Dario Franchitti will be on pole for a third consecutive race. He beat Will Power and Justin Wilson for the pole. Franchitti looks to finish better though then the past two races he started in pole. He did not finish either of those races and didn't even complete a lap at Iowa. The only other Chevrolet in the top six was Sebastien Bourdais and he will start fourth, followed by Scott Dixon and Canadian Alex Tagliani. Winner of the previous two races, Ryan Hunter-Reay qualified seventh. The other Canadian James Hinchcliffe qualified ninth but both he and Tagliani will have to serve 10 spot grid penalties and will start sixteenth and nineteenth respectively. Simona de Silvestro who was to start twenty-first also changed her engine and will start twenty-fifth. It was an even split between Honda and Chevrolet in the top ten but give Honda the edge as they took seven of the top twelve.
Toronto is the first race this season with Push2Pass. Unlike the previous Push2Pass system used by IndyCar, this Push2Pass system has a time limit, just as it did when used by ChampCar. For Toronto, the teams will have 100 seconds worth of the extra horsepower. IndyCar used to limit each teams to a certain amount of pushes of the button per race.
The track itself has seen some work done to it, notably with the track being repaved at turn three and a new slab of concrete in turn nine.
While we do have two Canadian drivers in the field, this will be the first Toronto race that Paul Tracy will not be participating in since 1991, a race that was won by Michael Andretti. Five times the Toronto race has been won from the pole position, Franchitti was the last to do so in 2009. The farthest back a winner has come from was 2001 when Michael Andretti won from thirteenth position, the final of his seven Toronto wins.
Quick Note: 2010 Star Mazda Champion and Road to Indy graduate Conor Daly finished 5th and 2nd in the two GP3 Series races held at Silverstone this weekend.
Coverage begins tomorrow on ABC at 12:30pm ET, green flag will be around 1:00pm ET.
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