Track Walk: Toronto 2023

The tenth round of the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series season takes IndyCar to Toronto and the streets winding in and around Exhibition Place in Canada's largest city. Over the span of 28 days, IndyCar will contest five races, two street course races, two oval race and a permanent road course. At the end of this stretch, only three races will remain in the season. With a maximum 432 remaining on the table for all drivers, time is ticking on a number of championship hopes, and over the course of the next few races, dreams of a title will be extinguished. Anyone without a point will be eliminated this weekend. 

Coverage

Time: Coverage begins at 1:30 p.m. ET on Sunday July 16 with green flag scheduled for 1:53 p.m. ET.
Channel: Peacock
Announcers: Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will be in the booth. Kevin Lee and Dillon Welch will work pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule

Friday:

First Practice: 3:00 p.m. ET (75 minutes)

Saturday:

Second Practice: 10:35 a.m. ET (60 minutes)
Qualifying: 2:50 p.m. ET 
Sunday:
Warm-up: 10:15 a.m. ET (30 minutes)
Race: 1:53 p.m. ET (85 laps)

* - All sessions will be available live on Peacock

Do We Hear Four?

Outside of a misfortunate day in late May, Álex Palou has been near unstoppable for two months. 

Palou has three consecutive victories. In those three races, Palou has led 132 of 235 laps, 56.17% of the laps run. He has eight consecutive top five finishes, the longest streak since Scott Dixon had an eight-race streak spread over the 2011 and 2012 seasons. Palou has started on one of the first two rows in seven consecutive races. The Catalan driver has not started worse than seventh this season, and he has not finished worse than eighth this season.

Naturally, Palou's form has him the top average starting position at 3.5556 and the top average finish at 3.222. However, Palou has a chance to do something that has not done in over 17 years. 

A victory in Toronto would Palou's fourth consecutive and he would become the first driver to win four consecutive races since Sébastien Bourdais won the first four races of the 2006 Champ Car season. 

In IndyCar history, there have been 12 occasions where a driver has won four consecutive races. The only other time it happened in 21st century was with Cristiano da Matta during the 2002 CART season. Da Matta won at Laguna Seca, Portland, Chicago Motor Speedway and his four-race winning streak was capped off with a Toronto victory. 

The only Chip Ganassi Racing driver to win four consecutive races was Alex Zanardi in 1998. Zanardi's first victory was at Belle Isle. The Italian then won at Portland, Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland, Ohio and Zanardi finished the streak with a victory in Toronto. 

It should be noted Palou's streak began in Detroit, he then won at Road America but followed it with a victory in the Buckeye State at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. 

The only other four-race winning streak in the last 50 years was Al Unser, Jr. in 1990 when Unser, Jr. won at Toronto, Michigan, Denver and Vancouver. 

Al Unser is the only driver to win at least four consecutive races on multiple occasions in IndyCar history, and both times Unser did it, he won five consecutive races, first accomplishing it in 1968 with a victory at Nazareth before two doubleheader sweeps on the Indianapolis Raceway Park road course and then at Langhorne. The second time was in 1970 with victories at DuQuoin, Indiana State Fairgrounds, Sedalia, Trenton and Sacramento. 

Bobby Unser also won four consecutive races in 1968, starting at Stardust Raceway, a three-mile road course in Las Vegas, Nevada before winning at Phoenix, Trenton and the Indianapolis 500 to top it all off. 

Mario Andretti had four consecutive victories in the 1967 season at the IRP road course, Langhorne and a doubleheader sweep at Mont-Tremblant. A.J. Foyt famously opened the 1964 season with seven consecutive victories. Jimmy Bryan closed the 1954 season with four consecutive victories. 

In 1922, Jimmy Murphy won four consecutive races, starting at the 1.25-mile board oval in Cotati, California, including his Indianapolis 500 victory and then victories on the board ovals in Uniontown, Pennsylvania and Tacoma, Washington. 

The first driver to win at least four consecutive races was Ralph DePalma. In 1918, DePalma won five consecutive races. Two were held on July 18 on the two-mile Speedway Park board oval in Chicago. The other three were on August 17 around the two-mile Sheepshead Bay Speedway board oval in New York. 

Twice has a driver won four consecutive races in a season and not won the championship. Andretti could not close out the 1967 season, and Foyt took the title by 80 points after a dramatic Riverside season finale. 

Al Unser did not win the 1968 championship despite his summer hot streak, but his brother Bobby did win the title that season with his four consecutive victories early providing the backbone for a tight championship battle that saw Bobby Unser hold off Andretti by 11 points to win the title.

How Do Streaks End?

While Palou is on a historic tear and is hoping for the history to continue in Canada, eventually, history stops being made. More three-race winning streaks did not become four than did. The last nine three-race winning streaks went no further. So what happened? 

