The tenth round of the 2022 NTT IndyCar Series season brings the series back to Toronto for the first time since 2019. It is the penultimate street course race of the season, and it is the first of four consecutive weekends IndyCar will compete. Five races will take place over a 22-day period. There have been six different winners in the last six races, but one team has won the last three. Each Team Penske driver has claimed a victory in the last three events, and Chevrolet now has seven victories this season. No other team has won multiple races yet this season. Penske has won three of the last four Toronto races with three different drivers.
Coverage
Time: Coverage begins at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday July 17 with green flag scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET.
Channel: Peacock
Announcers: Kevin Lee, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will be in the booth. Dave Burns and Dillon Welch will work pit lane.
Channel: Peacock
Announcers: Kevin Lee, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will be in the booth. Dave Burns and Dillon Welch will work pit lane.
IndyCar Weekend Schedule
Friday:
First Practice: 2:30 p.m. ET (75 minutes)
Saturday:
Second Practice: 10:00 a.m. ET (60 minutes)
Qualifying: 2:00 p.m. ET
Qualifying: 2:00 p.m. ET
Sunday:
Warm-Up: 10:55 a.m. ET (30 minutes)
Race: 3:20 p.m. ET (85 laps)
* - All sessions will be available live on Peacock
Significant News
The IndyCar world was stunned Wednesday night when Álex Palou announced he would not be returning to Chip Ganassi Racing for the 2023 season despite the team announcing earlier that day it had exercised its option to retain Palou for that season.
Minutes after Palou said he was not returning to Ganassi, McLaren released a statement saying it had signed Palou to an unspecified program in 2023. There was no mention of the Arrow McLaren SP IndyCar program in the release though the team did say it would work on finalizing its driver lineups across its multiple series of participation for next season.
Just over two hours after McLaren's statement, Ganassi released a statement saying it could confirm it had Palou under contract for the 2023 season.
Entering Thursday ahead of the Toronto weekend and the final seven races of the 2022 IndyCar Series season, the defending champion finds himself at an impasse over his future with two teams claiming his talent for next year and the driver clearly preferring to live over staying.
Palou enters this weekend fourth in the championship, 35 points behind his current Ganassi teammate Marcus Ericsson who leads the championship. Palou has not won a race this season, but he has stood on four podiums and he has seven top ten finishes this season.
Return to Canada
A total of 1,099 days will have passed since IndyCar last took the checkered flag in Canada and when it will see the green flag on Sunday afternoon for the 36th Honda Indy Toronto. Three years and three days will be the longest gap between Canadian IndyCar races since IndyCar went six years, two months and 29 days running at Mosport in 1978 and Sanair in 1984.
Canada has hosted a total 78 IndyCar races with the most successful driver being Michael Andretti, who won ten times in Canada. Al Unser, Jr. and Dario Franchitti are tied for second-most Canadian victories with six each. Paul Tracy, Will Power and Scott Dixon all have five victories.
Seven different Canadian venues in four provinces have hosted IndyCar. Toronto is the track that has hosted the most races, but Quebec has had the most different venue. Mont-Tremblant was the first Quebec venue to host the series in 1967 but CART went to the 0.826-mile Sanair oval in 1984. Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal host CART/Champ Car from 2002 to 2006.
Mosport hosted the first Canadian IndyCar race fittingly on Canada Day in 1967. Vancouver is the second-most visited venue having hosted 15 races from 1990 to 2004 with three different configurations. Edmonton's City Centre Airport hosted eight races from 2005 to 2012 on two different configurations.
There are two Canadians in the field this weekend and both will be making their first IndyCar starts in their home country. Devlin DeFrancesco is 22nd in the championship and he is coming off matching his best finish of the season, 17th, at Mid-Ohio two weeks ago. Dalton Kellett is 27th in the championship and had three top five finishes in his last four Indy Lights starts at Toronto, including a third in race two
of the 2019 weekend.
A Canadian has not won an IndyCar race in Canada since Paul Tracy won at Vancouver in 2004. Tracy is also the last Canadian to win at Toronto having done it most recently in 2003.
Do I Hear Ten?
Patricio O'Ward became the ninth different pole-sitter to open the 2022 season at Mid-Ohio, and now IndyCar could make history at Toronto with a tenth different pole-sitter to open a season.
There are going to be at least 15 options to capture the record this weekend.
After the events at Mid-Ohio, Álex Palou is now level with Josef Newgarden for best average starting position this season at 6.5556. The only difference is Palou has yet to start on pole position in 2022. This will also be Palou's first visit to Toronto, but his only IndyCar pole position came in his maiden visit to Portland last year, and he went on to win that race.
