Grosjean Makes Up 11 Positions to Finish Seventh at Mid-Ohio

- Norman places 20th in NTT INDYCAR SERIES debut -

Lexington, OH (July 4 2021) – Romain Grosjean drove his #51 Nurtec ODT Dale Coyne Racing with RWR car to a seventh-place finish in Sunday’s Honda Indy 200, climbing 11 positions to claim his fourth top ten finish this season. Rookie Ryan Norman put in a solid performance in his #52 KOINU INU / EVO entry making up six positions to cross the finish line in 20th place. Right from the start both drivers made up some ground with Grosjean gaining one position on the first lap, despite suffering damage to the nose of his car, and Norman three positions. Grosjean then moved into 11th following a Lap 4 restart while Norman moved into 20th place. The Indy Lights graduate took advantage of the second full course caution to make his first pit stop on Lap 7 before continuing in 22nd place. By Lap 11, Grosjean had made it into the top 10 and was running ninth one lap later. By the time he headed to pit lane for his first stop on Lap 26, he had made it up to eighth.

Following his stop, Grosjean fell to 14th but he quickly climbed his way back into the top ten a handful of laps later. He once again took over eighth place on Lap 33 and with very little passing throughout the field in the second part of the race, he would run in that position for most of the remaining laps. Grosjean was able to climb to seventh on the penultimate lap where he ended up taking the checkered flag. As for Norman, the rookie ran as high as 12th before making his second stop on Lap 32. He then climbed his way back into the top 20 following his second stop and ran 19th for the majority of his second stint. The rookie went on to finish a strong 20th in his NTT INDYCAR SERIES debut registering competitive lap times with his fastest lap only a tenth of a second off of his teammate’s. Romain Grosjean – 7th “A seventh-place finish at Mid-Ohio, it was a pretty good race! We had the right strategy starting on the Red tires, I was able to make up a lot of positions at the start. The Nurtec ODT car didn’t feel the best today, but we had some damage after a first lap contact, so I’m sure that didn’t help. But we had the right strategy and we made good pit stops and we eventually finished seventh, after starting 18th on a track that isn’t the easiest to overtake, so I’m very happy with that!” Ryan Norman – 20th “I just finished my first IndyCar race, that was pretty exciting! Everything went well. I kept it clean and consistent, and I was able to climb up and gain some positions with some good passes. We ran some competitive lap times, it’s just hard to come back from 26th place on the grid but overall, I’m very happy with the experience and how today went. I’ll just have to work on my qualifying in the future to be able to start further up because positioning is so important in the Series. I want to thank Dale Coyne and Rick Ware for giving me this opportunity. I’d love to be back!” Dale Coyne Racing with RWR’s next event will come next month with the Music City Grand Prix taking place August 8, 2021 on the streets of Nashville.