Alexander Rossi drove clinically during the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio and utilized unorthodox strategy to claim another IndyCar win.
Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi qualified on pole for the 13th race of the 2018 IndyCar season, the Honda Indy 200, and he kept calm under pressure and while in traffic to stick to a two-stop pit strategy that required the former Indy 500 winner to conserve tires and fuel.
While the drivers around him were charging hard and making passes, Rossi was in constant communication with his crew chief to make sure they were able to hit a fuel number that would allow for a two-stop strategy.
The pit strategy battle presents teams and drivers with a few trade-offs, which are up to each crew chief to decide on. With Rossi being on a two-stop strategy, he was able to spend less time driving down pit lane and less time filling up having his car filled up with fuel and having its tires changed.
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This forced Rossi to stick to a lap time and a fuel number in order to make it to the end of the race, which caused him to drive slower than he is capable of driving. To compare, drivers on a three-stop strategy can focus on going as fast as possible, but they spend extra time driving down pit lane and having their car serviced for fuel and tires.
Rossi’s victory tightens up the IndyCar championship standings even further, as Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon leads with 494 points and Rossi is 46 points behind him in second place with 448 points. At the moment, Rossi seems to be the only driver within range of the four-time IndyCar champion with only four races to go in the 2018 season.
For Rossi, this win is his the fourth win of his IndyCar career and his second of the 2018 season. It is the 60th IndyCar win for Andretti Autosport, but it is their first at the undulating 13-turn, 2.258-mile (3.634-kilometer) Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio.
The next IndyCar race is scheduled to take place at the daunting Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. That race is the ABC Supply 500, and it is scheduled to take place on Sunday, August 19 at 1:30 p.m. ET. It is scheduled to be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network.