Colton Herta ended a 39-race winless streak by pulling off a perfect weekend in an imperfect race on the streets of Toronto in Sunday’s Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto NTT IndyCar Series contest.
Herta was the fastest driver in every session including the race and scored his eighth career IndyCar victory in his 94th start.
It was the first time in IndyCar history that the same driver led every practice session, won the pole and the race.
The street race was at the 1.786-mile, 11-turn street course that winds around Canada’s Exhibition Place, the long-time home of the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto.
Herta appeared on his way to an easy win after a restart with 14 laps to go. But one lap later, Pato O’Ward’s Chevrolet hit the wall and that triggered a massive crash. Marcus Ericsson’s No. 28 Honda ran into O’Ward’s car and Pietro Fittipaldi’s No. 30 Honda ran over the front nose. Santino Ferrucci’s No. 14 Chevrolet also drove over the front of O’Ward’s car and that sent him airborne before landing upside-down.
IndyCar race control stopped the race with the red flag. The AMR IndyCar Safety Team was able to turn Ferrucci’s car back on its wheels and the driver from Connecticut was able to climb out of the car without assistance.
“I had rear-lock, it spun, and that was the end of that,” O’Ward said. “I’m so surprised IndyCar didn’t call a yellow. They had a solid five seconds to call a yellow. It could have saved a massive shunt.”
The red flag added to the drama of the teams that were in contention for the victory.
“It would have been nice without the Red,” Andretti Global Chief Operating Officer Rob Edwards said during the Red Flag. He also calls Herta’s race strategy. “Thank goodness everyone is OK.
“If the restart doesn’t go well, they will have to talk to Michael Andretti, so I think they both know what they need to do.”
The race resumed with the green flag on lap 10 and once again Herta got a great jump.
But one lap later, McLaughlin’s No. 3 Chevrolet crashed into the turn 5 wall for another caution after he made contact with Team Penske teammate Will Power.
McLaughlin was visibly upset after taking off his helmet and stood at the opening to the wall waiting on Power to come around to turn 5. He applauded derisively at his teammate.
IndyCar race control ruled that Power had to serve a drive through penalty in pit lane.
Kirkwood had one more chance to try to pass Herta with five laps to go in the race.
Herta got a decent restart and continued his quest to victory. Meantime, points leader Alex Palou was up to fourth on the track, who made the most of damage control in this race.
With three laps to go, Honda drivers were in the top seven on the track.
Kirkwood could never close the gap and Herta could finally shake off bad luck and adversity and drive to victory lane for the first time in over two years.
It was also the first win for Andretti Global and Herta did a classic California Burnout at the Princes Gate and the end of turn 1 after defeating teammate Kyle Kirkwood.
He led 80 laps out of the 85-lap contest.
“We’ve been knocking on the door of a win for so long,” Herta said. “Forty-one starts without a win is unacceptable.
“Man, I’m so happy. To finally get a win in such a long time, this feels great. I wish we didn’t have this long break because now I want to win another one.
“I struggled a little bit and the tracks that have concrete are difficult, but our car was great on everything. Whatever I needed to do, the car let me down.
“It was an awesome day.”
Herta’s No. 26 Honda finished in front of teammate Kirkwood’s No. 27 Honda. Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon was third. CGR teammate Alex Palou was fourth in the No. 10 DHL Honda and teammate Marcus Armstrong was fifth.
“We were really strong all day long,” Kirkwood said. “Andretti Global deserved this one today. We executed it very well.”
The boss – seven-time Toronto winner Michael Andretti, said the team, “needed this one so bad.”
“It was a big day,” Andretti said.
Herta is the seventh different winner this year in IndyCar.
After cooling off, McLaughlin gave his thoughts after a 16th-place finish caused by the crash with teammate Power.
“It was a low percentage move when we were both going to have a good day,” McLaughlin said. “Do you do that to a teammate? I don’t know. It happened when I did it at Laguna.
“I thought we could salvage some really good points today.”
McLaughlin said he “absolutely” agreed with Power’s penalty.
Just after the green flag waved to start the race, Ferrucci and Christian Rasmussen never made it through the first turn. Rasmussen’s car sustained suspension damage, but Ferrucci was able to continue with a broken front wing. The caution period allowed Ferrucci to get back to the pits, but Rasmussen needed to be towed in.
Racing resumed on lap 5 and Herta got a big jump through the final corner. This time, everyone made it through cleanly.
But that wouldn’t last as Agustin Canapino slammed into the concrete wall with a massive impact after he turned into the right rear of Scott Dixon’s No. 9 PNC Bank Honda.
The field lined up for another restart on lap 9 and once again, Herta got a good start. This time, it was single file through turn 1, but Graham Rahal tried to go into the inside on Will Power before backing out.
McLaughlin was struggling with his set of Green “alternate” tires after 14 laps and was pleading to come back in for a tire change.
After 25 laps, Herta led Kirkwood by 1.6 seconds. Rosenqvist was third followed by Newgarden and Grosjean.
Christian Lundgaard and Alex Palou both pitted on lap 26, the last to get off the alternate tires and switch to the Black primary tires.
Newgarden pitted on lap 34 with new “Green” tires on the No. 2 Chevrolet. The same changes were made to Romain Grosjean’s Chevrolet.
Herta pitted on lap 35 along with Kirkwood, and that gave Dixon the lead for three laps before Herta reclaimed the top position after the pit stop sequence was completed on lap 38.
At the halfway point, lap 43, Herta led Kirkwood by 1.6671 seconds.
At lap 60, Herta led Kirkwood by one second with Dixon lurking in third, 2.5 seconds back.
With 20 laps to go, Herta’s lead was up to 1.3 seconds.
But on lap 68, Kyffin Simpson hit the tire barrier in turn 8 for a full course caution. The running order at the time of the yellow was Herta, Kirkwood, Dixon, McLaughlin and Power.
The caution tightened the field and was potentially a detour for Herta’s Sunday drive.
That was before the field encountered a roadblock with the crash that brought out the red flag.
Racing resumed with 10 laps to go.
Dixon came all the way from Row 8 to finish on the podium.
“We continued to save fuel and passed four or five on the start and restart,” Dixon said. “Once we were in clean air, we could run with everybody.
“We’ll try to close that gap, absolutely.”
Palou’s fourth-place finish was another example of capitalizing on other’s mistakes after starting 18th.
He has a 49-point lead over Power in the 2024 NTT IndyCar Series Championship as the series takes the next three weekends off as its television partner will be covering the Olympic Games in Paris, France.