Morning Warm-Up: Toronto 2022

Colton Herta became the first repeat pole-sitter of the 2022 NTT IndyCar Series season, as Herta took the top spot for the Honda Indy Toronto with a lap of 59.2698 seconds in the final round of qualifying. This is Herta's ninth career pole position in what will be Herta's 58th IndyCar start this weekend. Four of Herta's last five pole positions have come on street courses, and each have been on a different street circuit. In two of those four street course races, he crashed out of the race, including Long Beach earlier this season. His father Bryan's best starting position at Toronto was ninth. Between the Road to Indy and IndyCar, Colton Herta has only two top five finishes in seven Toronto starts. 

Scott Dixon sweeps the front row for Honda in the Honda Indy Toronto. It is the third consecutive Toronto race Dixon is starting second and this is the sixth consecutive Toronto race he is starting in the top five and he has started in the top ten in all 16 of his Toronto starts. Dixon was 0.0894 seconds off Herta's top time. This was the first time Dixon made the Fast Six on a road/street course this season. He has nine consecutive top ten finishes at Toronto. Dixon is one of three drivers tied for second most Toronto victories. Dixon, Will Power and Dario Franchitti have each won here three times. Only Michael Andretti with seven Toronto victories has won more.

Josef Newgarden will start third after being 0.2559 seconds off Herta. This is the fifth consecutive Toronto race Newgarden is starting in the top ten after starting in the top ten only once in his first six visits to this event. He has finished on the podium in the tenth race of the season for seven consecutive seasons. In this seven-race stretch, Newgarden has won four times, including the 2015 Toronto race. Each of those four victories have come at four different tracks (Toronto, Iowa, Road America and Mid-Ohio).

Alexander Rossi makes it an all-American row two, as Rossi was only 0.2846 seconds off his teammate Herta. Only once has Rossi won a race when starting worse than third. That was from 11th in his Indianapolis 500 victory. Based on average finish, Toronto is Rossi's fourth best track with a minimum of three starts. Rossi's average finish here is 7.25. Only Portland, Mid-Ohio and Belle Isle are better. Of those tour tracks, he has only won at Mid-Ohio. 

David Malukas has his first top five starting position in IndyCar. Malukas was 0.3442 seconds behind Herta's qualifying time. Malukas' best finish in six Road to Indy starts at Toronto was eighth in the second Indy Lights race in 2019. A rookie has finished in the top five of the last two Toronto races. Robert Wickens was third in 2018 and Felix Rosenqvist was fifth in 2019.

This will be Scott McLaughlin's first race in any series in Canada and he will do it from sixth on the grid. McLaughlin could become the 42nd driver to win IndyCar races in multiple countries. Technically, McLaughlin is one of ten drivers who could become the 42nd driver to win IndyCar races in multiple countries this weekend. 

Callum Ilott matched his best starting position in IndyCar, ending up seventh on the grid. Ilott was 0.0476 seconds short of making the Fast Six. Ilott has retired from two of his first three street course starts in his IndyCar career. Both of those came at Long Beach. Ilott has finished worse than his starting position in five of his first eight starts, including each of the previous four times he has advanced to the second round of qualifying. He has also finished level with his starting position once. 

Felix Rosenqvist qualified eighth, 0.0754 seconds shy of advancing to the final round of qualifying. This is the eighth time Rosenqvist has qualified in the top ten this season. He is coming off matching his second worst finish in his IndyCar career and his worst finish on a road/street course in IndyCar. Rosenqvist was 27th at Mid-Ohio. He has more finishes outside the top twenty in his IndyCar career (10) than top five finishes (9). 

Championship leader Marcus Ericsson will start behind his fellow Swede Rosenqvist, ninth on the grid. Ericsson has finished better than his starting position in five consecutive races. Ericsson set fastest lap in the most recent Toronto race in 2019. It was the first fastest lap of his IndyCar career. He has at least one fastest lap in each of his IndyCar season. His most recent was in the Indianapolis 500 this past May. 

Christian Lundgaard will start tenth, his best starting position since Lundgaard rolled off from eighth on the grid for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. He has started 15th or worse in the previous three street course races this season. Lundgaard has finished better than his starting position in the last four races. 

Romain Grosjean will start 11th, leading an all-Andretti Autosport row six. This is the third time in the last four races Grosjean will be starting outside the top ten. The last time an IndyCar race was won from 11th on the grid was James Hinchcliffe at Iowa in 2018. Twice has Toronto been won from 11th starting position. Grosjean has finished off the lead lap in four of the last five races. 

After controversially advancing to round two despite getting into the tires in his qualifying group, Devlin DeFrancesco will start 12th, his best career starting position in IndyCar. His prior best starting spot was 17th. DeFrancesco lost his fastest two laps in round two for interference. This will be the first time the Toronto-born DeFrancesco will be racing in Canada. 

Jack Harvey missed out on advancing from group one by 0.09945 seconds. This will be Harvey's best starting position since he started ninth for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Harvey will be making his first appearance at Toronto since 2015 when he was runner-up in both Indy Lights races at the track. Harvey's only other Toronto start was in 2014 when he finished third in Indy Lights. 

Graham Rahal makes it an all-Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing row seven after Rahal was stuck in seventh position when the red flag came out for Kyle Kirkwood's accident at the end of group two. Rahal has not finished in the top five in his last 11 Toronto starts. Rahal had seven top five finishes last year, three of which were on street courses. He has no top five finishes through nine races in 2022. 

Patricio O'Ward starts on the inside of row eight, his worst starting position since he started 16th for the St. Petersburg season opener. O'ward has finished outside the top twenty in the last two races. Entering the 2022 season, O'Ward had finished outside the top twenty only twice in his career. 

Will Power was caught out by the Kirkwood red flag and Power will start 16th, his fifth consecutive race starting outside the top ten. It is the first time Power has started outside the top ten in five consecutive races since 2008 when he started outside the top ten at Iowa, Richmond, Watkins Glen, Nashville and Mid-Ohio. He has won the tenth race of a season twice in his career. One of those was the 2010 Toronto race. 

Hélio Castroneves finds himself 17th on the grid. Castroneves does not have a top five finish through the first nine races of the season. This is the longest Castroneves has gone without a top five finish to start a season. His previous longest stretch was seven races into a season, which occurred in his rookie season in 1998 and the 2011 season.  

Simon Pagenaud's streak of three consecutive top ten starting positions has been snapped, as Pagenaud will roll off from 18th. Pagenaud and Power actually ran identical laps in qualifying, but Power completed his first and gets the better starting position. Pagenaud's last street course victory was at Toronto in 2019. Pagenaud has won at only two tracks multiple times, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and Sonoma. 

For the third consecutive race, Takuma Sato will start 19th. Sato has retired from six of his 12 Toronto starts. He has only completed 748 out of a possible 971 laps, and he has finished 20th or worse in seven Toronto races. Sato had started in the top ten in three consecutive Toronto races prior to this year.

Rinus VeeKay rounds out the top twenty on the grid. This is the fourth consecutive race VeeKay has started outside the top ten. After finishing fourth at Mid-Ohio, Rinus VeeKay is looking for consecutive top five finishes for the first time in his IndyCar career. He swept the Pro Mazda races at Toronto in 2018. 

This will be Jimmie Johnson's first race ever in Canada and Johnson will roll off from 21st on the grid. Johnson is coming off his best finish in IndyCar after finishing 16th at Mid-Ohio. Mid-Ohio was his second lead lap finish this season. The other was Texas in March. Johnson's only lead lap finish in his IndyCar career was last year's Long Beach season finale.

Álex Palou stopped on circuit with an engine problem in group two of qualifying and lost his fastest two laps. This relegated Palou to 22nd on the grid, the second worst starting position in his IndyCar career. He has three fastest laps this season, the only driver with multiple fastest laps. Palou was the only driver with three fastest laps last season and no driver has had four fastest laps in a season since Josef Newgarden in 2019. 

Dalton Kellett was unable to make a lap in group one's qualifying session due to fuel pressure issues and Kellett will start 23rd for his first Toronto race. This is the third consecutive race Kellett has started 23rd. He made 11 starts on the street of Toronto in Road to Indy competitions. His best finish was third in the second Indy Lights race in 2019. 

Kyle Kirkwood hit the barrier on his final qualifying lap in group two and Kirkwood will start 24th. This is the seventh time in ten races he has started outside the top twenty. Kirkwood won three of his four Road to Indy starts in Toronto, sweeping the U.S. F2000 races in 2018 and splitting the Indy Pro 2000 races the following year. 

Conor Daly lost his fastest two laps for interfering Colton Herta in group two of qualifying and Daly will start 25th. This is the first time Daly is racing at Toronto since 2017 when he finished 17th driving for A.J. Foyt Racing. This will be his fourth different team in four Toronto starts. His finishing position has dropped in each appearance from finishing 12th in 2015 with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports to 15th in 2016 with Dale Coyne Racing before his 2017 result.

Peacock's coverage of the Honda Indy Toronto will begin at 3:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 85 laps.

Track Walk: Toronto 2022

The tenth round of the 2022 NTT IndyCar Series season brings the series back to Toronto for the first time since 2019. It is the penultimate street course race of the season, and it is the first of four consecutive weekends IndyCar will compete. Five races will take place over a 22-day period. There have been six different winners in the last six races, but one team has won the last three. Each Team Penske driver has claimed a victory in the last three events, and Chevrolet now has seven victories this season. No other team has won multiple races yet this season. Penske has won three of the last four Toronto races with three different drivers. 

Coverage

Time: Coverage begins at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday July 17 with green flag scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET.
Channel: Peacock
Announcers: Kevin Lee, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will be in the booth. Dave Burns and Dillon Welch will work pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule

Friday:

First Practice: 2:30 p.m. ET (75 minutes)

Saturday:

Second Practice: 10:00 a.m. ET (60 minutes)
Qualifying: 2:00 p.m. ET 

Sunday:

Warm-Up: 10:55 a.m. ET (30 minutes)

Race: 3:20 p.m. ET (85 laps)

* - All sessions will be available live on Peacock

Significant News

The IndyCar world was stunned Wednesday night when Álex Palou announced he would not be returning to Chip Ganassi Racing for the 2023 season despite the team announcing earlier that day it had exercised its option to retain Palou for that season. 

