Colton Herta took his third pole position of the 2024 NTT IndyCar season with a lap of 59.5431 seconds in the final round of qualifying in Toronto, leading a promising qualifying session for the Honda teams. It is the seventh consecutive race Herta will be starting on one of the first two rows. He only has one podium finish during this streak. It has been 40 races since Herta’s most recent victory. His average finishing position when starting on pole position is 8.135, and he has finished outside the top ten his last three times starting on pole position. Herta has finished in the top ten in all three of his Toronto starts, and he has finished on the podium the last two years.
Kyle Kirkwood made it an Andretti Global sweep of the front row, as Kirkwood was 0.1304 seconds off his teammate Herta. This is Andretti’s first front row sweep since the 2023 St. Petersburg season opener. Kirkwood has an average finish of seventh in the three street course races this season. His career average finish on street courses is 11.384 and he has finished 22nd and 15th in his first two Toronto starts.
Felix Rosenqvist makes it three Hondas in the top three positions. Rosenqvist was 0.2821 seconds slower than Herta. This is Rosenqvist’s sixth top five starting position this season. He had started outside the top ten in four of the last six races. Rosenqvist has finished in the top ten in all three of his Toronto starts. The Swede has finished worse than his starting position in four of his five top five starts in 2024.
Scott McLaughlin is the best Chevrolet starter in fourth. After being disqualified from St. Petersburg, which left McLaughlin with zero points, he has scored only 15 points in street races this season, ranking him 27th out of 32 drivers that have participated in street races.
Romain Grosjean makes it two Chevrolets in the top five. This matches Grosjean’s best starting position of the season. Grosjean has finished outside the top twenty in four of the last six street races, which includes a 22nd-place finish at Toronto last year.
David Malukas survived causing a local yellow flag in the second round of qualifying to advance to the Fast Six, and Malukas will take sixth starting spot. He has yet to finish in the top ten through four races with Meyer Shank Racing. His only top ten finish in ten street course starts was tenth at St. Petersburg in 2023. Malukas' average finish in street races is 19.1.
Josef Newgarden was 0.019 seconds off making the final round of qualifying and starts seventh. Newgarden is tied for 15th in street course points this season. He has scored only 40 points in the first three street races, 33 of those points came for finishing fourth at Long Beach. Newgarden is tied with Christian Lundgaard and Pietro Fittipaldi. Newgarden has five consecutive top ten finishes at Toronto.
For the second consecutive race, Graham Rahal starts eighth. Rahal was eighth in the second Iowa race last Sunday. He has four top ten finishes in the last five Toronto races. His finishes during this stretch have been ninth, 21st, ninth, fourth and ninth.
Will Power takes ninth on the grid. After his victory last Sunday in Iowa, Power has a shot for consecutive for the first time since 2018 when he won the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and the Indianapolis 500. However, Power has only eight top ten finishes in 17 Toronto starts.
Agustín Canapino benefited from a penalty on Álex Palou in the second qualifying group, allowing Canapino to advance to round two. The Argentine matches his career-best start in tenth. He started tenth in the most recent race from Iowa. Canapino has finished outside the top twenty in three consecutive races. the only time he has finished outside the top twenty in four consecutive races was from Long Beach through the Indianapolis 500 last year.
Marcus Ericsson finds himself 11th on the grid. Ericsson has finished in the top ten in five of the last seven street course races. This was only the fourth time Ericsson had made it out of the first round of qualifying this season. This is his seventh time starting outside the top ten in 2024.
Christian Rasmussen starts 12th. Rasmussen returns for his penultimate start of the 2024 season. His final scheduled start is Portland as Ed Carpenter will run the oval races in the #20 Chevrolet. Rasmussen is currently the third-best rookie on points with 104. He is 52 points behind Linus Lundqvist and 21 points behind Kyffin Simpson. Rasmussen is 25 points ahead of Nolan Siegel in the rookie championship.
Marcus Armstrong was 0.0258 seconds short of advancing out of group one, and Armstrong will start 13th. He was the top Chip Ganassi Racing qualifier. Armstrong scored his first career podium finish in the most recent street course race when he was third in Detroit. He started 19th in that race.
Patricio O'Ward ended up 0.1242 seconds off making it out of group two, and the Mexican will start 14th. O’Ward had started in the top ten for four consecutive races and in eight of the first 11 races. O'Ward enters Toronto with seven consecutive top ten finishes. He has 18 top ten finishes in the lsat 21 races.
