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Fantastic Five of 2025: The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio

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Note: This is the third of a five-part series looking back at the five best races of the 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season – in chronological order – as judged by INDYCAR.com staff writers Curt Cavin, Eric Smith and Paul Kelly, including the writers’ analysis of why those events were great. Installments will appear on Fridays through October.

THE RACE

Race: The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Presented by the All-New 2026 Passport.
Site: Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (road course)
Date: Sunday, July 6
Winner: Scott Dixon
NTT P1 Award winner: Alex Palou

Scott Dixon combined masterful fuel saving and a rare mistake by teammate and NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship leader Alex Palou with five laps to go Sunday, July 6 to win The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Presented by the All-New 2026 Passport.

Dixon continued two remarkable series-record streaks with his 59th career victory, first win this season in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda and seventh career win at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course: He has won at least once in 21 consecutive seasons dating back to 2005 and has recorded a victory in 23 seasons during his illustrious career.

SEE: Race Results

Six-time series champion Dixon crossed the finish line just .4201 of a second ahead of Palou’s No. 10 Open AI Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, the closest result this season in the series. Christian Lundgaard placed third in the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet.

Colton Herta finished fourth in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda of Andretti Global w/Curb-Agajanian, while 2024 Mid-Ohio winner Pato O’Ward rounded out the top five in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet.

NTT P1 Award winner Palou led Dixon by approximately two seconds and appeared to be headed to his seventh victory of the season on Lap 85 when he ran wide into the dirt adjacent to Turn 9 and slowed, with Dixon squeezing past for a lead he would not surrender.

Palou pulled to within .356 of a second with two laps to go but could draw no closer as Dixon put on a master class of choosing lines that maintained speed while slyly and legally blunting the momentum of his trailing rival.

Dixon’s ability to adjust his racing lines on the fly was most evident in Turn 2, the famous “Keyhole” corner, on the last two laps.

On Lap 89, Dixon opened the low line for Palou to explore and then eased from mid-corner across Palou’s lower line on corner exit, taking advantage of the wider line in the turn to pull away on the back straightaway. On the final lap, Dixon instead chose the low line through Turn 2, eliminating a prime overtaking spot for Palou.

Dixon’s victory was as masterful as it was improbable.

With a starting spot of ninth, Dixon and strategist Mike Hull decided to capitalize on Dixon’s legendary ability to save fuel and attempt to complete the race on just two pit stops, one fewer than most teams attempted. The fuel mileage alchemy needed some laps under yellow to have a chance to succeed, and Dixon got that during the final caution period from Laps 31-34 when Christian Rasmussen’s No. 21 ECR Splenda Chevrolet stopped off course in Turn 8.

Alex Palou

Dixon made his final pit stop at the end of Lap 61. Meanwhile, Palou (photo, above) was pushing hard up front in the lead, knowing he had to build a sufficient gap on track to keep the top spot from Dixon after his final stop and make a three-stop strategy work.

Palou entered the pits for his final stop at the end of Lap 72 and rejoined the 13-turn, 2.258-mile circuit ahead of Dixon on track. He expanded his lead to 1.8 seconds by Lap 77 and appeared to be headed to his seventh victory of the season.

Then Palou bobbled with five laps to go, and Dixon pounced.

WHY IT WAS GREAT

Curt Cavin: Alex Palou was so good in 2025 that it was almost entertaining – sorry, Alex – to see him make at least one mistake, and he made two on this day at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Both miscues occurred while dominating the 90-lap race. First, he drifted wide in Turn 4 with 18 laps to go, and then he did likewise in Turn 9 with six laps remaining. The latter allowed Scott Dixon to scoot past, and that set up a terrific shootout between the Chip Ganassi Racing teammates. Palou came fighting back and drew within a car length of Dixon, but the six-time series champion was too wily in holding on for his record-extending seventh Mid-Ohio victory. This race also featured two different pit strategies. Palou went with the aggressive three-stopper while Dixon deftly managed his fuel and tires over just two stops. And yet, the two champions ended up at the finish line within four-tenths of a second of one another in a classic road race.

Eric Smith: I feel like the absence of Team Penske being a contender all weekend was telling. It’s no secret that the 2025 season was a trying one for the three-car team. Mid-Ohio exemplified the situation with the trio of Josef Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin and Will Power qualifying 18th, 21st and 22nd, respectively. The team was tied with Chip Ganassi Racing entering the weekend for most wins in Mid-Ohio history with 12 but lacked speed. The race began horribly with Newgarden involved in an opening-lap crash and finishing last (27th). Power’s race ended on Lap 11 with a fire, and he finished 26th. McLaughlin was the first car one lap down, in 23rd. To have three of the bottom five finishers belonging to Team Penske was baffling.

Paul Kelly: This race was more than just a compelling duel between teammates and two of the best drivers in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES. It almost felt like a passing of the torch from Dixon to Palou as the series standard bearer until Palou went off in Turn 9 with six laps left. Palou was headed toward his seventh win in 10 races that season, with A.J. Foyt and Al Unser’s all-time record of 10 victories in a season seemingly a speed bump en route to one of the most imperious title runs in history. But then Scott Dixon did “Scott Dixon things,” winning with guile and wisdom – and with an assist on the stand from strategist Mike Hull – in a “not so fast, my friend” moment for this season. Dixon may not have the raw speed of the past, but he still knows how to pull victories from nowhere better than anyone in the current field and among the very best ever. And let’s give a round of applause to Mid-Ohio (photo, below). That circuit is as well known for its campground fun during Fourth of July weekend as it is for racing, but there has been only one margin of victory larger than one second in five races there since 2021. That little roller-coaster breeds great NTT INDYCAR SERIES road races.

Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course