Blog

The path to this year’s NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship is a six-month marathon, but the final push is more of a sprint.

Beginning this weekend at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, the 27 car-and-driver combinations will face eight races over the next nine weeks. Specifically, Sunday’s The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Presented by the All-New 2026 Passport represents the first of four races in July.

SEE: Event Details

The remaining schedule is as diverse as it is hectic. This month, there are two road course venues, a short oval hosting two races, and a street circuit. Overall, the rest of the season features four races on ovals, three on road courses and one on a street circuit. The champion will be awarded the Astor Challenge Cup Aug. 31 at Nashville Superspeedway.

All told, there are 1,410 laps still be run in 2025.

Every race has a green flag, and the one signifying the start of the season’s second half comes Sunday at Mid-Ohio. Here are five things to consider in this 90-lap race.

Palou on a Mission

Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge champion Alex Palou (No. 10 Open Al Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) remains in control of this title pursuit, and he brings a commanding 93-point lead into this weekend’s event. In nine races held this season, Palou has won six, finishing second in another.

Palou’s goal is to clinch a third consecutive series championship and fourth in five years, but he can also earn another significant place in the sport’s history. A.J. Foyt (1964) and Al Unser (1970) each won a record 10 races in their most successful seasons. Mario Andretti won nine races in 1969. Palou can reach or even exceed those totals.

Palou has won five races at tracks remaining on this year’s schedule. He won at Mid-Ohio in 2023 and has a pair of race wins each at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna (site of the July 27 race) and Portland International Raceway (site of the Aug. 10 race). The Spaniard has fared particularly well at Mid-Ohio, finishing on the podium in each of his four races with Chip Ganassi Racing. He finished second last year.

Kirkwood the Season’s Other Winner

Not since 1980 has an INDYCAR SERIES gone this long without realizing a third driver reaching victory lane. This year, Palou has won six races, Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood (No. 27 Andretti Global Honda) has won the other three.

That means a host of drivers, including Team Penske drivers Will Power, Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden, along with Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon and Andretti Global w/Curb-Agajanian’s Colton Herta, are still chasing their first season victories.

This will be Kirkwood’s fourth series start at Mid-Ohio, and he doesn’t have a lot to show for the previous three. His best finish came last year when he crossed the line in eighth. He qualified in the third position two years ago. But he did win both 2021 INDY NXT by Firestone races on the 13-turn, 2.258-mile circuit.

Dixon Is Mid-Ohio’s King

Dixon is easily this series’ most accomplished driver at Mid-Ohio, winning six of his 21 starts. The driver of the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda also has finished second and third once each. In 2014, he famously drove from the last starting position (22nd) to win.

Given Dixon’s past success at Mid-Ohio, this would seem to be a good opportunity for the New Zealand driver who turns 45 later this month to extend his record streak of seasons with at least one race victory. His count is 20 consecutive years, a run that began with a late-season win in 2005 at Watkins Glen International.

Dixon’s career total is 58 series wins, which ranks second all-time to Foyt’s 67. But Dixon is winless in the past 20 races dating to last year’s victory in Detroit. Last year at Mid-Ohio, he finished 27th after a mechanical gremlin bit him ahead of the race’s official start, and he completed only 40 laps.

Next Winner: O’Ward? McLaughlin? Newgarden?

If someone other than Palou or Kirkwood is going to win a race this season, it’s likely he will do so this weekend at Mid-Ohio, a track which has produced eight different winners in the past eight races.

O’Ward won last year’s race, chasing down Palou, who had led 53 of the first 56 laps. The driver of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet led the final 24 laps.

Palou won the 2023 race, and before that it was McLaughlin, Newgarden, Herta, Power, Dixon and Alexander Rossi driving to victory lane. Graham Rahal (2015) is also a former series race winner at Mid-Ohio. That makes nine former winners in this field, something no other event on the season schedule can match.

Other Items of Interest

Aside from the many different race winners, Mid-Ohio’s podiums have recently been predictable.

Chip Ganassi Racing has produced the second-place finisher in each of the past four series races at Mid-Ohio. That’s Marcus Ericsson (2021), Palou (2022, 2024) and Dixon (2023). Team Penske has had the past three third-place finishes (Power in 2022 and 2023 with McLaughlin last year).

One-two finishes by teams are also a regular occurrence at Mid-Ohio. In the series’ 138 instances since 1990, this track has had 16 of them, double the eight of the next closest (the former Belle Isle Park circuit in Detroit). Palou and Dixon were the last teammates to sweep the top two positions at Mid-Ohio, in 2023.

