OH Kimball!

After watching part of today's NASCAR wreck-fest at Watkins Glen, I am much more appreciative of the caution-free racing we saw in IndyCar last weekend at Mid-Ohio. Last week's race was nearly issue-free, too, until a late tire issue caused Tony Kanaan's day to end. (And I think I jinxed TK because I had literally just tweeted that I was surprised every car was still in the race, when TK had problems. Sorry Tony!)

Mid-Ohio was Charlie Kimball's coming-of-age event. You would be hard-pressed to find someone who was not happy to see Kimball get his first IndyCar win. Kimball has shown steady improvement this season, with a podium at Pocono and a trip to the Firestone Fast Six at Barber. The victory was even more impressive considering Kimball was in a backup car after a scary crash in practice and he didn't even race at Mid-Ohio last year. To me, Kimball has always seemed stronger on road and street courses than ovals, and the pass he made on Simon Pagenaud showed why. He has had several memorable, bold moves throughout his IndyCar career, and that was perhaps the best. When he went off course into the dirt, I thought his day was done. But he made a nice save and drove an aggressive yet smart race to earn a well-deserved visit to victory lane.

As Ryan Briscoe noted, it was refreshing to see the fastest car win rather than the car with the best fuel mileage. The two-stop strategy backfired for Ryan Hunter-Reay, Will Power, and Scott Dixon, and though I like all of those drivers, I'm glad it did. The different pit strategies kept the race interesting, and the ensuing battle between Pagenaud and Kimball after their final pit stop was edge-of-your-seat thrilling. One does not need cautions and crashes to create drama, as this race showed.

I think we can officially say that Ganassi is back. They stumbled out of the starting blocks this year, but ever since the post-Iowa break, the team and Honda have really gotten their act together. Dario has made a nice quiet comeback, although he's still out of the championship hunt. Honda swept the top three spots at Mid-Ohio so they appear to have identified and corrected the source of their problems. However, I'm not convinced that the engine is the reason why Kimball, Pags and Dario were on the Mid-Ohio podium. They were just the best drivers of the day.

Two IndyCar newbies also had decent performances. James Davison and Luca Filippi finished 15th and 16th respectively, but more impressively, they stayed out of trouble and drove professionally and intelligently. Their rookie performances may bode well for future IndyCar rides. And EJ Viso was up to his old tricks again, inexplicably failing to move over for the leaders. Just as we thought he was taking significant steps forward, he reminds us that he's still the same old Viso.

Having Ryan Briscoe in the booth was a welcome addition, though he lacked the charisma of Dan Wheldon or other analysts who have temporarily joined the IndyCar broadcast team. He did, however, provide some unique driver insight, which was appreciated.

This part of the schedule is frustrating. We just had three weeks between races, and now we have three more weeks between races. What a great way to kill momentum. On the other hand, I'm somewhat grateful for these lags because they have allowed me to get some necessary class prep work done! And at least we still have five more races to look forward to!