Minutes after Palou said he was not returning to Ganassi, McLaren released a statement saying it had signed Palou to an unspecified program in 2023. There was no mention of the Arrow McLaren SP IndyCar program in the release though the team did say it would work on finalizing its driver lineups across its multiple series of participation for next season. 

Just over two hours after McLaren's statement, Ganassi released a statement saying it could confirm it had Palou under contract for the 2023 season. 

Entering Thursday ahead of the Toronto weekend and the final seven races of the 2022 IndyCar Series season, the defending champion finds himself at an impasse over his future with two teams claiming his talent for next year and the driver clearly preferring to live over staying. 

Palou enters this weekend fourth in the championship, 35 points behind his current Ganassi teammate Marcus Ericsson who leads the championship. Palou has not won a race this season, but he has stood on four podiums and he has seven top ten finishes this season. 

Return to Canada

A total of 1,099 days will have passed since IndyCar last took the checkered flag in Canada and when it will see the green flag on Sunday afternoon for the 36th Honda Indy Toronto. Three years and three days will be the longest gap between Canadian IndyCar races since IndyCar went six years, two months and 29 days running at Mosport in 1978 and Sanair in 1984. 

Canada has hosted a total 78 IndyCar races with the most successful driver being Michael Andretti, who won ten times in Canada. Al Unser, Jr. and Dario Franchitti are tied for second-most Canadian victories with six each. Paul Tracy, Will Power and Scott Dixon all have five victories. 

Seven different Canadian venues in four provinces have hosted IndyCar. Toronto is the track that has hosted the most races, but Quebec has had the most different venue. Mont-Tremblant was the first Quebec venue to host the series in 1967 but CART went to the 0.826-mile Sanair oval in 1984. Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal host CART/Champ Car from 2002 to 2006. 

Mosport hosted the first Canadian IndyCar race fittingly on Canada Day in 1967. Vancouver is the second-most visited venue having hosted 15 races from 1990 to 2004 with three different configurations. Edmonton's City Centre Airport hosted eight races from 2005 to 2012 on two different configurations. 

There are two Canadians in the field this weekend and both will be making their first IndyCar starts in their home country. Devlin DeFrancesco is 22nd in the championship and he is coming off matching his best finish of the season, 17th, at Mid-Ohio two weeks ago. Dalton Kellett is 27th in the championship and had three top five finishes in his last four Indy Lights starts at Toronto, including a third in race two 

of the 2019 weekend. 

A Canadian has not won an IndyCar race in Canada since Paul Tracy won at Vancouver in 2004. Tracy is also the last Canadian to win at Toronto having done it most recently in 2003. 

Do I Hear Ten?

Patricio O'Ward became the ninth different pole-sitter to open the 2022 season at Mid-Ohio, and now IndyCar could make history at Toronto with a tenth different pole-sitter to open a season. 

There are going to be at least 15 options to capture the record this weekend. 

After the events at Mid-Ohio, Álex Palou is now level with Josef Newgarden for best average starting position this season at 6.5556. The only difference is Palou has yet to start on pole position in 2022. This will also be Palou's first visit to Toronto, but his only IndyCar pole position came in his maiden visit to Portland last year, and he went on to win that race. 

Romain Grosjean is the next best driver in average starting position, but Grosjean started outside the top five in eight consecutive races and is coming off his worst starting position of the season at Mid-Ohio. He started 17th. Like Palou, Grosjean is making his first Toronto appearance. 

Marcus Ericsson is still looking for his first career pole position. Ericsson started the 2019 Toronto race, but he was 20th on the grid out of 22 cars. He was also caught in an opening lap incident that damaged his car and forced him four laps down due to repairs. Ericsson ended up finishing 20th, but he did pick up fastest lap in the race. 

Simon Pagenaud won the 2019 Toronto race from pole position, his sixth and most recent victory from pole position in his IndyCar career. Pagenaud has multiple pole positions at Toronto. He started first for the 2017 race and finished fifth. He has started in the top four in seven consecutive Toronto races. 

Takuma Sato has never started better than seventh at Toronto. While Sato has started in the top five twice this season, he has started outside the top fifteen in five of nine races this season. He has not had a pole position in his last 44 races. In the 44 races prior to this drought, Sato won three pole positions in that timeframe. 

Toronto will mark two years since Conor Daly's first career pole position, which came at Iowa driving for Carlin. Now, Daly looks for his first pole position with Ed Carpenter Racing and on a street course. Daly has started outside the top fifteen in seven races this season. 

Besides Marcus Ericsson, eight other drivers are also looking for they first career pole position. Qualifying has been one of Callum Ilott's bright spot this season. Ilott has made the second round of qualifying in consecutive races and on four of six opportunities this season. He has yet to make the Fast Six this season. David Malukas has made the second round of qualifying in two of the last three races, and Malukas made the Fast Six at Belle Isle. 

Christian Lundgaard has started 15th, 19th and 19th in the three previous street courses this season. Kyle Kirkwood is coming off his best starting position of his career after qualifying ninth at Mid-Ohio. Kirkwood made the second round of qualifying in the first two street course races this season. Neither Canadian driver Devlin DeFrancesco, nor Dalton Kellett, has started in the top ten in their IndyCar careers. 

Jimmie Johnson has started outside the top twenty-five in five of nine races this season. 

After Nine Rounds

Time is running out in the IndyCar season and the championship picture is coming into focus. For the third consecutive year, a Chip Ganassi Racing driver leads the championship through nine races. This time it is Marcus Ericsson on top.

Through nine races, Ericsson has one victory, three podium finishes, four top five finishes and seven top ten finishes. He has led 36 and has 321 points. 

Since reunification, in eight of 14 seasons, the championship leader after nine races went on to win the championship. However, each time the championship leader had one victory or fewer through nine races, he did not win the championship. Hélio Castroneves had one victory after nine races in 2013 but lost the title to Scott Dixon. In 2017, Dixon led the championship with no victories and Josef Newgarden went on to win the championship that year. 

Since the introduction of double points in 2014, Ericsson's 321 points is the fewest for a championship leader through nine races. In two of the previous three seasons when the championship leader had fewer than 350 points through nine races that driver did not win the championship. The exception was last year when Álex Palou won the title and had 349 points through nine races. 

Ericsson's three podium finishes and four top five finishes are tied for the fewest for a championship leader through nine races with Will Power's 2012 season, a year Power lost the title in the final race of the season. Ericsson's 36 laps led are the fewest for a championship leader at this point of a season since reunification and it is only the second time in the last 15 seasons the championship leader has not led at least 100 laps through nine races. Dixon only led 54 laps through nine races in 2017.

We are looking at the championship leader through nine races, but what about the six occasions where the champion wasn't leading through nine races?

Most of those champions were in worse situations than the championship leader through nine races. Four of those six champions had fewer victories than the championship leader at that time. Only once did the eventual champion have more victories than the championship leader through nine races. 

Dario Franchitti had fewer victories than Scott Dixon and Will Power respectively in 2009 and 2010, but Franchitti came back and won the championship each year. In 2012, Ryan Hunter-Reay had fewer victories than Power, but had more podium finishes than Power. In each of those three seasons, Franchitti and Hunter-Reay were second in the championship through nine races. 

Dixon was miles behind Castroneves through nine races in 2013. Dixon had no victories, one podium finish, only five top five finishes and led only one lap through nine races. Dixon was fifth in the championship at the time. The 2013 season is also the longest since reunification with 19 races. 

Two years later, Dixon was level on victories with Juan Pablo Montoya, each had two apiece. Dixon had led 119 more laps than Montoya at that point in the season and was third in the championship. 

The only time the eventual champion had more victories than the championship leader through nine races was in 2017. Josef Newgarden had a victory while Dixon did not, however, Dixon had more podium finishes, top five finishes, top ten finishes and even laps led at that point of the season. Newgarden had led only 29 laps through nine races that year and was seventh in the championship. 

Entering Toronto, any one of Ericsson, Power, Newgarden or Palou could leave this weekend as the championship leader. Sixty-nine points cover the top seven in the championship while 100 points cover the top eight drivers with seven races remaining. 

Intra-Team Battles

We are at the midway point of the season, and while we know where everyone stands in terms of the championship, how do drivers look within their own organizations? Which teams have a clear leader and which are highly contested for the top spot?

A.J. Foyt Racing

Top Finisher:

Kyle Kirkwood - 4 (STP, LB, BMP, ROA)

J.R. Hildebrand - 2 (TEX, 500)

Dalton Kellett- 2 (DET, MOH)

Tatiana Calderón - 1 (GPOI)

Top Qualifier:

Kyle Kirkwood - 6 (STP, LB, BMP, GPOI, DET, MOH)

Dalton Kellett - 2 (TEX, ROA)

J.R. Hildebrand - 1 (500)

Kirkwood has been the top driver for Foyt in half the races, but he has left the door open in the other half. Hildebrand has led the way on ovals. Each time Kellett has been on top in either category all his teammates have been outside the top twenty.

Andretti Autosport

Top Finisher:

Colton Herta - 4 (STP, TEX, GPOI, MOH)

Alexander Rossi - 3 (500, DET, ROA)

Romain Grosjean - 2 (LB, BMP)

Top Qualifier:

Colton Herta - 5 (STP, TEX, LB, DET, MOH)

Alexander Rossi - 2 (BMP, ROA)

Romain Grosjean - 2 (GPOI, 500)

It has been balanced in the Andretti camp, but it has been in waves. Herta was the top finisher in three of the first five races and the top qualifier in the first three races. In the second quarter of the season, Rossi showed his strength. Rossi was the top finisher in three consecutive races before Mid-Ohio, and Rossi took pole position at Road America. Grosjean has picked up the pieces when Andretti needed it. He was the only Andretti car in the top ten of qualifying in the two races Grosjean has been best of the team, including the Indianapolis 500 where the next best Andretti car was 20th.