This weekend’s action begins with the first practice at 4:30 p.m. ET Friday (FS2, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network). Television airing shifts to FS1 until the race Sunday afternoon, with the second practice at 10:30 a.m. Saturday and qualifying for the NTT P1 Award beginning at 2:30 p.m.

Sunday, the warmup practice is at 9:30 a.m. ET. The race broadcast on FOX starts at 1 p.m.

The football world has been left devastated by the death of the Liverpool and Portugal star Diogo Jota in a car accident in north-western Spain. The 28-year-old father of three, who married his long-term partner, Rute Cardoso, 11 days earlier, was killed alongside his brother André Silva when the Lamborghini they were travelling in veered off a road.

Jota and the 25-year-old Silva died at about 12.40am local time on Thursday in the province of Zamora. The cause of the accident has not been confirmed but Spain’s Civil Guard said it believed the car had sustained a puncture while overtaking, causing the driver to lose control. The Lamborghini burst into flames and firefighters had to extinguish a blaze in the surrounding vegetation caused by the accident. The wreckage of the vehicle was visible by the side of the A-52 near Cernadilla on Thursday. The brothers’ funeral will be on Saturday morning in the Gondomar area of Porto where they grew up.

Liverpool said they were devastated and their former manager Jürgen Klopp, who signed Jota from Wolves, posted on Instagram that he was heartbroken. Klopp, a religious man, wrote: “This is a moment where I struggle! There must be a bigger purpose! But I can’t see it!” Liverpool’s head coach, Arne Slot, said Jota was “a loved one to all of us” and “the essence of what a Liverpool player should be”. Slot added: “The last time we spoke, I congratulated Diogo on winning the Nations League and wished him luck for his forthcoming wedding. In many ways, it was a dream summer for Diogo and his family, which makes it all the more heartbreaking that it should end like this.”

Tributes were paid from across the football spectrum to Jota and Silva, a professional footballer with the second-tier Portuguese club Penafiel. Cristiano Ronaldo said the death “doesn’t make any sense. Just now we were together in the national team, just now you were married. To your family, to your wife, your children, I send my condolences and wish them all the strength in the world. I know you will always be with them. R.I.P Diogo and André. We will all miss you.”

Fans of varying allegiances laid flowers, football shirts and scarves in memory of Jota on a grass verge behind the Main Stand at Anfield. The Liverpool legend Sir Kenny Dalglish said: “Football is not important at this sad time. You feel helpless, knowing there’s so little we can do to ease the pain for his wife of just two weeks, his three beautiful children.” Darwin Núñez, Dominic Szoboszlai and Harvey Elliott were among the Liverpool players to post tributes. Elliott described the forward as “humble, hardworking, kind, and always there for anyone that needed anything”. The Liverpool squad are due to report back for pre-season training early next week and are scheduled to play their first friendly at Preston on Sunday 13 July.

Jota joined Liverpool for £41m in 2020 and scored 65 goals in 182 appearances for the club. A superb finisher, known as “Jota the slotter” by Liverpool fans, he won the Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup with Liverpool and the 2018 Championship title with Wolves. He was also a two-time winner of the Nations League with Portugal. His last game was the Nations League final penalty shootout victory over Spain on 8 June. Uefa’s president, Aleksander Ceferin, said: “Just three weeks ago, I had the honour of presenting Diogo Jota with a medal after the Uefa Nations League final – a moment of joy, pride, and celebration that will now for ever be burned in memory with sorrow.”

Jota, who scored 14 goals in 49 Portugal appearances, was an immensely popular figure in the Liverpool dressing room. “Liverpool Football Club are devastated by the tragic passing of Diogo Jota,” said a club statement that also requested “the privacy of Diogo and André’s family, friends, teammates and club staff is respected as they try to come to terms with an unimaginable loss. We will continue to provide them with our full support.”

Liverpool have opened a book of condolence that can be signed at Anfield until Sunday, along with a digital version. Flags at the stadium and at Liverpool town hall were lowered to half mast. The club’s stores, museums and tours have been closed until Monday.

“We all feel utterly bereft right now,” said Michael Edwards, the chief executive of football at Fenway Sports Group, Liverpool’s owner, and Richard Hughes, the club’s sporting director, in a statement. “As his teammates, friends and colleagues, we are consumed by shock and sorrow. We know our supporters, his national team, former clubs and teammates and the wider football community share in this grief. This is a tragedy that transcends Liverpool Football Club.

