It may be a lot to ask of Scott Dixon to get to 67 career wins and tie A.J. Foyt as the winningest IndyCar driver of all time. But for now, he’s relieved to be in a tie for second.
Dixon won his fourth Honda Indy Toronto on Sunday to tie Mario Andretti with 52 career wins. The New Zealander also extended his impressive streak of 18 consecutive years winning at least one race.
“Those numbers, it took a little while to get to,” Dixon said. “It’s been a little bit of a dry spell for us and that puts pressure on me and everyone on the team.”
Dixon, 41, who won two races in Toronto in 2013 then won again in 2018, outlasted polesitter Colton Herta, 19 years his junior, in a race where no other driver truly contended. There were two critical points where Dixon got the better of Herta. Dixon’s first pit stop came a lap before Herta’s. On lap 18, Herta came out of his stop but Dixon’s warmer tires allowed him to take the lead as the drivers made turn one.
Later on lap 66, Dixon’s burst on the restart signalled his Chip Ganassi Racing Honda was clearly superior to Herta’s Andretti Autosport machine.
With no further cautions, Dixon cruised to the win by 0.8 seconds.
“Today was one of those days where the car was super fast,” Dixon said. “The race itself was fairly straightforward with how the cautions fell for us. We had a good, clean pass to turn one on Herta and that was it.”
Herta meanwhile had to withstand a late charge from Felix Rosenqvist, who ran strongly all day in his third-place finish. Graham Rahal overcame a rough qualifying day to get into fourth. Marcus Ericsson finished fifth to maintain the series lead going into their next stop in Iowa.
Having won the pole on Saturday, Herta led the early part of the race until the first rotation of pit stops.
The very narrow pits were a problem for many drivers during the weekend and may have played a role in Herta not being able to maintain his lead.
“Felix’s (pit) box was right in front of me and I just got blocked,” he said. “We have a 30-foot box so we were really jammed in.”
“It’s too short but what are you going to do. So that’s the main reason. The entry was good. The stop was fine.”
What was also a bit of a nuisance for Herta was the fact his head sock, that balaclava underneath the helmet, broke meaning some of his long hair was getting into his line of sight. But he admitted in the end his car was just second best on the day.
“Every lap I pushed but he was still getting a tenth of a second on me,” he said. “A guy like that usually ends up winning.”
Andretti, a fixture at the track who did not make the trip to Toronto for the race, tweeted his congratulations to Dixon who in turn expressed his appreciation for the auto racing legend.
“I love Mario for so many reasons,” Dixon said. “What he’s done for the sport, what he’s achieved, what he’s given back to the sport.”
“I’ve always been lucky to have him and A.J. here to chat about the sport, to have conversations. To be talked about in the same conversation with these guys is something I never thought possible.”
BUMPY RIDE
Themes throughout the weekend were the bumps on the road and the modified configuration of the track.
The street course is difficult enough with tires having to navigate at high speeds the different types of materials holding up the streets we drive on Lake Shore Blvd. and around the Ex grounds every day. But the wear and tear of these roads since the last time auto racing was held here forced drivers to fight the racetrack as well as the field.
“Every year it changes as a street course,” Dixon said. “It’s been three years since we’ve been here.”
“The front straight and back straight were in great shape. There are always wall placements and concrete patches that are quite tricky. But that’s what’s great about street-course racing. These tracks are a lot of fun because you can get aggressive.”
Among the issues race organizers will have to look at for next year include improvements to the pit lane which seemed cramped and uneven, and better lights and marshalling on the run-off lanes.
Nonetheless, the race weekend overall signalled a triumphant return of IndyCar to Exhibition Place after the pandemic and border restrictions forced cancellations the past two years. Sure, the traffic closures and noise might annoy some of the locals. But crowds starving for live auto racing returned in numbers not seen since the circuit’s glory days of the 1980s and 1990s.
LEARNING CURVE
Devlin DeFrancesco enjoyed his first Toronto race experience.
The IndyCar rookie was in the spotlight all week, making a lot of media and sponsorship appearances as well as sparking a charity initiative with Sunnybrook Hospital, where his life was saved when he was born very prematurely in 2000.
He had a great Saturday, earning his best starting spot of the season. Sunday was a bit rougher though as he could not take advantage of that 12th spot, ending up in 18th.
There was a point in mid race where he appeared to get passed by several cars and he simply did not have enough in his Andretti Steinbrenner car to be competitive.
“How the race played out was definitely not how we wanted it to go,” he said. “We had trouble with the tires early. We struggled with balance. It got better and better as the race went on but we struggled with the red (alternate tires) and that put us on the back foot.”
Still DeFrancesco soaked in a weekend where he was the hometown favourite.
“All the crowd support gave me extra motivation,” he said.
TOUGH LUCK
The first IndyCar experience on his home track is one Dalton Kellett probably would rather forget.