Arrow McLaren SP

Top Finisher:

Patricio O'Ward - 7 (STP, TEX, LB, BMP, 500, DET)

Felix Rosenqvist - 2 (GPOI, ROA)

Top Qualifier:

Patricio O'Ward - 7 (STP, BMP, GPOI, 500, DET, ROA)

Felix Rosenqvist - 2 (TEX, LB)

While Rosenqvist has been rejuvenated in 2022, O'Ward has still been the clear man on top at AMSP. However, in five of the six races where O'Ward has been the top AMSP qualifier and qualified in the top ten, Rosenqvist has also qualified in the top ten. On three of those occasions, both cars made the Fast Six. 

Chip Ganassi Racing

Top Finisher: 

Marcus Ericsson - 4 (TEX, GPOI, 500, ROA)

Álex Palou - 4 (STP, LB, BMP)

Scott Dixon - 1 (DET)

Top Qualifier:

Álex Palou - 4 (LB, BMP, GPOI, ROA)

Scott Dixon - 4 (STP, TEX, 500)

Marcus Ericsson - 1 (DET)

No surprise, the championship leader and the defending champion are tied for most times as the top finisher in this team, but it has been tight at Chip Ganassi Racing. Palou was top finisher in three of the first four races. Ganassi has had multiple top ten finishers in every race with at least three top ten finishers in five of nine races and all four cars were in the top ten at Texas. As much as we could use this to signal a decline for Dixon, he has been in the top ten in eight of nine races., and Dixon is level with Palou for most times at the top qualifier in the team.

Dale Coyne Racing

Top Finisher:

Takuma Sato - 5 (STP, LB, GPOI, 500, ROA)

David Malukas - 4 (TEX, 500, DET, MOH)

Top Qualifier:

Takuma Sato - 6 (STP, TEX, BMP, GPOI, 500, DET)

David Malukas - 3 (LB, ROA, MOH)

The numbers suggest Sato has the upper hand in the Dale Coyne Racing battle, but the numbers also suggest it is closer than it appears. The DCR drivers have been within six positions of each other in five races and they have qualified within six positions of one another in six races.

Ed Carpenter Racing

Top Finisher:

Conor Daly - 5 (LB, GPOI, 500, DET, ROA)

Rinus VeeKay - 3 (STP, BMP, MOH)

Ed Carpenter - 1 (TEX)

Top Qualifier:

Rinus VeeKay - 7 (STP, TEX, LB, BMP, 500, ROA, MOH)

Conor Daly - 2 (GPOI, DET)

In a swing from the last two seasons, Daly has been regularly the top ECR finisher, but in three of the races Daly has been top finisher, neither car has finished in the top ten. VeeKay has the clear edge in qualifying and when VeeKay does qualify ahead of Daly, the Dutchman is on average 10.57 positions further up the grid than his American counterpart.

Meyer Shank Racing

Top Finisher:

Simon Pagenaud - 5 (TEX, BMP, GPOI, DET, ROA)

Hélio Castroneves - 4 (STP, LB, 500, MOH)

Top Qualifier: 

Simon Pagenaud - 6 (STP, LB, 500, DET, ROA, MOH)

Hélio Castroneves - 3 (TEX, BMP, GOI)

We had the peculiar thing through the first six races where the top MSR qualifier would not be the top finisher for the team. Pagenaud has since been the top qualifier in the last three races and top finisher in the last two of the last three. There is a big difference between the two drivers. In three of the four races Castroneves has been the top finisher, Pagenaud has finished within two spots of Castroneves. Meanwhile, in the races where Pagenaud is the top finisher, he is averaging finishing 12.6 spots better than his Castroneves. In two of the three races Castroneves has been the top qualifier, neither MSR qualified in the top fifteen. 

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

Top Finisher:

Graham Rahal - 5 (STP, LB, BMP, 500, ROA)

Christian Lundgaard - 3 (GPOI, DET, MOH)

Santino Ferrucci - 1 (TEX)

Top Qualifier:

Graham Rahal - 4 (STP, LB, BMP, 500)

Christian Lundgaard - 4 (GPOI, DET, ROA, MOH)

Jack Harvey - 1 (TEX)

What these numbers are not telling you is RLLR has zero top five finishes this year, zero top five starts this year, the team has a combined three top ten starting positions out of a possible 27, it has failed to put a car in the top fifteen on the grid in four races and the team has not had a car start in the top twenty of either oval race. However, RLLR has had a top ten finisher in six of nine races and put two cars in the top ten at Road America, but it has had at least one finisher outside the top fifteen in seven of nine races.

Team Penske

Top Finisher:

Josef Newgarden - 4 (TEX, LB, 500, ROA)

Will Power - 3 (BMP, GPOI, DET)

Scott McLaughlin - 2 (STP, MOH)

Top Qualifier:

Scott McLaughlin - 4 (STP, TEX, BMP, MOH)

Josef Newgarden - 3 (LB, DET, ROA)

Will Power - 2 (GPOI, 500)

I think things have been pretty even at Team Penske. Newgarden and McLaughlin are the only drivers in IndyCar with multiple victories. Power has a victory and has been in the top five in seven races. Penske has had multiple top five finishers in five races. McLaughlin had had peaks and valleys this season, but Mid-Ohio appears to have McLaughlin heading upward. Penske had all three cars start in the top ten of each of the first three races and has had multiple top ten starters in seven of nine races. Strangely, at the Indianapolis 500, no Penske car started in the top ten. 

Road to Indy

Two of the three Road to Indy series will be in competition this weekend at Exhibition Place, and it is getting late early for Indy Pro 2000 and U.S. F2000.

Only three rounds, six races remain in the Indy Pro 2000 season, and the championship could make a pivotal swing this weekend in Toronto. 

Louis Foster has won four of the last five races, giving Foster 282 points and a 49-point lead over Reece Gold. Gold has two victories this season, but he has only one top five finish in the last four races and one podium finish in the last five races. Fifty-five points behind Foster is Nolan Siegel, who won two of the first four races, but he has only two podium finishes in the last eight races. 

Enaam Ahmed has not won this season, but Ahmed has nine top five finishes from 12 races, and he is 64 points behind Foster. Braden Eves and Josh Green are tied for fifth in the championship and each driver has a victory this season. Eves holds the tiebreaker with two runner-up finishes to Green's one. 

Kiko Porto scored his first Indy Pro 2000 victory last time out at Mid-Ohio. Porto has 195 points, three more than Salvador de Alba, who has four consecutive top five finishes after having only one top five result in the first eight races. 

Jack William Miller and Yuven Sundaramoorthy round out the top ten on 166 points and 158 points respectively.

Indy Pro 2000 will race at 1:00 p.m. ET on Saturday Jul 16 and at 11:40 a.m. ET on Sunday July 17th.

This is the penultimate round for the U.S. F2000 championship before the Portland triple-header to end the season over Labor Day weekend. With only five races remaining and 165 points left on the table, 11 drivers remain mathematically eligible for the championship.

Myles Rowe took two of three races at Mid-Ohio, and was third in the other, to take the championship lead with 296 points. Rowe has six consecutive podium finishes and nine podium finishes in 13 races. Michael d'Orlando sits in second, 12 points behind Rowe. D'Orlando's three victories this season trails only Rowe's four.

Jace Denmark has won twice this season and Denmark has eight consecutive top five finishes, but he is 42 points behind Rowe entering Canada. Jagger Jones is fourth in the championship, 68 points off Rowe. Jones has only one top five finish in his last five races. 

Billy Frazer rounds out the top five in the championship on 215 points. Frazer has six podium finishes but has yet to win a race. Bijoy Garg is sixth on 187 points, one ahead of Canadian Thomas Nepveu. Christian Weir has 155 points, ut has not finished in the top five since the first race on the IMS road course in May. 

Nicky Hays picked up his first top five finish of the season in the second Mid-Ohio race, but Hays is tied with Spike Kohlbecker for ninth in the championship on 146 points. Kohlbecker does not have a top five finish this season. Dylan Christie is the final driver mathematically eligible for the championship on 132 points, 164 points behind Rowe.

The first U.S. F2000 race will be at noon ET on Saturday July 16 with the second race at 9:45 a.m. ET on Sunday July 17. 

Fast Facts

This will be the 15th IndyCar race to take place on July 17 and first since Simon Pagenaud won the first race of the 2020 Iowa doubleheader, which was held on a Friday. 

This will be the fourth Toronto race to take place on July 17. The other three races were in 1988, 1994 and 2016 and won by Al Unser, Jr., Michael Andretti and Will Power respectively. 

This July 17th is also the 17th anniversary of the inaugural Grand Prix of Edmonton. Sébastien Bourdais won that race. 

The last Toronto race was the fastest in event history with an average speed of 100.9 mph. It was the first Toronto race to average over 100 mph. The previous fastest Toronto race was in 1991 when Michael Andretti won with an average speed of 99.143 mph. 

Eleven Toronto races have averaged over 95 mph. 

Eight Toronto races have averaged under 90 mph. 

The slowest Toronto race was in 2007 when Will Power won at 72.534 mph in a rain-soaked race.

Felix Rosenqvist and Patricio O'Ward are the only drivers entered at Toronto that has won at the track in Indy Lights. The only driver to win in Indy Lights and IndyCar at Toronto is Paul Tracy.

The only driver to win at Toronto in Atlantics and IndyCar is A.J. Allmendinger.

No rookie has ever won at Toronto.

Adrián Fernández and Justin Wilson are the only two drivers to pick up their first career victory at Toronto.

Newman-Haas Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing are all tied for most Toronto victories with seven each. 

The only drivers to win consecutive Toronto races are Michael Andretti in 1991-92, 1994-95 and 2000-01, and Scott Dixon's 2013 doubleheader sweep.

Chevrolet has won 13 Toronto races, the most of any manufacture. Honda has won ten Toronto races, three of which when it was the only engine manufacture in IndyCar.

The average starting position for a Toronto winner is 3.828 with a median of third. 

Sixteen Toronto races have been won from the front row and 26 Toronto races have been won from inside the top five. 

Three Toronto races have been won from outside the top ten (Michael Andretti from 13th in 2001, Mike Conway from 11th in 2014 race two and Josef Newgarden from 11th in 2015). 

The average number of lead changes in a Toronto race is 4.205 with a median of four. 

Five times has a Toronto winner led every lap (Michael Andretti 1991-92, Dario Franchitti 1999, Cristiano da Matta 2002 and Paul Tracy 2003).

The average number of cautions in a Toronto race is 3.529 with a median of three. The average number of caution laps in a Toronto race is 14.205 with a median of 12.

