Colton Herta became the first repeat pole-sitter of the 2022 NTT IndyCar Series season, as Herta took the top spot for the Honda Indy Toronto with a lap of 59.2698 seconds in the final round of qualifying. This is Herta's ninth career pole position in what will be Herta's 58th IndyCar start this weekend. Four of Herta's last five pole positions have come on street courses, and each have been on a different street circuit. In two of those four street course races, he crashed out of the race, including Long Beach earlier this season. His father Bryan's best starting position at Toronto was ninth. Between the Road to Indy and IndyCar, Colton Herta has only two top five finishes in seven Toronto starts.
Scott Dixon sweeps the front row for Honda in the Honda Indy Toronto. It is the third consecutive Toronto race Dixon is starting second and this is the sixth consecutive Toronto race he is starting in the top five and he has started in the top ten in all 16 of his Toronto starts. Dixon was 0.0894 seconds off Herta's top time. This was the first time Dixon made the Fast Six on a road/street course this season. He has nine consecutive top ten finishes at Toronto. Dixon is one of three drivers tied for second most Toronto victories. Dixon, Will Power and Dario Franchitti have each won here three times. Only Michael Andretti with seven Toronto victories has won more.
Josef Newgarden will start third after being 0.2559 seconds off Herta. This is the fifth consecutive Toronto race Newgarden is starting in the top ten after starting in the top ten only once in his first six visits to this event. He has finished on the podium in the tenth race of the season for seven consecutive seasons. In this seven-race stretch, Newgarden has won four times, including the 2015 Toronto race. Each of those four victories have come at four different tracks (Toronto, Iowa, Road America and Mid-Ohio).
Alexander Rossi makes it an all-American row two, as Rossi was only 0.2846 seconds off his teammate Herta. Only once has Rossi won a race when starting worse than third. That was from 11th in his Indianapolis 500 victory. Based on average finish, Toronto is Rossi's fourth best track with a minimum of three starts. Rossi's average finish here is 7.25. Only Portland, Mid-Ohio and Belle Isle are better. Of those tour tracks, he has only won at Mid-Ohio.
David Malukas has his first top five starting position in IndyCar. Malukas was 0.3442 seconds behind Herta's qualifying time. Malukas' best finish in six Road to Indy starts at Toronto was eighth in the second Indy Lights race in 2019. A rookie has finished in the top five of the last two Toronto races. Robert Wickens was third in 2018 and Felix Rosenqvist was fifth in 2019.
This will be Scott McLaughlin's first race in any series in Canada and he will do it from sixth on the grid. McLaughlin could become the 42nd driver to win IndyCar races in multiple countries. Technically, McLaughlin is one of ten drivers who could become the 42nd driver to win IndyCar races in multiple countries this weekend.
Callum Ilott matched his best starting position in IndyCar, ending up seventh on the grid. Ilott was 0.0476 seconds short of making the Fast Six. Ilott has retired from two of his first three street course starts in his IndyCar career. Both of those came at Long Beach. Ilott has finished worse than his starting position in five of his first eight starts, including each of the previous four times he has advanced to the second round of qualifying. He has also finished level with his starting position once.
Felix Rosenqvist qualified eighth, 0.0754 seconds shy of advancing to the final round of qualifying. This is the eighth time Rosenqvist has qualified in the top ten this season. He is coming off matching his second worst finish in his IndyCar career and his worst finish on a road/street course in IndyCar. Rosenqvist was 27th at Mid-Ohio. He has more finishes outside the top twenty in his IndyCar career (10) than top five finishes (9).
Championship leader Marcus Ericsson will start behind his fellow Swede Rosenqvist, ninth on the grid. Ericsson has finished better than his starting position in five consecutive races. Ericsson set fastest lap in the most recent Toronto race in 2019. It was the first fastest lap of his IndyCar career. He has at least one fastest lap in each of his IndyCar season. His most recent was in the Indianapolis 500 this past May.
Christian Lundgaard will start tenth, his best starting position since Lundgaard rolled off from eighth on the grid for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. He has started 15th or worse in the previous three street course races this season. Lundgaard has finished better than his starting position in the last four races.
Romain Grosjean will start 11th, leading an all-Andretti Autosport row six. This is the third time in the last four races Grosjean will be starting outside the top ten. The last time an IndyCar race was won from 11th on the grid was James Hinchcliffe at Iowa in 2018. Twice has Toronto been won from 11th starting position. Grosjean has finished off the lead lap in four of the last five races.