The Stouffville, Ont. native, whose A. J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet gave him all kinds of problems in practice and was unable to get going during Saturday qualifying, started losing power on lap 32. The engine blew and smoke came out of the car. He did make it to the pit but his day came to an end.
It was a difficult weekend for the car which was simply not competitive at any point.
RACING INCIDENTS
Takuma Sato made contact with the wall on the first lap and was done early. On lap 45, Rosenqvist moved to the inside of Alexander Rossi and knocked Rossi’s wheel out of his hand, ending Rossi’s day. On lap 59, Kyle Kirkwood got too close to seven-time NASCAR Cup champion Jimmie Johnson. Kirkwood got the worst of it, ending his day.
FLAG TO FLAG
Jace Denmark took command with the pole and cruised to a win in the USF 2000 race. The native of Scottsdale, Ariz. won his third race of the season after finishing second to Myles Rowe in Saturday’s first race. Thomas Nepveu of Oka, Que., the lone Canadian in the field, finished second. Rowe, the series leader, ended fifth. He and championship contender Michael d’Orlando made contact on the final lap costing them both better placings.
Denmark understood that with just three races left, all in Portland on Labour Day weekend, drivers are fighting harder to give themselves a chance at the title.
“At the end of the season everyone is getting a little more comfortable with what they can do and getting more aggressive,” he said. “Most of the drivers feel they haven’t done enough work at the beginning of the season and are trying to make up for it now.”
FUTURE STAR
Indy Car has a lot of young drivers and even they should be looking over their shoulder and bracing for Louis Foster.
The 18-year-old from Basingstoke, England was sensational this weekend, capturing his second Indy Pro 2000 race of the weekend by 3.8 seconds. Foster also won Saturday’s race in dominant fashion, giving him six wins in the last eight races on the circuit for Canadian-based Exclusive Autosport.
“For the first few laps, I was struggling to get the rubber off my tires. There was a lot of rubber from the Indy Car session,” he said. “Once that cleared up I was pushing. Once I got three seconds up I just settled into a rhythm.”
“(Exclusive Autosport) has been amazing this weekend and they deserve this.”
BIG PILEUP
A significant five-car crash on corner six ate up most of the time allotted for the Sports Car Championship Canada race. The race was stopped as the cars could not be cleared. Zachary Vanier of Garson, Ont. was declared the winner of the GT4 class. Gavin Sanders won Saturday’s race.
DOMINANT WIN
The crash in the previous race shortened the second race of the Porsche Carrera Cup but that didn’t faze Trenton Estep. The San Antonio driver pulled away from the start and cruised to his second win on the weekend in the Pro class. Red Deer, Alta. native Parker Thompson held on to second after a three-way battle for much of the race. Efrin Castro of the Dominican Republic swept the weekend in the Pro Am division while Bill Smith of Dallas scored his second win in the Am class.
HONDA INDY RESULTS
At Exhibition Place Street Circuit, Toronto
Lap length: 1.786 miles
(Start position in parentheses)
1. (2) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 85 laps, Running.
2. (1) Colton Herta, Dallara-Honda, 85, Running.
3. (8) Felix Rosenqvist, Dallara-Chevrolet, 85, Running.
4. (14) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 85, Running.
5. (9) Marcus Ericsson, Dallara-Honda, 85, Running.
6. (22) Alex Palou, Dallara-Honda, 85, Running.
7. (18) Simon Pagenaud, Dallara-Honda, 85, Running.
8. (10) Christian Lundgaard, Dallara-Honda, 85, Running.
9. (6) Scott McLaughlin, Dallara-Chevrolet, 85, Running.
10. (3) Josef Newgarden, Dallara-Chevrolet, 85, Running.
11. (15) Pato O’Ward, Dallara-Chevrolet, 85, Running.
12. (5) David Malukas, Dallara-Honda, 85, Running.
13. (20) Rinus VeeKay, Dallara-Chevrolet, 85, Running.
14. (7) Callum Ilott, Dallara-Chevrolet, 85, Running.
15. (16) Will Power, Dallara-Chevrolet, 85, Running.
16. (11) Romain Grosjean, Dallara-Honda, 85, Running.
17. (17) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Honda, 85, Running.
18. (12) Devlin DeFrancesco, Dallara-Honda, 85, Running.
19. (13) Jack Harvey, Dallara-Honda, 85, Running.
20. (25) Conor Daly, Dallara-Chevrolet, 85, Running.
21. (21) Jimmie Johnson, Dallara-Honda, 73, Did not finish.
22. (24) Kyle Kirkwood, Dallara-Chevrolet, 58, Did not finish.
23. (4) Alexander Rossi, Dallara-Honda, 44, Did not finish.
24. (23) Dalton Kellett, Dallara-Chevrolet, 30, Did not finish.
25. (19) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 0, Did not finish.
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