There has never been a caution-free race at Toronto.

The last Toronto race to have only one caution was in 1992.

Predictions

Josef Newgarden makes it four victories this season and moves to at least second in the championship. We will not get a tenth different pole-sitter to open this season. Chip Ganassi Racing will not have a top five finisher, but Álex Palou will be the top finisher in the team. No Andretti Autosport car will make contact with another Andretti Autosport car. Neither Arrow McLaren SP driver retires due to a mechanical issue. Both A.J. Foyt Racing cars will see the checkered flag. There will not be a caution that occurs in the middle of a pit cycle. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing will have at least one car make the second round of qualifying. Takuma Sato completes at least 84 laps. Sleeper: Callum Ilott.

Musings From the Weekend: Just More Existential Dread

After Ferrari botched Silverstone and Austria's sprint race, Charles Leclerc finally got another victory. Carlos Sainz, Jr., on the other hand, had a barbecue. Peugeot made its FIA World Endurance Championship debut. There were plenty of contact and incidents at Monza. Americans are winning in many different ways in the European junior series. Past Road to Indy drivers are doing well in Formula Three, which says something. Colton Herta is testing a McLaren at Portimão. There was a popular winner in Ohio. There was a popular winner in Georgia, some might even say two. Josef Newgarden raced something with fenders for the first time. I learned Scott McLaughlin and his sister babysat Hunter McElrea when they were younger and look at them now! Unfortunately, this world isn't all roses. Here is a rundown of what got me thinking.

Just More Existential Dread

At least once a year, but most times at least twice a year, I have an existential crisis. During these periods, the angst and self-loathing spreads to other things in my life, and it is only natural it ends up mixing with my motorsports passion, and IndyCar in particular. Instead of keeping it inside, here is where my mind went. 

Marcus Ericsson's success is hurting IndyCar. It isn't due to his nationality and that he is preventing some American driver form being the poster boy for a series that desperately needs someone who the average person identifies with IndyCar. Formula One is proving American drivers are not necessary for American success. Sadly, IndyCar couldn't figure that out and America is its own backyard. The problem is Formula One and what Ericsson achieved over there or rather what he did not achieve.

With Formula One the second biggest motorsports series in the United States, the new Formula One fans know of Marcus Ericsson. They know he didn't do much in Formula One, and the transitive property does not work in IndyCar's favor. 

Ericsson wasn't good in Formula One. Ericsson is now good in IndyCar. Therefore, IndyCar isn't that good of a series. If a driver who was rarely scoring points in Formula One is leading the IndyCar championship then practically anyone in Formula One would do the same thing. 

We know it doesn't work out that way. It isn't neat and tidy as that line of thinking. There is a world beyond Formula One and Marcus Ericsson is getting to excel as a driver somewhere else. Ericsson is as happy as we have ever seen, but that is not how perception will be. 

Of course, that line of thinking ignores Romain Grosjean's season, and while Grosjean never won a Formula One race, he did stand on ten podiums, scored many points and had an admirable career. Grosjean alway finished ahead of Ericsson in the championship when they raced together in Formula One. With that logic, Grosjean should be leading IndyCar handily, but in his second IndyCar season driving for a better team than he was with in his rookie season, Grosjean is 14th in the championship, hasn't won race, has finished outside the top fifteen in five of nine races and has only led one lap. 

Critical thinking skills do not go that deep to realize motorsports is greater than a one size fits all mindset. Success in one series does not guarantee success in another. We all remember how well Fernando Alonso did in 2017 at the Indianapolis 500 driving for Andretti Autosport before an engine failure ended his race. We also must remember how Alonso failed to qualify two years later and wasn't a factor when he made the race in 2020. 

But again, it isn't that thought out. The new wave Formula One fan is very black and white. Good and bad.  Formula One good. Everything else... well, everything else is really unknown to them. They aren't studying the world of motorsports for appreciation. They are learning about it in passing, word of mouth from others. If someone in the Formula One sphere says it is good, then it is good. If they hear negative things, it must be bad and they will not respect it. 

IndyCar might receive admiration from Formula One counterparts, but that is not how it is professed, and Formula One would not get anything from blowing sunshine up IndyCar's backside. It is competition. Just because a rising tide lifts all boats doesn't mean you cannot torpedo a ship on the horizon. If Formula One can put IndyCar down and continue to grow, it will and IndyCar cannot counter it. 

Nobody cares about the level of racing. They don't care about passing and lead changes and number of different winners and different teams winning and cars winning from 16th in caution-free races at Belle Isle. They care about people. Formula One has given the masses a selection of individuals people can connected with and pull for. Once that personal connection is established, those people are hooked and are going to stick around to follow their driver. 

IndyCar doesn't seem to have picked up on that. The racing is secondary. If it is great then wonderful for IndyCar, but they need to give people a reason to care about those in the series, not care about the series itself. IndyCar either doesn't understand that or it is too incompetent to come up with an effective strategy to implement that will lift the series. 

It also doesn't help that no matter what IndyCar does it will never be as glamorous as Formula One, and part of the appeal of Formula One is the international extravagance. 

IndyCar could try. There is enough there and it could present itself in a different fashion than Drive to Survive while still presenting authentic looks at those competing, but that is banking on there being an audience for something similar but different enough from Drive to Survive to know there is a difference. Again, IndyCar doesn't seem interested in that. It doesn't really have a plan at all other than hoping something happens. 

And it can only get worse for IndyCar. Do you really think people are going to respect IndyCar if Nicholas Latifi joins the series? That is terrible to say because we know it isn't that cut and dry, but it is the reality about perception. If Latifi joins IndyCar and succeeds it will only hurts the series credibility. IndyCar can bill itself as a "drivers' series" all it wants, people have already made up their minds on Latifi, and they aren't going to change it for the better. It is unfair, but it is reality. 

Even Sebastian Vettel joining IndyCar would be a bad thing, and I would love to see it. Vettel would enjoy the differences and the circuits. But Vettel is seen as washed up. The new wave doesn't respect him. People wouldn't tune into IndyCar to watch Vettel if he joined. They would sneer at it, putting IndyCar down as a retirement series or a "b-level" series.  

It feels like IndyCar has lost. The game is over. Result is final. Headlines printed. Ink dried. 

There is nothing that can be done to change what has happened. There is nothing that can be done to change the immediate future. There will be another matchup, another chance for success, but that moment has not presented itself yet and it is on IndyCar to prepare for when it should arise. It knows what it has to do better. Can it make the necessary changes to accomplish its desired goal?

Winners From the Weekend

You know about Charles Leclerc, but did you know...

The #36 Alpine-Gibson of Nicolas Lapierre, André Negrão and Matthieu Vaxivière won the 6 Hours of Monza. The #41 RealTeam by WRT Oreca-Gibson of Rui Andrade, Ferdinand Habsburg and Norman Nato won in LMP2. The #64 Corvette of Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy won in GTE-Pro. The #77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche of Sebastian Priaulx, Christian Ried and Harry Tincknell won in GTE-Am.

Marcus Armstrong and Logan Sargeant split the Formula Two races from the Red Bull Ring. Sargeant was elevated to first after first across the line Richard Verschoor was disqualified after his car was unable to provide a sufficient fuel sample in post-race inspection. Second on the road Jehan Daruvala was issued a 20-second penalty after his team attempted to dry the track surface at his gird position prior to the race start. Jak Crawford an Isaac Hadjak split the Formula Three races. 

Chase Elliott won the NASCAR Cup race at Atlanta, his third victory of the season. Austin Hill won the Grand National Series race, his second victory of the season. Parker Kligerman won the Truck Series race at Mid-Ohio, his first victory since the 2017 Talladega race.

Shane van Gisbergen swept the Supercars races at Townsville and now has 11 victories this season. 

Bobby Labonte won the SRX race from Nashville.

Coming Up This Weekend

IndyCar's return to Toronto. 

Formula E makes what could be its final trip to Brooklyn for a doubleheader.

NASCAR is in Loudon.

IMSA is also in New England but at Lime Rock Park.

World Superbike will be at Donington Park. 

Super Formula has its second visit to Fuji. 

Rally Estonia takes place.

SRX's penultimate round is at I-55 Speedway, its first of two dirt races this season.

2022 MotoGP Midseason Report

With the removal of the Finnish Grand Prix due to incomplete homologation work at the Kymi Ring, MotoGP has a much longer break. It will not race once in July and it will next be on track in a little under a month at Silverstone. 

Eleven races are complete. The series is well into its European leg of the season. Nine race remain spread over three different continents, and it will all take place over the final three months of the season. 

The season began with surprises but has settled into a pattern of late. Only five riders have won in the first half of the season, but four manufactures have produced a winner, including one for the first time. With the events of the Dutch TT fresh in everyone's mind, we are in the summer break with a little more uncertainty than expected a few rounds ago.

Where do we stand?

Through 11 races, Fabio Quartararo is on pace to successfully defend his world championship. Quartararo has won three races and leads the championship with 172 points. He had finished in the points of every race this season prior to his accidents at the Dutch TT.

Built on the back of his first career grand prix victory, Aleix Espargaró is second in the championship with 151 points riding for Aprilia. Espargaró has finished on the podium in five races and has eight top five finishes. Johann Zarco is top Ducati rider with 114 points, but Zarco still does not have a grand prix victory. He has three podium finishes. 

Francesco Bagnaia has three victories but has retired from four races and he has no other podium finishes. Bagnaia has 106 points, one more than Enea Bastianini, who also has three victories, but outside of those victories his next best finish is eighth and Bastianini has retired from three races. 

Brad Binder was runner-up in the Qatar season opener and the KTM rider had not finished in the top five until his fifth-place ride in the Netherlands. Binder has 93 points, two more than Jack Miller, who has stood on the podium three times this year. 

Suzuka riders Joan Mir and Álex Rins are eighth and ninth in the championship with 75 points and 71 points respectively. Miguel Oliveira won in Indonesia, but he is tenth in the championship on 70 points, eight more points than Jorge Martín, who was runner-up twice in the first half of the season. 

While Aprilia has Espargaró was second in the championship, Maverick Viñales is 12th in the championship with 62 points. Viñales' best finish just came at Assen when he was third. Two points behind Viñales is Marc Márquez, who has six points but has missed five races due to injuries. 