For the first time in his career, Scott Dixon starts outside the top ten at Toronto. Dixon will start 15th. He had started in the top ten in all 17 visits to Exhibition Place prior to this weekend. Dixon has 11 consecutive top ten finishes at Toronto, and he has finished in the top five in the last four Toronto races.
Defending Toronto winner Christian Lundgaard has more work to do this year, as the Dane occupies 16th on the grid. Lundgaard could become the first driver to win consecutive Toronto races since Scott Dixon swept the 2013 doubleheader weekend. Lundgaard could become the first driver to win at Toronto in consecutive years since Michael Andretti in 2000-01. Michael Andretti is responsible for three of the four times a driver has won consecutive Iowa races. Andretti won at Toronto in 1991-92 and 1994-95.
Santino Ferrucci is in 17th, his fifth time starting outside the top fifteen in the last six races. Ferrucci has finished in the top ten in two of three street course races this season. A.J. Foyt Racing has failed to have a car finish better than 17th in the last three Toronto weekends with an average finish of 21st for a Foyt entry.
After losing his fastest two laps in the first round of qualifying for blocking, Álex Palou will start 18th, his worst starting position of the season and his worst start since 22nd at Toronto in 2022. Prior to finishing 16th at Detroit in June, Palou had six consecutive top five finishes in street races, and 15 consecutive top ten finishes in street races.
Nolan Siegel makes his first Toronto start in 19th. Siegel had improved on his starting position over the previous three races. Two of Siegel's three victories in Indy Lights were on street courses. He won at Detroit in 2023 and at St. Petersburg this year.
Kyffin Simpson makes it an all-rookie row ten in 20th. This is only Simpson’s three start inside the top twenty this season. He started 23rd or worse in his first three street course races this season. Simpson never competed at Toronto in Road to Indy competition.
Toby Sowery makes it three consecutive rookies on the grid with the Dale Coyne Racing driver in 21st. Sowery is back for his second career start after finishing 13th on debut at Mid-Ohio two weeks ago. Sowery has also been confirmed for the Portland race next month in this entry. He was fifth and second in the 2019 Indy Lights race at Exhibition Place. Aaron Telitz and Oliver Askew split the victories that weekend.
Rinus VeeKay has his worst starting position since Barber Motorsports Park, as the Dutchman is in 22nd. VeeKay is coming off consecutive top ten finishes after finishing fifth and ninth at Iowa. It is his first time with consecutive top ten finishes since the opening two races of the 2022 season.
Pietro Fittipaldi is down in 23rd. This is the seventh time this season Fittipaldi is starting outside the top twenty. His best start on a street course this season was 15th at Detroit. Fittipaldi has finished 13th in two of the first three street races this season, at St. Petersburg and Detroit. Thirteenth is his best finish of the season.
Linus Lundqvist is down in 24th, his worst starting position in the last six races. Lundqvist is coming off his second-best finish of the season after he was 12th in the second Iowa race. His best finish on a street course was 13th at Long Beach. He has finished worse than his starting position on the prior two occasions he has started outside the top twenty.
Hunter McElrea brought out a red flag on his first lap of qualifying, meaning McElrea will start 25th. McElrea makes his IndyCar debut in the #18 Honda for Dale Coyne Racing. The New Zealander becomes the ninth driver to race for Dale Coyne Racing this season, and the sixth debutant to drive for DCR in 2024. He is 92nd driver in DCR history. McElrea has not raced at Toronto since the 2019 U.S. F2000 weekend when he finished third and 13th.
A broken right thumb took Alexander Rossi out of the #7 Chevrolet after Friday practice and Théo Pourchaire returns to Arrow McLaren. Due to the late call-up, and Pourchaire being in France on Friday evening, his only laps in the car were in qualifying, and he will start 26th. Rossi misses a race for the first time in his IndyCar career. The American had made 142 consecutive starts.
After getting his best career start at Iowa, Sting Ray Robb will start in 27th, dead last for Toronto. Prior to his accident on the final lap of the Sunday race from Iowa, Robb had four consecutive top twenty finishes, the longest top twenty finish streak of his career.
Peacock's coverage of the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto begins at 1:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 1:30 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 85 laps.
