Simon Pagenaud holds off Will Power to win IndyCar race at Mid-Ohio

Battling a sore back and Team Penske teammate Will Power, pole-sitter Simon Pagenaud won the Indy Honda 200 on Sunday at the Mid-Ohio Sports Course for his fourth victory of the season and the eighth overall.

The Frenchman started from the pole, showing no signs of a back injury sustained in practice Friday. He beat Will Power by 4.16 seconds to increase his season points lead over his second-place Team Penske teammate to 58 points.

Pagenaud took the lead with six laps left when Conor Daly gave up a 10.5-second advantage to make a fuel stop. Even with a 4.8-second stop, Daly fell to eighth and ended up sixth.

Carlos Munoz was third, and 2015 race winner Graham Rahal, who grew up 60 miles south of Lexington in suburban Columbus, was fourth, 7.01 seconds behind.

Daly got the lead when the race went to caution on Lap 62 when Jack Hawksworth went into the tires in the keyhole portion of the course. During the pit stops Mikhail Aleshin, who led for 37 laps, pulled in front of Josef Newgarden and was ordered to the rear of the field.

Charlie Kimball had a great restart from the fifth position and took the lead only to immediately drop back when he went off course trying to pass. Power thought he should have made a move at that point.

“I just slept on the restart and I regret that,” he said.

Pagenaud won three of the first five races this season but had not won in the previous six races back to the Grand Prix of Indianapolis on May 14.

He won his sixth pole of the season, first at Mid-Ohio, with a course record time of 1 minute, 3.87 seconds (127.271 mph) around the 13-turn, 2.258-mile course Saturday during the final qualifying session.

Five-time Mid-Ohio winner Scott Dixon left the race after 14 laps following a collision with Helio Castroneves in Turn 2. Dixon returned on lap 60 and finished last of the 22 cars to drop a spot to fifth in the points standings.

Dixon was gaining on Castroneves but Castroneves kept the inside line and Dixon could not around him. Dixon’s left tire popped and the suspension was damaged.

“We were racing hard there,” Dixon said. “I was alongside. He kept edging over and there was nowhere to go. We made pretty good contact.”

Castroneves sustained some wing damage and had to make an early pit on the 23rd lap but did return and finished 15th.