Jack Harvey has been penalized for his primary role in the large crash that blocked the track on the opening lap of last weekend’s Honda Indy Toronto race. The NTT IndyCar Series announcement was made prior to qualifying for the Hy-Vee IndyCar …
Jack Harvey has been penalized for his primary role in the large crash that blocked the track on the opening lap of last weekend’s Honda Indy Toronto race.
The NTT IndyCar Series announcement was made prior to qualifying for the Hy-Vee IndyCar Weekend at Iowa Speedway, and once the order is set for Saturday’s race, Harvey and his No. 30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda will move rearward by nine positions.
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IndyCar cited Rule 9.3.3., Avoidable Contact, as the offense committed by Harvey, which states: “The primary responsibility for avoiding contact with a Competitor resides with the overtaking Competitor and the secondary responsibility resides with the Competitor(s) being overtaken. A Competitor who fails to demonstrate their responsibility and initiates a maneuver that results in contact with another Competitor may be penalized.”
With rain falling overnight and the race before the final Blue Marble Radical Cup North America race of the weekend using wet weather tires, the option was given to Radical teams and drivers on which tires to use. With the field split between wet …
With rain falling overnight and the race before the final Blue Marble Radical Cup North America race of the weekend using wet weather tires, the option was given to Radical teams and drivers on which tires to use. With the field split between wet and dry weather Hankooks, it was a bit of an aggressive first lap by some as they looked to take advantage of their specific tire choice while others were forced to be easy in the less-than-ideal conditions.
“What a great event in Toronto,” declared Radical Motorsport’s Tom Drewer. “The racing was great, the weather threw some curve balls our way but, in the end, we completed the weekend and put on a great show. All of our races were completed in front of thousands of spectators as we showed the Radical Cup program to a new audience here in Canada.”
While Jon Field entered the day with the hopes of sweeping the weekend in the Platinum class, it was Louis Schriber who ended the third and final race of the weekend on top. Wayne Williams had a career weekend in Radical Cup competition adding to his podium result and pole position on Saturday with another podium finish, this time in the second position as Field crossed the line third for first, first and third in his three-wheel-to-wheel races. “Indy Al” Miller, who took the lead at the start, was able to come home in the fourth position ahead of Kevin Poitras in P5.
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It was the Danny Dyszelski and Nick Persing show again in the Pro 1500 class as the championship combatants finished first and second again with Dyszelski leading the way. Canadian Austin Riley took the lead on the opening lap but was unable to keep the WISKO Racing and Radical Northwest competitors behind him, although he did secure his second podium result of the weekend. Dyszelski scored the win with Persing and Riley celebrating on the podium with him. RySpec Racing put a pair of drivers inside the top five as Robert Soroka finished just behind Riley with race two winner on the weekend Gregg Gorski finishing fifth. Danny Dyszelski was also awarded the race three Hard Charger Award.
Robert Cipriani-Detres added his second win of the weekend as he climbed to the top step of the podium for Team Stradale putting on another show in the Pro 1340 class. Ken Savage, the first race winner on the weekend, found his way back to the podium, this time in the second position as Jace Bacon added another podium result to his resume. Huw Leahy crossed the line fourth, just shy of the podium as Seth Bacon was classified in the fifth position.
“This weekend also showcased FEL’s Emzone Radical Cup Canada series and the Blue Marble Radical Cup at one of Canada’s most prestigious events, and wow, did they put on a show,” said Drewer. “And once again Radical has allowed its customers to tick off yet another bucket list experience.”
Next up for the Blue Marble Radical Cup North America program is a trip to Austin, Texas, and Circuit of The Americas in late August. Follow the Blue Marble Radical Cup social media pages for news, information, photos, and more.
Blue Marble Radical Cup events are open to all local and regional Radical racers with eligible cars to participate. More information, including links to register for events and obtain licensing, can be found at www.radicalmotorsport.com.
Agustin Canapino matched his career-best IndyCar result on Sunday in Toronto, and his run to 12th wasn’t the only recent highlight produced by the rookie from Argentina. He was fast as well at the previous race in Mid-Ohio, which gives his Juncos …
Agustin Canapino matched his career-best IndyCar result on Sunday in Toronto, and his run to 12th wasn’t the only recent highlight produced by the rookie from Argentina. He was fast as well at the previous race in Mid-Ohio, which gives his Juncos Hollinger Racing team co-owner Ricardo Juncos plenty of optimism for where the No. 78 Chevy program is headed.
“He keeps learning and he feels much better every time we race,” Juncos told RACER. “Much better than (Canapino’s round one debut at) St. Pete for example. That was a first street course for him and now he is obviously better everywhere. Pit stops were good as well. We work in many, many different areas to try to keep making things better, right, and with Agustin, we are really happy.”