Romain Grosjean is the next best driver in average starting position, but Grosjean started outside the top five in eight consecutive races and is coming off his worst starting position of the season at Mid-Ohio. He started 17th. Like Palou, Grosjean is making his first Toronto appearance.
Marcus Ericsson is still looking for his first career pole position. Ericsson started the 2019 Toronto race, but he was 20th on the grid out of 22 cars. He was also caught in an opening lap incident that damaged his car and forced him four laps down due to repairs. Ericsson ended up finishing 20th, but he did pick up fastest lap in the race.
Simon Pagenaud won the 2019 Toronto race from pole position, his sixth and most recent victory from pole position in his IndyCar career. Pagenaud has multiple pole positions at Toronto. He started first for the 2017 race and finished fifth. He has started in the top four in seven consecutive Toronto races.
Takuma Sato has never started better than seventh at Toronto. While Sato has started in the top five twice this season, he has started outside the top fifteen in five of nine races this season. He has not had a pole position in his last 44 races. In the 44 races prior to this drought, Sato won three pole positions in that timeframe.
Toronto will mark two years since Conor Daly's first career pole position, which came at Iowa driving for Carlin. Now, Daly looks for his first pole position with Ed Carpenter Racing and on a street course. Daly has started outside the top fifteen in seven races this season.
Besides Marcus Ericsson, eight other drivers are also looking for they first career pole position. Qualifying has been one of Callum Ilott's bright spot this season. Ilott has made the second round of qualifying in consecutive races and on four of six opportunities this season. He has yet to make the Fast Six this season. David Malukas has made the second round of qualifying in two of the last three races, and Malukas made the Fast Six at Belle Isle.
Christian Lundgaard has started 15th, 19th and 19th in the three previous street courses this season. Kyle Kirkwood is coming off his best starting position of his career after qualifying ninth at Mid-Ohio. Kirkwood made the second round of qualifying in the first two street course races this season. Neither Canadian driver Devlin DeFrancesco, nor Dalton Kellett, has started in the top ten in their IndyCar careers.
Jimmie Johnson has started outside the top twenty-five in five of nine races this season.
After Nine Rounds
Time is running out in the IndyCar season and the championship picture is coming into focus. For the third consecutive year, a Chip Ganassi Racing driver leads the championship through nine races. This time it is Marcus Ericsson on top.
Through nine races, Ericsson has one victory, three podium finishes, four top five finishes and seven top ten finishes. He has led 36 and has 321 points.
Since reunification, in eight of 14 seasons, the championship leader after nine races went on to win the championship. However, each time the championship leader had one victory or fewer through nine races, he did not win the championship. Hélio Castroneves had one victory after nine races in 2013 but lost the title to Scott Dixon. In 2017, Dixon led the championship with no victories and Josef Newgarden went on to win the championship that year.
Since the introduction of double points in 2014, Ericsson's 321 points is the fewest for a championship leader through nine races. In two of the previous three seasons when the championship leader had fewer than 350 points through nine races that driver did not win the championship. The exception was last year when Álex Palou won the title and had 349 points through nine races.
Ericsson's three podium finishes and four top five finishes are tied for the fewest for a championship leader through nine races with Will Power's 2012 season, a year Power lost the title in the final race of the season. Ericsson's 36 laps led are the fewest for a championship leader at this point of a season since reunification and it is only the second time in the last 15 seasons the championship leader has not led at least 100 laps through nine races. Dixon only led 54 laps through nine races in 2017.
We are looking at the championship leader through nine races, but what about the six occasions where the champion wasn't leading through nine races?
Most of those champions were in worse situations than the championship leader through nine races. Four of those six champions had fewer victories than the championship leader at that time. Only once did the eventual champion have more victories than the championship leader through nine races.
Dario Franchitti had fewer victories than Scott Dixon and Will Power respectively in 2009 and 2010, but Franchitti came back and won the championship each year. In 2012, Ryan Hunter-Reay had fewer victories than Power, but had more podium finishes than Power. In each of those three seasons, Franchitti and Hunter-Reay were second in the championship through nine races.
Dixon was miles behind Castroneves through nine races in 2013. Dixon had no victories, one podium finish, only five top five finishes and led only one lap through nine races. Dixon was fifth in the championship at the time. The 2013 season is also the longest since reunification with 19 races.
Two years later, Dixon was level on victories with Juan Pablo Montoya, each had two apiece. Dixon had led 119 more laps than Montoya at that point in the season and was third in the championship.
The only time the eventual champion had more victories than the championship leader through nine races was in 2017. Josef Newgarden had a victory while Dixon did not, however, Dixon had more podium finishes, top five finishes, top ten finishes and even laps led at that point of the season. Newgarden had led only 29 laps through nine races that year and was seventh in the championship.
