1. It feels like the championship is over because while every title rival had an issue and hit a barrier or another driver, Scott Dixon kept his nose clean, picked up his third victory of the season, his third career victory at Toronto and the misfortune of everyone else has firmly placed the championship in Dixon's hand. And maybe it would be fitting if the one driver who can clinch a championship early even with double points in the finale is Dixon and maybe this is the year he should do it. He moved to third all-time in IndyCar victories this season, he surpassed 100 podium finishes this season and this finish has him tied with A.J. Foyt for second-most top five finishes in IndyCar history on 149. Number 150 is penciled in for Mid-Ohio in two weeks. He has dirtied the record book this season with eraser marks and scratched out and re-written names. He is going to win his fifth IndyCar championship this year and be second all-time in that category and two behind Foyt.
You may hate this. You may hate the idea of a championship being decided early and you might fear this will hurt IndyCar because the last thing the series needs is a few dead rubbers at the end of the season and give people no reason to watch but this is one of the greatest drivers of our generation slotting himself more comfortably into the discussion for greatest driver of all-time.
Maybe in this time period of immediate gratification and action the one thing IndyCar needs is a dominant driver to promote and have people watch to be in awe of a man accomplish things we will never see again. The title might be decided early but Dixon is the reason why you should continue to watch. He is Houdini in a Honda and you are left wondering how he is going to win his next race.
2. France won the World Cup and Simon Pagenaud did the best he could to match the soccer success but second will have to do. We have covered the Team Penske struggles and Pagenaud's good but not great results. This was Pagenaud's best race this season and better than his runner-up finish at Texas. He has yet to challenge for a victory this season, which is odd but not unprecedented because we saw the same thing in 2015 and the following year he whooped everybody on his way to the championship. He cannot be counted out in the final five races.
3. Robert Wickens keeps impressing us and he got another podium finish, this time at home. A victory was always going to be a stretch because he was starting on row five but every race it seems Wickens gets better as the race goes on and he is always moving forward. Damn if he doesn't win a race this season because he has been sensational. For the better part of a decade we had a feeling Wickens was one that got away during the dying days of a war that featured two losing sides. Now he is IndyCar and he is as great as we ever imagined.
4. James Hinchcliffe does not make it three consecutive third-place finishes at Toronto but he finished fourth and he continues his depressingly successful season. How are we going to put his Indianapolis 500 miss behind him and ourselves? It comes up regardless what he does. He wins Iowa... but he didn't qualify for the Indianapolis 500. He finished fourth today... but he didn't qualify for the Indianapolis 500. He has nine top ten finishes this season, the same number as Alexander Rossi, Josef Newgarden, Pagenaud and Wickens and he is only behind Dixon and Graham Rahal and yet we cannot let his worst day go and we should! Hinchcliffe has been excellent this year. Let his worst day go! Every other one has been fantastic.
5. Charlie Kimball got Carlin its first top five finish and he was pushing Hinchcliffe. I have said it before that Kimball isn't a popular driver but he can get the job done and he has been doing that. He is getting the results this team needs. Carlin needs these milestones and they are getting them out of the way. The team has gotten its first lead lap finishes, first top ten finish, first lead lap finish in the Indianapolis 500 and now the team has a top five finish. The number of cautions helped but other faded despite being in a positive position. Kimball didn't.
6. Tony Kanaan finished sixth in what has been a difficult year for him and like Kimball he benefitted from the cautions and the attrition. You can only hope this is a result A.J. Foyt Racing can use this as boost and this team can find the speed to be competitive in the final three road course races. I have no doubt that Kanaan can be contending at Pocono and I wouldn't be surprised if he did well at Gateway but the other three races are another story.
7. Zach Veach led what was another disappointing day for Andretti Autosport but Veach was a bright spot. He was making moves in the middle of the race and he gets off the snide with his seventh-place finish. It is the first time he is the top Andretti Autosport driver in a race and he got a break or three to get there but he stepped up when his three teammates struggled.
8. Alexander Rossi coughed up more points. He gets into the back of Will Power and had to make an extra pit stop and then gets caught in a turn one accident on a restart and had to make another pit stop but he fought back and got an eighth place finish. It could have been worse. It should have been much better.
9. Speaking of could have been worse and should have been much better... Josef Newgarden! He could be leading the championship today. But the mistimed pit stop at Iowa combined with him hitting the barrier coming to the green flag on the restart while leading cost him another boatload of points. He finished ninth but for the first stint of today it looked like he was going to dominate and get a victory. For the second consecutive week a minor hiccup cost him dearly.
10. Marco Andretti was in prime position for fourth but the car did not get filled on the final stop and he had to pit coming to the white flag for a splash of fuel and instead of fourth he finishes tenth. At least Andretti got a top ten out of it because he started 14th and he worked his way into the top ten. He made his fair share of passes and was going toe-to-toe with the big boys. It is a shame because it seems Andretti has fast cars and then loses the pace in qualifying but gets some of it back in the race. Other than Belle Isle he has not had really any weekend where everything has clicked for every session.
11. Jordan King hit the barrier again in the morning warm-up but came back to finish 11th. He needs a weekend where he gets a good result and doesn't hit anything.
