Graham Rahal won the IndyCar race Sunday in his home state of Ohio, and in the process made up considerable ground on series leader Juan Pablo Montoya with two events remaining in the season.
Rahal held off Justin Wilson on the final restart, on the 84th of 90 laps in the 203-mile race at Mid-Ohio in Lexington. Wilson finished second, 3.4 seconds behind. Simon Pagenaud was third, followed by pole winner Scott Dixon. Montoya, who came into the race with a 42-point lead over Rahal, finished 11th.
Rahal now trails by only nine points.
Rahal is a native of New Albany, which is about 45 miles south of the Mid-Ohio course. This was the third IndyCar victory of his career and second of the season.
The final two races of the season are at Pocono on Aug. 23 and Sonoma on Aug. 30, with the latter worth double points. With Montoya leading comfortably coming into Mid-Ohio, contenders like Rahal, Dixon, Helio Castroneves and Will Power were under pressure to gain ground Sunday.
It was a missed opportunity for everyone but Rahal. Dixon did move a bit closer to the top, but he had won five times at Mid-Ohio, so his fourth-place showing was a bit of a letdown.
Power, the defending series champion, finished 14th, one spot ahead of Castroneves.
Rahal had an Ohio State football-themed helmet designed to honor the reigning college football champions, and he’s making quite a push to win a title of his own in in his No. 15 Honda.
Montoya, meanwhile, has come back to the pack. This year’s Indianapolis 500 winner had finished out of the top 10 only once all season until a last-place showing at Iowa on July 18. He was out of the top 10 again Sunday, and the championship appears to be very much up for grabs.