Was Assen only a brief slip for Fabio Quartararo?

For the moment, but we know Quartararo has experienced slumps before. The last season-and-a-half suggest he has everything under control and this will be an isolated incident. Every rider goes over the limit at some point in a season. He did it twice at Assen. That performance will not repeat anywhere else. 

Even with this slip up, the Frenchman still has a 21-point lead. Granted, it has brought Espargaró within a race victory of overtaking the championship but consider if Quartararo had stayed upright in the last round, his championship lead would probably have been around the 34-point range, as it was after the German Grand Prix. He could have lost a few points, but still had over a race worth of points between him and second, or he could have extended his advantage and possibly been 40 points in the clear. 

Quartararo is sitting pretty and the first 11 races tell me someone has to be flawless to prevent him from earning a second crown. 

Can anyone be a serious challenger?

Espargaró put together a breathtaking recovery ride at Assen after being caught in Quartararo's first incident and being forced off course. He went from outside the points to fourth with a stellar move in the final set of corners. 

The only thing with Espargaró is when at his best Quartararo has found a way to be better. Consider the four-race stretch where Espargaró was third in all four races. How did Quartararo do? 

First, second, fourth, second.

Espargaró scored 64 points in that run. Quartararo scored 78. There is 14 points right there. The Frenchman has finished ahead of Espargaró in seven of 11 races. It doesn't feel like Quartararo is going to slip enough to allow Espargaró through. At minimum, the Spaniard will need to finish ahead of Quartararo in at least seven races and Espargaró would need to average outscoring him by around five points in those races. 

I don't think Zarco can do it. I just don't see it. He needs to at least win a race first, but he is 58 points back. Even with one victory he will need some help. 

Bagnaia is the interesting one. We should first note that Bagnaia was arrested earlier this week for drunk driving in Ibiza. It is unclear if this incident will carry any on-track repercussions. In terms of racing, it was boom or bust for the Italian in the second quarter of the season. He fell out of contending positions at Le Mans, Barcelona and Sachsenring. Even average finishes would have him much closer to Quartararo than the 66 points he is down now. There cannot be any more mistakes from Bagnaia, and he will have to win at least half of the remaining schedule. 

Bastianini might also have three victories, but he has excelled at the high-speed circuits where the year-old Ducati shines, and I am not sure he is set up for a run at the top spot in the final nine races. This can still be considered a good year for him even if a title push does not happen.

How is Suzuki doing considering its eminent exit from MotoGP?

Fine, but things do not feel right. They are eighth and ninth in the championship. Rins is falling all the time. Mir has good days but even he is stumbling more often than we saw over the prior two seasons. Yet, eighth and ninth feel right for these two. Outside of Rins finishing runner-up at Austin, there hasn't been a race that has gotten away from Suzuki. 

The bike isn't quite on the same page as the Yamaha and the Ducati, and with how Espargaró is riding, it is a tad behind the Aprilia, though not insurmountably behind.

Suzuki can win a race. It can have its day in the second half of the season. It is sad to see Suzuki leaving, again. It has made great strides in its last eight season. MotoGP is losing out with Suzuki's exit, and nothing is going to change corporation's mind. 

Are you sad for Marc Márquez?

Of course! Between the arm injuries and diplopia, the last three seasons have been excruciating for one of the best riders of all-time. It is a loss for everyone. Márquez is suffering and his dominance has been abruptly ended after six championships in seven MotoGP seasons. 

However, there are always positives with Márquez and signs the talent is still there and at its highest quality. He has 60 points form six starts. At that points rate, he would be fourth in the championship, four behind Zarco and four ahead of Bagnaia, had he started all 11 races. 

If Márquez had started all 11 races, would he really be on 110 points? Probably not, but I think he would be in the top five of the championship and probably have a victory. 

With how much he has been beaten up, I do wonder if his skill cannot overcome the deficits the Honda bike has regularly shown with other riders, but Márquez is still doing more with it than anyone else. 

We don't know if he will be back in 2022. It seems likely, but we just want Márquez healthy and to get another fair share of time at the highest level of motorcycle racing.

Who has an outside chance of climbing up the championship standings?

The title is out of the question for these folks, but they could make a serious move forward. 

Jack Miller will be leaving for KTM next year, but Miller could end on a strong note and move from seventh in the championship to possibly in the top three. When he is off, he has been in another zip code this season. With three Ducati riders ahead of him in the championship, Miller could be motivated to at least get amongst those three and not look average. 

Maverick Viñales is 11th in the championship and his third at Assen was his first top five finish of this season. The Aprilia is competitive. Viñales has been stellar at points of his career and then we have seen immaturity overcome him. He can pull himself up the championship with smooth races and not trying to reach for more than is in his grasp. 

Who is overachieving?

How is Brad Binder sixth in the championship? He was second in Qatar, but outside of that, and Miguel Oliveira's victory in the wet in Indonesia, KTM hasn't been that great. KTM hasn't been bad, but I am not sure Binder is sixth. He does have 16 points between him and Mir in eighth. Binder could fall a little bit, but he should remain in the top ten of the championship.

Fifteenth in the championship might not sound like much, but Luca Marini had four consecutive top ten finishes before Assen, and Marini finished fifth in Germany. In a sense, the entire VR46 Racing Team is overachieving. Marco Bezzecchi is 14th and he was runner-up at Assen. 

Who is underachieving?

If Espargaró is second in the championship, it is hard to look at Viñales with his reputation and not think he should be much better than 12th. It wasn't long ago nine out of ten people would say Viñales was the better rider than Espargaró and it wasn't close. It isn't all that close now but it is Espargaró on top. 

The same can be said about Oliveira at KTM. If Binder is sixth, Oliveira should be much better. The last two years have been puzzling for Oliveira. Last year, he had a three-race burst of results: second, first, second. He was fifth in the next race and then didn't finish in the top ten again, only scoring nine points over the final nine races. In 2020, Oliveira won twice and looked like the emerging KTM leader. With Jack Miller joining the program, the Austrian make has decided it needs a new man to lead the charge.

Honda has been lost, but it cannot be all on Márquez's shoulders. Pol Espargaró had bursts in testing and it appeared he could have Honda in a respectable position. Espargaró was third in Qatar but hasn't finished in the top ten since. It wasn't that long ago nine out of ten people would say Pol was the better Espargaró brother and it wasn't close. It isn't all that close now but it is Aleix on top. 

Neither LCR Honda rider is all that competitive. Takaaki Nakagami isn't nearly as consistent as he was a few years. Álex Márquez never quite shows the pace. At least both bikes regularly finish in the points but are also regularly outside the top ten.

Is Yamaha Good?

I ask because Quartararo leads the championship but factory teammate Franco Morbidelli is 19th and his only top ten finish was a seventh at Indonesia. The WithU Yamaha team has its riders 21st and 22nd in the championship. WithU was a late addition to replace Petronas SRT, Darryn Binder moved up from Moto3, a significant leap, and Andrea Dovizioso did spend a year out of racing, but they have one top ten finish, a tenth at Indonesia with Binder. 

Doesn't this feel like Márquez and Honda all over again? One rider with the bike specially built around him and the rest of the riders uncompetitive. It isn't a case of Morbidelli is 12th in the championship and at least pulls out the top five finishes here and there while regularly scoring points. Morbidelli has been outside the top ten in majority of the races. That shouldn't be the case with Yamaha and with a rider of Morbidelli's ability. 

With a possible championship fight against multiple riders, Yamaha is the least prepared to provide support compared to Ducat and even Aprilia. What a strange thing to be writing 11 races into this season.

Who does the second half of the season favorite?

We know Quartararo can close out a championship. The tracks are different this year. Motegi, Buriram, Phillip Island and Sepang are back. In 2019, he was second, second, retired and seventh at those tracks. He has been stout at Misano though victory has eluded him, won at Silverstone last year, but Yamaha has struggled at Aragón and Austria. 

Bagnaia, on the other hand, ended 2021 in sensational form. He won at Aragón, Misano and Valencia, and was runner-up at the Red Bull Ring after leading majority of the Austrian Grand Prix before the rain came and Brad Binder pulled off a stunning victory on slick tires while most of the leaders had swapped to their wet weather bikes. As for the Asia-Pacific tracks, Bagnaia won at Buriram and Motegi in Moto2 and won at Sepang six years ago in Moto3. 

Espargaró is having a career season and this is his first season on a first-class bike. He is regularly good at Aragón. Silverstone is far from his best course and the same can be said for Phillip Island and Sepang. He has been respectable at Valencia. 

I say there is a slight edge to Bagnaia over Quartararo in the final nine races, but with the current gap between the two, Quartararo's historic form should be enough to bring home another championship, but it is far from a certainty. 

Musings From the Weekend: So Much Attention, So Little Time

Robert Wickens (and Mark Wilkins) won again. It rained at Silverstone and a car left the ballpark. There was also a suitable winner on Sunday at Silverstone considering what was celebrated this weekend. NASCAR doesn't care about driver safety. Acura-on-Acura violence may have led to a Cadillac victory. IndyCar had a sloppy holiday weekend in Mid-Ohio. Formula E released its provisional 2023 calendar and there are no American rounds. Here is a rundown of what got me thinking.

So Much Attention, So Little Time

Formula One is more popular than ever, and I am not talking because of the massive crowds at Silverstone this weekend. While there have been many races filled to the brim with race fans this season, many locations are lining up to host races.

The schedule is already at 22 races, and 2022 was originally scheduled for 23 races. Saudi Arabia and Miami are two new races. Imola and Zandvoort both returned after over a decade off the calendar. Other tracks are lining up. Some are returning races, a few are new, and there are more expressing interest. These new locations will not always be new races. Madrid has stated it would be interested in hosting a grand prix, and Formula One has reportedly been looking at a race in Nice, France. It is unlikely Spain and France would have two races, and in these cases Barcelona and Circuit Paul Ricard would likely get the boot, but there is a lot of competition for what is a limited number of schedule slots. 

At the moment, the schedule is capped at 24 races per year according to the Concorde Agreement. That could change with approval from the teams, but there is a natural limit. There are only 52 races a year. There will need to be some type of offseason, plus financially and physically, it might not be possible to run more than 25 or 26 times a year. We all know teams are concerned about the strain of the schedule, especially as more races become flyaway events from the European center of the series.

