Louis Foster P1 Award – Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Markham – Photo by Joe Skibinski

By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio

Second-year INDYCAR driver Louis Foster upstaged a handful of prominent NTT IndyCar Series street race aces to claim pole position Saturday for the inaugural Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Markham.

The Streets of Markham’s newly paved/all-asphalt 2.19-mile/12-turn layout emerged as the proverbial “level playing field” as Foster recorded a pole-winning hot lap of 1-minute, 13.2883-seconds/103.225 mph. That was enough to pip Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard by four-tenths of a second (1:13.6352-seconds/102.668 mph) for the NTT P1 Award.

“When I came across the line I was like, ‘This is going to be quick,’^” said Foster, driver of the No. 45 Desnuda Organic Tequilla Honda fielded by Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. “And when I crossed the line and was P1, I was pretty convinced it would hold even though I knew people had more laps to go. I didn’t think anyone could go much faster than that.

“So, yeah, I’m super-happy; this is absolutely awesome. One of the best laps of my life, for sure.”

INDYCAR was forced to cram two days of practice and qualifying into Saturday’s revised schedule after Friday’s Practice 1 was cancelled due to the failure of Green Savoree Racing Promotions to complete the temporary circuit. Markham_ located about 18 miles north downtown Toronto _ is playing host to Round 14 of the 2026 schedule. Toronto’s Exhibition Place staged its first INDYCAR event in 1986.

“I love it (the Markham track),” said Foster, a 23-year-old native of Odiham, England. “I think being downtown in Toronto is obviously lovely and has its perks, but the actual circuit here is really cool.”

SEE: Qualifying Results

Foster won his first series pole last year at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis., a permanent road-course. This pole will give the Brit the first look at Sunday’s green flag for a 90-lap/197.1-mile race (noon EDT, FOX, FOX One, INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls).

Qualifying capped a day in which Foster posted the third-fastest lap time in the morning practice and then topped the afternoon session.

“I knew if we pieced it all together we’d be there (for pole), and when I was doing that (pole-winning) lap I was like, ‘Please don’t wreck,’^” Foster said. “This car feels great…so fast all day. I’m super-happy to get another gremlin off our back. Obviously, (won) pole last year but we’ve been nowhere close this year so finally we’ve done it, which is nice.” Foster is 18^th in the driver standings led by four-time/reigning series champion Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing.

“We’re on-pole and we also still have two new sets of (Firestone Firehawk) alternate tires, so I’m happy about that,” Foster said. “We had the issue last year where we were over-exerting ourselves in qualifying to get good finishing positions in qualifying and then screwing ourselves over a little bit in the race. We thought that pole would be off the cards and that maybe P3 would be our best. But I can’t complain about being on-pole.”

Foster finished 21^st last year in Toronto _23 laps down _ after contact with rookie Jacob Abel forced Louis’ RLLR crew to replace his car’s lower left A-arm.

Foster’s previous best starting position this season was sixth on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s Road-Course in May. On a street circuit, his best starting position was ninth in the season-opening race in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Foster’s bid for his first series victory will be aided by that aforementioned additional set of the preferred/faster Firestone Firehawk red tires for what should be a two-stop race. Several others in the top-six will have only one such set. Should Foster win, he will join team-founder/owner Bobby Rahal as a winner of a new Ontario event. Rahal won the inaugural race at Toronto’s Exhibition Place in 1986.

Lundgaard admittedly was surprised by securing his spot opposite Foster in Row 1. “We pulled out a tremendous run in the Firestone Fast Six that I didn’t think we had,” said Lundgaard, a 25-year-old native of Denmark and driver of the No. 7 SmartStop Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. “This is a lot better than where I thought we would be. All to play for (Sunday).”

Completing the first three rows is an international list of street fighters led by Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin of New Zealand (third, 1:13.6804-seconds/102.605 mph); Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson of Sweden (fourth, 1:13.8383-seconds/102.386 mph); Dale Coyne Racing rookie Dennis Hauger of Norway (fifth, 1:13.9403-seconds/102.245 mph) and Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Rinus VeeKay of the Netherlands (sixth, 1:14.0601-seconds/102.079 mph).

Hauger’s only previous Firestone Fast Six appearance was in St. Pete, where he qualified third. VeeKay reached the final round for the third consecutive race.

