Wayne Taylor Racing’s Ricky Taylor was able to snatch the lead away from Chip Ganassi Racing’s Renger van der Zande Sunday (May 15) with a little more than an hour to go. From there, he was able to hold on to the advantage outside of pit stop windows to win the Lexus Grand Prix at Mid-Ohio for himself and teammate Filipe Albuquerque. It is the team’s second consecutive victory.
“Awesome. Ricky just really pulled it out again,” Albuquerque said after the race. “Ricky was so happy in the end with the car. I was more relaxed when he said the car was good. That meant we were in control. And he pulled it off [beautifully].”
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Sebastien Bourdais started from pole for the third time this season, but appeared to burble just a little on the start. That allowed Albuquerque to slip past and take the overall lead.
Bourdais was not deterred and stayed right up on Albuquerque. A few laps later, Bourdais pounced at the Keyhole. It was a rather rough move as the two drivers had side-to-side contact three times, but Bourdais was able to get through.
Incidents at opportune times were the name of the game on Sunday. The first round of stops were triggered by a spin by HTP Winward Motorsport’s Russell Ward in turn 9.
Russell Ward puts his Mercedes into the Gritty Kitty. #IMSAatMO
📺 : @USA_Network
💻 : https://t.co/UwtiS5I5CK pic.twitter.com/CTEh4orXlG— Motorsports on NBC (@MotorsportsNBC) May 15, 2022
Given the chance that Ward was going to beach himself, a number of teams decided to stop here. However, Ward managed to extricate himself from the gravel himself, meaning that no yellow flew.
Taylor got in the Konica Minolta Acura at the first stop and pressured Bourdais when he could. Early on in the run, Taylor was right on Bourdais with Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian’s Tom Blomqvist close by. As the tires wore off a little, Bourdais was able to pull away a little, but never by more than a…
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