1. After a week where Chip Ganassi Racing's future became murkier, Ganassi's greatest driver lifted the present from the mess and showed it is still going to be alright with Scott Dixon behind the wheel.
Not only was it a victory but it was the long-awaited 52nd victory, and Dixon is now tied with Mario Andretti for second all-time. Win #52 took longer than we all thought it would. After ending 2020 with 50 victories and his sixth championship, it felt destined to occur in 2021. It wasn't a matter of if he would hit 52 in 2021, but how far would he surpass it. Instead, we waited 442 days for Dixon to equal Andretti in the record book after what was one of the hardest stretches in Dixon's career.
But it hasn't been that bad. Dixon entered this weekend with eight top ten finishes from nine races. He was sixth in the championship. It just hasn't been as flawless as we know from Dixon. He probably should have won the Indianapolis 500 only for the worst speeding penalty of his career to happen. Outside of Indianapolis, there hasn't really been a race where it felt like Dixon was in the fight. But you never count out Dixon.
This was a quintessential Dixon victory. Qualifies second, runs in the leader's shadow over the first stint, leap frogs him in the pit cycle, sail to victory. Dixon always had the car, but he knows how to be smart and beat another driver. Dixon has probably won ten races this way. I am not sure the rest of the grid has ten of these victories combined. Once Dixon got to the lead he wasn't going to look back.
It is Dixon's first victory of the season. It took him 442 days to get from #51 to #52. We cannot pencil in if #53 will come, but this victory alone vaults Dixon into the championship discussion when he hasn't really been mentioned in it through the first nine raes. If there is anyone who can turnaround a season from this position, it is Dixon. He has done it before. With four races over the next three race weekends, Dixon could change the championship landscape in a blink.
2. My only question with Colton Herta's strategy is why the team didn't have him stay out an extra three to five laps. Dixon makes his stop and comes out in traffic. Dixon is behind Jimmie Johnson and Conor Daly. Herta comes in immediately the next lap and emerges ahead of Dixon, but Dixon had warm tires and passed Herta into turn one.
If Herta waits a few more laps, Dixon is likely balked behind Johnson and Daly, loses a few seconds and Herta comes out ahead of Dixon and likely ahead of all four drivers. It would have been smooth sailing for Herta in that scenario. I understand waiting to cover Dixon and not being caught out if a caution occurred, but I think the team should have analyzed the scenario a little more and given it another few laps.
Outside of that, Herta was one of the best two drivers today. He could have won, but second is a fair outing as well.
3. It wasn't the cleanest third-place finish for Felix Rosenqvist, but it is a result that has been coming for the Swede. Rosenqvist has been as good as his much more celebrated Arrow McLaren SP teammate this season. O'Ward has been great, but Rosenqvist has been close to him across the board. Rosenqvist has been good and has been in the conversation in most of the races. Mechanical issues ended two of his better opportunities this season at Texas and Mid-Ohio. This day was bound to come for him.
Did this day have to come after taking out Alexander Rossi? Perhaps not, but Rosenqvist's contact with Rossi wasn't the most blatant thing we have ever seen. They were side-by-side through turn three, Rosenqvist's car stepped out on him, it slammed into Rossi's right front tire and Rossi was sent straight into the barrier.
I expected a penalty. Rosenqvist wasn't in complete control of his race car. If it isn't a penalty, ok, but it must be called that way for the rest of the season. In the same way Rosenqvist has been there but had a few opportunities taken from him, this was a tough break from Rossi. He was comfortably in the top five before the contact. He just had a horrible result at Mid-Ohio. It seems like every time Rossi gets a run of good results, a run of bad results immediately cancel it out.
4. Graham Rahal had a great day, scoring Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's first top five finish of the season. RLLR was quick in practice and was hard done in qualifying. Rahal went long on the first stint and because most of the field was stuck behind Johnson and Daly, it helped Rahal not lose as many positions once he made his stop. Rahal wasn't as far down after his first stop and was better positioned for the rest of the race.
This is Rahal's best finish ever at Toronto and his first top five finish since 2010! I am not sure if this is a big swing in the right direction for this group. Rahal sounded confident after this race. He is bullish for Iowa. You have to start somewhere when turning it around. This could be the day for the RLLR bunch.
5. Out of nowhere, Marcus Ericsson was fifth today, and this feels like a pivotal moment of a championship season. Ericsson was running in the top ten before the sequences of cautions mid-race, but Josef Newgarden was in the top three and it looked like Ericsson was lose points in his championship lead.
