Here is a rundown of what got me thinking...
Álex Palou continues to be the best driver alive with another victory from Portland. A second-generation driver won over the weekend, and everyone needs to calm down over a teenager with a notable last name. It was difficult to get a handle on the tires in Silverstone. Iowa is going to be fully re-paved, just over three years after it was partially re-paved, and IndyCar had two miserable years competing there solely because of the partially re-paved racetrack. Life isn't fair, folks. Remember that. As IndyCar enters its final month of competition, it is about to run on a few new tracks. Both require a discussion, and we will start with the upcoming inaugural event that carries a tremendous amount of weight.
Canada's Final Frontier
IndyCar is about to make a trek into Canada, something it has done regularly for the last 40-plus years, and it has been done with significant fan fare. In the past, a weekend in Ontario was one of the most electric of the season. It brought a different energy, but one that was celebrated and it led to more visits around Canada. It seemed like anywhere IndyCar went, it could draw a crowd in the Great White North. Two or three events didn't feel like enough considering the support.
The last decade strained IndyCar's only trip to Canada. Exhibition Place in Toronto continued to develop, and it became more difficult for a three-day race weekend to take place. A hotel forced the pit lane to be moved, and it always felt like it was in a temporary location, but no better option made it permanently placed in a poor location. The Pan American Games forced a date change though that was only for a year. The pandemic and travel restrictions meant there were two years without a Toronto race. It was still able to return. This year was difficult to sort through the conflicts.
The FIFA World Cup meant the stadium within Exhibition Place, BMO Field, was needed for the entire month of June, and with the festivities surrounding the stadium, it was not possible to build a circuit for a race in July. There was no room to run the race any earlier in the year, and by the time the World Cup had passed, there was not enough room to fit Toronto in the 2026 calendar. One lost year led to the demise of the event.
There was no effort to find a placeholder for this one year or try something different and push the race to the very end of a calendar. The alternative found was a permanent change, a move to Markham, Ontario about 20 miles north, and a five-year deal that will see IndyCar remain in Canada's most populous province but no longer competing in the fourth-most populous city in North America.
Markham may be in the neighborhood and not be that different in term of reach than Toronto, but the Toronto race had a 40-year history. IndyCar shut down a part of a major international city. Toronto is larger than Chicago. It feels like that was taken for granted, and Toronto was just seen as another city, but IndyCar had something special. Losing it is a massive blow, and it likely will never return.
The race had been slowly squeezed out of the city, and the true reach and celebration of the race was nowhere near the levels it was in the 1990s and early 2000s. Losing 2008 due to reunification was a blow to the race. The return in 2009 was significantly slower than what we were accustomed to seeing. It slowly grew again, and remained a highly anticipated race on the IndyCar calendar, but it never reached its highest level. It never really got that close. Toronto's loss does put IndyCar in a corner because once you lose Toronto there are not many other places to go.
You never hear about people making a weekend getaway to Markham. It doesn't look like a destination, and the surroundings of where IndyCar will race this upcoming weekend back that up. The area is developing, but it is rather vacant. There are some apartments and there is a sporting facility built for the 2015 Pan American Games, but it does not look like a heavily traveled area. It does not look like that is where the locals gather, the heart of a community, and the race is being brought to the people. It certainly will not have the CN Tower towering over the circuit and the Princes' Gate providing a picturesque backdrop on the outside of turn one.
Unless there is a surge in interest, this feels like IndyCar's final stop in Canada. Toronto isn't going to come back. There aren't that many circuits capable of hosting IndyCar. Mosport is not up to the safety standards and improvements to make it conducive to IndyCar are not coming. Mont-Tremblant was sold a few years ago and is no longer in Lawrence Stroll's possession, but the circuit hasn't hosted any major event in close to a decade.
There is Montreal, but outside of the Canadian Grand Prix, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve hasn't hosted another event since NASCAR raced there in 2012. A NASCAR Cup Series event couldn't be worked out with the Montreal city government a few years ago. I doubt IndyCar would have any better success negotiating a deal.
Vancouver is long gone. Edmonton is long gone. Those rumors of a Calgary race went quiet years ago. Quebec City's rumored race never got off the ground even with Alex Tagliani involved while Tagliani was still driving. There is no interest from Ottawa or Winnipeg.
Options are few, and street races are a tough sell. The next best option would be IndyCar taking over Trois-Rivières, which coincidentally just held its annual grand prix this weekend with the NASCAR Canada Series as the main event. Trois-Rivières has hosted races since 1967. It was once a premier Atlantics Championship race. Indy Lights was the main event a few years. The American Le Mans Series, Grand-Am, Trans-Am and Can-Am all headlined Trois-Rivières at some point.
Trois-Rivières has stood the test of time and found a way to reinvent itself. It is smaller than your standard IndyCar street course, but IndyCar has cobbled together a rather uninspired street course in Detroit and it is forming a Washington, D.C. street race out of thin air. Trois-Rivières wouldn't be the worst street course IndyCar ever contested, and it would already bring existing support while adding the IndyCar crowd to the event.
However, let's remember that Honda and the Ontario dealers sponsor this event, narrowing where a Canadian IndyCar race can take place. They aren't looking for an event in Nova Scotia or Saskatchewan or Quebec. The second the Ontario Honda dealers decide the event is no longer worth it, IndyCar will be left without a Canadian race.
That makes Markham imperative to be a success. If it flops, we might not even see out this five-year contract, street courses are known for not seeing out a contract, and IndyCar could lose what was once a great destination for the series.
Let's not forget where IndyCar and Canada's relationship currently stands. There are no Canadian drivers on the grid. There are no Canadian sponsors on the grid. There are no Canadian drivers in the ladder system. This isn't the age of Paul Tracy, Jacques Villeneuve, Greg Moore, Patrick Carpentier, Alex Tagliani, Scott Goodyear, James Hinchcliffe and Robert Wickens. There is no Player's Ltd. It wasn't long ago it felt like the Canadian television contract was a constant sore spot between the series and the Canadian fan base.
This is the least involved Canada has been with IndyCar since before the inaugural Toronto event. General interest in IndyCar is rather low across the board. I don't know how many Canadians are truly invested in the series especially when the country has one race a year and there is no Canadian driver on the grid nor does there appear there will be one anytime soon.
IndyCar could lose its Canadian date, and Canada likely will not bat an eye.
It is unfortunately the cycle IndyCar finds itself in. There have been number of events that felt bulletproof. Iowa was once a surefire great crowd and that disappeared. The same was true for Texas. Laguna Seca isn't close to what it was 30 years ago. Even great crowds couldn't save Cleveland. Now, we find ourselves with Canada at a crossroads, or perhaps at a dead end.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Álex Palou, but did you know...
Raúl Fernández won MotoGP's British Grand Prix. Jorge Martín won the sprint race. Filip Salač won in Moto2, his first career grand prix victory. David Almansa won in Moto3, his second victory of the season.
Ty Gibbs won the NASCAR Cup race from Iowa, his second victory of the season. Carson Kvapil won the Grand National Series race, his second consecutive victory.
Alessandro de Tullio won the Indy Lights race from Portland, his second victory of the season. G3 Argyros and Leonardo Escarpioni split the USF Pro 2000 races. Oliver Wheldon swept the U.S. F2000 races.
Coming Up This Weekend
IndyCar makes its first trip to the streets of Markham, Ontario, Canada.
The Formula E season concludes with a doubleheader in London.
NASCAR has a Saturday night race from Richmond, which means Kyle Larson cannot run the Knoxville Nationals.
Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters will be at the Nürburgring.