The previous three-race winning streak belonged to Scott Dixon at the start of the 2020 season. Dixon won the first three races, beginning at Texas, continuing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and concluding at the first race of a doubleheader weekend at Road America. The third victory for Dixon was rather fortunate as Josef Newgarden stalled on a pit stop and Dixon overtook Will Power during the final round of pit stops. In the next race, Dixon had a bad break of his own, stalling twice and finishing 12th.

Prior to Dixon, Simon Pagenaud won three consecutive races early in the 2016 season, Long Beach, Barber Motorsports Park and the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Pagenaud had finished second in the first two races of that season as well. The next race was the 100th Indianapolis 500. Sadly, an engine issue knocked Pagenaud out of contention and an unsafe pit release did not help his hopes. The Frenchman settled for 19th. 

Will Power had a three-race winning streak spanning two seasons. Power won at Houston and in Fontana at the end of 2013 and then Power won the 2014 St. Petersburg season opener. In the next race at Long Beach, Power qualified 14th but he fought his way forward only to finish second to Mike Conway. 

Earlier in the 2013 season, Dixon won three consecutive races at Pocono and over the Toronto doubleheader weekend. That streak lifted Dixon from seventh in the championship, 92 points off the lead, to second, 29 points back. The next race was Mid-Ohio. Dixon qualified third, but the two-stop strategy saw him fall backward while Chip Ganassi racing teammate Charlie Kimball used three stops to beat Simon Pagenaud for the victory. Dixon settled for seventh. 

There were two three-race winning streaks during the 2012 season. The first was Power, who won at Barber, Long Beach and São Paulo, and then was caught in an accident in the Indianapolis 500 when Mike Conway spun with front wing damage. Power was 29th. Later that season, Ryan Hunter-Reay won at Milwaukee, Iowa and Toronto on the spin. Hunter-Reay qualified on pole position for the next race at Edmonton, but Hunter-Reay had to serve a ten-spot grid penalty for an unapproved engine change. From 11th, all the American to get was seventh in Canada. 

Dixon's first three-race winning streak occurred in the 2007 Indy Racing League season. He won at Watkins Glen, Nashville and Mid-Ohio. At Michigan, Dixon was running second when he and Dario Franchitti got together on the back straightaway and had an accident. Dixon ended up finishing tenth.

After opening the 2007 Champ Car season with an accident in the Las Vegas street race, Sébastien Bourdais responded with victories at Long Beach, Houston and Portland. At Cleveland, Bourdais started on pole position and led the first 27 laps. Bourdais lost the lead to Power during the first pit cycle and an ignition issue ended Bourdais' race after 67 laps, placing him 12th.

A.J. Allmendinger won his first three races for Forsythe Racing during the 2006 Champ Car season. Allmendinger won at Portland, Cleveland and Toronto. Allmendinger went from fifth in the championship, 67 points behind Bourdais to second, 23 points back after that streak. At Edmonton, Allmendinger was third, one position behind Bourdais with Justin Wilson taking the victory. 

In summation, the last nine three-race winning streaks ended with only two podium finishes, four top ten finishes and three retirements. The average finish of the streak ending races is 11.222.

Honda is Running the Streets

Toronto is the fourth of five street course races this season, and Honda has started 2023 going three-for-three, winning all three street events this year. Dating back to last season, Honda has won five consecutive street course events, a streak that started at Toronto with Scott Dixon's 52nd career victory. 

Along with Dixon's 52nd career victory, the New Zealander was responsible for Honda's next street course victory, this his 53rd career victory, putting Dixon ahead of Mario Andretti record book, occurred at Nashville. Chip Ganassi Racing made it three consecutive street course victories when Marcus Ericsson pounced on Patricio O'Ward's plenum event caused O'Ward to lose power exiting the final corner and saw Ericsson blast through to the lead with four laps remaining. 

Kyle Kirkwood kept Honda's streak alive at Long Beach, leading a Honda 1-2-3 with Romain Grosjean and Ericsson rounding out the podium. Álex Palou's first victory of this three-race streak on the first race on the new Detroit street course brought this streak to five races in June. 

During this five race streak, Honda entries have led 285 of 450 laps, claimed ten of 15 podium finishers and 17 of 25 top five finishes. A Honda driver has started on pole position in four of the last five street course races.

Chip Ganassi Racing will look to keep up its form, and it enters as the defending Toronto race winners. Dixon's victory last season was Ganassi's eighth Toronto triumph, and it broke a tie with Newman-Haas Racing for most victories in event history. Dixon is responsible for half of the team's victories here. Last year, Palou was sixth after starting 22nd in what was his Toronto debut. Marcus Ericsson went from ninth to fifth in what was his second Toronto start. 