Then Newgarden had a slow stop, the field was shuffled around and Ericsson went forward to fifth. Instead of losing possibly 15 points in this race, he gained 15 points in his championship lead. If Ericsson gets through the Iowa doubleheader next weekend and either holds serve or extends his championship lead, it feels like the Astor Cup will be his in September. He doesn't make enough mistakes to worry and no one has put any pressure on him.
Time is running out for anyone to make a move.
6. There was a brief moment in today's race where Álex Palou had a run on Ericsson and the first thought on my mind was if Palou made any contact with Ericsson that cost Ericsson a serious amount of points, Palou would be fired before he could drive back to the pit lane and get out of the car.
Palou is on the verge of being fired every moment of every day from now until the season ends. It was bad enough Palou had an accident in practice. If he were to take out teammates, let alone the one leading the championship, he can kiss the rest of his 2022 season goodbye.
Team turmoil aside, Palou was impressive today starting from the back of the field. Ganassi might be mad at Spaniard, but Palou knows his talent and he knows he deserves to be paid as a champion. If Ganassi wants Palou, and he clearly wanted him on Tuesday at 3:35 p.m. when the team announced it was exercising its extension, sit down and come to terms on a price.
The answer to all of your questions is money. McLaren is presenting Palou with opportunities beyond IndyCar, most notably, Formula One, but cash is king.
7. Simon Pagenaud was racy and finished seventh. Not his greatest race ever, but a good one. If he wasn't caught out in qualifying, he might have positioned himself for a top five finish. Either way, this isn't a result to complain about.
8. Graham Rahal was fourth. Christian Lundgaard was eighth. Lundgaard was around the top ten all race. Lundgaard had a few good moves and wasn't a push over in this one. Lundgaard has held his own on a team that hasn't been spectacular. He really hasn't done anything wrong this season, and he is the top rookie in the championship. That makes sense.
9. Strange day for Team Penske. Scott McLaughlin was running around the top five for most of this race and was then hung out wide on one restart, drove through the marbles and lost a handful of positions. This relegated McLaughlin to ninth, which isn't a true representation of his race.
10. And then there was Josef Newgarden in tenth. Newgarden had one long pit stop and could not recover. He went from probably a podium position to tenth. That is a 15-point drop, not to forget mentioning Newgarden was about five spots ahead of Ericsson prior to that pit stop and instead he finished five spots behind Ericsson.
Newgarden cannot afford another day like this one. He has to be spotless for the final seven races, and he should be happy the next two are at Iowa.
11. Patricio O'Ward fought his way to 11th. O'Ward never was comfortable this weekend. The team went long on the first stint. It helped, but 11th is probably the best he was going to do today.
12. David Malukas was running in the top six and was pushing McLaughlin and Rossi, but Malukas lost spots on pit stops and really was in a battle in the middle of the field. This wasn't the kind of day Malukas was hoping for, but there are positives to pull from it.
13. Rinus VeeKay and Ed Carpenter Racing went off strategy after the Rossi caution. VeeKay already went long on the first stint. When the Rossi caution came out, the field stopped on lap 47. That was 38 laps to the end. It was going to be tough for anyone to make it on fuel, but one caution would help get them there. VeeKay and ECR banked on the race staying green. It was worth the risk. Instead, cautions came, VeeKay had to stop under yellow and he was 13th, which feels about right for his day.
14. Let's quickly go through the field. Callum Ilott had a damaged front wing send him off in turn three and he still recovered to finish 14th. The only problem is Ilott started seventh in this race and I don't recall him running one lap in the top ten. I know he did, but he has to take one of these top ten starting positions and turn it into a top ten run.
Will Power had a good start but couldn't keep it up through the rest of the race and finished 15th. Not a good day for Power's championship hopes. Romain Grosjean was nowhere all race and was 16th. But he is a former Formula One driver. He is good enough to wipe the IndyCar field. Hélio Castroneves was anonymous in 17th. Devlin DeFrancesco ended up 18th and DeFrancesco has still not finished better than 17th in his IndyCar career.
15. Jack Harvey was 19th, but it felt like he was a mile off his RLLR teammates, and he started next to Rahal. This season hasn't gone to plan for Harvey. I am not sure how tight the team is with Harvey, but expectations were he would be better than 19th. Conor Daly was slow, the team took a gamble and it didn't pay off and he finished 20th. Sounds about right.
Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Kirkwood got together. Johnson is slow and leaves the door open. Kirkwood was ambitious and arguably desperate. Kirkwood needs to bring the car home more often. This was race ten and Kirkwood has five retirements. He needs to go into a race with the mindset of bringing the car home in one piece as a victory. To finish first, you must first finish. Kirkwood has to figure out how to finish races.
Alexander Rossi was classified in 23rd, Dalton Kellett lost an engine after 30 laps in another race with Foyt mechanical failures, and Takuma Sato failed to complete a lap after hitting the barrier on exit of turn two on the opening lap. Sato does not do well at Toronto.
16. I want to touch upon Peacock because this was the first IndyCar race exclusively streamed. Long before this television contract, back in the days of ABC having five network races, including the Indianapolis 500, and NBCSN having the rest of the races on cable, there was a vocal segment of IndyCar fans who said all they wanted was a streaming package for IndyCar races. They wanted all the races available via streaming.
In 2022, we have a streaming platform that carries every IndyCar race, along with every IndyCar practice and qualifying, and all we hear is people complain they have to spend $5 a month for said streaming platform.
I am not an über-capitalist who believes a company's philosophy should be to drain every penny out of a person's pocket, but I believe there is a fair cost to everything. At $5 a month, $60 for the entire year, Peacock isn't some extravagant premium service. If you are an IndyCar fan, and you really want to watch IndyCar, you can figure out a way to budget to have Peacock to see this one race.
On top of that, this was one race. This is the only race on Peacock. Fourteen races are on network NBC. You don't even need cable for network NBC. Two races are on USA. There is an affordable way to watch IndyCar if you want to watch IndyCar.
I understand the frustration of needing multiple streaming services to watch everything, and I understand it seems unnecessary to get a service that you will only use for one thing, but each individual must sit down and ask what do they want and how they can get it. IndyCar wasn't charging $200 to see this one race. This was different and uncomfortable for some, but this wasn't the worst thing to ever happen to IndyCar.
Remember, IndyCar races used to be moved to ESPN Classic if there was rain or the television window was going long. Danica Patrick's only IndyCar victory was shown live on ESPN Classic. Yes, it was at Motegi and delay to 10:00 p.m. ET on a Saturday, but was ESPN Classic any easier to find than Peacock?
And if you think Peacock is bad, look at how CBS, network CBS, handled the Formula E race on Saturday. It was raining, the top two cars piled into the barriers, a red flag immediately came out, and CBS left the broadcast at the end of the television window before we even knew what would happen next. And it didn't move the race to CBS Sports Network or let people know they could continue watching via a streaming service. Bob Varsha signed off and basically said, "Google it" to find out what the final results would be!
We need perspective and we need to approach these circumstances rationally. It is going to be ok, and if it makes you feel any better, both Iowa races will be on NBC, the IMS road course the week after that will be on NBC, the Nashville race the week after that will be on NBC and six of the final seven races will be on NBC. Don't complain that you cannot find the races.
17. It was nice for IndyCar to be back in Canada, and this was the first Toronto race in three years, but the circuit looked to be something fresh out of 1986, not 2022.
For starters, the tire barriers in the corners looked substandard. It didn't help that they didn't have sponsor wrapping around them leaving them exposed until race day on Sunday. Either they weren't ready, which means the promoter wasn't prepared for the race weekend or it took until Saturday for someone to notice and a rush order was put on them. Either way, it wasn't a good thing.
The pedestrian bridge prior to turn three was left exposed for the world to drink in its rust. That was once covered with sponsorship as well.
Then there was the racetrack coming up and I feel like we have been seeing chunks of pavement breaking up during races for the last three or four times IndyCar has raced at Exhibition Place.
Everyone loves to mention how Roger Penske owns the series. Toronto wasn't "Penske Perfect." It wasn't even "Speedway, Indiana Taco Bell Perfect." If this was the first Toronto race, we would all say it was unacceptable and IndyCar should think twice about returning. Toronto has been on the schedule for over 30 years. It must be better than this.
IndyCar must hold itself and its races to a higher standard. IndyCar isn't Formula One and cannot force regular re-paves of municipality streets, but it can maintain a respectable aesthetic. Green Savoree Promotions is responsible for Toronto. It is also responsible for St. Petersburg, Mid-Ohio and Portland. There have been enough complaints about Mid-Ohio's infrastructure lately to make you wonder whether Green Savoree is capable of running four events.
It was nice to be back in Toronto, but 2023 must be better than that.
18. And after this physical street course race, IndyCar turns around and will have a doubleheader at Iowa. The season is picking up pace, and it is only getting more demanding on the teams and drivers.