The 15-time Argentinian touring car champion is not only new to open-wheel racing, but is also racing at every track on the NTT IndyCar Series calendar for the first time. Canapino carries a wealth of racing experience with him to this new challenge alongside young teammate Callum Ilott, but he’s still the least experienced driver in this form of motorsports.
Learning from a lifelong open-wheeler like Ilott has clearly been beneficial, and with his teammate as a benchmark, qualifying 21st at Mid-Ohio to Ilott’s 20th, and 18th to Ilott’s 16th at Toronto suggests the 33-year-old IndyCar novice is making rapid progress after his first 10 races.
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“Even for the very first test at Thermal Club for the Spring Training, he surprised everybody and that’s the reason why we wanted him to drive for us,” Juncos said. “But it was a big gamble. For us as a team, for me and for Brad Hollinger, and for Agustin, also … because obviously everything is good for him in Argentina, and for him to make this decision to come here was a big risk. But we took it together.
“And I think we just keep improving. Maybe because he’s 33 years old, he’s even better for IndyCar because he’s obviously talented, and now he has a maturity to understand the ovals and the situations at the other circuits maybe better than someone else.”
Although the funding to keep Canapino in the car for 2024 and beyond has yet to be solidified, continuing next season is his team owner’s goal.
“I’m really happy and I’m gonna try my best to keep him for next year,” Juncos confirmed. “At the moment, we really don’t know, but I’m going to try my best to continue.”
Canapino is on the road to making that budget number easier to hit after moving up the No. 78 car up to 22nd in the Entrants’ championship. At the season’s completion, the top 22 cars in the Entrant’s standings receive a guaranteed prize money contract worth nearly $1 million, and if Canapino can continue moving forward in the championship and avoid being on the bubble, a nice piece of the $6 million or more needed to run a car for the year should be at JHR’s disposal.
“So that’s good for us, and obviously, the goal is to be inside the top 22,” Juncos said. “For next year, that will help a lot for him in his situation with the budget, but it’s still a long way to go. So I think we just need to keep doing what we’re doing and every race we’re just gonna get better and better. But you never know, because IndyCar is so difficult.”
Bobby Rahal didn’t want to hear it. Nearly two months of intensive work to find his IndyCar teams’ competitive shortcomings were starting to bear fruit, and behind the scenes, the 70-year-old was lighting a fire under Rahal Letterman Lanigan …
Bobby Rahal didn’t want to hear it.
Nearly two months of intensive work to find his IndyCar teams’ competitive shortcomings were starting to bear fruit, and behind the scenes, the 70-year-old was lighting a fire under Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s managers and chiefs and engineers and mechanics to get creative in solving its speed deficiencies.
Privately, the three-time IndyCar champion and 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner was said to be putting in an extreme number of hours to help the organization turn itself around, and not with a soft target for “as soon as possible.” He wanted it now. But in typical Rahal fashion, he didn’t want to take any credit for the newfound strength the team he co-owns with Mike Lanigan and David Letterman has demonstrated since weathering a brutal month of May.
“You need to talk to Mike Lanigan, for starters, because he’s pushed as hard as anybody to get us to where we are,” Rahal told RACER. “Give him the credit. Go talk to (new COO) Steve Eriksen, who’s been huge for us since he came onboard. Steve’s brought a lot of things managerially and perspective-wise that we needed, and we’re better off for having him. Go talk to (veteran RLL team manager) Rico (Nault), who’s been with me for longer than I can remember, because he’s been getting his hands full this entire time trying to get us moving in the right direction. There’s a lot of others, also, because they’re the ones to talk to instead of me.”
Bobby Rahal, Steve Eriksen, Ricardo Nault and David Salters of HPD — the brain trust that’s helped Rahal Letterman Lanigan go from zero to hero in the span of mere weeks. Michael Levitt/Lumen
Fresh off the team’s first win since August of 2020, RLL’s in-season efforts were rewarded by first-time IndyCar winner Christian Lundgaard, a native of Denmark whose pursuit of Formula 1 stalled and subsequent rerouting to America with RLL proved transformational for the team and the 21-year-old.
Rahal’s son Graham, who was in tears after failing to qualify for the Indy 500 in May, nearly earned pole for the July 2 race at Mid-Ohio, and put on an epic performance on Sunday in Toronto that started in 27th-place and finished in ninth.
And as his father suggested, speaking with Ricardo Nault revealed the rest of how RLL overhauled itself through fixes in engineering and internal culture.
“We felt we had the basis of a good car, but we just got lost for a while — a year and a half, really,” said Nault, the former IndyCar mechanic who ascended upwards to a leadership role many years ago. “And it just got worse. Then had a little bit of restructuring and started by trying to get some buy-in from everybody to help contribute to the process. We had a bunch of people come up with ideas on what to do and we just started pushing together a little bit more than we have in the past.”
