Not much changed position-wise for Marco Andretti at the Honda Indy 200 Sunday afternoon. He ended the day with a ninth-place finish, the same spot he was in at the start of the 85-lap race at the 2.25-mile Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
It was mostly a carnage-free start to the IZOD IndyCar race, with the exception of Marco's teammate Tony Kanaan who took a little detour through the gravel around turn four. Marco found himself quickly losing two positions on the first lap, down to P11.
Marco settled in behind Justin Wilson and was shortening the gap when the first caution flag flew. Wilson tried to dive on the inside of turn four to overtake E.J. Viso on lap 23, but the two made contact, ending their races and bumping Marco back up to ninth in the process.
After the first set of pit stops under caution, Marco came out ahead again, gaining a spot to move to P8.
From there Marco was racing behind Simona de Silvestro for most of the race. He stuck close to her, and seemed to get good jumps on restarts. He looked like he was antsy to make a move on the inside of her a few times going into turn four, but he backed off each time. Perhaps he didn't think he could make a clean pass, especially after seeing what happened in Wilson's failed attempt.
Marco had moved up to seventh at one point, but he again fell to ninth after a run of staggered pit stops from the field. Marco was still trailing de Silvestro, and then Scott Dixon was charging behind him as well. Raphael Matos came on strong at one point, getting by both Marco and de Silvestro in just a couple laps.
Taking the checkered flag was Dario Franchitti, driving to his second victory of the season (The other was the Indianapoils 500.). He beat pole-sitter Will Power out of the pits early and held on at the end. Helio Castroneves rounded out the podium, and Alex Tagliani drove off-strategy and led the most laps (30) before finishing fourth.
de Silvestro came in ahead of Marco for her season-best finish in eighth, and Ryan Hunter-Reay overcame contact in the pits to finish 10th. The other Andretti Autosport drivers didn't fare as well. Kanaan was 17th, rookie Adam Carroll finished 19th and Danica Patrick was the last car running on the lead lap in 21st.
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