Sunday's Honda Indy 200 was a strategy roller coaster that saw a number of drivers in the lead group at various points throughout the race. Polesitter Simon Pagenaud led the first stint, but fell back to 13th when he needed to pit under caution after others made their first stops under green. In the end, the Frenchman used strong pace, aggressive overtaking, and a little bit of luck to overcome the varying strategies and a sore back to score his fourth win of 2016.

Will Power emerged in second after a tough duel with Pagenaud following a lap 65 restart that saw Pagenaud pass him after spending much of the lap side-by-side. Carlos Munoz enjoyed a comparatively quiet race to finish third, while Graham Rahal and James Hinchcliffe charged forward in the final 30 laps to finish fourth and fifth. Conor Daly took advantage of the strategy to ultimately finish sixth. Mikhail Aleshin used a similar break to lead the most laps, but a pit error on his final stop put paid to any chances of winning and relegated him to 17th at the end.

Pagenaud took off into the lead off the initial start and led the entire first stint until a lap 15 when the race's first caution flew. Scott Dixon, who started 11th and pitted early in hopes of catching a caution, was battling Helio Castroneves and tried dive-bombing him entering turn three. Dixon bounced off the curbing into Castroneves, damaging his left-front suspension. While Dixon briefly returned to the track, he ultimately finished 22nd and last. Afterward, Dixon expressed frustration about the room Castroneves left him. "(Castroneves) was off pace and we caught him on the exit of Turn 1. I got alongside him and he kept edging me over until I just had nowhere to go," Dixon explained. "I braked when I was alongside him and then he just turned in. Had we had a little more room I think we could have gotten through there just fine. It was definitely an aggressive move but I should have known better trying that with Helio."

The incident occurred during a sequence of pit stops in which a number of drivers pitted. That meant Pagenaud and the other leaders were relegated to the middle of the pack when racing resumed on lap 20. Juan Montoya, Marco Andretti, and Max Chilton led the way, although they had not stopped at all and did so within a few laps of the restart. Their stops moved Mikhail Aleshin into the lead, as Aleshin had completed his first stop before the caution flew and he was the highest running of the drivers who completed their stops. He led Carlos Munoz and Takuma Sato, while Pagenaud restarted 13th and tried moving forward during the run.

Aleshin held the lead on merit through a second of stops while Pagenaud worked his way back up to third. But, teammate Will Power was able to advance more quickly and ran in second ahead of the points leader, though were a long way back of Aleshin.

However, everything changed during a lap 60 caution after Jack Hawksworth dipped is right side wheels onto the grass entering turn one and speared straight off into the tire barrier. During the subsequent pit stops, Aleshin's team released him into the path of Josef Newgarden. Their contact damaged Aleshin's front wing and incurred a penalty for an unsafe release. A gutted Aleshin was seen hitting the steering wheel in frustration afterward and he could do no better than 17th at the end. Still, he held his head and did not throw his team under the bus. "Everything was going proper, perfect and I was saving fuel but at the same time, I was the fastest car on the track so obviously the car was pretty good," he asserted. "I think the incident (in the pits) was unfortunate. I don't want to discuss it though. I want to just say that sometimes these things happen in the race and we're ready to win but we just got a little bit unlucky today."

Up front, Conor Daly was the only driver" to stay out, having pitted only five laps prior to the caution. Team owner Dale Coyne left him out hoping for another caution, which would have put them in a window to make it to the end. Behind Daly, Power and Pagenaud a fierce battle for second when racing resumed on lap 65. They ran side-by-side for much of lap, and actually made contact a couple of times, before Pagenaud eventually got the upper hand as they entered the pit straight away.

Up front, Daly ran full rich and managed to build a large gap to the rest of the field. No caution ever came, forcing him to do a late splash-and-go, but his lead was large enough that he resumed in eighth, which turned into sixth was Sato and Bourdais went off together in turn four while battling for fourth.

Up front, Pagenaud cruised home to take his fourth win of the year. Power held on for second, while Carlos Munoz survived the strategic roller coaster to run a third. Graham Rahal and James Hinchcliffe battled through the field in the final laps and took advantage of the Sato and Bourdais contact to finish fourth and fifth.

A joyous Pagenaud also overcame severe back pain during the entire weekend. "I can't feel anything right now so it's all good," Pagenaud quipped afterward. "My back was fine all race, thanks to INDYCAR Medical. Whew, that was a race there, that was fun. It was an awesome battle with Will (Power) there. I knew that was my chance on that restart, it was time to go. It was a pretty interesting lap, fun driving like that. That's racing. It was fair, it was clean, it was hard racing and I'm just glad I won, really."

Power explained that he was not ready for the lap 65 restart, which allowed Pagenaud to mount a challenge. "Great strategy by the Verizon Chevy team and we did a great job saving on fuel. It was an interesting battle there. I was sleeping on that restart and I regret that. I should have been on it, then I got marbles on the tires. It was a good, clean battle," he held.

Perhaps the happiest man on the podium though was Munoz, who broke string of tough luck to finish third. "Finally we pitted at the right time - this year we've had a lot of bad luck," he quipped. "After qualifying we tried another setup for the warmup and I didn't like it so we just went back on the setup. It's nice to be back on the podium - it's been a long time."

Sixth-place finisher Daly was relieved to even be in the hunt at the end of battling handling and brake issues much of the day. "As soon as I sorted the brake bias, the car was amazing," he asserted. "We had to pit because the right front tire was destroyed. Because of that, we were about seven laps short of making it to the end at that point. We knew we couldn't make it to the end so why not keep going and pushing. I tried to nail every single lap. We had a good enough car to stay up front and pull the gap that we needed. Sixth is about as good as we could've done in that scenario."

The Verizon IndyCar Series now takes three weeks off before the ABC Supply 500 at Pocono Raceway on August 21.

Mid-Ohio