Andretti Autosport has been quick on street courses, but the results do not always go the team's way. While Kirkwood won at Long Beach and led an Andretti 1-2, victory slipped out of its grasp at St. Petersburg when Grosjean was knocked out of the race after contact with McLaughlin. At Detroit, Grosjean qualified third but slipped back before colliding with the barrier and ending his race. Kirkwood suffered damage on lap one and went on the drive of his career to finish sixth while Colton Herta had front wing damage cost him spots late and drop Herta to 11th in the final result, one spot ahead of Devlin DeFrancesco.

Prior to this streak, Team Penske had won three consecutive street course races, one for each driver with Scott McLaughlin winning at St. Petersburg in February 2022, Josef Newgarden winning at Long Beach that April 2022 and Will Power winning the final Belle Isle race in June 2022, which remains Power's most recent victory to date. Team Penske has won three of the last five Toronto races. 

Honda enters this weekend having won three consecutive races, all thanks to Álex Palou. Honda has not won four consecutive races since Herta won the 2019 season finale at Laguna Seca and then Chip Ganassi Racing opened the season with four consecutive victories, three for Dixon and then the first career victory for Felix Rosenqvist at Road America. 

Toronto is Not Known For Variety

Of the 14 Toronto races held since reunification, Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing has combined to win ten times. The only other team with multiple victories during that span is Ed Carpenter Racing, which won the second race of the 2014 doubleheader with Mike Conway and then Josef Newgarden won in 2015 when the team was branded as CFH Racing after merging with the Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing organization.

The other two races were won by Andretti Autosport in 2012 with Ryan Hunter-Reay, and the first race of the 2014 doubleheader with Sébastien Bourdais taking victory for KV Racing, a team that has been defunct since 2016. 

Last year, Felix Rosenqvist had McLaren third at Toronto, and the McLaren organization has finished third in four of the last five Toronto races, dating back to the team's time as Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Patricio O'Ward was 11th last year in his Toronto IndyCar debut. Alexander Rossi had finished in the top ten in three consecutive Toronto races before contact with Rosenqvist took Rossi out of the race last year and left Rossi with a 23rd-place classification. 

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing is coming off a double top ten finish day at the most recent race at Mid-Ohio. Last year, RLLR had a double top ten day in Toronto with Graham Rahal finishing fourth and Christian Lundgaard ending up eighth. RLLR has not had a podium finish on a street course since Takuma Sato was third in the first Belle Isle race in 2019. 

Toronto has not been a kind place to Dale Coyne Racing. Since 2015, the team has one top ten finish out of 12 possible top ten finishes. DCR's average finish in this race during that time is 15.5883. The team has two combined top five finishes in the team's history at Toronto, both were fifth-place results, the first coming with Bruno Junqueira in 2007 and the other with Justin Wilson in 2009. 

Meyer Shank Racing is making a driver change this weekend. After Simon Pagenaud was not cleared to return to competition after his practice accident at Mid-Ohio, MSR has drafted in its sports car driver Tom Blomqvist to run the #60 Honda this weekend at Toronto. Blomqvist has spent the last two seasons driving for MSR in IMSA, where he has won four races, the 24 Hours of Daytona twice, Petit Le Mans and Mosport last week. He has also made 23 starts in Formula E. Blomqvist was second in the 2014 Formula Three championship behind Esteban Ocon and ahead of Max Verstappen.

Hélio Castroneves remains in the #06 Honda for MSR this weekend. Castroneves has never won in Toronto despite having made 16 starts. He has finished second three times at Exhibition Place plus a third. All four of those results came in a five-race span. Castroneves has only seven top ten finishes in the Queen City.

A.J. Foyt Racing was third in the 2012 Toronto race with Mike Conway, and the team has some good history at the track. From 2011 through 2016, Foyt had a top five finisher in four of eight Toronto races. However, in the last four Toronto races, the team has one top ten finish and an average finish of 16.875.

Juncos Hollinger Racing will only be making its third Toronto appearance this weekend. Its first trip to the Queen City was with René Binder in 2018 and Binder finished 17th, two laps down. Last year, Callum Ilott qualified seventh, but dropped to 14th, completing all 85 laps. 

Team Penske, Chip Ganassi Racing and Andretti Autosport have combined to win 22 of 24 street course races run since the introduction to the universal aero kit ahead of the 2018 season. The only races one of these three teams did win was the first race with the universal aero kit when Sébastien Bourdais won at St. Petersburg with Dale Coyne Racing in 2018. The other was O'Ward and McLaren winning the second Belle Isle race in 2021. 

Road to Indy

The lower two series in the Road to Indy will join IndyCar on the trip to Canada.

USF Pro 2000 has seven races remaining and after Toronto the series has a six-week break before competing at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas at the end of August. 

