Morning Warm-Up: Toronto 2018

Josef Newgarden continues the championship charge in Canada

For the third time in four races Josef Newgarden will lead the field to the green flag as the American won pole position for this year's Honda Indy Toronto. Newgarden stole pole position on the final lap of the session with a time of 59.4956 seconds. He is attempting to become to the first defending series champion to win at Toronto since Dario Franchitti. Newgarden could become the first driver to win consecutive Toronto since Scott Dixon in 2013. The only other driver with consecutive Toronto victories is Michael Andretti, who did it on three separate occasions. Newgarden knocked off Scott Dixon, who will start on the front row for the second time this season. Dixon won from second on the grid in the first Belle Isle race last month. The New Zealander has won on July 15th once before in his career. He won at Nashville on this day in 2006. He has won multiple times on two different days. He won July 14th in 2007 and 2013 at Nashville and Toronto respectively and he won on August 9th in 2008 and 2009 at Kentucky and Mid-Ohio respectively.

Simon Pagenaud will start third. Pagenaud has started on the front row in three races this season. Last year, Pagenaud did not start on the front row until the 12th race of the season when he won pole position at Toronto. This is his sixth consecutive year starting in one of the first two rows in this race. Will Power makes it an all-Penske row two. Power has not had much success in the 12th round of a season. He has never won the 12th race of the season and nine times he has finished outside the top ten in 13 starts in the 12th round of a season. He does have three runner-up finishes in the 12th round of a season but all three of those results came at Mid-Ohio. Alexander Rossi and Ryan Hunter-Reay make it an all-Andretti row three. Rossi has only had double-digit lap led totals in two races this season. He led 71 laps on his way to victory at Long Beach and he led 46 laps in the second Belle Isle race before a tire puncture after a lock up knocked him down to a 12th place finish. This is Hunter-Reay's first top ten start at Toronto in four years. He had started in the top six in five consecutive Toronto races prior to his stretch of three consecutive years starting outside the top ten in this race.

Takuma Sato qualified in seventh. This is Sato's fourth consecutive top ten start. He is attempting to achieve four consecutive top ten finishes for the second time in his IndyCar career. The first time he did it was last year when he finished in the top ten in the Indianapolis 500, the two Belle Isle races and Texas. Sato will be attempting to achieve three consecutive top five finishes for the first time in his IndyCar career. Toronto marks the eighth start of Jordan King's career and King will start in eighth position. Only five British drivers have had their first IndyCar victory occur within their first ten starts. Those drivers are Dario Resta, Jim Clark, Graham Hill and Nigel Mansell. All four of those drivers won either on their debut or in their second start.

James Hinchcliffe and Robert Wickens make it an all-Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, all-Canadian row five. Hinchcliffe has finished in the top ten in five of six times he has started the 12th race of a season, three of which are top five finishes. He lost his fastest lap after spinning exiting turn eight and causing a local yellow. Wickens could become the quickest Canadian to win their first career IndyCar race. This is only his 12th start and Jacques Villeneuve holds the current record with his first career victory coming in his 14th start.

Conor Daly will start 11th as he got Harding Racing out of round one of qualifying for the first time since St. Petersburg. This will be Daly's 15th street course start. He finished second in the first Belle Isle race in 2016 but a pair of sixth place finishes in the second Belle Isle race in 2015 and in 2016 are his only top ten finishes on street courses. Matheus Leist made it out of round one of the first time since St. Petersburg as well and the Brazilian will start 12th. Leist has finished behind his teammate Kanaan in every street course race this season and Kanaan has finished ahead of Leist by at least six positions in three of the four street course races. Graham Rahal was knocked out of round two by Daly and he will have to start 13th. Rahal 's only street course victory was his first career victory at St. Petersburg in 2008. Two of Rahal's six career victories have come after the month of June. Marco Andretti will start 14th. Andretti has finished on the lead lap in seven consecutive Toronto races. He has never led a lap at Toronto. His father Michael won this race from 13th on the grid 17 years ago today. If Marco were to win today he would break his father's record for worst starting position for a Toronto winner.

Tony Kanaan will start 15th. This is Kanaan's third consecutive year starting outside the top ten for this race. He has not had a top five finish in the last 14 races. This is his longest stretch without a top five finish since he went 27 races between top five finishes from his first career victory at Michigan in 1999 to his third place finish at Motegi in 2001 with 2000 being the only season in Kanaan's career where he did not have a top five finish. Spencer Pigot joins Kanaan on row eight. Pigot has top ten finishes in the last two races. It is the first time in his career he has top ten finishes in successive races. He has been the top Ed Carpenter Racing finisher seven times this season including in three consecutive races. He has been the top finisher in five of seven road/street course races. For the first time in his career, Sébastien Bourdais will not start in the top ten at Toronto as Bourdais qualified 17th. His best finish on street courses since his St. Petersburg victory was 13th at Long Beach and the first Belle Isle race. Bourdais has finished 13th four times this season. Max Chilton will start 18th, ending a string of three consecutive races starting outside the top twenty. Chilton finished seventh in last year's Toronto race.

René Binder qualified a career-best 19th. It is the first time Binder has started inside the top twenty in his IndyCar career. He will become the first Austrian driver to start an IndyCar race in a country other than the United States. This will be Binder's fifth start. He is already the most experienced Austrian in IndyCar history. Charlie Kimball rounds out the top twenty. Toronto is the site of Kimball's first career IndyCar podium finish, as he finished second in the 2012 race. His six podium finishes have come at six different tracks and he has made 44 starts since his most recent podium finish, a third at Sonoma in 2015.

Ed Jones caused a red flag in the first round of qualifying and he will have to start 21st. The two races where Jones was the top Ganassi finisher were street course races and both were third place finishes at Long Beach and in the second Belle Isle race. Zach Veach had his fastest lap deleted after he spun coming to the checkered for the end of group two's session in round one and he will start 22nd. Veach has been the worst Andretti Autosport finisher in eight consecutive races and in ten of 11 races. Zachary Claman De Melo makes his Toronto debut from 23rd on the grid. Claman De Melo could become the sixth Quebec-born to win an IndyCar race. No Canadian province has produced more IndyCar winners.

NBCSN's coverage of the Honda Indy Toronto begins at 3:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 3:42 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 85 laps.