I’ve seen on Twitter, from other drivers and stuff,” McLaughlin said. “At the end of the day, this is a new track, new complex. I think what everyone has done to get this going, the vibe is awesome. Belle Isle was getting old. We had to do it.

“First-year problems, it’s always going to happen. It’s just going to get better from here. The racetrack for the drivers is a blast. We don’t even know how it races yet. Everyone is making conclusions already. They probably just need to relax and wait for (Sunday).”

Here’s the IndyCar starting lineup for Sunday’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix (qualifying position, car number in parentheses, driver, engine and speed):

ROW 1

1. (10) Alex Palou, Honda, 1 minute, 1.8592 seconds (95.734 mph)
2. (3) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 1:02.1592 (95.271)

ROW 2

3. (28) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 1:02.2896 (95.072)
4. (9) Scott Dixon, Honda, 1:02.4272 (94.862)

ROW 3

5. (2) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 1:02.5223 (94.718)
6. (8) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 1:02.6184 (94.573)

ROW 4

7. (12) Will Power, Chevrolet, 1:02.1817 (95.237)
8. (60) Simon Pagenaud, Honda, 1:02.1860 (95.230)

ROW 5

9. (6) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 1:02.1937 (95.219)
10. (5) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 1:02.2564 (95.123)

ROW 6

11. (11) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 1:02.2958 (95.063)
12. (27) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 1:04.6075 (91.661)

ROW 7

13. (7) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 1:02.5714 (94.644)
14. (21) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 1:02.1911 (95.223)

ROW 8

15. (20) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 1:02.9522 (94.071)
16. (77) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 1:02.2644 (95.111)

ROW 9

17. (29) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 1:03.0017 (93.997)
18. (45) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 1:02.6495 (94.526)

ROW 10

19. (55) Benjamin Pedersen, Chevrolet, 1:03.1599 (93.762)
20. (78) Agustin Canapino, Chevrolet, 1:02.9071 (94.139)

ROW 11

21. (18) David Malukas, Honda, 1:03.2126 (93.684)
22. (14) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 1:02.9589 (94.061)

ROW 12

23. (06) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 1:03.3879 (93.425)
24. (26) Colton Herta, Honda, 1:03.4165 (93.383)

ROW 13

25. (30) Jack Harvey, Honda, 1:03.7728 (92.861)
26. (51) Sting Ray Robb, Honda, 1:03.7496 (92.895)

ROW 14

27. (15) Graham Rahal, Honda, 1:03.8663 (92.725)