{"id":14876,"date":"2023-07-01T08:00:49","date_gmt":"2023-07-01T12:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=14876&preview=true&preview_id=14876"},"modified":"2023-08-27T10:47:55","modified_gmt":"2023-08-27T14:47:55","slug":"indycar-oward-leads-the-way-in-opening-practice-at-mid-ohio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2023\/07\/01\/indycar-oward-leads-the-way-in-opening-practice-at-mid-ohio\/","title":{"rendered":"IndyCar: O’Ward Leads The Way in Opening Practice at Mid-Ohio"},"content":{"rendered":"

As we approach the 4th of July, IndyCar is halfway through its season as it makes a stop at Mid-Ohio.<\/h3>\n

Pato O’Ward<\/strong>, who captured the pole at Mid-Ohio last year<\/a>, found himself at the top of the timing charts during Friday’s practice session at the 13-turn, 2.25-mile road course at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in preparation for Sunday’s Honda Indy 200 \u00a0with a lap of 1:06.4935 seconds, which was more than two-tenths faster than last year’s pole-winning speed.<\/p>\n

\u201cA good start here at Mid-Ohio,\u201d O\u2019Ward said after the session. \u201cWe made some good changes to the car and ended up the practice in a really nice spot. Looking forward to tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following Palou was Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Marcus Ericsson<\/strong> in the No. 8 Honda (1:06.9779 seconds), who was a half second off of O’Ward’s pace, putting him third at the end of the session. Following Ericsson was Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Christian Lungaard<\/strong>, who prior to O’Ward was on top of the timing charts during the session, but ended P4 (1:07.0262 seconds).<\/p>\n

“Yeah, I think coming into here we expected obviously to be fast, considering our road course performance the entire year, Lungaard said. But leaving Road America, a track that has just been resurfaced, with a track that hasn’t been resurfaced lately, we also knew it would be a different sort of balance in the car, tougher to drive.”<\/p>\n

\"Christian<\/p>\n

Lundgaard added, “It certainly was something to handle out there. It’s quick. So that’s the positives, I guess. We covered a lot of things in the practice session in terms of items we wanted to try. I think we’re pretty satisfied at this point.”<\/p>\n

The forecast was also a talk of the paddock after today’s practice session where the weather and wet conditions along with the new curbing could play a factor in who wins the race on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be interesting to see if the rain decides to make an appearance or not,\u201d said O\u2019Ward, referencing local forecasts. \u201cBut yeah, so far so good (for us).”<\/p>\n

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