Will Power of Team Penske has won the Honda Indy Toronto. A caution period during the second round of pit stops was decisive for the result as Power was the only of the frontrunners to have pitted before the caution.
Scott Dixon dominated the first half of the race. Starting from pole, the Chip Ganassi Racing driver was leading the race ahead of Team Penske drivers Helio Castroneves, Simon Pagenaud, and Will Power.
Dixon remained in the lead after the first round of pit stops. However, Castroneves fell down to sixth place after having suffered a flat tire just before his stop.
Caution came out on lap 46 as the track surface was investigated at Turn 5 where the kerb was broken. With 39 laps remaining, Conor Daly, James Hinchcliffe, Takuma Sato, Josef Newgarden, and Ryan Hunter-Reay pitted, hoping to extend the stint beyond the estimated fuel window of 31 in order to finish the race.
Caution came out again on lap 58 as Josef Newgarden hit the damaged kerb at Turn 5 and crashed into the outside barrier. Running as high as seventh early in the race, last year’s winner Newgarden had fallen into the back of the field as Juan Pablo Montoya hit his rear wheel pod, forcing Newgarden to pit for repair. Still recovering from the injuries from the Texas crash last month, INDYCAR will re-evaluate Newgarden on Monday before clearing him to drive.
The caution period shuffled the order in the lead of the race. Will Power from third place was the only of the frontrunners to have pitted, having done it just before the caution came out. The drivers that were still to pit made their stops under cautions, with the top two of Scott Dixon and Simon Pagenaud among those.
The race restarted on lap 64. Tony Kanaan who was on a three-stop strategy was leading ahead of Power who didn’t anymore have to pit. Power was followed by Hinchcliffe and Sato who had made their stops during the previous caution. Meanwhile the previous top two of Dixon and Pagenaud were in 13th and 14th places, respectively.
Kanaan was pulling away in the lead, aiming to build as much gap as possible before his final stop. Kanaan pitted with nine laps to go, falling into fourth place, behind Hinchcliffe who had just been overtaken by Castroneves.
After Kanaan’s stop, the question was if the third-placed Hinchcliffe and the fifth-placed Sato could finish the race as they had pitted only five laps later than Kanaan. Those drivers were aided by one more caution period with four laps remaining. The caution was caused by Jack Hawksworth’s car having stopped at the track and Juan Pablo Montoya going out at the same place.
The race returned under green with one lap to go. Will Power retained the lead and won the Honda Indy Toronto by 1.5 seconds to Helio Castroneves who completed Team Penske’s and Chevrolet’s 1-2 victory. The only Canadian in the race, James Hinchcliffe finished in third place as the top Honda driver and got to celebrate on the podium in front of his home crowd.
Scott Dixon and Simon Pagenaud whose victory hopes were destroyed by a caution period were able to gain some positions in the final stint. Dixon finished the race in eighth place and Pagenaud in ninth.