The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio is an IndyCar Series race that is held at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio.
Pato O'Ward is the defending race winner, having won the 2026 event. Chip Ganassi Racing leads with 13 total victories for the organization, with Scott Dixon scoring seven of those wins.
Since 2007, the race has been sponsored by Honda. The sponsorship arrangement complements the track's close proximity to the manufacturer's assembly plants in Marysville, East Liberty, and Anna.
Race history Indy car racing first visited Mid-Ohio in the 1980 season. In late 1981, Truesports owner Jim Trueman purchased the Mid-Ohio facility, and early rumors had the track returning for the 1982 CART season. However, a race did not happen until 1983. CART then appeared annually through 2003. The race was well-attended, drawing fans from two major markets nearby, Columbus and Cleveland. Crowds topped 75,000-80,000 at the peak of its popularity. The race schedule usually included a large slate of support races including Indy Lights, Atlantics, and SCCA.
In mid-2003, CART president Chris Pook hinted at dropping Mid-Ohio from the CART schedule going forward, citing various issues. For many years, Mid-Ohio was on the schedule alongside the Grand Prix of Cleveland, and Pook stated it was not viable to have two races in such close proximity, and favored keeping the race at Cleveland instead. In addition, some observers felt that the powerful CART/Champ Cars had "outgrown" the narrow, winding course, citing a lack of passing and competition over the previous several years. Though the decision was generally unpopular with fans, Mid-Ohio was dropped from the Champ Car schedule for 2004.
Then in late 2006, it was announced that the race would be revived as part of the Indy Racing League. Restarting in 2007, the race would be sponsored by IRL engine supplier Honda, which has a prominent manufacturing presence in the central Ohio area.
Through much of its history, the track has been considered the hometown venue for first Truesports (1980s) and later Rahal Letterman Racing (1990s-present). Jim Trueman and the Trueman family owned the track from 1981 to 2007. Truesports scored two poles and two wins, while Rahal Letterman Racing has scored one pole and one win.
Race scheduling
In early years of the event under CART, the race was scheduled for Labor Day weekend. In 1990, it was pushed back two weeks into mid-September. Rain and cooler temperatures, however, prompted officials to move the race to the summer. For 1994, it was situated in early to mid-August, the weekend after the Brickyard 400.
When the race was revived by the Indy Racing League in 2007, it was placed in July. Carried by ABC, it was immediately followed final round coverage of the British Open. The lead-in created usually a strong television audience, but it was at the risk of the golf tournament running long due to a playoff, as it did in 2007. Starting in 2009, the race got moved back to its early August slot.
In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the race originally scheduled for August 16 as it was moved up to the weekend of August 8–9 and was expanded to a doubleheader. It was to be the final race prior to the Indianapolis 500. Days later, however, it was postponed until a later date. Eventually, the doubleheader was rescheduled for the weekend of September 12–13. In 2021, the race was moved to July 4, and was held as a television doubleheader with the NASCAR Cup Series race at Road America.
Course layout
Through 1989, the race utilized the original full 2.4-mile track layout, which included the chicane (turns 2 and 3) just before the keyhole (turn 4). During a track repaving project in early 1990, a straightaway segment was paved to create an alternate layout which bypasses the chicane. The alternate layout measured 2.25 miles. Since the 1990 race, the Indy cars have utilized the alternate course, bypassing the chicane and creating a passing zone going into the keyhole.
In all years except for 1980, the Indy cars have utilized the auxiliary starting line located at the midpoint of the backstretch. This allows the entire field to properly assemble into the grid formation, and start the race heading towards the best passing zone on the circuit. The pace car pulls off into the pits as normal, and allow the pole position car to pace the field all the way to the backstretch. Since the start/finish line at the pit straight is immediately proceeded by the tight and slow carousel, it does not allow for optimum racing into the first turn. The finish line and all other scoring is done at the line on the pit straight. Over the years, restarts after caution periods were previously done at the pit straight, but since 2017, sometimes those too have been moved to the auxiliary starting line.
The first lap of the race is not officially scored until the cars cross the auxiliary start line down on the backstretch. This removes approximately one mile from the first lap's distance, although teams still must factor in the distance in fuel calculations. From 1983 to 1989, the 84-lap race on the 2.4-mile circuit had an official distance of 200.25 miles. Likewise in 1990, the race distance for the 89-lap race on the 2.25 mile circuit was 199.3 miles. Though the race distance in laps has changed over the years, a similar deduction is still made in official race distance with respect to the race mileage.