Going through RLL’s darkest days helped the group to rediscover its fighting spirit and improve its chemistry as the men and women who comprise the entries for the Rahal’s No. 15 car, the No. 30 for Jack Harvey, and Lundgaard’s No. 45 banded together in the same quest for success.
“We were all down, and everybody had to come together to help each other,” Nault continued. “And Graham, Christian and Jack, they all work really well together to try to make the cars better; nobody holds back. Nobody’s got any secrets. If one guy learns something, he brings it to everyone and it goes around in circles so that way, it helps to elevate the whole organization.”
With Graham’s strong form at Mid-Ohio and now Lundgaard’s practically dominating performance in Toronto, RLL’s spirits are…undampened, and for good reason. Perry Nelson/Lumen
Another area under development for RLL has been with its damper program. Gains made through exhaustive efforts at Indy helped the beleaguered team to acquire more pace through its damper builds, and whether it was Rahal qualifying second on the rolling Mid-Ohio road course or Lundgaard earning pole and dominating on the wickedly bumpy Toronto street circuit, the team has erased a sizable shortcoming in a short amount of time.
“The whole team has been working our damper program for some time and we are really starting to see it pay off,” Nault said before applauding the work done by former Andretti damper specialist Mike Cicciarelli who joined RLL during the offseason.
“Mike brought a lot of new understandings and new ways to look at our damper program, which helps. He’s been a big help, and with a few tweaks, we’re going from nowhere to sitting on poles and winning races.”
Nault closed by sharing his appreciation for the mercurial Dane who, thankfully, will finally shave the awful mustache he committed to wearing until he clinched his first win. Like his driver, Lundgaard’s race engineer Ben Siegel also delivered on the immense talent and promise he’s shown since joining the team in 2022.
“Obviously, Christian is a great talent, and so is Ben — a first-time race engineer with Christian last year who is really coming into strides now,” he said. “Ben does a great job of understanding what it takes and working well with Christian to give him a car that he really likes. And to be fair, I don’t think we had the fastest car out there all weekend, but the whole team played the strategy right in qualifying, and then in the race as well. Everything just fell our way, and you need that sometimes. But this result comes from all the preparation that everyone did along the way.”
Welcome to the pantheon of first-time NTT IndyCar Series winners, Christian Lundgaard. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing scored its first win since 2020 and its young new star delivered on the promise he’s shown since making a one-off debut in 2021 …
Welcome to the pantheon of first-time NTT IndyCar Series winners, Christian Lundgaard.
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing scored its first win since 2020 and its young new star delivered on the promise he’s shown since making a one-off debut in 2021 with a flawless and dominant run to victory lane. The Dane was in a class of his own, charging to a 11.7s win over Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou and 15.0s over Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta as Honda-powered drivers swept the podium at the packed Honda Indy Toronto event.
The achievement was the culmination of RLL’s incredible turnaround efforts after the team got off to a slow and largely uncompetitive start to the season.
“I said it before the race that we had a car that was fast enough win, and we did it by 10 seconds,” Lundgaard said. “This team, they do deserve this. If you look at where we were at the end of last season, we were nowhere near this.”
Behind Lundgaard, it was a messy day for some and a strange one for others.
The luckiest driver in the field was undoubtedly Palou, who started 15th, charged forward, used smart race strategy applied by his team to improve more positions, but also had to save gallons of fuel to make it to the finish while taking a different line around the 1.8-mile street circuit. Why was Palou forced to alter his line? It was a necessity to avoid the major curbs and bumps due to a broken front wing caused while trying to miss the spinning car of Helio Castroneves that resulted in a meeting with the wall that broke his front wing’s attachment to the nose.
Dragging the right-front down the long straights as downforce increased, the problem progressively worsened and with only a few of the 85 laps left to go, it looked as if it might break off the No. 10 Honda’s nose altogether, but it held on — as did the last few drops of fuel — to complete a 13-position improvement and increase his championship lead.
“I don’t know how we made it with this wing,” Palou said. “The car was still handling OK, but we just had to save a ton of fuel and a ton of tires, but we made it.”
For Herta, who secured his first podium of the year, barely holding on to his position was an achievement as his engine sputtered and fell silent after crossing the finish line. Like Palou, he started deep in the pack — 14th — and went for a wild ride to third.
“Luckily we were able to save enough and we made the strategy work,” said a relieved Herta. “Some guys didn’t make it work.”
Another big mover was RLL’s Graham Rahal whose craftiness netted an improvement from 27th to ninth. A few corners away from starting the final lap, Team Penske’s Will Power and Ganassi’s Marcus Ericsson were chasing Herta hard for his position, but both disappeared from his mirrors as they had to do the most gut-wrenching thing a driver can do: pit on the last lap for a splash of fuel and surrender quality finishes.
