Simon Pagenaud recovered from an early setback under a full course caution to score his fourth victory of the 2016 IndyCar Series season at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on Sunday.
Pagenaud started the race from pole and retained his lead in the early stages ahead of Penske teammate Will Power, but dropped outside of the top 10 when he was forced to pit under a caution following a rare crash for Scott Dixon.
A five-time winner at Mid-Ohio, Dixon started the race from 11th after a strategy error in qualifying. In a bid to recover some of the lost ground, the Chip Ganassi Racing driver attempted an overzealous move on Helio Castroneves, only for the two to make contact, leaving Dixon with a broken front-left wheel.
The caution played into the hands of Mikhail Aleshin, who pitted just before the clash and was able to vault to the front of the pack. The Russian was able to open up a 10-second advantage over the pack after making his second stop, putting himself in a strong position to score his first IndyCar victory.
Power went two laps longer than Pagenaud before making his second stop, and was able to get the jump on the Frenchman to run second behind Aleshin once the pit cycle had finished – a move that could have been critical in terms of points for the title race.
Aleshin's hopes of a maiden victory were dashed just before the final round of stops when a second caution period was called following a hefty shunt for Jack Hawksworth, sparking a flurry of activity in the pit lane. Aleshin was given the call to exit his pit box after being serviced, only to go straight into the path of Josef Newgarden. The incident dropped Aleshin outside of the top 10 before further penalties dropped him to the very back.
Conor Daly was kept out by Dale Coyne Racing after pitting seven laps earlier, allowing him to move into the lead for the restart. Power was sluggish to get away when the race returned to green, allowing Pagenaud to line up a move that he eventually completed at the final corner, barging past into second place.
Daly was given free rein to push at the front, knowing that he would need a lengthy caution period to stand any chance of winning the race. The American opened up an eight-second lead over Pagenaud before pitting, emerging down in eighth after a slow fuel-only stop from his crew.
With Daly now out of the way, Pagenaud was able to cruise to his fourth victory of the season ahead of Power, picking up maximum points for the weekend to extend his championship lead back to 58 points.
Carlos Munoz stayed out of trouble to complete the podium in third behind the Penske duo, finishing ahead of home favourite Graham Rahal, who picked up two places late on after Sebastien Bourdais and Takuma Sato clashed with three laps to go. James Hinchcliffe finished fifth despite running last at one point, running out of fuel on the cool-down lap.
Daly was left to settle for sixth, while Spencer Pigot picked up his first IndyCar top-10 finish in P7. Charlie Kimball, Sato and Josef Newgarden rounded out the top 10 at Mid-Ohio.
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