Colton Herta – Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto – Photo by Chris Owens

By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio

INDYCAR ace Colton Herta says knockout qualifying on a street-course is the ultimate test of a driver’s skill-set.

“I already love, like, street-courses the most out of all the tracks I think that we do,” Herta said Saturday afternoon in Toronto after bagging his latest NTT IndyCar Series pole award. “I think it’s the toughest single lap that you’ll put together all year, is on a street-course.”

That said, all Herta needs to do now is complete the weekend sweep of the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto. Herta has been the fastest driver in each of this weekend’s sessions at Exhibition Place, capping Saturday with his pole-winning run in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda fielded by Andretti Global with Curb-Agajanian.

Herta pipped Andretti Global teammate Kyle Kirkwood by just over a-tenth-of-a-second to earns the 14th NTT P1 Award of his career. Herta’s hot lap of 59.5431-seconds/107.982 mph secured his second pole in this event, the other coming in 2022. Colton finished second in that race.

Herta celebrated his third pole of the season fully-aware he has yet to convert one into a race win. Last time the native Californian visited Victory Lane was after the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road-Course race in May 2022. For a driver of his caliber, that’s a motor racing lifetime.

“It’s something that I want really bad,” said Herta, 24, and sixth in the championship standings. “It’s been brutal to not have a win in a year-and-a-half. We’ve had pace and we’ve been doing the right things. I think three second-place finishes, a couple thirds, a bunch of top-fives. We’re putting ourselves in positions to win, but it hasn’t fallen our way for one reason or another. I’m excited for (Sunday’s race). It’s good to have another teammate up there that we can work on with strategy and help each other out.”

Kirkwood gave Andretti Global a sweep of the front row with a lap of 59.6735-seconds/107.746 mph in the No. 27 AutoNation Honda.

The 85-lap race is set for 1 p.m. (EDT), exclusively on Peacock in the United States with additional coverage on TSN4/TSN+ in Canada and the INDYCAR Radio Network. Herta has finished second and third in the past two Toronto races as well as seventh as a rookie in 2019.

“We just need to (do) the same,” said Herta, referring to his strategy for the 1.786-mile/11-turn temporary street layout. “This (car) has been a rocket ship all weekend (and) really has the past few races. Luck hasn’t turned our way for a win yet, and I’m hoping it’s here.

“This race is crazy with the strategy _ big window. INDYCAR races like that tend to be crazy. There’s a whole bunch of different ways to win this race. Obviously, it’s still a big advantage starting up-front and that should help us. You can never take anything for granted in INDYCAR racing. It doesn’t matter where you start. We have fast race cars. That’s the biggest thing. We checked that box.”

Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist of Sweden earned the third starting position at 59.8252-seconds/107.473 mph to give Honda a 1-2-3 head start at the green flag. Given the technical alliance between Andretti Global and MSR, that’s also a top-three sweep for the group. MSR’s David Malukas also earned a spot in the Firestone Fast Six, and will start sixth in the No. 66 AutoNation/Arctic Wolf Honda.

Super-sub Theo Pourchaire returned to the series in dramatic fashion, replacing the injured Alexander Rossi (broken right thumb) despite having never competed in Toronto. Pourchaire was in his native France when Rossi’s No. 7 Ryde Arrow McLaren Chevrolet whacked the tire barrier in Turn 8 in Friday’s practice, dislodging his thumb.

Summoned to book a quick trans-Atlantic trip, Pourchaire boarded the first of two flights shortly after midnight (EDT) and arrived in the Toronto paddock about an hour before qualifying. Remarkably, his best lap (of nine) was less than 1.1-seconds from transferring into the second round. Pourchaire will start 26^th in the 27-car field with plenty of support from Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren Racing.

“We thought Théo was the best driver (available), simple as that,” said Brown, citing Pourchaire’s previous experience this season in the No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevy. “He’s done an excellent job driving for us. He knows the team, obviously. We’re throwing him into the deep end here learning a new circuit. But he’s a pro. We enjoy our time with him.

“I think expectations have got to be pretty low. He’ll learn quickly and we’ll see. It’s unfortunate what happened to Alex and hopefully he has a speedy recovery.”

Pourchaire joked he was dealing with a serious case of jet lag in addition to learning the Toronto layout on the fly. “It was a bit of a stressful situation to get here, but we made it and I think we did OK,” Pourchaire said. “The No. 7 Ryde Arrow McLaren Chevrolet was good, and I adapted quickly. We only did nine laps and I worked to try to learn the track the first time out with the new hybrid system, as well.