Entering Toronto, any one of Ericsson, Power, Newgarden or Palou could leave this weekend as the championship leader. Sixty-nine points cover the top seven in the championship while 100 points cover the top eight drivers with seven races remaining.
Intra-Team Battles
We are at the midway point of the season, and while we know where everyone stands in terms of the championship, how do drivers look within their own organizations? Which teams have a clear leader and which are highly contested for the top spot?
A.J. Foyt Racing
Top Finisher:
Kyle Kirkwood - 4 (STP, LB, BMP, ROA)
J.R. Hildebrand - 2 (TEX, 500)
Dalton Kellett- 2 (DET, MOH)
Tatiana Calderón - 1 (GPOI)
Top Qualifier:
Kyle Kirkwood - 6 (STP, LB, BMP, GPOI, DET, MOH)
Dalton Kellett - 2 (TEX, ROA)
J.R. Hildebrand - 1 (500)
Kirkwood has been the top driver for Foyt in half the races, but he has left the door open in the other half. Hildebrand has led the way on ovals. Each time Kellett has been on top in either category all his teammates have been outside the top twenty.
Andretti Autosport
Top Finisher:
Colton Herta - 4 (STP, TEX, GPOI, MOH)
Alexander Rossi - 3 (500, DET, ROA)
Romain Grosjean - 2 (LB, BMP)
Top Qualifier:
Colton Herta - 5 (STP, TEX, LB, DET, MOH)
Alexander Rossi - 2 (BMP, ROA)
Romain Grosjean - 2 (GPOI, 500)
It has been balanced in the Andretti camp, but it has been in waves. Herta was the top finisher in three of the first five races and the top qualifier in the first three races. In the second quarter of the season, Rossi showed his strength. Rossi was the top finisher in three consecutive races before Mid-Ohio, and Rossi took pole position at Road America. Grosjean has picked up the pieces when Andretti needed it. He was the only Andretti car in the top ten of qualifying in the two races Grosjean has been best of the team, including the Indianapolis 500 where the next best Andretti car was 20th.
Arrow McLaren SP
Top Finisher:
Patricio O'Ward - 7 (STP, TEX, LB, BMP, 500, DET)
Felix Rosenqvist - 2 (GPOI, ROA)
Top Qualifier:
Patricio O'Ward - 7 (STP, BMP, GPOI, 500, DET, ROA)
Felix Rosenqvist - 2 (TEX, LB)
While Rosenqvist has been rejuvenated in 2022, O'Ward has still been the clear man on top at AMSP. However, in five of the six races where O'Ward has been the top AMSP qualifier and qualified in the top ten, Rosenqvist has also qualified in the top ten. On three of those occasions, both cars made the Fast Six.
Chip Ganassi Racing
Top Finisher:
Marcus Ericsson - 4 (TEX, GPOI, 500, ROA)
Álex Palou - 4 (STP, LB, BMP)
Scott Dixon - 1 (DET)
Top Qualifier:
Álex Palou - 4 (LB, BMP, GPOI, ROA)
Scott Dixon - 4 (STP, TEX, 500)
Marcus Ericsson - 1 (DET)
No surprise, the championship leader and the defending champion are tied for most times as the top finisher in this team, but it has been tight at Chip Ganassi Racing. Palou was top finisher in three of the first four races. Ganassi has had multiple top ten finishers in every race with at least three top ten finishers in five of nine races and all four cars were in the top ten at Texas. As much as we could use this to signal a decline for Dixon, he has been in the top ten in eight of nine races., and Dixon is level with Palou for most times at the top qualifier in the team.
Dale Coyne Racing
Top Finisher:
Takuma Sato - 5 (STP, LB, GPOI, 500, ROA)
David Malukas - 4 (TEX, 500, DET, MOH)
Top Qualifier:
Takuma Sato - 6 (STP, TEX, BMP, GPOI, 500, DET)
David Malukas - 3 (LB, ROA, MOH)
The numbers suggest Sato has the upper hand in the Dale Coyne Racing battle, but the numbers also suggest it is closer than it appears. The DCR drivers have been within six positions of each other in five races and they have qualified within six positions of one another in six races.
