Fresh off of a double header, IndyCar is flying across the border into Canada. Racing around the streets of Toronto and Exhibition Place, expect close battles for position and caution periods. Eyes remain on Álex Palou, as he comes from a 7th win in Iowa.
Toronto in 2024
2024 saw an interrupted race in which Colton Herta took pole position and the win. The Andretti driver led all but 4 laps throughout the race, taking the victory ahead of his teammate Kyle Kirkwood. The Streets of Toronto saw a chaotic 85 laps with 6 caution periods, a red flag, and 12 drivers retiring. Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden also suffered a bad pit stop which saw him concede a 3rd place finish.
Despite a penalty that saw him qualify in 18th place, Palou made up the most places to finish just off of the podium in 4th. Consequently, this saw him extend his championship lead to 20 points over Will Power.
The top ten were as follows:
- Colton Herta (Andretti Global).
- Kyle Kirkwood (Andretti Global).
- Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing).
- Álex Palou (Chip Ganassi Racing).
- Marcus Armstrong (Chip Ganassi Racing).
- David Malukas (Meyer Shank Racing).
- Christian Lundgaard (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing).
- Rinus VeeKay (Ed Carpenter Racing).
- Romain Grosjean (Juncos Hollinger Racing).
- Graham Rahal (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing).
This was the final race for Juncos Hollinger’s Agustin Canapino, he was replaced by Conor Daly for the final 5 races of the season. And after being replaced in the No. 6 by Nolan Siegel, Théo Pourchaire stepped into the No. 7 Arrow McLaren due to Alexander Rossi suffering a broken thumb during the practice session on Friday.
Coming into Streets of Toronto in 2025
Following a slow start to the 2025 season that saw only 2 drivers take a win, the past two race weekends have given us two new winners. McLaren’s Nolan Siegel crashed on Saturday and subsequently didn’t race on the Sunday – the Papaya team has named Linus Lundqvist as his replacement in the event that Siegel is not cleared to race this weekend.
Coming into Toronto, Palou leads the championship with 129 points over Pato O’Ward, who moved up a position after his late win in the first Iowa race. Scott Dixon leapfrogged Kirkwood in the standings and now sits 3rd, 44 points behind O’Ward. As a result of Palou’s win in Iowa, the championship battle has closed up and now everyone placed 7th or lower is mathematically out of the running. Can anyone disturb Palou and take a late championship?
Exhibition Place
Exhibition Place is the site for the race, and the 1.786-mile track is the final street track of the season. The 2 long straights offer the best overtaking opportunities, whereas the turns are narrow, causing drivers to squeeze each other for position. Whilst previous years have seen 85 laps completed here, this year IndyCar has announced that drivers will face 90 laps. 5 laps were added to create a more dynamic and engaging race for both drivers and viewers.
Historically, this track sees many DNF’s and caution periods, so expect the unexpected in Downtown Toronto this weekend. Drivers could be facing a wet qualifying – this could shake the grid up and see a change at the front if mistakes are made.
Schedule
The schedule for the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto race weekend is as follows.
Please note all times are in CEST:
Palou is yet to win around Exhibition Place, with his dominant showing this year, can he look to change that? Or will Toronto once again hold spectators on the edge of their seats and provide another new winner? Tune in on Sunday to see.