“I think we can be confident because the package looks pretty strong. It’s not going to be easy, but I think we can grab some positions and complete every lap. I want to get this car as close to the front as I can for Alex.”

Meanwhile, series regular Agustin Canapino qualified the No. 78 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet 10^th _ highest position of his two-year career. Canapino previously never had reached the second round of qualifying.

“Thankful for the team, for Team Chevy,” said Canapino, a native of Argentina. “We were really close many, many times. Finally, we did it, so really happy.

“Yes, of course I am improving a lot. I remember one year-and a-half ago was my first open-wheel race, so this year I feel much more comfortable. The team is growing a lot. I think we are having a really good year. The pace is there. Hopefully, we can do a good race and achieve a good result.”

Series leader Alex Palou, driver of the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, will start 18th after being penalized in qualifying for impeding Pato O’Ward and his No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet during the second group. Palou, the two-time/reigning series champion from Spain, disagreed with the penalty, insisting there were “three cars in front of me; I couldn’t really go anywhere.”

That was small consolation for O’Ward, who will start 14^th after his best lap of 1:00.6435-seconds/106.023 mph. “It’s been a tough weekend,” said O’Ward, a native of Mexico with family ties to San Antonio. “Obviously, qualifying was really frustrating with cars getting in the way right in the peak of the window of the tires to be able to transfer. We were less than a-tenth-and-a-half to transfer, so I think we would have been OK without those implications.

“It’s frustrating, knowing that we could have started further up, but we’ll be rolling off P14. Historically, this hasn’t been one of our best tracks. It will be a tough one, but we’ll give it our best and see what the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet can do.”

Gavin Ward, Team Principal at Arrow McLaren, noted the incident between Palou and O’Ward added another element to an already stressful weekend. “It has been a weekend of adversity, and then to have Pato’s qualifying spoiled by being blocked was obviously disappointing,” Ward said. “He’ll line up next to his championship rival, so we’re going to try to beat him from there.

“I’m not sure if we had the pace to take it to the Andretti cars (Saturday). We’ll be looking into ways to improve our street-course package coming here next year but also for the rest of this weekend.”

Palou and O’Ward, who is third in the standings, aren’t the only championship contenders starting the race from deep in the pack. Six-time series champ Scott Dixon of New Zealand, a four-time winner of this event who is fourth in points, will line up 15th in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. And two-time series champ Will Power of Australia, who trails Palou by 35 points, will start ninth in the No. 12 Verizon Business Team Penske Chevrolet. Power is a three-time Toronto winner.

Dallas resident Santino Ferrucci qualified 17^th after a best lap of 1:01.0072-seconds/105.391 mph in the No. 14 A.J. Foyt Racing/Sexton Homes Chevrolet based in Waller, Texas.

“Just mis-timed it. It was just an error in our calculations,” said Ferrucci, referring to selection of his car’s Firestone Firehawk tires. “We were out way too long on reds (alternate greens), way too heavy with fuel when the tires were at their optimum and ended up running three laps at the same pace. But when you’re out there on reds (greens) and people are coming out on sticker tires and you’re just catching traffic, there’s nothing you can do. So it’s kind of just terrible for us because now we start buried in the pack and that’s never good here, but we’ll make due.

“Obviously, we’ve had great race pace all year long. I don’t think that’s going to change (but) we’re fighting some balance issues here this weekend. We’ve been on the back foot since FP1 and we were just trying to get some things changed. To be honest, that’s how it goes on some street courses so we’ll get it all tuned-up and we’ll be good to go.”

Hunter McElrea’s first series qualifying effort ended just minutes into the session when his No. 18 Courtesy Corporation Honda of Dale Coyne Racing slammed into the Turn 8 tire barrier _ the same corner where Rossi broke his thumb Friday. Last year’s runner-up in INDY NXT by Firestone, the 24-year-old New Zealander will start today’s race from the 25th position after running 16th in the morning practice.

This is the last of the series’ four street circuit races in 2024. O’Ward won the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in Florida after Josef Newgarden of Team Penske was disqualified for illegal use of the push-to-pass system. Dixon won the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach and the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix. After this weekend, five races remain to determine the series champion, with four on ovals.

For the first time in Canada, series drivers are being allowed to regenerate and deploy stored energy after INDYCAR updated its hybrid unit procedures. The energy recovery system that adds up to 60 horsepower in spurts was introduced earlier in the month and has been used on a road-course at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, and on a short-track oval at Iowa Speedway in Newton. This is the first time the hybrid technology has been available on a street circuit.

