I'm a retired educator and lifelong racing fan. I hope to return to fostering greyhounds in the near future. Living mainly in Indy and wintering in Florida. I attend about 10 Indycar races a year as well as some sports car events
Rinus VeeKay turned the fastest lap in the morning warmup with a lap of 0.59.8987 seconds. The session saw many cars overshoot turn 3 and some close calls on pit road. Alexander Rossi was the only other driver to lap in under a minute, trailing VeeKay by about 5 hundredths of a second.
Polesitter Colton Herta had an eventful session. He stalled leaving pit road when he has to stop to let another car by, then later went into the turn 3 runoff area and stalled, bringing out the only red flag of the practice period.
Herta also was involved in a close race off pit road with two other cars who were nearly three wide at pit exit.
Tire marbles were strewn across the track, and when cars came into the pits lots of debris was on the tires.
3:30 PM NTT INDYCAR SERIES Honda Indy TorontoPeacock
We missed out on tying history yesterday when Colton Herta earned his second pole of the season, but another mark could be tied today. If Scott Dixon wins, and I have had a good feeling about him all week, he will tie Mario Andretti for second place in career victories with 52. Dixon’s last win came at Texas in race 1 May 1, 2021. Dixon has won at least one race every season since 2005.
Four rookies in the top 12 starting spots makes for a bit of tension at the start. Yesterday was the 2022 rookie class’ best overall day of the season. Can they back up their qualifying performances with good results today?
The alternate tires may not see a lot of action today We could see some early pit stops, especially if there is an early caution, to get back to blacks for the rest of the race. The track is too sort for an alternate strategy to work.
There will be yellows. The timing and length of each will play into the outcome.
It should be a fun race. It’s great to have Toronto back on the schedule.
The streak is over. Coming into Toronto this weekend, the NTT Indycar series had seen nine different pole winners in its nine races. A different pole winner today would have tied a record set in 1952. But Colton Herta won his second pole of the season in a wild qualifying session that saw several pole contenders eliminated early due to a red flag.
The first group in round 1 had a smooth run. In group 2 things got a bit crazy. Devlin DeFrancesco overshot turn 3 and went nose first into the tires. The other cars were on an out lap, so DeFrancesco was not penalized. While he was extricating himself, Alex Palou’s car stopped on track, causing a red flag.
Drivers scrambled to get their best laps in the short time remaining. Kyle Kirkwood was on pace to solidly advance, but he clipped the wall in turn 6 and spun just before pit entrance in turn , bringing out a red flag. The drivers behind Kirkwood did not get to complete their laps. Will Power, Graham Rahal, and Simon Pagenaud, who all looked like pole contenders, missed the second round.
The round of 12 included four rookies- Callum Ilott, David Malukas, Christian Lundgaard, and Devlin DeFrancesco. Malukas would advance to the fast Six. he was the only driver in the final round who could keep the pole streak alive.
Indycar photo by Chris Owens
Josef Newgarden set the fastest time with less than a minute to go, then pitted and waited. Herta and Scott Dixon were both on a pace to beat Newgarden’s time. Herta edged Newgarden by 0.25 seconds. Dixon was faster than Newgarden but fell short of Herta by 0. 089 seconds. Herta earned his ninth career pole.
Notes
Points leader Marcus Ericsson will start ninth.
Callum Ilott just missed the fast Six and will start seventh.
David Malukas is in a good spot to pick up more ground on Christian Lundgaard in the Rookie of the Year battle. Lundgaard leads by 14 points. He starts 10th tomorrow.
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing drivers Jack Harvey and Graham Rahal saw their competitive practice times go for naught with their 13th and 14th place staring spots. Rahal looked to be a pole contender.
Pato O’Ward has been slow all weekend. O’Ward needs a good result Sunday. He has averaged a 25th place finish the last two races.
Does Will Power have another come from behind run in him? Power will line up 16th tomorrow. It will be his third straight start of 15th or worse. Toronto is a difficult track to make up ground.
Colton Herta turned the quickest lap in his morning’s pre qualifying practice session and will lead group 2 in round 1 this afternoon at 2 PM.