Ericsson would emerge from the pits to take 11th and Power was a frustrated 14th.
Toronto was a race to forget for Team Penske as all three of its entries suffered from mistakes made by its drivers or on its timing stands.Josef Newgarden lost numerous positions after running long in his pit box, but recovered to take fifth. Power said he should have saved more fuel. Front-row starter Scott McLaughlin could have shadowed Lundgaard and likely finish behind him if it weren’t for a colossal strategy error that left the Penske machine out when the RLL driver and others in his vicinity stopped. Forced onto a strategy that held no hope of getting to the finish line, he pitted halfway through the final stint, gave up the lead, and resumed in 14th. Dixon and Power were also forced to make the same late stop, but they weren’t in contention for the win.
To their credit, and with help from the last-lap dramas for Power and Ericsson, Dixon climbed to fourth and McLaughlin made it to sixth at the checkered flag.
The greatest beneficiary was Palou, who started behind Dixon and Newgarden, yet finished ahead of them and increased his championship lead on his teammate from 110 points to 117, and pushed his pre-Toronto 116-point margin over the Penske driver out to 126 with seven races to go. Thanks to his fuel issue, Ericsson’s gap to Palou grew from 122 to 142 points, but he held onto fourth in the standings. Lundgaard’s big result propelled him from 10th in the championship to seventh as Power’s misfortune moved him rearwards to eighth.
Only 15 of the 27 cars finished on the lead lap, with seven drivers parked and done well before all the laps were completed. Andretti’s Romain Grosjean crashed again on his own, and Dale Coyne Racing’s David Malukas also met the wall in a late solo incident. Castroneves was hit from behind by Andretti’s Kyle Kirkwood on the restart after his teammate’s crash, and was forced to retire. Kirkwood was duly penalized.
And to start the race off with carnage, Lundgaard’s teammate Jack Harvey induced a multi-car crash that left a number of drivers fuming, including Meyer Shank Racing rookie Tom Blomqvist whose IndyCar race debut only lasted a few seconds.
“This is the last thing I wanted to happen,” Blomqvist said. “Someone hit someone… You’re at the mercy of people on the other side and I was pushed into the wall. I’m pretty furious, devastated, and gutted. To not even get one lap is frustrating.”
AS IT HAPPENED
Polesitter Christian Lundgaard got a great jump into Turn 1 and Scott Dixon climbed to P5 but behind them, a caution was required when a big pileup exiting Turn 1 saw Jack Harvey, Tom Blomqvist, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Santino Ferrucci, Benjamin Pedersen, Alexander Rossi and Graham Rahal get tangled in a track-blocking mess triggered by Harvey.
Going three-wide on corner exit, Harvey veered left into Hunter-Reay, knocking him into Blomqvist on the outside, who was sent into the wall. Hunter-Reay, Blomqvist, and the rest of the drivers were collateral damage as a result of Harvey’s move, and only Rahal — last on the grid and last to arrive on the scene — was able to select reverse and drive away using the escape road that runs behind Turns 1 and 2.
With considerable damage to the cars of Harvey, Hunter-Reay, Blomqvist and Pedersen, the four drivers were done on the spot. Ferrucci and Rossi were able to continue, but suffered body work damage, as did Rahal, who hit the back of Ferrucci’s car and stopped for a new front wing assembly. The other two would follow suit under the extended caution and resume at the back of the field.
By the flag, even this sight was hard for second place Alex Palou to see. Richard Dole/Lumen
Having burned nine laps to clear the crash, Lundgaard led the restart and behind him Kyle Kirkwood took sixth from Felix Rosenqvist. Alex Palou, starting P15, was up to P12 but lost it to Colton Herta the next lap after an unsuccessful attempt to demote Romain Grosjean from P11.
Herta took P11 from Grosjean with ease the next time around. Lundgaard started lap 13 with 2.5s over Scott McLaughlin, and behind them, Pato O’Ward was 3.5s down in P3 and Marcus Ericsson was 4.5s back in P4.
Marcus Armstrong was next on Herta’s hit list and by lap 14, he was up from a P14 start to P10. Lundgaard, on alternate tires, put another second on McLaughlin, on primaries, to push the lead out to 3.5s. Grosjean and Palou moved Armstrong back to P13, who pitted at the end of the lap to take the alternate tires off his car. Rosenqvist was in the next lap — lap 18 — for the same alternate-to-primary change. Kirkwood and Josef Newgarden arrived on lap 19 for the same swap.
