Colton Herta won pole position for the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto after running a lap at 59.832 seconds in the final round of qualifying. It is the second consecutive year Herta has started on pole position for this race, and the third time he has started first at Exhibition Place. Last year, he won from pole position while leading 81 of 85 laps. Herta seeks to become the first driver to win consecutive Toronto races since Scott Dixon swept the 2013 doubleheader. The most recent driver to win in consecutive years at Toronto was Michael Andretti in 2000 and 2001. He has won from pole position five times in his first 15 pole positions, but he has also finished outside the top ten in five races when starting first.
Álex Palou was 0.2758 seconds off Herta's top time and Palou will start second. This is Palou's six front row start of the season and he has started no worse than ninth this season. Five consecutive Toronto races have been won from the front row. With his victory at Iowa last week, Palou is now tied with Ryan Hunter-Reay for 24th all-time in victories, each has 18. Iowa was the 11th different circuit Palou has won at. Four of Palou's seven victories this season have come from the front row.
Marcus Armstrong has his best starting position of the season in third. Armstrong enters this weekend with six consecutive top ten finishes, and he scored his second career podium finish when he was third at Iowa last Sunday. His eight top ten finishes this season are Armstrong's most in a single season. This will be Armstrong's 42nd career start, and he is looking for his first career victory. Only once has a driver had a first career victory in a 42nd career start. That was Bobby Unser on July 4, 1966 in the Pike Peak International Hill Climb.
Will Power takes fourth on the grid. This is only the third time Power has started in the top five this season. Power has one street course victory in the last nine seasons. That would be the final Belle Isle race in 2022, a season which ended in Power's second championship. Through 12 races, Power has led only four laps this season. He has not finished in the top ten of the last six Toronto races with an average finish of 16.333 over that time.
Graham Rahal will start fifth, his best start in a street race since Rahal started fifth for the 2018 Long Beach race. Rahal has four consecutive top ten finishes at Toronto. He enters this weekend having not finished in the top five of his last 32 starts when he was second at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in August 2023. It has been 136 starts since Rahal's most recent IndyCar victory. Today's race falls on the 39th anniversary of Graham's father Bobby winning the inaugural Toronto race.
Kyle Kirkwood was unable to get a proper flying lap completed in the final round of qualifying, and this puts Kirkwood sixth on the grid. Kirkwood has five consecutive top five finishes in street races and eight consecutive top ten finishes in street races. The sixth-place starter has not won on a road or street course since Scott Dixon won the second race of the 2019 Belle Isle doubleheader. Three times has the sixth-place starter won at Toronto, most recently with Ryan Hunter-Reay in 2012 in the #28 Andretti Autosport entry.
Louis Foster missed out on the final round of qualifying by 0.1697 seconds, and Foster will start seventh. It is his fifth time starting in the top ten this season. However, his average finish when starting in the top ten is 15th. His average finish in the eight races starting outside the top ten is 19.625. Foster has finished on the lead lap in four consecutive races after having only three lead lap finishes in his first eight starts. He has finished 14th in the last three races.
Marcus Ericsson has his best starting position since Long Beach in April as Ericsson will start eighth. The Swede was 0.2703 seconds from making it to the final round of qualifying. Ericsson enters this weekend with 11 consecutive results outside the top ten. He has finished outside the top ten in three of his four Toronto starts. In 2022, Ericsson started ninth and finished fifth.
Rinus VeeKay starts in the top ten for the third time this season as the Dutchman will take ninth on the grid. Prior to this weekend VeeKay has started four consecutive races outside the top twenty, and five consecutive races outside the top fifteen. In his prior two top ten starts, VeeKay went from fifth to fourth at Barber Motorsports Park, but in Detroit, he retired after six laps due to an engine issue after starting sixth.
Patricio O'Ward rounds out the top ten. In four street course races this season, O'Ward never qualified better than ninth, and his last street race with a starting spot better than ninth was third in the 2024 St. Petersburg season opener. O'Ward's best finish in three Toronto starts is eighth. He has finished outside the top ten in six consecutive steet races since his St. Petersburg's victory to open the 2023 season.
Callum Ilott made it out of the first round of qualifying for the second time this season, and he will start 11th, moving up a position as Scott Dixon was 11th in round two, but Dixon has a six-spot grid penalty for taking on his sixth engine this season. Ilott did not finish either race at Iowa. It was the first time Ilott has failed to finish consecutive races in his IndyCar career.
Nolan Siegel was 0.0340 seconds from advancing from the first qualifying group, but he will slide up to 12th. Siegel had qualified in the top ten in the last three races, though he was unable to start last Sunday's race from Iowa. In five street course starts, Siegel's best finish is 19th, and he has only finished on the lead lap in one street course start. He completed all the laps on his way to finishing 20th at Long Beach this past April.
Kyffin Simpson missed out on the second round of qualifying by 0.0288 seconds, and Simpson takes 13th starting position. Last year, Simpson's average finish in street races was 19.25. Through three street races this season, his average is 11th. No matter what, the worst Simpson's average finish in street races in 2025 will be 15th. Simpson has finished better than his starting spot in five of the last six races.
