IndyCar COTA – 2019
Road to Indy Shootout winner Hunter McElrea ate into Braden Eves’s USF2000 points lead with an impressive weekend at Mid-Ohio.
McElrea took pole for both races, but lost the lead of the first to a brilliant move by Christian Rasmussen at Turn 2.
Matt Round-Garrido had risen up to third on the opening lap, but the podium battle was put on pause by a caution period when IndyCar tyre changer and championship debutant Timmy Pagliuso got stuck in the gravel.
At the restart, Round-Garrido gained another place on McElrea and spent over half of the race defending his position as Rasmussen pulled away.
On lap 17 of 20, Round-Garrido’s defence finally broke and he dropped to fourth behind McElrea and Colin Kaminsky. Jay Howard Driver Development’s Rasmussen had already built up a 10-second gap though, meaning he took an easy win.
McElrea was more careful looking after his lead in race two after taking pole again, and the Pabst Racing driver was successful in keeping Rasmussen behind for the race’s entirety.
Kaminsky rounded out the podium again for Pabst, while Legacy Autosports’s Zach Holden managed to finish fourth.
Round-Garrido once again made a great start, but couldn’t maintain his position and ended the race outside of the top 10.
Championship leader Eves picked up a seventh and an eighth, meaning he now has just nine points in hand over McElrea.
Results round-up
Race 1 (20 laps)
1 Christian Rasmussen Jay Howard Driver Development 29m35.367s
2 Hunter McElrea Pabst Racing +9.5753s
3 Colin Kaminsky Pabst Racing +10.4798s
4?Matt Round-Garrido BN Racing +11.2931s
5 Bruna Tomaselli Pabst Racing +12.7114s
6 Yuven Sundaramoorthy Pabst Racing +13.2952s
7 Jak Crawford Cape Motorsports +13.8461s
8 Braden Eves Cape Motorsports +14.0798s
9 Darren Keane Cape Motorsports +14.5044s
10 Zach Holden Legacy Autosport +15.1382s
Pole: McElrea, 1m21.5126s
Fastest lap: Rasmussen, 1m21.927s
Race 2 (20 laps)
1 McElrea 27m25.7966s
2 Rasmussen +0.5652s
3 Kaminsky +8.1742s
4 Holden +8.6937s
5 Crawford +14.3891s
6 Keane +17.2252s
7 Eves +20.7171s
8 Manuel Sulaiman DEForce Racing +21.1403s
9 Reece Gold Cape Motorsports +25.9813s
10 Tomaselli +26.3793s
P: McElrea, 1m21.3865s
FL: McElrea, 1m21.5453s
Championship standings
1?Eves 260? ?2 McElrea 251? ?3 Keane 207? ?4 Kaminsky 199? ?5 Rasmussen 198? ?6 Sulaiman 161? ?7 Cameron Shields 137? ?8 Tomaselli 131? ?9 Crawford 130? ?10 Gold 125