Pato O'Ward wins Toronto, Alex Palous cuts by 30 points

Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward is not yet ready to admit the NTT IndyCar series championship.

The driver of the Arrow McLaren Chevrolet No. 5 drove this point to the Ontario Honda dealers Indy Toronto on Sunday by winning his second race in eight days when Palou took the 12th place.

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Palou entered the weekend with a lead of 129 points ahead of O'Ward, the edge of the largest leader. This point system has ever seen this in one season. But 30 points evaporated at the exhibition location and set their separation to 99 points with four remaining races.

A racing victory can be worth up to 54 points.

“Oh, man, I can't say that I saw this (win),” said O'Ward. “But I really felt so good on the (primary) tires all weekend. We only had problems getting the switch to work in qualification. Unfortunately, they have to transmit.

“But I knew that we had a great car below me with which we could drive, and (the crew) nailed the strategy.”

The victory was the first for O'Ward in Toronto and his ninth in the series as a whole. He started the race in the 10th position, but had the feeling that luck would be with him after a bird had thrown an unlikely gift on the car and a crew member in the morning.

“It will be a good day today and that's it,” said the Mexican driver. “I am enthusiastic about everyone (in the team). I would never have expected that I would have gotten so much better in Toronto because it was the most challenging circuit for us in the past.”

Two pairs of drivers stood on O'Ward on the podium. Rinus Veekay by Dale Coyne Racing (No. 18 Askroi Honda) finished second with Kyffin Simpson by Chip Ganassi Racing (No. 8 Journie Rewards Chip Ganassi Racing Honda). Veekay achieved his fifth career -panel -finish, but for the first time in a race in Barber Motorsports Park in 2022. Simpson has entered the prestigious place in the series for the first time in his two years.

Colton Herta (No. 26 Gainbridge Honda), who won the last year, became fourth to lead a contingent of Andretti Global Drivers. Marcus Ericsson (No. 28 Delaware Life Honda) and Kyle Kirkwood (No. 27 Silver Gold Bull Honda) took fifth and sixth place.

This was a breed of different strategies. O'Ward was in the majority, starting with one sentence of less deserved alternative Firestone Firehawk tires, and he could have them removed with a stop before the 3 caution. Therefore, he only had to use this sentence for most of two green flag rounds, and while this forced him to a three-stop strategy, he was able to carry out the rest of the path the primary connection engine.

Palou started second place, and he and chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon were among the few that started with the prim. In view of a range and the length of the precautionary periods in the first half of the race, the strategy had to train a strong chance. But ultimately not, since both CGR drivers have been reduced to spend the final segment in the middle of. Dixon took 10th place in No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.

“Well, I chose the strategy, so we did wrong today,” said Palou. “I urged this strategy. I thought it would give us the best opportunity to win. I wanted to be in the front and try not to be caught in traffic.

“To be honest, (days like this). We knew that it would be a risky strategy instead of starting alternatives. It was a kind of function. We could open a big gap after this first yellow, but it wasn't enough today. Not our day.”

Palou still has a reason to be optimistic. Of the four races remaining on the schedule, he won twice for each of the next two road courses: WeatherTech Recway Laguna Seca (2022 and 2024) and Portland International Raceway (2021 and 2023). O'Ward won last year in the race in the Milwaukee Mile, in which the third of the final Four of the season takes place.

The combination of the various tire strategies in the game and the narrow limits of Toronto around the 11,786-mile street circle of 11 rotations seemed to create an action, and there seemed to be a contact on every corner. It was probably the most exciting of the four street races this year with 226 passes (most since 2014) and 201 passes (mostly since 2019). Both sums were fourth overall, for races in the streets of this city in downtown Ontario.

Team Penske was often in the middle of the campaign where the challenging season continued. First, the left rear lug -nut from Scott McLaughlin's car came off after a pit stop and pushed the No. 3 Gallagher insurance team Penske Chevrolet into the wall of turn 2.

Then Josef Newgarden and his PPG team No. 2 Penke Chevrolet were collected by an incident, who with Dale Coyne Racing-Rokie Jacob Abel (No. 51 Abel Construction Honda) Easy contact with another first year Rahal Lanigan Racing driver, who was in the turn-gymnastics-top gymnast. Newgarden. Later Penke Chevrolet lost a minor fight from Will Power No. 12 in Turn 3 and hit the wall on the left. Roger Penske's driver took the 11th (Power), the 23rd (Newgarden) and the 26th (McLaughlin).

Ed Carpenter Racing also had a difficult day with both Christian Rasmussen (No. 21 Splenda ECR Chevrolet) and Alexander Rossi (No. 20 Java House ECR Chevrolet), who hit the wall with legal tires. At that time, Rasmussen was next to the power side on power; Rossi seemed to turn right after the impact via a bump. Unfortunately, for Rossi, a section of the concrete barrier split the corner of the car, which creates a considerable amount of damage and dirt.

The race ended with caution when the Siriusxm Honda by Felix Rosenqvist No. 60 by Nolan Siegels No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet was hit from behind. This ended the day of the Rosenqvist because it had damaged twice in front of the front wing due to the contact with electricity.

Only 26 auto-and-driver combinations took the green flag when Santino Ferrucci and his No. 14 Sexton Properties/AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet were held out of the race due to a damaged car and a squeezed right hand in the morning. Ferrucci hit the gymnasium 7 on the left and sent the car into the drainage area of curve 8. All four corners of the car were only damaged for about three hours to carry out repairs. In addition, Ferrucci's right hand was poorly injured and swollen.

Exercise for the Java House Grand Prix from Monterey in Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca starts on Friday at 5 p.m. ET (FS2, Fox Sports app, Indycar Radio Network). The 95-round race, the 14th of the 17-race season, is on Sunday at 3 p.m. on Fox.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqpncebj2iy