Ed Carpenter Racing
Top Finisher:
Conor Daly - 5 (LB, GPOI, 500, DET, ROA)
Rinus VeeKay - 3 (STP, BMP, MOH)
Ed Carpenter - 1 (TEX)
Top Qualifier:
Rinus VeeKay - 7 (STP, TEX, LB, BMP, 500, ROA, MOH)
Conor Daly - 2 (GPOI, DET)
In a swing from the last two seasons, Daly has been regularly the top ECR finisher, but in three of the races Daly has been top finisher, neither car has finished in the top ten. VeeKay has the clear edge in qualifying and when VeeKay does qualify ahead of Daly, the Dutchman is on average 10.57 positions further up the grid than his American counterpart.
Meyer Shank Racing
Top Finisher:
Simon Pagenaud - 5 (TEX, BMP, GPOI, DET, ROA)
Hélio Castroneves - 4 (STP, LB, 500, MOH)
Top Qualifier:
Simon Pagenaud - 6 (STP, LB, 500, DET, ROA, MOH)
Hélio Castroneves - 3 (TEX, BMP, GOI)
We had the peculiar thing through the first six races where the top MSR qualifier would not be the top finisher for the team. Pagenaud has since been the top qualifier in the last three races and top finisher in the last two of the last three. There is a big difference between the two drivers. In three of the four races Castroneves has been the top finisher, Pagenaud has finished within two spots of Castroneves. Meanwhile, in the races where Pagenaud is the top finisher, he is averaging finishing 12.6 spots better than his Castroneves. In two of the three races Castroneves has been the top qualifier, neither MSR qualified in the top fifteen.
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Top Finisher:
Graham Rahal - 5 (STP, LB, BMP, 500, ROA)
Christian Lundgaard - 3 (GPOI, DET, MOH)
Santino Ferrucci - 1 (TEX)
Top Qualifier:
Graham Rahal - 4 (STP, LB, BMP, 500)
Christian Lundgaard - 4 (GPOI, DET, ROA, MOH)
Jack Harvey - 1 (TEX)
What these numbers are not telling you is RLLR has zero top five finishes this year, zero top five starts this year, the team has a combined three top ten starting positions out of a possible 27, it has failed to put a car in the top fifteen on the grid in four races and the team has not had a car start in the top twenty of either oval race. However, RLLR has had a top ten finisher in six of nine races and put two cars in the top ten at Road America, but it has had at least one finisher outside the top fifteen in seven of nine races.
Team Penske
Top Finisher:
Josef Newgarden - 4 (TEX, LB, 500, ROA)
Will Power - 3 (BMP, GPOI, DET)
Scott McLaughlin - 2 (STP, MOH)
Top Qualifier:
Scott McLaughlin - 4 (STP, TEX, BMP, MOH)
Josef Newgarden - 3 (LB, DET, ROA)
Will Power - 2 (GPOI, 500)
I think things have been pretty even at Team Penske. Newgarden and McLaughlin are the only drivers in IndyCar with multiple victories. Power has a victory and has been in the top five in seven races. Penske has had multiple top five finishers in five races. McLaughlin had had peaks and valleys this season, but Mid-Ohio appears to have McLaughlin heading upward. Penske had all three cars start in the top ten of each of the first three races and has had multiple top ten starters in seven of nine races. Strangely, at the Indianapolis 500, no Penske car started in the top ten.
Road to Indy
Two of the three Road to Indy series will be in competition this weekend at Exhibition Place, and it is getting late early for Indy Pro 2000 and U.S. F2000.
Only three rounds, six races remain in the Indy Pro 2000 season, and the championship could make a pivotal swing this weekend in Toronto.
Louis Foster has won four of the last five races, giving Foster 282 points and a 49-point lead over Reece Gold. Gold has two victories this season, but he has only one top five finish in the last four races and one podium finish in the last five races. Fifty-five points behind Foster is Nolan Siegel, who won two of the first four races, but he has only two podium finishes in the last eight races.
Enaam Ahmed has not won this season, but Ahmed has nine top five finishes from 12 races, and he is 64 points behind Foster. Braden Eves and Josh Green are tied for fifth in the championship and each driver has a victory this season. Eves holds the tiebreaker with two runner-up finishes to Green's one.
Kiko Porto scored his first Indy Pro 2000 victory last time out at Mid-Ohio. Porto has 195 points, three more than Salvador de Alba, who has four consecutive top five finishes after having only one top five result in the first eight races.
Jack William Miller and Yuven Sundaramoorthy round out the top ten on 166 points and 158 points respectively.
Indy Pro 2000 will race at 1:00 p.m. ET on Saturday Jul 16 and at 11:40 a.m. ET on Sunday July 17th.
This is the penultimate round for the U.S. F2000 championship before the Portland triple-header to end the season over Labor Day weekend. With only five races remaining and 165 points left on the table, 11 drivers remain mathematically eligible for the championship.