The race limit is going to trip Formula One up as soon as next year.  

We have 22 races. China is planned to return after a three-year absence due to the pandemic. Qatar is scheduled to return after a one-year sabbatical due to the World Cup. Then there is the Las Vegas round that will be coming to the schedule. That would get us to 25 races, but in all likelihood Imola will fall off after being an extended pandemic-filler. 

However, there has been increased momentum in the South African Grand Prix returning to the schedule as soon as 2023 at Kyalami. That puts us again over the threshold. All we have are rumors and no concrete reports, but to comply with the 24-race limit, Spa-Francorchamps could be removed to make way for South Africa. 

Formula One finds itself at maximum capacity and having to decide what races can remain and which ones cannot. It is putting a historical and well-supported venue in Spa-Francorchamps on the chopping block. For the last 20 years Formula One has been bucking its history. Spa-Francorchamps was off the calendar for a few years. The French Grand Prix wasn't on the schedule for over a decade. Imola is an example of a race left behind. Germany is no longer on the schedule. Silverstone and Monza have been under threat for what seems like the entire 21st century. Now Monaco is in the crosshairs. 

In this new era for Formula One, the current leadership knows it is in a difficult situation. It knows the importance of these races, especially when they are filling the grandstands every day, not just race day. Silverstone is capped at 80,000 for Friday. Montreal was packed for every session earlier this month. Zandvoort returned to the calendar and filled every inch of the track perimeter with a human body. Spa-Francorchamps is the same way. These aren't only historic races, but successful races. People go to these venues. It is the lifeblood of the series. 

But Formula One also likes money, and while Baku, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar might only get around 25,000 people for race day and not even get 70,000 for the entire weekend, they spend tens of millions of dollars, more than the historic venues. 

Formula One needs fans, but it also needs money. How do we square this issue? 

The series knows it would be foolish to do it on money alone. It is the easiest, and the most profitable way, but every race shouldn't become a bidding war, otherwise the fans will lose out. It is bad enough you couldn't get into the Miami race for less than $600. It cannot price out everyone and if every race becomes a bidding war, the fans will lose out because the costs will be dropped on them. 

There is a core group of venues, but Formula One must make room for the new money. The problem is how do you decide what is a core venue and what do you do with all these extra races? 

We are looking at 25 races fighting for 24 spots now, but other places will want in. It wasn't long ago Formula One was supposed to race in Vietnam. Malaysia once hosted a race. Argentina is out there. Turkey has been hanging around and has interest in returning to the calendar. It doesn't look like we will be racing in Russia anytime soon, but one day it will come up again. Add those four locations and now there are 30 parties for 24 spots. What happens if China wants a second race? What if a Finnish marvel arrives and stirs up enough interests for a grand prix there? What if India changes its tune and wants back into Formula One? What if a fourth American market emerges? Then Formula One is oversubscribed by ten. 

The only answer is rotation, but we know there are plenty of venues no one wants to live without. Rotation isn't the best answer either. A track may get a Formula One race every other year in that circumstance, but that also means there is a year they will not have Formula One, not have 100,000 people spending their money and not have countless of hospitality suites and sponsorship signage to sell.

What is the answer? 

At the current moment, Formula One needs to decide where it cannot live without. Part of that will be historic, but part of that will be strategic. Abu Dhabi might be new, but people like that as the finale. The same goes for Singapore. Being on every continent could be vital to the series' identity, and that would mean South Africa and Brazil are on while another obvious venue gets left out. 

With the 24-race cap, a core that makes up 2/3rds of the calendar, 16 races, makes the most sense. It is easy to fill. 

Europe has eight pivotal venues: Silverstone, Monza, Monaco, Spa-Francorchamps, Zandvoort, Red Bull Ring, Circuit Paul Ricard, Barcelona. 

If we are giving every continent a race, Brazil is the only South American option at the moment and the same could be said for South Africa. That would also be true of Australia, and while there are numerous of Asian options, I think Suzuka carries the most water. That gets us to 12 races. 

We need a North American venue and there are five options. If the United States is getting three races, at least two of those are making it. Since Austin and Miami have actually hosted races in their current forms, let's put them down. That leaves two spots left. 

Who fills those spots? Canada and Mexico both get massive crowds, but is Formula One really going to race without China? Is Singapore really going to disappear? Would the finale not be at Abu Dhabi? At the moment, let's put in Mexico for the crowd (sorry Canada) and Abu Dhabi for the spectacle. 

What does that mean for the remaining eight spots? That final third could be broken into four pods of three races that rotate. There are at least four new races in that case, but each race is on the calendar for two consecutive years.

For example, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar would be one pod. They bring money, but really don't have the crowd to justify a yearly event. In "Year A," Bahrain and Saudi Arabia could be on the schedule and Qatar would not. In "year B," Qatar would join the schedule and Bahrain would fall off. "Year C" would see Bahrain return and Saudi Arabia take a year off. 

There could be one for the Americas between Canada, Las Vegas and hypothetically a Argentine round. In Asia, there could be a pod with China, Singapore and Vietnam or Malaysia or Thailand. The final pod could be a Eurasian pod for the races that didn't make the cut. It could include Hungary, Azerbaijan and theoretically Germany, Portugal, Turkey or Imola. 

The calendar would be 24 races, but there would be 28 contracted grand prix. 

But why stop there? It doesn't appear Formula One is going to stop anytime soon. 

The core schedule could be decreased to 12 races and the number of pods could increase to six. The United States could be its own pod. There could be a South American pod. The calendar would still be 24 races, but now there are 30 grand prix under contract. 

But who says there needs to be any core schedule? We could be 12 pods of three races, 36 grand prix and once every three years a race is off. That means in "Year A" Silverstone, Austin and China could be off. In "Year B," Monaco, Suzuka and Interlagos might not be on the schedule. "Year C" could see no races in Australia or Italy or Mexico. Every race would have to sacrifice something to be on the schedule. In a sense, it would be Formula One scheduling harmony, every race getting a little and giving a little for the greater good of the series. 

Patience is necessary because we aren't sure how long this Formula One growth period will last. The bubble could pop tomorrow and the series could have only 23 interested venues with no country looking to ruffle some feathers. This three-dozen grand prix pipe dream isn't quite here, but if this trend continues for the better part of the 2020s we will have to accept a new way the Formula One schedule is decided. It will have to look like other sports, such as tennis and golf, where some venues don't host an event every year. The audience could be large enough to allow for such a possible outcome, and this could be the only reality that makes everyone happy. 

Winners From the Weekend

You know about Scott McLaughlin, Robert Wickens and Mark Wilkins but did you know...

Carlos Sainz, Jr. won the British Grand Prix, his first career grand prix victory.

Tyler Reddick won the NASCAR Cup race from Road America, his first career victory. Ty Gibbs won the Grand National Series race, his fourth victory of the season.

The #01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac of Renger van der Zande and Sébastien Bourdais won the IMSA race from Mosport. The #54 CORE Autosport Ligier-Nissan of Colin Braun and Jon Bennett won in LMP3. The #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche of Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet won in GTD Pro. The #27 Roman De Angelis and Maxime Martin won in GTD.

Hunter McElrea won the Indy Lights race from Mid-Ohio. Louis Foster and Kiko Porto split the Indy Pro 2000 races. Myles Rowe won the first two U.S. F2000 races and Michael d'Orlando won the third.

Jack Doohan and American Logan Sargeant split the Formula Two races from Silverstone. Isack Hadjar and Arthur Leclerc split the Formula Three races.

The #28 IDEC Sport Oreca-Gibson of Paul Lafargue, Paul-Loup Chatin and Patrick Pilet won the 4 Hours of Monza. The #13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier-Nissan of Charles Crews, Nico Pino and Guilherme Oliveira won in  LMP3. The #77 Proton Competition of Gianmaria Bruni, Lorenzo Ferrari and Christian Ried won in GTE.

Thomas Preining and Felipe Fraga split the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters races from the Norisring. 

Edoardo Mortara won the Marrakesh ePrix, his third victory of the season.

Santiago Urrutia and Rob Huff split the World Touring Car Cup Races from Vila Real.

The #32 Belgian Audi Club WRT Audi of Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts split the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup races from Misano. 

Ryan Newman won the SRX race from Stafford Motor Speedway.

Coming Up This Weekend

Formula One's second sprint weekend in Austria. 

Monza hosts the 6 Hours of Monza for the FIA World Endurance Championship and Peugeot will be there.

NASCAR makes its second stop at Atlanta. 

Supercars are in Townsville.

SRX will be in Nashville, and Josef Newgarden and Matt Kenseth will make their debuts.

First Impressions: Mid-Ohio 2022

1. Scott McLaughlin caught a break when the caution was held for Kyle Kirkwood's incident in turn eight. McLaughlin was able to make his pit stop and get out ahead of Patricio O'Ward and Alex Palou. O'Ward was struggling with mechanical issues of his own, but McLaughlin faced much less resistance with how this race played out. He got to clean air without having to really make a move and he held on.
Can't knock the guy because many of IndyCar's best drivers have won races this way. These breaks go each way. McLaughlin won this time but he will likely be on the wrong side of it next time. He drove flawlessly and Palou pressured him for the entire final run. McLaughlin didn't put a wheel wrong when you think he could. This is his sophomore season. Palou isn't much more experienced, but Palou knows these tracks a little better and has more time in single-seater cars. McLaughlin is still new to this and he didn't put a wheel wrong when about 90% of drivers in similar roles would.

Not to mention McLaughlin did this with his parents in attendance. He hadn't seen his mother and father for nearly three years due to the pandemic and his move to IndyCar. This is a wonderful thing he gets to share after possibly wondering if this moment would ever happen again after he left Supercars. It is heartwarming.

2. If Kirkwood doesn't go off, this is another race where Alex Palou goes from seventh to first without breaking a sweat. Palou nails it all the time. Put him first on the grid? He will be fine. Start seventh? He has got it. He is confident, believing in his ability and knowing the results he can pull out. He is going to be at the top of IndyCar for the next 15 years. You better get comfortable with it and IndyCar better figure out a way to turn a talented champion into a star.