“In the coming days, we as a club will look to honour our beloved No 20 with the respect and affection he so richly deserves. We will strive to make these tributes meaningful and inclusive of our supporters, to whom Diogo meant so much. For now, we express a love that is filled with deep sorrow and pain. We have lost someone truly irreplaceable. Rest in peace, Diogo. YNWA.”

Jota and his partner were married in Porto on 22 June and announced the news in an Instagram post a few days ago. On Monday Rute shared more pictures from their wedding day and wrote: “My dream came true.” Jota commented: “I’m the lucky one.” They had met in high school and started going out in 2013, a year before he turned professional. The couple have three young children: Denis, Duarte and a daughter born last year whose name has not been revealed.

The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, and his Portuguese counterpart, Luís Montenegro, expressed sympathy for Jota, Silva and their families. Angela Raynor, the deputy prime minister, paid her respects at Anfield while on government business in Liverpool.

Portugal’s president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, said: “Diogo Jota represented Portuguese football at the highest level and demonstrated a high level of professionalism and dedication as part of a generation that has taken Portuguese football to the highest level. The president sends his deepest condolences to his family, friends and professional colleagues for a loss that has dismayed all Portuguese.”

Pedro Proença, the president of the Portuguese FA, wrote on social media: “We have lost two champions. The passing of Diogo and André Silva represents irreparable losses for Portuguese football and we will do everything we can to honour their legacy every day.”

THE ALL ENGLAND CLUB, LONDON — For Jack Draper, Wimbledon remains a conundrum. The great home hope fell in the second round on No. 1 Court for a second straight year, this time losing 6-4, 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 against the world No. 83 and former finalist Marin Čilić.

Those two early exits bookend an otherwise very impressive 12 months of Grand Slam performances for the world No. 4, with runs to the semifinals at the U.S. Open and then fourth-round appearances in Melbourne and Paris.

It would be easy to attribute his Wimbledon defeats to the strain of being Britain’s highest-ranked player — pressure Draper has continually played down — but like last year’s defeat to Cameron Norrie, Draper again struggled to impose his game on home turf. Normally so nimble, Draper has looked a little heavy-legged here, as though not quite sure yet how to best maneuver his bulky 6 feet 4 inches (193 cm) frame across the grass.

Čilić, 36, is fresh from winning an ATP Challenger title in Nottingham and knows the intricacies of this surface. He reached the Wimbledon final in 2017 and won the prestigious warm-up tournament at Queen’s in 2012 and 2018. He displayed all of that grass-court pedigree against Draper, dominating from the baseline and neutralizing Draper’s power. His stronger wing is his backhand, which caused Draper a big problem. The Brit’s favored serve from the ad court swings out to the right-hander’s backhand, and it’s generally a devastating weapon. Not so against Čilić, who could handle it with his favorite shot, winning the first set with a return winner off his backhand.

Čilić’s forehand is much more up and down, but when it works, it can be lethal. It flew through the court at times here, augmented by a brilliant serving display that took in 16 aces and an 88 percent win-rate on first-serve points in the first two sets. Most importantly, Čilić was able to get on the front foot. In the first couple of sets, he spent 25 percent and then 28 percent of the time in attack, compared to 16 percent in both for Draper — a huge drop-off from his average in the past year of 26 percent.

Draper flipped this in the third set, when it felt as though the momentum of the match might be about to turn. He finally broke for the first time and then raced away with the set, harnessing the energy of a crowd who enjoyed seeing their adversary for the day getting a time violation down break point.

Čilić wasn’t rattled by the home fans getting on his back. He refocused and got back on the front foot, attacking in 27 percent of the fourth set compared to Draper’s 21 per cent. His movement was impressive too — even when he was younger, before two knee operations, he rarely chased down drop shots like he did against Draper. Čilić’s injuries have been so persistent that this summer’s tournament is his first Wimbledon appearance since 2021.

Draper clung on to save two break points down 3-4, but a few games later, it was all over. Čilić forced a missed backhand to claim a memorable victory that further opens up a tournament defined by upsets on the men’s and women’s sides. Novak Djokovic, the seven-time champion, and Jakub Menšík, the world No. 17, are the two highest seeds left in Draper’s quarter.

For Čilić, it is a statement win after fearing that his career would be over following a second knee operation in May last year.

Draper will be monumentally disappointed, but he has made great strides in so many areas over the past year. He has climbed up from No. 40 to become a fixture in the world’s top five, winning a Masters 1,000 title, the level just below Grand Slams, along the way.

Until next year at least, this home major continues to be his kryptonite.

(Photo: Hannah Peters / Getty Images)