Only Lundgaard and O’Ward continued lapping on alternates, but Lundgaard pitted at the end of the lap for primaries, but lost time with a long change to the left-front tire. O’Ward was in on lap 21 as the leaders, barring McLaughlin, completed their first stops. Team Penske’s call to have the Kiwi go long and try an overcut to leap past Lundgaard wasn’t looking good as the gap from P1 to the polesitter in P9 was 16.1s after 25 laps. With a pit stop taking at least 24-25s, his advantage over McLaughlin doubled.
The strategy was starting to play to McLaughlin’s favor by lap 30 thanks to Rinus VeeKay, who fought Lundgaard at every turn, and despite being faster, the RLL driver was 17.7s back. Palou finally got by Grosjean on the same lap and checked out to chase Herta in P5. The top 7, from McLaughlin to Grosjean, were still going on their first set of tires and had yet to pit.
Palou cleared Herta by lap 33; Grosjean pitted moments later. The gap from McLaughlin to Lundgaard was 17.5s. Herta followed, taking alternates as well, on lap 34. McLaughlin was in on lap 35 to take alternates. What can he do on faster tires with Lundgaard 6s up the road?
Dixon, Palou, and Will Power pitted on lap 38 and Power overtook Dixon on pit lane.
Lap 41 and Lundgaard’s lead over McLaughlin was 6.3s, 8.1s to O’Ward, and 15.5s to Kirkwood.
The second caution of the day was required on lap 42 when Grosjean fired into the wall at Turn 10, telling his crew that the steering wheel slipped out of his hands. He was running 12th at the time of his crash.
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A mess of cars stopped on lap 45 to get off of alternate tires, led by Kirkwood, Palou, Herta, and Rosenqvist, with the group hoping for plenty of caution laps to make it to the finish, and the return to green happened at the end of the lap with Lundgaard leading McLaughlin, but another caution was required when Helio Castroneves spun entering Turn 11, tried to flick the car around, and stalled.
Kirkwood was shown to have hit Castroneves, who was unable to restart his car and climbed out. While avoiding Castroneves, Palou made decent contact with the wall with his right-front wheel and wing; the wing was hanging low and questionable to last the rest of the race.
Most of the leaders, barring McLaughlin, pitted under caution on lap 49 with Lundgaard, O’Ward, Ericsson, and Power diving in for fuel and primary tires.
The lap 52 restart featured McLaughlin leading into Turn 1 and a penalty issued for Kirkwood who was ordered to pit and stop. His race was effectively over. Lundgaard passed Herta for P5 on lap 53 and the running order going into lap 54 was McLaughlin, Dixon, VeeKay, Palou, Lundgaard, and Herta.
The top three were on the faster alternate tires and needing to save fuel while those in pursuit were less affected by that need and had the more durable primary tires on their cars. VeeKay pitted from third on lap 60 and lost a ton of time waiting for the car to be lifted.
McLaughlin surrendered the lead on lap 61, taking primaries and a full tank of fuel. Palou also gave up P3 to Lundgaard and Herta was closing. Dixon was in on lap 63 for fuel only, and resumed ahead of McLaughlin in P14. Power took P4 from O’Ward with a daring move into Turn 5.
Lundgaard was leading once again with 2.4s over Palou on lap 64.
David Malukas clipped the wall with 15 laps to go and retired as Lundgaard’s lead was out to 7.0s over Palou after 74 laps. Herta was 8.3s back and had Power in his draft. Ericsson was 11.3s back in P5, Newgarden was 12.7s down in P6, and Marcus Armstrong was 14.0s arrears in P7. Dixon was up to P10 and McLaughlin was in P13.
Lap 79 and Dixon was up to P8 and McLaughlin took P11 from Rahal. Herta took a strong look at Palou under braking for Turn 3 as his front wings were wobbling more than ever as the right side dragged hard at top speed. Lap 82 and Dixon was up to P7 and McLaughlin was in P10.
Power and Ericsson pitted at the start of the last lap for fuel as Dixon got by Newgarden for P4. Lundgaard, Palou, and Herta are your podium for the Honda Indy Toronto.
USF Pro 2000 Presented by Cooper Tires championship leader Myles Rowe overcame a disappointing result on Saturday to take a clear victory for Pabst Racing with Force Indy in Sunday’s Cooper Tires Grand Prix of Toronto. A fifth win of the season for …
USF Pro 2000 Presented by Cooper Tires championship leader Myles Rowe overcame a disappointing result on Saturday to take a clear victory for Pabst Racing with Force Indy in Sunday’s Cooper Tires Grand Prix of Toronto. A fifth win of the season for the 22-year-old from Brooklyn, N.Y., stretches his advantage to a whopping 81 points as he chases a Discount Tire Driver Development Scholarship valued at $664,500 to graduate to INDY NXT in 2024.
