Mid-Ohio Friday conversations: beating the heat, silly season and the title fight

Credit: Dominic Loyer

IndyCar's weekend at Mid-Ohio kicked off on a hot Friday afternoon, where high temperatures, silly season and the championship fight dominated conversations.

DIVEBOMB takes a look at the main storylines from the start of the weekend.

Beating the heat

It was a hot day in Ohio, with temperatures reaching 34 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit), peaking during Practice 1 in the afternoon. While temperatures will drop slightly throughout the rest of the weekend, the heat is definitely a concern for teams and drivers.

DIVEBOMB spoke to several drivers on Friday about what the biggest challenge of the weekend would be, and many of them referenced the heat as their primary concern.

“I think the biggest challenge, there’s going to be a lot of things but the heat," said Andretti Global's Will Power. "The heat will be hard. I’ll say that, definitely hot and humid.”

Juncos Hollinger Racing's Sting Ray Robb had a similar sentiment, saying that he's much less concerned about speed considering how tight the field tends to be at this track.

“I think the heat," Robb said when asked about the biggest challenge of the weekend. "I think the heat is the number one priority to deal with right now. I think the speed of the cars, everyone is probably in a similar position, it seems like the field was pretty tight last year. So whoever adapts to the heat and humidity the most will do the best.”

But it's not just the heat that has drivers concerned, as there's a chance of rain on both Saturday and Sunday. Rain could throw a wrench into strategy as well as the schedule if it makes an appearance, though at this point all the rain seems to be coming in the evenings.

Graham Rahal characterised the weekend saying: “Hot, physical weekend. We could get a little bit of weather which is always tough around this place, it’s slippery as hell in the rain.”

Speaking to DIVEBOMB after Practice 1, Rinus VeeKay and Álex Palou also commented on the track temperatures and the chance of rain.

"Yeah, it's hot," said VeeKay. "Tires are going to be overheating for sure. That's one thing that will happen in the race. We're working hard on making sure we can manage that during the race. If it rains, you can always have a backup plan, but it definitely changes everything a lot. I think as a driver from the Netherlands where it rains probably 250 days a year, 300 days a year, I'd be happy in the wet for sure."

Palou added: "Yeah, I think the heat is going to be tough, not just physically but on the tires it's going to be tough, just the deg, what it's going to do, especially after 20 laps on the tires. And yeah, the rain, it's there. It could happen, it could not. I think we were super lucky at Road America with having a great race without any rain, but it could rain here and be fun, I guess. Hopefully."

Silly season in full swing

The temperature wasn't the only thing heating up, as Scott Dixon announced earlier this week that he wouldn't be returning to Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) in 2027 after 25 years with the team.

Credit: Bella Rosen

He's rumoured to be heading to Arrow McLaren, and he's not the only driver on the grid who seems to be heading to that team. Felix Rosenqvist has also announced that he won't be returning to Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) next year, and a return to McLaren seems iminent for him as well. That will most likely leave both Nolan Siegel and Christian Lundgaard out of a seat for next year.

Other pieces of the giant puzzle that is this year's silly season are continuing to slot into place, as MSR has announced that they have signed Marcus Armstrong to a multi-year contract. The team now will have just one seat to fill for 2027. There are currently 13 total seats on the grid that are technically up for grabs still, and lots of shuffling to come. But Dixon's big move and the implications of his choice have been the talk of the town this weekend as the paddock reels from this monumental announcement.

Dixon's impact at CGR cannot be underestimated, and it certainly wasn't by his teammate Palou, who credits Dixon as an incredible teammate, saying he wouldn't have won his championships without him on the same team.

"I mean, from being able to see how a six-time champion works, at the shop, at the track, how he communicates with the team, how he brakes, how he -- it's everything, every single piece," said Palou. "He's been an incredible teammate. In the way of sharing, I think it could go both ways. I think it could be suddenly a big wall in between and not sharing anything, but he's been the complete opposite.

"As I said, I know I would not probably have any championship or more than one championship without him in the team, so it's incredible. It's incredible the work that he has done over 25 years for everyone at Chip Ganassi Racing with his teammates and different teammates he has had and everything that he has built."

Championship battle

Over halfway through the season, Palou leads the championship by 60 points. That may sound like a lot, but last year at Mid-Ohio he was 93 points ahead. Comparitively, the title fight is wide open.

A few of the drivers sitting behind Palou are looking for the gaps where they can rise up and come through to get ahead of the four-time champion. David Malukas, now sitting second in the standings after finishing in second place at Road America, knows that consistency is key when it comes to fighting for a title.

“When it comes to the championship it’s all a fight of consistency," Malukas said. "You want to try to be up there, and thankfully I have a really good team behind me. What they managed to do at Road America, they’re pretty much wizards guessing when these yellows are going to come out and they guessed right every single time, and to do that for a whole race is incredible.

“That finish, P2, that was big for the team, they did a spectacular job. So it’s just continuing on with that perspective, right? Being on top of these rule changes, you just have to be a step ahead of the rest of the group.”

Fighting at the front is a recent change for Malukas, who joined Team Penske for 2026 and has stepped up to a frontrunning team for the first time in his career. Coming into the year, Malukas had three IndyCar podiums. He's already added four to that tally, three of them second place finishes.

Now sitting second overall behind Palou, Malukas has had to change his mentality to adapt to fighting at the front.

“It changes a lot," Malukas told DIVEBOMB. "From last year, any race I was a part of I was like, ‘I just want to win it’ or 'it's whatever, I don’t really care’ I wasn’t really in the championship fight.

“But now the perspective changes. If I see a move that has some risk that I know I’m not going to be fully committed to it, I kind of second guess and say I’m not going to make that move. Or with race starts, I don’t take as many risks because I don’t want to have a big moment here and ruin our chances at the championship.”

Another driver in contention for the title is Lundgaard, the top-performing McLaren driver this season. Lundgaard sits fourth overall, behind Malukas and Kyle Kirkwood. But even though he's behind them, Lundgaard thinks he has a better shot than those two driver.

Credit: Bella Rosen

“Well winning would be great," he said when asked by DIVEBOMB about his target for the championship. "Well [Palou] is strong, he’s strong everywhere he goes, so it’s tough. I feel like I’m in many ways in a better position than Kyle and David are, even though I’m behind them in the championship. But we just need to have a strong ending to the season where Álex has a more unfortunate end to it. But we have to keep doing what we’re doing, win races, and we just have to finish ahead of him.”

Why does Lundgaard believe he's in a better position than Kirkwood and Malukas? “Momentum," he amswered. "I feel like we’ve got some good tracks coming up for us, where they’re also strong, but I feel like we’re one stronger than they are, and we have to minimise damage on weekends where we aren’t strong enough.”

There's a lot on the line this weekend at Mid-Ohio, and the drivers will all be hoping for a good result come qualifying tomorrow, which begins at 2:35 local time on Saturday.