Myles Rowe took two of three races at Mid-Ohio, and was third in the other, to take the championship lead with 296 points. Rowe has six consecutive podium finishes and nine podium finishes in 13 races. Michael d'Orlando sits in second, 12 points behind Rowe. D'Orlando's three victories this season trails only Rowe's four.
Jace Denmark has won twice this season and Denmark has eight consecutive top five finishes, but he is 42 points behind Rowe entering Canada. Jagger Jones is fourth in the championship, 68 points off Rowe. Jones has only one top five finish in his last five races.
Billy Frazer rounds out the top five in the championship on 215 points. Frazer has six podium finishes but has yet to win a race. Bijoy Garg is sixth on 187 points, one ahead of Canadian Thomas Nepveu. Christian Weir has 155 points, ut has not finished in the top five since the first race on the IMS road course in May.
Nicky Hays picked up his first top five finish of the season in the second Mid-Ohio race, but Hays is tied with Spike Kohlbecker for ninth in the championship on 146 points. Kohlbecker does not have a top five finish this season. Dylan Christie is the final driver mathematically eligible for the championship on 132 points, 164 points behind Rowe.
The first U.S. F2000 race will be at noon ET on Saturday July 16 with the second race at 9:45 a.m. ET on Sunday July 17.
Fast Facts
This will be the 15th IndyCar race to take place on July 17 and first since Simon Pagenaud won the first race of the 2020 Iowa doubleheader, which was held on a Friday.
This will be the fourth Toronto race to take place on July 17. The other three races were in 1988, 1994 and 2016 and won by Al Unser, Jr., Michael Andretti and Will Power respectively.
This July 17th is also the 17th anniversary of the inaugural Grand Prix of Edmonton. Sébastien Bourdais won that race.
The last Toronto race was the fastest in event history with an average speed of 100.9 mph. It was the first Toronto race to average over 100 mph. The previous fastest Toronto race was in 1991 when Michael Andretti won with an average speed of 99.143 mph.
Eleven Toronto races have averaged over 95 mph.
Eight Toronto races have averaged under 90 mph.
The slowest Toronto race was in 2007 when Will Power won at 72.534 mph in a rain-soaked race.
Felix Rosenqvist and Patricio O'Ward are the only drivers entered at Toronto that has won at the track in Indy Lights. The only driver to win in Indy Lights and IndyCar at Toronto is Paul Tracy.
The only driver to win at Toronto in Atlantics and IndyCar is A.J. Allmendinger.
No rookie has ever won at Toronto.
Adrián Fernández and Justin Wilson are the only two drivers to pick up their first career victory at Toronto.
The only driver to win at Toronto in Atlantics and IndyCar is A.J. Allmendinger.
No rookie has ever won at Toronto.
Adrián Fernández and Justin Wilson are the only two drivers to pick up their first career victory at Toronto.
Newman-Haas Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing are all tied for most Toronto victories with seven each.
The only drivers to win consecutive Toronto races are Michael Andretti in 1991-92, 1994-95 and 2000-01, and Scott Dixon's 2013 doubleheader sweep.
Chevrolet has won 13 Toronto races, the most of any manufacture. Honda has won ten Toronto races, three of which when it was the only engine manufacture in IndyCar.
The average starting position for a Toronto winner is 3.828 with a median of third.
Sixteen Toronto races have been won from the front row and 26 Toronto races have been won from inside the top five.
Three Toronto races have been won from outside the top ten (Michael Andretti from 13th in 2001, Mike Conway from 11th in 2014 race two and Josef Newgarden from 11th in 2015).
The average number of lead changes in a Toronto race is 4.205 with a median of four.
Five times has a Toronto winner led every lap (Michael Andretti 1991-92, Dario Franchitti 1999, Cristiano da Matta 2002 and Paul Tracy 2003).
The average number of cautions in a Toronto race is 3.529 with a median of three. The average number of caution laps in a Toronto race is 14.205 with a median of 12.
There has never been a caution-free race at Toronto.
The last Toronto race to have only one caution was in 1992.
The last Toronto race to have only one caution was in 1992.
Predictions
Josef Newgarden makes it four victories this season and moves to at least second in the championship. We will not get a tenth different pole-sitter to open this season. Chip Ganassi Racing will not have a top five finisher, but Álex Palou will be the top finisher in the team. No Andretti Autosport car will make contact with another Andretti Autosport car. Neither Arrow McLaren SP driver retires due to a mechanical issue. Both A.J. Foyt Racing cars will see the checkered flag. There will not be a caution that occurs in the middle of a pit cycle. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing will have at least one car make the second round of qualifying. Takuma Sato completes at least 84 laps. Sleeper: Callum Ilott.