Lirim Zendeli, from Bochum, Germany, finished second for TJ Speed Motorsports. Rowe’s Pabst Racing teammate Jordan Missig, from Channahon, Ill., matched his career-best result in third. Missig also set the fastest race lap for good measure.
Rowe paved the way for his triumph by starting at the head of the field after earning his fourth Cooper Tires Pole Award of the season and third in succession during qualifying on Saturday morning.
He took full advantage by leading from the start. Behind, a bold move around the outside of Turn One by teammate Jace Denmark netted the resident of Scottsdale, Ariz., second place after starting in fourth.
After an early caution following an incident in the midfield, Denmark tried to execute a similar move on Rowe under braking for Turn 3 at the end of the back straightaway. Unfortunately, Rowe slipped a little wide at the exit and made contact with Denmark’s front wing, which immediately became detached, forcing him into the pits and out of contention.
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Rowe continued unscathed, and instead soon came under pressure from Saturday’s winner – and the man who narrowly beat Rowe to last year’s USF2000 Presented by Cooper Tires championship crown – Michael d’Orlando, from Hartsdale, N.Y.
“First of all, the crowd here is amazing. I love Toronto. It is such a great city,” Rowe said. “It is such a tough race. The bumps are crazy. It is like New York City out there. I just have to give a huge thanks to God, my family, Force Indy, Pabst Racing, SimCraft, Sparco, Bell Helmets and the whole crew. They really put together such a package for us to have this kind of consistency this year. You need to have a certain kind of package to do really successful things at this level of motorsports. All these guys – Lirim, Jordan and the rest of the field – all of them are super competitive and super tough to beat. I just can’t ‘thank you’ enough to all of my partners.”
Gavin Baker Photography
The 25-lap race had started on a slightly damp track, but the pace gradually increased as the surface dried out completely. The two leaders remained in close contact until, quite suddenly, d’Orlando began to lose power shortly after the halfway mark. The Canadian-American soon slipped into the clutches of the pursuing pack, led by Zendeli who on lap 16 had found a way past d’Orlando’s Turn 3 Motorsport teammate Christian Brooks, from Santa Clarita, Calif., with a nice move at Turn 3.
The unfortunate d’Orlando eventually tumbled almost to the back of the field, cruelly ending his hopes of taking over second place in the points table.
Zendeli maintained second to the finish, some 4.4155s adrift of Rowe and narrowly ahead of Missig, who had started second and was the fastest man on track in the closing stages.
Indian-American Yuven Sundaramoorthy, from Delafield, Wis., (Exclusive Autosport) also displayed strong speed after a difficult season, claiming the Tilton Hard Charger Award after rising from 16th on the grid to eighth.
Rowe’s performance capped a tremendous day for team principal Augie Pabst, who took home another PFC Award as the winning car owner.
Five more races remain this season. A doubleheader event at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas, on August 26-27 is next, followed just one week later by a trip to the West Coast for a tripleheader finale at Portland International Raceway in Portland, Ore., on September 2-3.
Most rookies would be thrilled to start 20th out of 27 cars for their first NTT IndyCar Series race, especially on three days’ notice, on a track they hadn’t driven before Friday, and while it was raining. But not Tom Blomqvist. The reigning IMSA …
Most rookies would be thrilled to start 20th out of 27 cars for their first NTT IndyCar Series race, especially on three days’ notice, on a track they hadn’t driven before Friday, and while it was raining. But not Tom Blomqvist.
The reigning IMSA DPi champion, who also starts third among the five rookies in the field, was visibly disappointed after earning 20th for Meyer Shank Racing, which speaks to the Briton’s high expectations for himself in even the most daunting circumstances.
Frustrated by his inability to transfer into the Firestone Fast 12 as his group searched for traction on the wet, gripless street circuit, Blomqvist wanted more from the session and struggled to find satisfaction after stepping from the No. 60 Honda normally occupied by Simon Pagenaud.
“It’s a shame we didn’t get a dry session, in a way, because I think we were making a step in the right direction,” Blomqvist said. “That was obviously another challenge with the wet. I didn’t know what to expect. I just need some more laps, which is the story of the weekend. But we kept it on the black stuff.”
Although he wasn’t impressed with his qualifying result, Blomqvist eventually managed to smile and did concede that things are looking up after his first two days as an IndyCar driver.
“Nonetheless, it’s the first weekend,” he said. “And every little bit, it’s been getting better and better, slowly.”
Team co-owner Mike Shank had nothing but compliments for his full-time IMSA star.
“I put him in the car as a test. I wanted to see how he adapted to something that was totally different,” he said. “I know he can be hard on himself — all drivers want to be up front — but we are happy with where he is at. He is progressing just like we wanted him to and making all the right strides to keep improving. We’ve definitely thrown a lot at him and it’s been like drinking from a fire hose for him, but he’s doing great, and just where we thought he would be.”
