Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio

Traditionally a strong team at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, with 1-2 finishes in CART races using Honda power in both 2000 and 2001, Team Penske’s Ryan Briscoe led teammate Helio Castroneves to a third Honda-powered victory sweep in Sunday’s Honda Indy 200.

Starting on the outside of the first row alongside pole-qualifier Castroneves, Briscoe was the final driver to change over to dry weather racing slicks after late-morning showers led race officials to declare the event a ‘wet’ race, requiring the entire 26-car field to start on treaded ‘rain’ tires on a damp, but rapidly drying, track. Most of the field changed over to slicks on the fourth and fifth laps, but Briscoe didn’t make the swap until Lap 6, dropping him to 15th.

But a decision by team owner Roger Penske to go ‘off sequence’ on pit stops and stay on track during a Lap 25-29 caution period moved Briscoe back up to fourth, and fuel conservation during the next stint got the Australian into the lead and back onto the same pit sequence as the rest of the field. Dale Coyne Racing’s Bruno Junqueira attempted a similar strategy, but was forced by low fuel to pit out of second place with just seven laps remaining. He finished 13th.