Scott McLaughlin will start outside the top ten for the fourth consecutive race, as the New Zealander was 0.07 seconds from advancing in round one. Starting 16th, this will be the first time McLaughlin has failed to start in the top ten in at least four consecutive races since the final 11 races of his rookie season in 2021. McLaughlin has finished outside the top twenty in five of 12 races this season. Prior to this season, he had eight total results outside the top twenty in his first 68 starts.
David Malukas fell 0.0694 seconds from making the second round. Instead, Malukas will occupy the inside of row eight. He had started in the top ten in the last two street course races. Malukas' only career top ten finish on a street course came last year at Toronto. He started and finished sixth. His career average finish in street races is 17.1428.
Felix Rosenqvist has his worst starting position of the season in 16th. It is Rosenqvist's worst start in 16 races when he started 18th at Portland last year. Rosenqvist has finished worse than his starting position in three of four Toronto starts. The only time he has finished better was when he started outside the top five. He went from eighth to third in 2022.
Scott Dixon drops to 17th after his grid penalty. Dixon was second at Iowa last Sunday. It was the 53rd time he has finished second in his IndyCar career. Dixon is second all-time in runner-up finishes, three behind Mario Andretti's record. The last time Dixon won a race after finishing second was in 2019. He finished second at Iowa, the 12th race of the season, and then won at Mid-Ohio. Last Sunday's Iowa race was the 12th race of the season.
Josef Newgarden failed to make it out of the first round of qualifying for the third consecutive street course race, and Newgarden will start 18th. He was 0.1273 seconds off advancing. After finishing second and tenth at Iowa last week, Newgarden is looking for his first three-race top ten streak since 2023 when he had a four-race top five streak that started at Toronto with a fifth, and included a sweep of the Iowa doubleheader before capping off with a fourth in his hometown Nashville.
Christian Lundgaard is starting outside the top ten for a third consecutive race with Lundgaard slotting into 19th on the grid. This is also the Dane's worst start at Toronto. Lundgaard has not finished worse than eighth in his last four street course starts. He went from 12th to third at Long Beach in April, and a timely caution allowed him to go from 22nd to sixth in the second Iowa race last week.
Robert Shwartzman will round out the top twenty on the grid. With a ninth-place finish last week at Iowa Speedway, Shwartzman is the only rookie with multiple top ten finishes this season. In street races, Shwartzman's finishing position has approved by two spots in each race. He was 20th at St. Petersburg, 18th at Long Beach, and 16th at Detroit.
Conor Daly will take 21st on the grid. This is the third time in four street races Daly has started outside the top twenty. Daly has not finished better than 17th in his three street course starts this season. His average finish in five Toronto starts is 15.4. This is Daly's first Toronto appearance since 2022 when he went from 25th to 20th.
Christian Rasmussen starts 22nd, his 12th time in 13 races starting outside the top fifteen. The only time he started in the top fifteen was starting tenth at Detroit. He has started outside the top fifteen in 22 of 26 career starts. While Rasmussen has finished in the top ten in all four oval races this season, his best street course result is 15th, and his average finish in street races is 20.667.
Santino Ferrucci rolls off from 23rd position, the 12th time in 13 races Ferrucci is starting outside the top ten. It is the eighth time he has started outside the top fifteen. All four of his top ten finishes this season have come from grid positions of 15th or worse. While Ferrucci was 11th in his first Toronto start in 2019, he has finished 17th and 20th in his other two visits to Exhibition Place.
Alexander Rossi is directly behind his Ed Carpenter Racing teammate Rasmussen in the 24th grid position. This the eighth consecutive race Rossi has started outside the top ten after opening the season with three top ten starts in the first five races. Rossi missed last year's Toronto race due to a wrist injury. Prior to that, he had finished 23rd and 16th in his last two trips to Toronto.
Sting Ray Robb was the slowest in the first qualifying group, and this places Robb 25th in the starting order. Robb's best two finishes this season have been on street courses. He was ninth at Long Beach and 15th at Detroit. He made up at least ten spots in each of those races, starting 19th and 26th respectively. His best finish in two trips to Toronto is 19th.
Devlin DeFrancesco rolls off from his home race in 26th position. It is his worst starting position since he started 27th at Barber Motorsports Park at the start of May. This is the worst starting spot for a Canadian at Toronto since 1994 when 31 cars started the race, and Claude Bourbonnais started 26th and Ross Bentley started 30th. DeFrancesco's best finish in his home race at Toronto is 18th. Two years ago, he was out after ten laps due to brake issues.
Jacob Abel was the slowest car in the second qualifying group, and Abel takes 27th on the grid. This is Abel's tenth time starting 25th or worse in 2025. Abel is coming off his career best finish of 11th in the second Iowa race. After failing to finish on the lead lap in his first five starts, Abel has led lap finishes in four of his last six starts.
Fox's coverage of the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto will begin at noon ET with green flag scheduled for 12:22 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 90 laps.