12. Ed Jones was off-strategy all race and he finished 12th despite stalling on his first pit stop.
13. Quickly through the rest of the field: Conor Daly did respectable today and finished 13th. I don't know if Harding Racing will give him another race this season but he will likely get another call from Harding Racing. Zachary Claman De Melo stayed out of the trouble and finished 14th. This might be Claman De Melo's last race of the season as Pietro Fittipaldi is set on returning at Mid-Ohio. He has a lot of growing to do but he made important steps this year.
Matheus Leist tried to go off strategy but that didn't work and he finished 15th. René Binder finished 17th but backed into a safety worker and he will not get the benefit of the doubt of accidentally having the car in reverse. Spencer Pigot was in eighth and was on the move in the second stint but brushed the barrier exiting turn 11 and that ended his race. Takuma Sato also brushed the turn 11 barrier and it cost him a shot at a top five. Max Chilton was taken out in turn one and he was the first car out of this race.
14. Here is where we touch on some more notable names: Ryan Hunter-Reay is wilting again in summer. He was in position for a podium finish and locked it up entering turn three and that was his first blow. The second was getting caught in a turn one incident when Graham Rahal spun into his path and he had nowhere to go. Will Power clipped the turn 11 barrier and that took him out of having a shot for a top five finish. Sébastien Bourdais was the first driver to have an incident in this race and this season has turned into the wrong direction since Indianapolis for him and Dale Coyne Racing. This is the first time Bourdais did not finish in the top ten at Toronto. And then Graham Rahal, who we covered in the turn one spin after he locked up the tires and hit Chilton. Rahal didn't have it this weekend.
15. I want to talk about Toronto and maybe it is because of the current fluctuation of the IndyCar schedule I feel this but has IndyCar outgrown Toronto? The crowd was good but for the last four or five years the barriers are moving, the track is getting bumpier, the pit lane had to move to a less than ideal area and it feels hastily squeezed into the racetrack and I wonder is this the best IndyCar can do in Canada?
I love Toronto and Canada should have more than one IndyCar race but would IndyCar be better off at Mosport? Should it go to Montreal or Mont-Tremblant? Those are the only real options. Stop it with Calgary. We have been hearing Calgary for eight years now and where are we? Not Calgary. Remember when Quebec City was a rumored venue? How is that race doing? We aren't going back to Edmonton and we aren't going back to Vancouver.
Outside of Toronto and the two Quebec venues mentioned above there are no other Canadian racetracks ready to host IndyCar. You cannot bank on a street course. We have seen too many of those come and go in no time. I am sad because IndyCar has been in Toronto for over 30 years and I feel sooner rather than later this race will be pushed out of the city and I am not sure Mosport, Montreal or Mont-Tremblant would embrace IndyCar the way the Canadian fans embrace every form of motorsports. A few years ago we were scared Toronto would die because Paul Tracy was no longer full-time and Alex Tagliani was struggle to get a full-time ride. Then came James Hinchcliffe and now we have Robert Wickens and Zachary Claman De Melo holds his own.
IndyCar should have a big event in Canada and for some reason Toronto feels on the verge of being outdated but even worse is no one else in Canada is giving IndyCar a serious look.
16. Let's talk points because as mentioned above Scott Dixon could clinch this thing early if he keeps winning and everyone else keeps shooting off toes. With double points at Sonoma the most a driver can score is 104 points. There were 23 drivers in this race and we know Meyer Shank Racing is committed to Sonoma so we will have at least 23 cars in that race meaning 14 points will be the fewest a driver can score meaning the most a driver could make up is 90 points meaning that is the cut-off line drivers have to be shooting for and with four races before Sonoma a lot of drivers are on the bubble.
Dixon leads Newgarden by 62 points with Rossi 70 points back. After that Hunter-Reay is tentatively on the outside, 91 points behind Dixon and Power is 93 points back. Wickens has some work to do as he trails Dixon by 125 points and Pagenaud is the only other driver within 150 points with the Frenchman 144 points back.
Dixon isn't going to falter, which means it is on Newgarden, Rossi, Hunter-Reay and Power to keep themselves in the title fight. If Hunter-Reay and Power keep having every roll of the dice go against them then forget it. Rossi has to stop coughing up points and he needs to win at least another race and the same goes for Newgarden.
With double points, a gap of 60 or more is comfortable for Dixon because it would ensure a top ten finish would be enough to clinch the title. However, a gap around 35 to 40 points is more favorable to a trailing driver because in this case let's say Newgarden trails by 40 points entering Sonoma, Newgarden could win the race, score maximum points, Dixon could finish fifth and that would not be enough for Dixon to win the title. We saw that exact scenario play out with Dixon and Juan Pablo Montoya in 2015.
Three of the next four weeks are off weeks for IndyCar but the key thing to keep in mind is can any of the four drivers behind Dixon claw points back or will Dixon keep padding his lead and may find himself collecting the trophy in Portland or only needing a top twenty finish at Sonoma to seal the deal?
17. I feel like 18 drivers had bad days today. This off-week came at the right time.
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