INDYCAR Power Rankings: Scott Dixon Pushes For No. 1

Bob Pockrass

FOX Motorsports Insider

Scott Dixon captured the victory Sunday at Mid-Ohio and continues to move up these INDYCAR power rankings with his third consecutive top-10 finish and two top-fives in the last three events.

The top spot? Alex Palou still has it. The 10th spot? Rinus VeeKay has entered the chat with finishes of seventh, 10th and ninth in the last three events.

There won’t be a power ranking report after the next race but after the next two races, as INDYCAR runs a double-header weekend with a race Saturday and another Sunday at Iowa Speedway.

Here are the rankings for this week:

Dropped out: David Malukas (Last Week: 9)

On the verge: David Malukas, Scott McLaughlin, Nolan Siegel

Palou made a couple of uncharacteristic mistakes but still finished second at Mid-Ohio. The Ganassi driver threw the win away, but the championship still seems firmly in his grasp, as no driver is within 100 points with seven races remaining.

Can there be an INDYCAR season where Scott Dixon doesn’t visit the winner’s circle? Doesn’t seem like it. The Ganassi driver’s victory was his first podium finish since the season-opening race at St. Petersburg, where he placed second.

Kirkwood had a good but not great weekend at Mid-Ohio. He started seventh and finished eighth. The Andretti driver remains second in the standings, 113 points behind Palou.

Starting a disappointing 14th, O’Ward showed some speed in the race to finish fifth. The Arrow McLaren driver is third in the standings, 125 points behind Palou.

Lundgaard worked his way back to the podium. He had three in the first four races of the season, and Mid-Ohio ended up being a great weekend for the Arrow McLaren driver. He started second and finished third.

Rosenqvist, employing a two-stop strategy as did winner Dixon, finished sixth at Mid-Ohio and is sixth in the standings. Plus, the Shank driver got the cool Ozzy Osbourne scheme.

Herta had the day that, for the most part, he needed in order to get some mojo back. He started fifth and finished fourth, despite a hiccup on pit road. The third-place finish at Detroit probably seemed like months ago for the Andretti driver.

A solid seventh-place finish for Armstrong has him eighth in the series standings. That’s four consecutive top-10s for the Meyer Shank Racing driver.

It was a struggle-bus weekend for Ferrucci that possibly wiped away much of the momentum for this A.J. Foyt Racing team. He started 17th and finished 16th at Mid-Ohio, not to mention some questionable moves on the track.

A ninth-place finish at Mid-Ohio was the Dale Coyne Racing driver’s third consecutive top-10 finish and fifth in the last seven races. The biggest thing for this team is they didn’t let back-to-back 27th-place finishes at Indy and Detroit get them down.

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.