3. Will Power nearly went over his skis on lap one. Power blew a Mid-Ohio race last year early in the race. But Roger Penske must have pleased the Lord today because the cautions not only fell for McLaughlin. First, Felix Rosenqvist broke down. Power went off strategy. During Kirkwood's incident, Power made his second stop, a free stop. It only got him to 13th, but Power had the set up and blasted forward. The extra cautions helped keep the gap manageable and made it easier for Power to get to the front. He got to third. Power isn't the championship leader, but he is there. With eight races to go and Power already having seven top five finishes, he is going to be there down the stretch.

4. Rinus VeeKay got off the snide. VeeKay looked competitive all day and was making moves, but now he has to do it again. We have seen the speed, but it has been inconsistent. He has two or three-race periods of good runs and then falls off the map for three months. That has to change. This was a good day but it only means something if the results follow.

5. Scott Dixon was fifth. Just another good but not great day for Dixon. He was at the front all race but couldn't quite get in the battle. That has been the theme of the last two seasons for Dixon. The crazy thing is Dixon has top ten finishes in eight of nine races and that ninth race was arguably his best race of the season. It is funny how IndyCar works out. As for Dixon, he is there, but the muscle doesn't appear to be quite as strong.

6. Marcus Ericsson kept his nose clean and kept the championship lead, 20 points ahead of Power. This day could have been a lot worse for Ericsson. He was starting 13th, all his championship rivals were around or behind him, but sometimes you are due a bad day. Ericsson doesn't go over the edge. It wasn't going to be a race victory today, but he maximized his points and finished sixth. Yes, he lost ground to Power despite Power starting eight positions behind him, but this could be a lost battle in what is ultimately a won war for Ericsson.

7. Josef Newgarden was in lockstep with Ericsson all race. They started on row seven. They end up sixth and seventh. Newgarden was good but not great today. He couldn't quite get ahead of Ericsson. If he did, I think maybe he could have pushed for the top five, but not much more than that.

8. Meyer Shank Racing scored a double top ten finish in its home race. Helio Castroneves was eighth in what was the crafty drive of an elder statesman. Simon Pagenaud really didn't seem comfortable on track at all today and was bouncing around, but somehow finished tenth. The team will take it though it will wish it was better.

9. David Malukas gets his first career top ten finish and it was about time. Malukas has been good and really should have had a top ten finish by now. He held his own against some of the big boys today. This will be the first of many... we hope. He might end up with only ten or 15 top ten finishes in his career. He has one. That is enough for today.

10. This wasn't a good day for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, and yet Christian Lundgaard was 11th and Graham Rahal was 12th. Neither of those two looked that good. Rahal went off strategy with Power after the Rosenqvist incident and this gives a clear indication of the difference in quality between the two teams. Jack Harvey had an electrical issue early and then spun Dalton Kellett. Harvey ends up 20th. RLLR might have been on the fringe of the top ten but they are farther off that.

11. Conor Daly ended 13th. Not bad considering he started 22nd. He made some passes, but can we really celebrate 13th when that is where Daly is on average? He did what he normally does. Ok.

12. Takuma Sato was 14th. Sato went off track a few times. He clearly didn't have it today. That is all.

13. The "Big Three" is no more in IndyCar. There is a "Big Two." Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing. That's it. That's the list.

Andretti Autosport is garbage, and after this pathetic showing the Formula One constructors' should all come out today and say there isn't a snowball's chance in hell Michael Andretti is getting a team.

The team botched calling Colton Herta in when the caution was being held for Tatiana Calderon's stopped car. Instead of calling Herta in when running third while McLaughlin and the rest were stopping, Herta went on through and took the lead when he would have preferred not to have it.

Herta had one roll of the dice, to run as hard as he could for about five to seven laps and open as big a gap as possible and possibly come out better than 22nd. It looked like it might work because Herta, not stopping trapped Simona de Silvestro a lap down and put de Silvestro between Herta and McLaughlin. Herta wasn't going to gap McLaughlin, but it was feasible he could come out somewhere in the top fifteen and possibly challenge for a top ten.

That was ruined when Romain Grosjean and Alexander Rossi got together in the keyhole, and both those cars were in the top ten! Andretti went from three cars in the top ten to none in the top fifteen in about three laps.

It got worse. Rossi and Devlin DeFrancesco collided. Grosjean spun Herta. This was embarrassing. IndyCar race control should call the entire Andretti team, pit crew members and ownership as well, and ask them what the hell is going on.

Andretti Autosport was worse than A.J. Foyt Racing today and that is hard to beat considering two Foyt cars retired and the other is Dalton Kellett. Every driver that finished between sixth and 14th should be thanking Andretti Autosport because due to their incompetence those finishers were all gifted somewhere between one and three exra positions.

If Andretti Autosport doesn't wake up after this then it is a dumber organization than I thought.

14. This might be the first time I didn't hear Jimmie Johnson's name mentioned all race weekend since he joined IndyCar and Johnson ended up with his best finish in his IndyCar career, 16th. Good for Johnson.

15. Simona de Silvestro was 18th and on the lead lap. She did well, and her fastest lap was better than the fastest laps of Daly, Johnson, Harvey and Kellett. She has a handle on the car after all this time away. She runs Nashville and then that is it. She really needs more seat time. Maybe Andretti Autosport will sit one its knuckleheads and give a level-headed driver a ride.

16. This was a brutal day for Arrow McLaren SP. From double top-five starters to double retirement. Felix Rosenqvist broke down after eight laps. Patricio O'Ward's was struggling at the end of the first stint and just didn't have the pace. The car finally crapped out after O'Ward made a pit stop during the countdown for the Calderon caution. O'Ward had the car fail him at Road America. This kind of thing keeps drivers out of championship battles. It is a massive blow and AMSP has work to do.

17. Callum Ilott broke down while running on the edge of the top ten. Juncos Hollinger Racing has speed. It is lacking reliability. It isn't hurting Ilott. We see his pace and he will not be at JHR for long. JHR on the other hand has a few steps it needs to make to become a respectable IndyCar team.

18. A.J. Foyt Racing is a mess. Three finishers outside the top ten, funding not coming and leaving Tatiana Calderon's entry in limbo, and two retirements today is not good. Kyle Kirkwood went off in turn eight. Kirkwood over drove it. He was in a good position. The pace is there, but my worry is if Kirkwood is over driving now, why should we believe Andretti Autosport will calm him? After this season, Kirkwood needs a stable setting and a group that makes sure he is driving within his means. That isn't Andretti Autosport right now and I doubt Andretti can return to being that team.

19. We had a waved off start today, and IndyCar is partially to blame for poor starts. One, at most circuits, the pace car clears too early. Compare it to NASCAR, the pace car remains in front of the field and pulls off at the last moment. IndyCar should do the same. Two, the cars should be side-by-side for most of the final laps before green. Three, stop letting the leaders get away with their games. Too often is the leader screwing around on the gas and spreads the field out or causes an accordion at the start. I know the optics for penalizing the leader is jarring, but it would send a message.

20. Can we talk about the Honda 200 for a second? And I mean the actual name of the race. It wasn't 200 miles. It wasn't 200 kilometers, why does the race have this title? The race distance has bounced around. When IndyCar returned in 2007, it was the Honda 200, but it wasn't 200 miles, it was 191 miles, five laps longer than today. Last decade, the race was extended to 200 miles before 2020, when Mid-Ohio became a doubleheader weekend. It was extended by five laps to make it tougher to complete on two stops.

One reason for the shorter distance is the television window. With Mid-Ohio being on network television, it is easier for 180 miles to fit into a two-and-a-half-hour window than 200, but Mid-Ohio does lose out because the shorter distance means less variety in strategy. When Mid-Ohio was 200 miles, it was a two or three-stop race but with varying options. At 180 miles, it quickly becomes a two-stopper and everyone is on the same page. I have mentioned this before. St. Petersburg is another example. St. Petersburg was shortened to 100 miles after nearly a decade at 110 laps and it took a wrinkle out of that street race, and it needs it.

I understand it because IndyCar wants to be on network television and fit into a window, but it also needs to put on the best race possible. It isn't going to get an extra half-hour or full hour on network television unless the ratings jump up to about three million viewers for every race. Today's race didn't start until 12:51 p.m. ET, 21 minutes after the television window began. The only real option is for IndyCar to come on air and immediately start its pace laps a minute into the broadcast and go green about five or six minutes after on air. It would buy IndyCar an extra 15 minutes and that could be enough for an extra 20 miles.

IndyCar and the television partners almost have to treat it like baseball. All baseball game broadcasts begin at 7:00 p.m., but first pitch is 7:07 p.m. In my youth, it was 7:05 p.m. That could be the model for IndyCar. On air at 12:30 p.m., green flag at 12:37 p.m. Start at 3:00 p.m.? The green flag waves at 3:07 p.m.

It should be noted that none of the seven Mid-Ohio races from 2013 to 2019 that were 90 laps, 203.22 miles in length, took more than two hours to complete. The longest took an hour and 55 minutes. Four of those races took under an hour and 50 minutes to complete and the 2016 race was exactly an hour and 50 minutes. I think Mid-Ohio can be extended and not have to worry about going over a television window.

We will have to wait and see if IndyCar decides to embrace something different, but knowing IndyCar and American sports, nothing will change. We will keep up appearances.

21. Remember that period when IndyCar did all restarts from between the keyhole and China Beach at Mid-Ohio? Why doesn't Mid-Ohio just move the start/finish over there? We have all been wondering about it. When Green Savoree Promotions bought the track, it was initially reported the track was considering having a new pit lane and paddock area. Nearly ten years later and that new pit area is not here but still needed.

There were plenty of complaints about Mid-Ohio's facilities during the IMSA weekend. I think its age is really wearing on people, especially when it was already considered outdated in 2012. I wish we could get some developers to look at these tracks and have them create concepts for what some of these racetracks could be. Mid-Ohio turned 60 years old this year and in some ways it still hasn't entered the 21st century.

We can maximize Mid-Ohio's potential. The crowd is there. We all saw it. The powers must do more for their own benefit as well as the masses.

