Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio 2013 Results: Reaction, Leaders, Post-Race Analysis

It was a huge day for Honda at the 2013 Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio. Charlie Kimball won his first ever IndyCar Series race in 45 career attempts.

Joining him on the podium were Simon Pagenaud in second place and Dario Franchitti in third.

The checkered flag was earned by an impressive and aggressive performance by the first-time winner on a day that stayed green throughout. En route to his victory, Kimball shattered his previous career record of laps led. He had only led 15 laps total before easily blowing that mark away with 46 on Sunday.

Most remarkable of Kimball's performance is that no driver has ever won their first race at the difficult Mid-Ohio track, according to the NBCSN broadcast.

Points leader Helio Castroneves secured his top position by holding off a late charge by Scott Dixon, although Ryan Hunter-Reay made some progress by finishing one spot ahead of him. Dixon's bid to win a record-setting fourth straight race never appeared to be a possibility.

Here's a look at all of the top finishers in Ohio. For a complete list of results with times, visit IndyCar.com.

Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Top 10 Finishers

Place	Driver	Car	Started
1.	Charlie Kimball	83	5
2.	Simon Pagenaud	77	8
3.	Dario Franchitti	10	6
4.	Will Power	12	2
5.	Ryan Hunter-Reay	1	1
6.	Helio Castroneves	3	15
7.	Scott Dixon	9	3
8.	Justin Wilson	19	7
9.	Marco Andretti	25	4
10.	James Hinchcliffe	27	13

It was Hunter-Reay sitting on the pole as the drivers rolled off of the grid at Mid-Ohio.

Here's a close-up look at the group rolling out at the very start of the race:

It didn't take long for things to get interesting in Ohio, either.

With passing so difficult at the narrow Mid-Ohio track, pit road is the best chance for drivers to make up ground. Early on, though, that wasn’t the case.

On Lap 31, the top three cars all entered the pit at the same time, and all came out in identical order. Hunter-Reay kept his position in the lead with Pagenaud and Will Power trailing ever-so-close behind.

Pagenaud, though, acted quickly and took advantage of a rare window to move ahead of the leader. That big move put him in third place after pitting with the others.

Here’s a look at the top three following those events, thanks to Mid-Ohio on Twitter:

Of note, Kimball was contending with the leaders despite sitting in a backup car. Here's a look at his primary car on Saturday, courtesy of Racing in Slow Motion:

That leading group would, for the most part, stay intact as the race approached its midway point. Mid-Ohio laid out the leaders for us at that point in time:

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the afternoon continued to be Kimball's persistence and success. As he continued to stay atop the leaderboard, people began to take notice of his ongoing accomplishments. 

With 18 laps to go, Kimball made the most memorable move of the race, passing up Pagenaud to regain the lead. He almost missed his opportunity to make it happen, though, after kicking up dirt on Turn 1 earlier on the same lap.

First place is where he would stay, taking the checkered flag by over five seconds, capturing his first win and Chip Ganassi Racing's sixth in the past seven years at Mid-Ohio.