By Austin Lawton, Staff Writer
Uncertain strategies and big wrecks made the headline on Sunday’s Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto. Pato O’Ward was the one to beat the uncertainties for his second win of the season. O’Ward has won two-out-of-the-last three races in the IndyCar season.
“Hats off to the boys and girls at Arrow McLaren, also Team Chevy,” O’Ward said after the win. “We keep making our Sundays so much harder than what they have to be. Qualifying has been not our friend. But Sundays have been. I feel like the gist of this year for at least the 5 side, it feels like it’s always a recovery Sunday, always been a recovery Sunday. We keep fighting our way forward. Today it was a very similar post to what I had in Mid-Ohio. We got hosed in timing in the qualifying here. We’ve been struggling a bit on the alternate, which sadly is the one you need to transfer.”
I knew I had such a strong car on the preferred tire for the race. I had a car that I could attack with. I had a car I could really put it where I needed to, at least just to get by people. We had to get really aggressive there sometimes. We had to get our elbows out a little bit if we want to keep this championship somewhat of a conversation. It’s always good to feel that way, and that gives you that little extra edge to make these days come to fruition. They did a great strategy. I made sure that I was going to be the winning one.”
O’Ward shrinks his points gap to Alex Palou to 99 points, despite Palou dominating the race, leading 37 laps, but the three-stop strategy Palou was on, would not play into his favor.
O’Ward stole the show in the 90-lap contest but the rest of the podium created headlines on their own. Rinus Veekay and Kyffin Simpson ended the day in second and third, respectively.
Andretti Global took the rest of the top six with Colton Herta and Marcus Ericsson took the checkered flag in fourth and fifth, respectively and Kyle Kirkwood, in sixth.
SEE: Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto Results
All three drivers on the podium executed a four-stop strategy, with all three starting on the green tire.
Veekay earns his first podium with Dale Coyne Racing, continuing a stellar season and out-performing the equipment
“Tires came in surprisingly quick. I had really good grip,” Veekay said. “Went hard. Yeah, just missed out on him probably by half a second until his tires warmed up. Tried my best, really did. So did the whole team. Everybody did a great job. I mean, to do that two-stop, had to thank Honda for the great fuel economy.”
Simpson earned his first career IndyCar podium at just 20 years old. It’s also redemption for the sophomore driver for Chip Ganassi Racing, after a podium got away at Mid-Ohio on July 6.
“I mean, it was definitely kind of a race that came to us,” Simpson said. “I at no point thought we were one of the quickest cars. I think we had pace. We weren’t one of the slowest cars. Yeah, I mean, early on it was looking like it wasn’t going to be a very good race for us. Got that turned around real quick. We ended up with a really good spot after that. I guess it was third safety car, third or fourth safety car. From there on I just tried not to mess it up really.”
Drivers entered the race day with unknowns regarding tire strategy. Firestone brought the alternate, green tire and the primary, black tire for the last street course weekend. The green tire this weekend, a tire that has been the preferred race tire on all street course races, wore out quicker due to the nature of the Toronto streets.
This made the black tire the preferred race tire, with drivers looking to navigate a 3-stop strategy, but three drivers that started on the alternate tire, made the four-stop work.
O’Ward, Veekay and Simpson were the leaders on that strategy. Veekay and Simpson were the two drivers that could get longevity out of the green tire, with Veekay going 13 laps and Simpson, 16 laps on their opening stint of the race.
Veekay managed to do his last two stints on used, black tires, coupled with the great fuel mileage the Honda-powered cars get and the timing of the yellows, the race played into Veekay and the No.18 AskROI Dale Coyne Racing crew.
“The yellows helped with that definitely. That was kind of our strategy,” Veekay said. “There was a really high probability in the last eight years with turn one, lap one yellows. Right now I think it was a lap four yellow. It was a pretty long one. That was good for us. Yeah, I really tried to baby them from the start, really be soft on them, try to stop wheel spin and everything. I expected the front tires to be going off a lot. In the end we struggled with the rears going off on traction. In the end it felt like I was driving on the axles only on the rears. It was hard, but I don’t think we could have stretched it another lap.”
Only 15 drivers started on the green tire and quickly ditched the tires after the first of five cautions flew on Lap 4 for Scott McLaughlin. Massive wrecks throughout the day, including a big wreck on the Lap 36 restart, which saw Jacob Abel on top of Josef Newgarden.
The trio of O’Ward, Veekay and Simpson moved into control of the race, as Palou was unable to make up the track position lost in the pit cycle, falling down to 12th, where he ended the race.
O’Ward gives Chevy their second win of the season and with only four races left in the 2025 season, the battle for the championship is as close as it has been all season. That fact does not phase O’Ward.
“No. I already saw. It’s only like 99. 128 to 99, it’s a good chunk,” O’Ward said regarding the points battle. “His good weekends are days like today. We need to make sure that we continue to have days like today, not just one but a few. I think we’re going to keep this conversation going until Nashville. That’s my goal. Obviously we’re at a time in the championship where we’re going to have to get a little bit more into the conversation of getting our elbows out because that’s what I had to do today just to open the doors to having a chance to win this race. That’s the only way we’re even going to catch a whiff of making him sweat a little bit.”