22. This was a lot written for an otherwise ho-hum race. This is the start of a busy summer period, but IndyCar gets a week off. Once it hits Toronto in a fortnight, it will be at full throttle for nearly a month and the second half of the IndyCar season will disappear quickly. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Morning Warm-Up: Mid-Ohio 2022

Patricio O'Ward's lap at 66.7054 seconds around Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in the final round of qualifying matched IndyCar history. With that lap, O'Ward became the ninth different pole-sitter through the first nine races of the season, the first time IndyCar has had nine consecutive pole-sitters to open a season since 1961. This is O'Ward's fifth career pole position and his first since the August 2021 IMS road course race. O'Ward has started in the top five in five of the last six races. Mid-Ohio is the only track O'Ward has made multiple IndyCar starts at but has yet to have a top five finish. His best finish at the circuit is eighth. He could join Adrián Fernández as the only Mexican drivers to win at Mid-Ohio. Fernández won here in 1998. 

Scott McLaughlin was 0.1328 seconds off O'Ward and completes the Chevrolet sweep of the front row for the Honda 200. It is McLaughlin's first top five start since starting fourth at Barber. Every time McLaughlin has started in the top five this season he has been the top Team Penske qualifier. However, he has not been the top Team Penske finisher since the St. Petersburg. Last year, McLaughlin started 14th and finished 12th at Mid-Ohio.

Colton Herta was the top Honda qualifier in third, 0.3208 seconds off O'Ward. Herta has completed every lap in all four of his Mid-Ohio starts. He has led a lap in the last three Mid-Ohio races, but his only top five finish was his victory in the second race of the 2020 doubleheader. This is the third consecutive year Herta has started in the top three at Mid-Ohio after starting first and second in the last two starts. 

Felix Rosenqvist qualified just over a half-second off his teammate O'Ward and makes it two Arrow McLaren SP cars in the top four. Rosenqvist's finishing position has progressively gotten worse at Mid-Ohio over his four starts. He was runner-up to Scott Dixon in a side-by-side finish in the 2019 race but dropped to sixth and 22nd in the 2020 doubleheader and was 23rd last year.

Scott Dixon gets his first top five starting position on a road/street course this season. This will be Scott Dixon's 19th Mid-Ohio start, the most all-time breaking a tie with Michael Andretti and Tony Kanaan. Dixon has started in the top five for nine of those races. Dixon has not led a lap in his last three Mid-Ohio starts. He has never gone four consecutive Mid-Ohio races without a lap led. In his last 16 Mid-Ohio starts, Dixon has six victories, seven podium finishes, 11 top five finishes and 15 top ten finishes. 

Simon Pagenaud rounds out the top six position. Pagenaud was 0.7145 seconds off O'Ward's pole position time. This is the second time a Meyer Shank Racing car has started in the top six for a Mid-Ohio race. Jack Harvey started fifth for the first race of the 2020 doubleheader. Pagenaud has completed all 1,030 possible laps in his 12 Mid-Ohio starts, but he has not had a top five finish at the track since 2017.

Álex Palou fell 0.0010 seconds short from advancing to the final round of qualifying and will have to start seventh instead. Fourth through seventh in the second round of qualifying was covered by 0.0019 seconds. Palou is coming off matching his second-worst career finish after ending up 27th at Road America. The only other time he finished 27th was last August in the race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course after suffering an engine failure. 

David Malukas has his second top ten starting position of the season and the top qualifying rookie will roll off from eighth position. Malukas has yet to be the top Dale Coyne Racing finisher on a natural-terrain road course this season. He has been the top finisher at both ovals and on the streets of Belle Isle. 

Kyle Kirkwood made it to the second round of qualifying for the third time this season and for the first time since Long Beach. Kirkwood will start a career-best ninth. He has won ten times at Mid-Ohio in Road to Indy series. Kirkwood could join Paul Tracy as the only drivers to win at Mid-Ohio in Indy Lights and IndyCar. Jack Harvey and Patricio O'Ward are the only drivers entered in this year's Mid-Ohio race who have won here in Indy Lights.

Callum Ilott is making his first Mid-Ohio start and it will come from tenth completing tic-tac-toe, three rookies in a row on the starting grid. This is the third time Ilott has made it to the second round of qualifying this season. Juncos Hollinger Racing's only previous Mid-Ohio appearance in IndyCar was in 2018 with René Binder, who finished 21st.

Rinus VeeKay starts 11th, the third consecutive Mid-Ohio race VeeKay has started in 11th position. Like Felix Rosenqvist, VeeKay's finishing position has progressively gotten worse at Mid-Ohio. VeeKay has finished eighth, 11th and 16th in his first three Mid-Ohio starts. The Dutchman has three top ten finishes in his last 16 starts. He has finished outside the top fifteen in 12 of those starts, including the last four races. 

Alexander Rossi dropped to 12th in the second round of qualifying, Rossi's worse starting position at Mid-Ohio since he started 12th in his first start at the track in 2016. He has finished better than or equal to his starting position in five of seven Mid-Ohio starts, though he finished worse than his 12th starting position six years ago. He was 14th in that race. Rossi has six consecutive top ten finishes at Mid-Ohio. He has only led a lap in six of his last 45 starts.

Marcus Ericsson missed out on advancing from group one by 0.1543 seconds after Will Power was penalized for interference during the session. Ericsson has led a lap in four races this season, matching last season for his most races led in a single year. He has led a lap in the last two Mid-Ohio races, but he has led one lap and two laps in those races.

Josef Newgarden was 0.0961 seconds off advancing from group two and Newgarden will start 14th. He is aiming to become the first driver to win consecutive Mid-Ohio races for the first time since Scott Dixon did it in 2011 and 2012. This could be the eighth time a driver has won consecutive Mid-Ohio races. Bobby Rahal, Michael Andretti, Emerson Fittipaldi, Al Unser, Jr., Alex Zanardi and Hélio Castroneves are the other driver to win consecutive times at Mid-Ohio.

Hélio Castroneves takes 15th on the grid, his third time starting on row eight this season. Castroneves' average finish in his last seven Mid-Ohio starts is 13.857 with no top five finishes and two top ten finishes. Each time he has started on row eight this year, Castroneves has finished outside the top twenty. 

Christian Lundgaard is the best Rahal Letterman Lanigan starter in 16th. This is the seventh race RLLR does not have a top ten starter and the fourth time the team has failed to put a car in the top fifteen. Lundgaard's tenth-place finish at Road America, combined with Graham Rahal's eighth-place finish, was the first time Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing had multiple top ten finishes this season. RLLR had six races with multiple top ten finishes last year and it had all three cars finish in the top ten at Mid-Ohio last year.

Romain Grosjean starts 17th, his worst starting position of the season. Grosjean started 18th last year at Mid-Ohio, but he went on to finish seventh that day. He is looking for consecutive top five finishes for the first time in his IndyCar career. Excluding the Andros Trophy ice racing series, Grosjean has not had consecutive top five finishes since a five-race stretch during the 2013 Formula One season, when he was third at the Korean, Japanese and Indian Grand Prix, fourth at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and second in the United States Grand Prix.

Graham Rahal starts next to his best friend Romain Grosjean on row nine. This is the fourth consecutive race Rahal has started outside the top fifteen. This is the first time Rahal has not had top five finish within his first eight starts of a season. Rahal has nine consecutive top ten finishes at Mid-Ohio with five of those being top five results. This is the longest Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has gone to open a season without a top five result since 2008. RLLR's first top five finish that season was in the tenth race at Watkins Glen where Ryan Hunter-Reay won. Rahal makes his 250th IndyCar start this weekend.

Takuma Sato wound up 19th on the grid for the second consecutive race. Sato has not finished in the top five in his last 17 starts and he has only one top five finish in his last 30 starts. Dale Coyne Racing has never had a top five finish at Mid-Ohio, the location of Dale Coyne Racing's debut. Dale Coyne started the 1984 CART race and finished 14th, 17 laps down.

Devlin DeFrancesco's first Mid-Ohio start will be from 20th on the grid. DeFrancesco was fifth in both summer Indy Lights races at Mid-Ohio last year. He was eighth and fourth at the Indy Lights season finale round at Mid-Ohio last October. 

Will Power's penalty for interfering Hélio Castroneves' qualifying run dropped him from top of group one to 11th in the group, 21st on the grid after Power's fastest two laps were deleted. This is the fourth consecutive race Power has started outside the top ten. It is the first time Power has started outside the top ten in four consecutive races, when he had a five-race stretch that covered Iowa, Richmond, Watkins Glen, Nashville and Mid-Ohio. Power has led 205 laps at Mid-Ohio in 14 starts. Mid-Ohio is one of ten tracks where he has led at least 200 laps. 

Conor Daly qualified 22nd. Daly has started outside the top ten in eight of nine races, and this is the seventh time he has started outside the top fifteen in 2022. Daly has finished better than his starting position in his last three starts and in five of the last six races.

Dalton Kellett starts on row 12, his eighth consecutive race starting outside the top twenty. Kellett has finished 22nd, 21st and 21st in his three Mid-Ohio starts, off the lead lap in all three starts. He did pick up his first lead lap finish of the season last time out at Road America.

Jack Harvey will start 24th, his worst road/street course starting position this season. Harvey did start 32nd for the Indianapolis 500. His best Mid-Ohio finish was tenth in 2019 with Meyer Shank Racing. He has finished outside the top fifteen in two of his four starts at this track.

Simona de Silvestro returns for her second race of the season with Paretta Autosport and de Silvestro will start 25th. She was 21st at Road America last month. In her four Mid-Ohio starts, she has finishes of eighth, 12th, 23rd and 11th and she has completed 343 of a possible 345 laps. The only two laps she failed to complete were when she drove a Lotus-powered car in 2012.

Tatiana Calderón starts 26th. Calderón had an off in qualifying in turn two but did not damage the car. This is the sixth time in seven starts she is starting on row 13. She first tested for A.J. Foyt Racing last year at Mid-Ohio. 

Jimmie Johnson rounds out the grid in 27th position. This is the fifth-time Johnson has started outside the top twenty-five this season. Johnson has made two NASCAR Cup Series starts on July 3 in his career. Both came at Daytona. Johnson was second in the 2004 race behind Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon, and he was 31st after being caught in an accident in 2010. 

NBC's coverage of the Honda 200 begins at noon ET with green flag scheduled for 12:30 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 80 laps.