Race Report: Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio

LEXINGTON, Ohio (July 5, 2026) -- Rookie driver Caio Collet began collecting on the potential he has shown all season with his best finish to date in the NTT INDYCAR Series.

Starting and finishing 11th in the No. 4 Combitrans Chevrolet, Collet and his AJ Foyt Racing crew performed under extremely hot weather conditions at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course--where Collet collected his first victory in the INDY NXT by Firestone series in 2024.

At the start of the 90-lap race, Collet moved into tenth and was running in the top-10 until his team pitted him early -- on lap 10 -- having decided to run a three-stop race in their strategy meeting. By the time the stops cycled out in 20 laps (when everyone had pitted), he was back to 10th.  He tried to pass a much slower car that was nearly a lap down, and Collet was shoved into the grass, losing precious time.

After the off-track excursion, solid running and clean pit stops helped him post his best finish to date. His previous best was 12th at Arlington, Texas in March although he had been headed for several top 10s until unfortunate circumstances prevailed.

"I think it was a very good day, positive weekend in general," Collet said. "We were fighting for the top 10 all race long. I think we executed a really good race from my side and also from the team side. I think we did everything we could today. We had a little incident with a car that was on a different strategy, he was a lap behind, and it cost us the top 10. We lost a couple of seconds there.  Big thanks to the Combitrans Chevrolet team for all of their effort this weekend and hopefully we can keep on fighting for top 10s like this."

The finish moves him to within 16 points of fellow rookie Dennis Hauger who is currently leading the Rookie of the Year standings.

Santino Ferrucci started 21st after struggling to find pace this weekend. On the first lap of the race, he got tagged by Scott McLaughlin which damaged the front wing of Ferrucci's car and he dropped to 24th in the 25-car field. However, despite the damage, he was able to pass some cars to finish 19th in the No. 14 Homes For Our Troops Chevrolet. In post-race discussion, Ferrucci indicated that the car was good after the changes made from the morning warm-up--even with the damaged front wing.

"Not our day obviously," Ferrucci commented. "I think we did a really good job with the race car. It felt relatively competitive. We tried to get off strategy early in hopes for a caution that never came and that ended up being our race. Just unfortunate."

Pato O'Ward fended off pole sitter and teammate Christian Lundgaard for his first win on a road course since his last win at Mid-Ohio in 2024. Rounding out the top five were Kyle Kirkwood, Rinus Veekay and Alex Palou.

The team heads to Milwaukee for a test on Tuesday. The next race will be the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway on July 19. The race will be broadcast on FOX starting at 5:30 p.m. ET.

In Race 2 of the INDY NXT by Firestone doubleheader this morning, Alessandro de Tullio started outside pole. He was trying to make a pass on polesitter Enzo Fittipaldi but Fittipaldi ran de Tullio wide sending him onto the grass. By the time de Tullio recovered, he was in eighth. He managed to get back to sixth until dropping to eighth with seven laps remaining. His teammate Nicholas Monteiro started 19th and finished 21st in the No. 4 entry. Fittipaldi won the race.