The driver leading the NTT IndyCar Series championship who’s had a nearly perfect season lines up 15th. The driver closest to him (Alex Palou), Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon, who goes into Sunday’s Honda Indy Toronto race holding second …
The driver leading the NTT IndyCar Series championship who’s had a nearly perfect season lines up 15th. The driver closest to him (Alex Palou), Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon, who goes into Sunday’s Honda Indy Toronto race holding second in the championship, starts seventh.
Josef Newgarden, the driver sitting third in the standings, will take the green flag from 11th on the grid, and you’ll have to look to fourth in points to find the first title contender who didn’t have a rough day in qualifying on the slippery street circuit — Marcus Ericsson on the second row in P4.
Colton Herta, last year’s Honda Indy Toronto polesitter and the polesitter for the last two NTT IndyCar Series races, had intentions to earn another, but was a big surprise in his failure to transfer into the Firestone Fast 12. The Andretti Autosport driver, fastest in the session prior to qualifying, wasn’t alone.
Beasts in the dry, Herta’s frustrating run to 14th was compounded by Kyle Kirkwood—fastest on Friday—who lines up eighth and Romain Grosjean who settled for ninth.
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The greatest surprise, though, was the aforementioned Palou, whose worst start of the year prior to Toronto was seventh. To the Spaniard’s credit, he was in worse shape last year in Canada when he started 22nd and rocketed to eighth, so all hope is not lost.
“I just think we didn’t really put together everything we had,” said an untroubled Palou. “We’re going to have to start from the back, but we know we have a fast car and we can make it from there. It’s gonna be a pretty busy race. It’s the first (challenging starting spot) of the year; hopefully the last one, but yeah, we will have to work for it, for sure.”
Rahal Letterman Lanigan needed to make major improvements on street circuits, and with his second pole position in hand of 2023, Christian Lundgaard confirmed RLL has made big strides since it undertook sweeping changes to improve its fortunes. …
Rahal Letterman Lanigan needed to make major improvements on street circuits, and with his second pole position in hand of 2023, Christian Lundgaard confirmed RLL has made big strides since it undertook sweeping changes to improve its fortunes.
Lundgaard’s lap of 1m04.1567s in the No. 45 Honda was well clear of his rivals as the Firestone Fast Six was reconciled using dry tires on a damp track. Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin was second-fastest in the No. 3 Chevy (+0.3223s), Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward was third in the No. 5 Chevy (+0.3933s), Marcus Ericsson (+0.7524s) was fourth for Chip Ganassi Racing in the No. 8 Honda, O’Ward’s teammate Felix Rosenqvist was fifth in the No. 6 Chevy (+0.7856s), and Penske’s Will Power was sixth in the No. 12 Chevy (+0.9136s).
As he so often does, the 21-year-old Dane worked miracles for RLL and captured a surprise pole for the team owned by Bobby Rahal, Mike Lanigan, and David Letterman.
“I have a history — at least in go karts — of being fast in the rain, and I’ve only driven in the rain once with this car and we weren’t competitive, but the car today was just there and I can’t thank this team enough,” said Lundgaard, who was 18 positions ahead of his closest teammate.
“Looking at where we were on street circuits, even last year, we made progress and I can only thank the team at this point.”
Drama at the start of qualifying with the arrival of rain in the final minutes of the opening session favored those who got their best runs in early and penalized those who were waiting until the last moments to register their best time. Championship leader Alex Palou was the biggest name to suffer, but he lacked significant speed prior to the skies opening and didn’t lay blame on the changing conditions for his starting position of 15th, his worst of the season.
Kyle Kirkwood in eighth, Romain Grosjean in ninth, and Colton Herta in 14th—all contenders for pole for Andretti Autosport coming out of the morning session—missed by a lot, as did Penske’s Josef Newgarden in 11th.
Andretti Autosport will be going back to the drawing board after all the speed they had Saturday morning simply vanished by qualifying. Michael Levitt/Lumen
Dale Coyne Racing’s David Malukas was also quick in the morning session and had designs on transferring into the Fast 12, but he managed to block CGR’s Dixon on his first flying lap on alternate tires and was duly penalized by the series which left him two spots behind Palou in 17th.
The end result was a qualifying result that has some of IndyCar’s hardest chargers mired many rows behind their usual starting spots which, for racing fans, should make for 85 laps of unpredictable action starting Sunday at 1:30 p.m. ET (available only on Peacock).
AS IT HAPPENED
The first half of the field fought over the six transfer spots available in the 10-minute opening session, and with a dry track at their disposal, Kyle Kirkwood was the first to post a significant lap on Firestone’s primary tires. With the switch to the faster green-banded alternate tires, the assembly of 13 drivers were split with the top six led by Kyle Kirkwood, Rinus VeeKay, Christian Lundgaard, Will Power, Scott Dixon, and Scott McLaughlin.