The start of practice was delayed 33 minutes because of incidents in support series. In Indy Pro 2000 qualifying, a car spun at the entrance to pit lane and dislodged the tire barrier. In the Porsche Cup qualifying session two cars collided and had hard contact with the wall and tires, moving the wall out of place and severing a camera cable.
There were problems for a few title contenders and several incidents of wall contact. Only two incidents resulted in red flags.
Alex Palou made contact and suffered damage to the left front suspension. he limped into the pits as action continued. Josef Newgarden noticed an oil pressure light on his dash and came into the pits. The car did not return to the track. An engine change might be coming before qualifying.
Romain Grosjean brought out the first red flag after heavy right rear wall contact. He slowly rolled back to the pits with the wheel close to separating from the car. With less than a minute remaining in the session, Takuma Sato had the hardest hit of the day. The car suffered heavy left side damage.
We will probably see some laps under one minute in qualifying on the red tires.
Qualifying begins at 2 PM, and several teams have a lot of work to do.
Drivers who have raced at Toronto before will probably have the upper hand in qualifying today. In yesterday’s practice the top 10drivers all had raced here previously. Christian Lundgaard in 11th was the highest ranked river with no Toronto experience.
Simon Pagenaud may become our 10th straight pole winner this season. The Meyer Shank driver won the race in 2019 from the pole and just missed P1 yesterday. Graham Rahal may make his first Fast Six of 2022, although he seemed concern about the car’s pace on the red tires.
Qualifying is key here because of the tightness of the circuit.
Reminder: Tomorrow’s race is exclusively on Peacock. It’s only $5. Check your satellite or cable company. several include Peacock at no cost. You can cancel Peacock n Monday if you want and no one’s feelings will be hurt.
Tuesday’s Alex Palou tug-of war between Chip Ganassi Racing and McLaren has some serious implications for the NTT Indycar Series. Zak Brown has a lot of money to throw around, and McLaren has a lot of cars in several series. The organization is in Indycar, F1, Formula E as of next season, and Extreme E.
Five drivers in the Indycar paddock- Colton Herta, Alexander Rossi, Pato O’Ward, Felix Rosenqvist, and let’s assume Palou- have contracts of some sort with Mclaren. All are in the top 11 in the standings. Only O’Ward, Herta, and Rossi are guaranteed to be in Indycar in 2023. Herta will likely still be with Andretti Autosport. He recently completed his first F1 test with McLaren with more to come. Rosenqvist and Palou are aligned with McLaren, not necessarily the Indycar team. Arrow McLaren SP has plans for a third full time car in Indycar next season but has not named a driver.
Rosenqvist appears headed to Formula E, but we don’t know where Palou will be should McLaren prevail.
My concern is that McLaren is taking several of Indycar’s best drivers and stockpiling a driver pool to assign to their various racing ventures. Will they stop when all their seats are filled, or are they looking for some reserves as well?
The good news is that Indycar talent runs deep, and McLaren can’t get everyone, but what effect will this have on the series? Team owners may have to start offering better salaries to keep the top drivers, and perhaps offer them rides in other series they wish to try. Will the higher price for drivers cause smaller teams to fold?
I have become a big fan of Alex Palou, and I would hate to see him leave the series after just three years. he has the potential to be a huge star and win several Indycar titles and the Indianapolis 500. I would hate to see Indycar become a series where drivers win and one year and leave the next.
Alexander Rossi had the fastest lap in the first practice for the Honda Indy Toronto this afternoon with a lap of 1:00.6090. Simon Pagenaud was second, just 0,0901 seconds behind. Graham Rahal was third, 0.0941 seconds off Rossi’s lap.
The session stopped four times. The first red flag was for a track inspection of a manhole cover in turn 2. Callum Ilott tagged the wall his front wing to cause the second halt to action. Jimmie Johnson spun in turn eight, just lightly brushing the barrier with the end plate of the front wing, and Helio Castroneves caused the final red flag when the went into the tire barrier n turn eight and stalled his car.
Alex Palou put aside this week’s controversy and turned in the10th best time. He told the media this morning that he will not make further comments on the situation. Palou said he is concentrating on repeating as series champion.