Myles Rowe scored his first victory since March in the second Mid-Ohio race earlier this month and that has Rowe's championship lead up to 251 points. Rowe has finished in the top five in nine of 11 races this season, and it has given him a 64-point gap over Kiko Porto in second. 

Porto has yet to win in 2023, but he has four runner-up finishes this season. However, the Brazilian has finished outside the top five in six races this season. Joel Granfors is two points behind Porto, and Granfors has finished outside the top five in seven races. 

Salvador de Alba is fourth on 173 points, two ahead of Francesco Pizzi. De Alba has three top five finishes all season, while Pizzi has five, but Pizzi is coming off finishing 15th and 17th at Mid-Ohio. Michael d'Orlando has found form in the last two weekends with three podium finishes in four races, including two victories. It has d'Orlando up to sixth on 169 points. 

Jace Denmark is three points behind d'Orlando after he had a double top-five weekend at Mid-Ohio and Denmark was second in the first Mid-Ohio race to d'Orlando. Jonathan Browne is done to eighth on 152 points, five points ahead of Jack William Miller and Lirimi Zendeli rounds out the top ten on 142 points, two more than Reece Ushijima. 

St. Petersburg season opener winner Christian Brooks returns to competition this weekend driving for Turn3 Motorsport. Brooks won with the team at St. Petersburg.

USF Pro 2000 will race at 11:50 a.m. ET on Saturday July 15 and at 11:05 a.m. ET on Sunday July 16. Both races will be 25 laps with a 45-minute time limit on Saturday and 40-minute limit on Sunday. 

Toronto is the penultimate weekend of the U.S. F2000 weekend, and only five races remain this season. 

Simon Sikes leads the championship by 40 points over Lochie Hughes and Nikita Johnson after Sikes finished second, 17th and first at Mid-Ohio while Hughes was fourth, 19th and 22nd. Hughes had the car breakdown on the grid for the final Mid-Ohio race after being in an incident the previous race with Sikes. Johnson has nine consecutive top five finishes and 11 top five finishes from 13 races. 

Sikes and Hughes has both won four times this season. The only other driver with multiple victories is Mac Clark, who is fourth in the championship on 246 points. Clark has four consecutive podium finishes. No driver has had five consecutive podium finishes this season. Evagoras Papasavvas rounds out the top five in the championship on 235 points. 

Chase Gardner is the top driver in the championship without a victory this season. Gardner is sixth on 176 points, 12 points ahead of Sam Corry. The final driver mathematically eligible for the championship is Jorge Garciarce on 160 points.

After this weekend, a driver must be within 99 points of the championship lead to be mathematically alive of the championship at the Portland season finale over the weekend of September 2-3.

U.S. F2000 will race at 1:40 p.m. ET on Saturday July 15 with the second race at 8:10 a.m. ET on Sunday July 16. Both races will be 20 laps with a 45-minute time limit on Saturday and 40-minute limit on Sunday. 

Fast Facts

This will be the eighth IndyCar race to take place on July 16 and the first since Josef Newgarden won at Toronto in 2017. 

Three Toronto races have taken place on July 16. Michael Andretti won the other two on July 16, 1995 and July 16, 2000. 

This year's Toronto race falls on the 34th anniversary of Bobby Rahal winning the Marlboro Grand Prix at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey. It was Bobby Rahal's first victory after the birth of his son Graham Rahal on January 4 that year. 

Bobby and Graham Rahal have never won a race on the same day. 

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 average starting position for a Toronto winner is 3.7778 with a median of third.

Seventeen Toronto races have been won from the front row and 27 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 4.228 with a median of four. 

Last year's race had seven lead changes. It was the eighth time a Toronto race had at least seven lead changes. Three of the last five Toronto races have had at least seven lead changes.

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 3.542 with a median of three. The average number of caution laps is 14.228 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.

Only one of the last ten Toronto races has had more than four caution periods. That one race was the second race of the 2014 doubleheader, a race that was shortened due to the Saturday race being postponed to Sunday, and then ended early due to a time limit due to the race taking place in wet conditions. 

Predictions

Colton Herta makes it six consecutive street course victories for Honda, and he leads another Honda 1-2-3 with Álex Palou extending his championship lead. Arrow McLaren will have the most Chevrolet entries in the top ten. Will Power does make the Fast Six, but he does not finish in the top six. Tom Blomqvist ends up finishing ahead of Hélio Castroneves. Jack Harvey has his best finish of the season. Sting Ray Robb does not finish 22nd. There will not be an incident on the opening lap. At least one car will suffer significant damage from contact on pit lane. Marcus Armstrong increases his lead in the rookie of the year battle by at least 12 points. Sleeper: Callum Ilott.