Those who failed to transfer were Helio Castroneves (who starts P13), Alex Palou (P15), David Malukas — who was judged to have blocked Scott Dixon and had his two fastest laps deleted — (P17), Jack Harvey (P19), Ryan Hunter-Reay (P21), Sting Ray Robb (P23), and Benjamin Pedersen (P25).
With the second half of the field using rain tires for their 10-minute session, improving conditions in the final minute saw the top six change repeatedly and once the checkered flag waved, the transferring six were led by Romain Grosjean, Marcus Ericsson, Josef Newgarden, Felix Rosenqvist, Pato O’Ward, and Marcus Armstrong.
Spinners, visitors to the runoff areas, or wall hitters included Agustin Canapino, Colton Herta, Romain Grosjean, Tom Blomqvist, Graham Rahal—who broke his front wing against the barriers, Grosjean again, Alexander Rossi, Herta again, and Marcus Armstrong.
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Those who were finished with qualifying were headed by Colton Herta (who starts P14), Callum Ilott (P16), Agustin Canapino (P18), Tom Blomqvist (P20), Devlin DeFrancesco (P22), Santino Ferrucci (P24), Alexander Rossi—whose car was unable to drive away from the runoff (P26), and Graham Rahal (P27).
“Electrically, the car just died,” Rossi said. “Sucks. I’ve never seen that before. We should have been easily P1 and transferred.”
After a long delay due to race control’s confirmation of the results from the previous session, the Fast 12 took to the wet circuit on rain tires, but the rain was no longer falling. Each lap was decidedly faster than the last as water was evacuated from the track and it was the two who pitted for fresh rain tires at the end of the session who were rewarded, led by O’Ward, Lundgaard, Rosenqvist, McLaughlin, Ericsson — who half spun across the finish line and tagged the wall with his left-rear tire, and Will Power, who made his first Fast Six of the year.
Big surprises were led by the Andretti team which led every session up to qualifying but failed to place any of their four drivers in the Fast Six. The field was set behind the Fast Six with Dixon (P7), Kirkwood (P8), Grosjean (P9), Armstrong (P10), Newgarden (P11), and VeeKay (P12).
The track dried enough for the use of slicks to settle the pole, and with five solid minutes of lapping to complete while some sections were rather wet, the last round of qualifying became a thrilling a battle of car control.
McLaughlin was the first to lose that battle with a half spin that also turned into the blocking of Ericsson with 2m30s left on the clock. Almost every driver took a turn at the top, and on the last lap, Lundgaard flew to his second pole of the season.
McLaughlin, O’Ward, Ericsson, Rosenqvist, and Power rounded out the top six.
Saturday morning’s 45-minute practice session on the streets of Toronto saw light sprinkles, lots of spins and a red flag complicate matters. Between the bouts of adversity, Andretti Autosport held onto its front-running pace with Colton Herta …
Saturday morning’s 45-minute practice session on the streets of Toronto saw light sprinkles, lots of spins and a red flag complicate matters. Between the bouts of adversity, Andretti Autosport held onto its front-running pace with Colton Herta (1m00.5657s) and Kyle Kirkwood (+0.0315s) posting a 1-2 for the Honda-powered team.
Chip Ganassi Racing was close behind and produced a 3-4 with Marcus Ericsson (0.0693s) and Alex Palou (+0.1145s). Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward was the first Chevy representative in fifth (+0.1397s) and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Christian Lundgaard completed the top six (+0.1709s) in a frenetic run that was capped by the first red flag of the event.
Once the crashed car of Arrow McLaren’s Felix Rosenqvist — who appeared to be uninjured — was cleared from the circuit, the session resumed with 7m07s left on the clock and most teams sent their drivers out for one final qualifying simulation run. But it was a proverbial traffic jam that led to no significant changes in the running order as the majority of the 27-deep field caught each other on their laps and backed off or tried to slow leading into the last corners to create a gap, which led to large packs of drivers crawling in first gear.
Outside of the top six, Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden was fastest for his squad in ninth, but all three of their cars were oversteering messes on and off throttle. Dale Coyne Racing’s David Malukas impressed in 10th, as did Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Callum Ilott in 11th. After propping up the bottom of the field on Friday, A.J. Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci found a ton of pace and improved 10 positions to 17th.
What happens when you go off on a street course?@AlexanderRossi drove through the Princes' Gates in Toronto. #INDYCAR
Arrow McLaren’s Alexander Rossi was miserable in 25th, and after struggling to find clear track to make a final high-speed run, Meyer Shank Racing’s Tom Blomqvist ended the session in 27th.
UP NEXT: Qualifying, 2:50pm ET, streaming via Peacock