Points leader Marcus Ericsson finished the session in fourth place, ahead of his two closest rivals. Will Power ninth and Josef Newgarden was fifth.
Rahal’s third place is the first time this year the team has been in the conversation at the end of a session. He said that a test at Sebring gave the team a good idea of what would work at Toronto. Rahal would like to find more pace on the red alternate tires.
Graham Rahal
Notes
I had forgotten how tight and narrow the Toronto circuit is. There is little room for error anywhere on the track.
Pit entrance and exit look very tight. Pit boxes have been reduced to 35 feet from their normal 40 foot space to accommodate the extra entries. The grid is expected to be even larger in 2023. The series is working with the promoter to redesign the pit lane for more cars..
It was great seeing the Princes’ Gate again. I have always thought that the track should be driving through it at the start of each lap rather than it being part of the runoff area.
After a two year absence, the Honda Indy Toronto returns to Exhibition Place. Sunday’s event will be the 35th race in Toronto. Double headers took place in 2013 and 2014. While it is one of he older races on the calendar, this year presents some new challenges. This weekend marks the first race in Toronto for the aeroscreen. Because of the two year COVID hiatus, only 12 of the 25 drivers have raced at this track.
Toronto is the first race following the dispute between Chip Ganassi Racing and Arrow McLaren SP over the services of Alex Palou for 2023. I prefer my racing drama on the track, but I am interested in seeing how this plays out. I will discuss my thoughts on this later today.
Will Power didn’t seem to think the lack of experience will be an issue. he told the media Tuesday that experience is not a factor.
“Basically with simulators and video and everything, it doesn’t really give you an advantage any more. I think people turn up, they pretty much know the track. Yeah, it’s anyone’s guess who will be the quickest there and what the top 10 would be, honestly,” Power said.
Power thinks the forward weight of the aeroscreen might help at Toronto.
“I’ve actually found at Toronto, as the weight has gone forward, it’s really helped. On those really slippery cement patches, the actual weight downforce matters, so you get more weight force on the front tires, and it actually helps turn the car. That was a big problem when the car had really rearward weight, that the front tires would not work over that cement.”
This weekend will be the first race in 2022 without a woman driving a car. The number 11 car of A. J. Foyt Racing is not entered due to nonpayment by the sponsor, Rokit. The car may return later in the season.
Paddock Drama
The Andretti team drama we saw at Mid Ohio should be gone this week. Toronto is not a track to be running into other cars. I haven’t heard how the team test at Iowa went, but I think we’ll see good behavior from the drivers thuis weekend.
Chip Ganassi racing confirmed that Alex Palou will drive for them this weekend after the midweek dispute with Arrow McLaren SP over his 2023 employment. Both claim to have a deal with palou for next season, though McLaren doesn’t necessarily intend for him to be in Indycar. I will have thoughts on this topic in a separate story later today.
Points Battle
Marcus Ericsson takes a 20 point lead over Will Power and a 34 point lead over Josef Newgarden into Canada. Alex Palou is just 35 points behind, and Pato O’Ward trails the leader by 65 points.
Ericsson needs at least one more win to be in a good position to win the title. More important, Ericsson does not need is a bad race.
We could possibly see a change at the top of the standings Sunday.
First Repeat Pole Winner?
I have a feeling the string of nine different pole winners in nine races will be broken on Saturday by either Josef Newgarden or Will Power. Both Penske drivers have had success at Toronto, and Team Penske is having a strong season.
I still believe the series will match the record of 10 different pole winners set in 1952.
Dixon’s 52nd Win
Will Scott Dixon win again? Sunday mat be the day the six time series champion finally gets the victory that ties him with Mario Andretti on the all time career list. I think this week’s race is probably is last best chance this year.
One of the reasons I planned to go to all the races this year was to witness Dixon’s 52nd win. It stands to reason it will happen at the one race I don’t get to.
A reminder– Sunday’s race is only on Peacock Premium. I understand there are deals for a one week free trial out there in cyberspace. This week would ne a good one to find that offer.
The Pit Window by Mike Silver 