Past winners SeasonDateDriverTeamChassisEngineRace DistanceRace TimeAverage Speed(mph)Report Laps Miles (km)Formula A/Formula 5000 history 1970 September 27 George Follmer O'Neil Racing Lotus Ford42100.8 (162.221)1:03:2195.464 Report 1971 July 5 Sam Posey Champ Carr Inc. Surtees Chevrolet60144 (231.745)1:31:1194.75 Report 1972 Not held 1973 June 3 Jody Scheckter Taylor-Entin Trojan Chevrolet42100.8 (162.221)1:02:3296.708 Report 1974 June 2 Brian Redman Haas Racing Lola Chevrolet42100.8 (162.221)1:01:0499.023 Report 1975 August 10 Brian Redman Carl Haas/Jim Hall Lola Chevrolet42100.8 (162.221)1:04:5193.24 Report 1976 August 8 Brian Redman Carl Haas/Jim Hall Lola Chevrolet42100.8 (162.221)0:59:07102.29 Report 1977–1979 Not heldCART/Champ Car history 1980 July 13 Johnny Rutherford Chaparral Cars Chaparral Cosworth65156 (251.057)1:48:0486.601 Report 1981–1982 Not held 1983 September 11 Teo Fabi Forsythe Racing March Cosworth84201.6 (324.443)2:01:4998.755 Report 1984 September 3 Mario Andretti Newman/Haas Racing Lola Cosworth84201.6 (324.443)1:59:50100.388 Report 1985 September 1 Bobby Rahal TrueSports March Cosworth84201.6 (324.443)1:52:23107.041 Report 1986 August 31 Bobby Rahal (2) TrueSports (2) March Cosworth84201.6 (324.443)1:56:18103.43 Report 1987 September 6 Roberto Guerrero Andy Granatelli March Cosworth84201.6 (324.443)1:51:58107.431 Report 1988 September 4 Emerson Fittipaldi Patrick Racing Lola Chevrolet-Ilmor84201.6 (324.443)2:14:1889.57 Report 1989 September 3 Teo Fabi (2) Porsche March Porsche84201.6 (324.443)1:54:46105.395 Report 1990 September 16 Michael Andretti Newman/Haas Racing (2) Lola Chevrolet-Ilmor89200.25 (322.271)2:19:2785.751 Report 1991 September 15 Michael Andretti (2) Newman/Haas Racing (3) Lola Chevrolet-Ilmor89200.25 (322.271)1:59:4999.789 Report 1992 September 13 Emerson Fittipaldi (2) Penske Racing Penske Chevrolet-Ilmor89200.25 (322.271)1:51:23107.352 Report 1993 September 12 Emerson Fittipaldi (3) Penske Racing (2) Penske Chevrolet-Ilmor89200.25 (322.271)1:56:59102.704 Report 1994 August 14 Al Unser Jr. Penske Racing (3) Penske Ilmor83185.754 (298.942)1:40:59110.387 Report 1995 August 13 Al Unser Jr. (2) Penske Racing (4) Penske Mercedes-Benz83186.75 (300.544)1:44:04107.11 Report 1996 August 11 Alex Zanardi Chip Ganassi Racing Reynard Honda83186.75 (300.544)1:46:49104.358 Report 1997 August 10 Alex Zanardi (2) Chip Ganassi Racing (2) Reynard Honda83187.414 (301.613)1:41:16110.456 Report 1998 August 9 Adrián Fernández Patrick Racing (2) Reynard Ford-Cosworth83187.414 (301.613)1:53:3998.428 Report 1999 August 15 Juan Pablo Montoya Chip Ganassi Racing (3) Reynard Honda83187.414 (301.613)1:42:08109.606 Report 2000 August 13 Hélio Castroneves Penske Racing (5) Reynard Honda83187.414 (301.613)1:44:59106.558 Report 2001 August 12 Hélio Castroneves (2) Penske Racing (6) Reynard Honda83187.414 (301.613)1:44:54106.627 Report 2002 August 11 Patrick Carpentier Forsythe Racing (2) Reynard Ford-Cosworth92207.736 (334.318)1:56:17106.68 Report 2003 August 10 Paul Tracy Forsythe Racing (3) Lola Ford-Cosworth92207.736 (334.318)1:56:45106.251 Report 2004–2006 Not heldIRL/IndyCar Series history 2007 July 22 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing (4) Dallara Honda85191.93 (308.881)1:47:24107.222 Report 2008 July 20 Ryan Briscoe Penske Racing (7) Dallara Honda85191.93 (308.881)2:01:2394.873 Report 2009 August 9 Scott Dixon (2) Chip Ganassi Racing (5) Dallara Honda85191.93 (308.881)1:46:06108.541 Report 2010 August 8 Dario Franchitti Chip Ganassi Racing (6) Dallara Honda85191.93 (308.881)1:54:32100.542 Report 2011 August 7 Scott Dixon (3) Chip Ganassi Racing (7) Dallara Honda85191.93 (308.881)1:48:47105.861 Report 2012 August 5 Scott Dixon (4) Chip Ganassi Racing (8) Dallara Honda85191.93 (308.881)1:39:49115.379 Report 2013 August 4 Charlie Kimball Chip Ganassi Racing (9) Dallara Honda 90 1:43:29 117.825 Report 2014 August 3 Scott Dixon (5) Chip Ganassi Racing (10) Dallara Chevrolet 90 1:52:45 108.14 Report 2015 August 2 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara Honda 90 1:55:20 105.72 Report 2016 July 31 Simon Pagenaud Team Penske (8) Dallara Chevrolet 90 1:50:00 110.853 Report 2017 July 30 Josef Newgarden Team Penske (9) Dallara Chevrolet 90 1:46:20 114.677 Report 2018 July 29 Alexander Rossi Andretti Autosport Dallara Honda 90 1:44:15 116.957 Report 2019 July 28 Scott Dixon (6) Chip Ganassi Racing (11) Dallara Honda 90 1:45:15 115.837 Report 2020 September 12 Will Power Team Penske (10) Dallara Chevrolet 75 1:29:08 113.978 Report September 13 Colton Herta Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport (2) Dallara Honda 75 1:34:17 107.763 2021 July 4 Josef Newgarden (2) Team Penske (11) Dallara Chevrolet 80 1:39:58 108.405 Report 2022 July 3 Scott McLaughlin Team Penske (12) Dallara Chevrolet 80 1:46:43 101.557 Report 2023 July 2 Álex Palou Chip Ganassi Racing (12) Dallara Honda 80 1:37:31 111.125 Report 2024 July 7 Pato O'Ward Arrow McLaren Dallara Chevrolet 80 1:33:22 116.071 Report 2025 July 6 Scott Dixon (7) Chip Ganassi Racing (13) Dallara Honda 90 1:49:41 111.166 Report 2026 July 5 Pato O'Ward (2) Arrow McLaren (2) Dallara Chevrolet 90 1:43:23 117.932 Report
2020: Race postponed and it was made into a doubleheader (75 laps for each) due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Support race winners
USAC Mini-Indy series Season Date Winning driver1980July 13 Dave McMillanAmerican Racing Series1986August 31 Steve Millen1987September 6 Juan Manuel Fangio II1988September 4 Jon Beekhuis1989September 3 P. J. Jones1990September 16 Paul TracyCART Indy Lights series1991September 15 Brian Till1992September 13 Robbie Groff1993September 12 Bryan Herta1994August 14 André Ribeiro2000September 13 Townsend Bell2001September 12 Townsend BellIndy Pro/Indy Lights series2007July 22 Richard Antinucci2008July 19 Raphael Matos2008July 20 James Davison2009August 9 James Davison2010August 8 Martin Plowman2013August 4 Gabby Chaves2014August 2 Jack HarveyAugust 3 Jack Harvey2015August 1 R.C. EnersonAugust 2 Sean Rayhall2016July 30 Santiago UrrutiaJuly 31 Santiago Urrutia2017July 29 Santiago UrrutiaJuly 30 Nico Jamin2018July 28 Patricio O'WardJuly 29 Patricio O'Ward2019July 27 Oliver AskewJuly 28 Oliver Askew2021July 3 Kyle KirkwoodJuly 4 Kyle KirkwoodOctober 2 Kyle KirkwoodOctober 3 Linus Lundqvist2022July 3 Hunter McElrea Indy NXT2023July 2 Louis Foster2024July 7 Caio Collet2025July 6 Dennis Hauger 2026 July 4 Enzo Fittipaldi July 5 Enzo Fittipaldi