After controversially advancing to round two despite getting into the tires in his qualifying group, Devlin DeFrancesco will start 12th, his best career starting position in IndyCar. His prior best starting spot was 17th. DeFrancesco lost his fastest two laps in round two for interference. This will be the first time the Toronto-born DeFrancesco will be racing in Canada.
Jack Harvey missed out on advancing from group one by 0.09945 seconds. This will be Harvey's best starting position since he started ninth for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Harvey will be making his first appearance at Toronto since 2015 when he was runner-up in both Indy Lights races at the track. Harvey's only other Toronto start was in 2014 when he finished third in Indy Lights.
Graham Rahal makes it an all-Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing row seven after Rahal was stuck in seventh position when the red flag came out for Kyle Kirkwood's accident at the end of group two. Rahal has not finished in the top five in his last 11 Toronto starts. Rahal had seven top five finishes last year, three of which were on street courses. He has no top five finishes through nine races in 2022.
Patricio O'Ward starts on the inside of row eight, his worst starting position since he started 16th for the St. Petersburg season opener. O'ward has finished outside the top twenty in the last two races. Entering the 2022 season, O'Ward had finished outside the top twenty only twice in his career.
Will Power was caught out by the Kirkwood red flag and Power will start 16th, his fifth consecutive race starting outside the top ten. It is the first time Power has started outside the top ten in five consecutive races since 2008 when he started outside the top ten at Iowa, Richmond, Watkins Glen, Nashville and Mid-Ohio. He has won the tenth race of a season twice in his career. One of those was the 2010 Toronto race.
Hélio Castroneves finds himself 17th on the grid. Castroneves does not have a top five finish through the first nine races of the season. This is the longest Castroneves has gone without a top five finish to start a season. His previous longest stretch was seven races into a season, which occurred in his rookie season in 1998 and the 2011 season.
Simon Pagenaud's streak of three consecutive top ten starting positions has been snapped, as Pagenaud will roll off from 18th. Pagenaud and Power actually ran identical laps in qualifying, but Power completed his first and gets the better starting position. Pagenaud's last street course victory was at Toronto in 2019. Pagenaud has won at only two tracks multiple times, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and Sonoma.
For the third consecutive race, Takuma Sato will start 19th. Sato has retired from six of his 12 Toronto starts. He has only completed 748 out of a possible 971 laps, and he has finished 20th or worse in seven Toronto races. Sato had started in the top ten in three consecutive Toronto races prior to this year.
Rinus VeeKay rounds out the top twenty on the grid. This is the fourth consecutive race VeeKay has started outside the top ten. After finishing fourth at Mid-Ohio, Rinus VeeKay is looking for consecutive top five finishes for the first time in his IndyCar career. He swept the Pro Mazda races at Toronto in 2018.
This will be Jimmie Johnson's first race ever in Canada and Johnson will roll off from 21st on the grid. Johnson is coming off his best finish in IndyCar after finishing 16th at Mid-Ohio. Mid-Ohio was his second lead lap finish this season. The other was Texas in March. Johnson's only lead lap finish in his IndyCar career was last year's Long Beach season finale.
Álex Palou stopped on circuit with an engine problem in group two of qualifying and lost his fastest two laps. This relegated Palou to 22nd on the grid, the second worst starting position in his IndyCar career. He has three fastest laps this season, the only driver with multiple fastest laps. Palou was the only driver with three fastest laps last season and no driver has had four fastest laps in a season since Josef Newgarden in 2019.
Dalton Kellett was unable to make a lap in group one's qualifying session due to fuel pressure issues and Kellett will start 23rd for his first Toronto race. This is the third consecutive race Kellett has started 23rd. He made 11 starts on the street of Toronto in Road to Indy competitions. His best finish was third in the second Indy Lights race in 2019.
Kyle Kirkwood hit the barrier on his final qualifying lap in group two and Kirkwood will start 24th. This is the seventh time in ten races he has started outside the top twenty. Kirkwood won three of his four Road to Indy starts in Toronto, sweeping the U.S. F2000 races in 2018 and splitting the Indy Pro 2000 races the following year.
Conor Daly lost his fastest two laps for interfering Colton Herta in group two of qualifying and Daly will start 25th. This is the first time Daly is racing at Toronto since 2017 when he finished 17th driving for A.J. Foyt Racing. This will be his fourth different team in four Toronto starts. His finishing position has dropped in each appearance from finishing 12th in 2015 with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports to 15th in 2016 with Dale Coyne Racing before his 2017 result.
Peacock's coverage of the Honda Indy Toronto will begin at 3:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 85 laps.