Qualifying results for the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto NTT IndyCar Series event on the 1.786-mile/11-turn Streets of Toronto’s Exhibition Place, with qualifying position, car number in parentheses, driver, engine, time and speed in parentheses:

1.(26) Colton Herta, Honda, 59.5431 (107.982 mph)
2. (27) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 59.6735 (107.746)
3. (60) Felix Rosenqvist, Honda, 59.8252 (107.473)
4. (3) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 59.9082 (107.324)
5. (77) Romain Grosjean, Chevrolet, 01:00.0012 (107.158)
6. (66) David Malukas, Honda, 01:00.2109 (106.785)
7. (2) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 59.8796 (107.375)
8. (15) Graham Rahal, Honda, 01:00.0323 (107.102)
9. (12) Will Power, Chevrolet, 01:00.1310 (106.927)
10. (78) Agustin Canapino, Chevrolet, 01:00.2873 (106.649)

11. (28) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 01:00.3364 (106.563)
    12. (20) Christian Rasmussen, Chevrolet, 01:00.4336 (106.391)
    13. (11) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 01:00.5732 (106.146)
    14. (5) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 01:00.6435 (106.023)
    15. (9) Scott Dixon, Honda, 01:00.7389 (105.856)
    16. (45) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 01:00.7510 (105.835)
    17. (14) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 01:01.0072 (105.391)
    18. (10) Alex Palou, Honda, 01:00.8337 (105.691)
    19. (6) Nolan Siegel, Chevrolet, 01:01.2409 (104.989)
    20. (4) Kyffin Simpson, Honda, 01:00.9502 (105.489)
12. (51) Toby Sowery, Honda, 01:01.3367 (104.825)
    22. (21) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 01:01.0846 (105.257)
    23. (30) Pietro Fittipaldi, Honda, 01:01.3791 (104.752)
    24. (8) Linus Lundqvist, Honda, 01:01.2099 (105.042)
    25. (18) Hunter McElrea, Honda, No Time (No Speed)
    26. (7) Theo Pourchaire, Chevrolet, 01:01.6071 (104.365)
    27. (41) Sting Ray Robb, Chevrolet, 01:01.7355 (104.148)

NTT IndyCar Series point standings _ 1, Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing, 379; 2, Will Power, Team Penske, 344; 3, Pato O’Ward, Arrow McLaren, 327; 4, Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing, 322; 5, Scott McLaughlin, Team Penske, 315; 6, Colton Herta, Andretti Global, 299; 7, Kyle Kirkwood, Andretti Global, 274; 8, Alexander Rossi, Arrow McLaren, 265; 9, Josef Newgarden, Team Penske, 247; 10, Santino Ferrucci, A.J. Foyt Racing, 221;

11, Felix Rosenqvist, Meyer Shank Racing, 219; 12, Marcus Ericsson, Andretti Global, 209; 13, Christian Lundgaard, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 203; 14, Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 177; 15, Romain Grosjean, Juncos Hollinger Racing, 177; 16, Rinus VeeKay, Ed Carpenter Racing, 177; 17, Marcus Armstrong, Chip Ganassi Racing, 173; 18, Linus Lundqvist, Chip Ganassi Racing, 156; 19, Kyffin Simpson, Chip Ganassi Racing, 125; 20, Pietro Fittipaldi, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 124;

21, Sting Ray Robb, A.J. Foyt Racing, 116; 22, Christian Rasmussen, Ed Carpenter Racing, 104; 23, Augustin Canapino, Juncos Hollinger Racing, 104; 24, Jack Harvey, Dale Coyne Racing, 80; 25, Nolan Siegel, Arrow McLaren, 79; 26, Theo Pourchaire, Arrow McLaren, 75; 27, David Malukas, Arrow McLaren, 54; 28, Tom Blomqvist, Meyer Shank Racing, 46; 29, Callum Ilott, Arrow McLaren, 39; 30, Ed Carpenter, Ed Carpenter Racing, 32;

31, Luca Ghiotto, Dale Coyne Racing, 27; 32, Helio Castroneves, Meyer Shank Racing, 26; 33, Conor Daly, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing-Cusick Motorsports, 26; 34, Katherine Legge, Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing, 24; 35, Kyle Larson, Hendrickcars.com Arrow McLaren, 21; 36, Takuma Sato, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 19; 37, Toby Sowery, Dale Coyne Racing, 17; 38, Tristan Vautier, Dale Coyne Racing, 12; 39, Colin Braun, Dale Coyne Racing, 10; 40, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing-Cusick Motorsports, 6; 41, Marco Andretti, Andretti Herta with Marco & Curb Agajanian, 5.