The qualifying session featured a rare mistake by series point-leader Palou. Late in the second of three rounds, the Spaniard lost the rear of his No. 10 DHL Honda approaching Turn 10. After first hitting the wall on the right side, the car ricocheted to the left-side wall for another impact. The double-hit ended his session _ and more than that.

Palou was working on a streak of 30 consecutive top-10 starting positions dating to the final race of the 2024 season. He qualified 12^th (1:17.4292-seconds/97.638 mph) but still holds a commanding 110-point lead over Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood. Team Penske’s David Malukas, third in the standings, trails Palou by 118 points and will start from the seventh position.

Malukas said the track’s progression throughout the day was “massive” after he qualified at 1:14.4923-seconds/101.487 mph.

“When you look at the first few laps, there was still dust coming from my air intake into my eyes,” said Malukas, a 24-year-old native of Chicago and driver of the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet. “I was blinking a lot to try to clean up my view. I would say by Lap 4 or 5 a lot of that got cleaned up, then the track grip started to build. With this new track resurfacing that they did, the grip level is so high and you could feel it. Once you’re kind of building some grip down, it’s hooking heavily.

“There’s definitely a big bump on entry (at Turn 10). I love it. Bumps just add technicality. You’re trying to figure out how to get around it from a braking perspective. It’s difficult, but I think it’s nice, it’s good.”

Series rookie Mick Schumacher of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing delivered his best qualifying effort on a non-oval _ 11^th in the No. 47 ENVE Honda at 1:14.7101-seconds/101.191 mph. Schumacher’s previous best non-oval qualifying run was 15th last month at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

“We should be happy that we managed to advance into the top-12, but on my side I’m still quite disappointed,” said Schumacher, the 27-year-old son of seven-time Formula One World Driving Champion Michael Schumacher of Germany. “I think we had more in it. I think a top-six was definitely possible; I think the speed was there.

“But overall, I think we can still look forward to the race. It’s going to be a good opportunity for us to score some big points. I’m obviously happy for Louis and happy for the team for the pole position. We’ll take it from here and keep our nose clean.”

Two of the series’ double-season champions generated red flags in the second group of the first round that proved costly. The Turn 4 spin of Australian Will Power of Andretti Global not only drew a red, wiping away his fastest two laps. In addition, Kirkwood was trailing Power on a hot-lap flyer he was forced to abandon. Kirkwood subsequently couldn’t bump his way into the next round when INDYCAR permitted a one-lap final effort.

Kirkwood and Power qualified 16th and 24th, respectively. For Power, the incident was the second of the day after his No. 26 Honda had its right side rebuilt after slamming the Turn 10 wall in Practice 2.

Pato O’Ward will start 20^th after a best lap of 1:14.3822-seconds/101.637 mph in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. “It’s been so difficult to extract lap times this weekend,” said O’Ward, a 27-year-old native of Mexico with family ties to San Antonio, Texas. “We’re just going to have to fight for it from the rear of the field. It’s been a stressful weekend in terms of performance.”

Santino Ferrucci led the two-car effort from Waller, Texas-based A.J. Foyt Racing in 21^st at 1:15.6148-seconds/99.980 mph.

“The car is in a pretty competitive lap-time range,” said Ferrucci, a 28-year-old resident of Dallas and driver of the No. 14 Homes For Our Troops Chevrolet. “But when it goes red (flag) on your second warmup lap and you don’t get to complete that lap and the timing doesn’t allow you to get back out there to do anything other than another warmup lap, the tires never come in. So, I think if the red flag didn’t happen, we would have been fine.”

Series rookie Caio Collet of Brazil will start 23^rd in the No. 4 Combitrans Amazonia Chevrolet fielded by Foyt Racing.

As the session was ending, Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden also pounded the Turn 10 wall, incurring heavy right-side damage. He will start at the tail of the 25-car field.

The Markham event will be the 40th INDYCAR race held in the Greater Toronto Area. There were three years when the Toronto race was interrupted _ 2008 due to INDYCAR restructuring and 2020-21 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.  The new circuit is longer, wider and smoother as the city repaved the streets for the inaugural event.

The Markham event also is the second of three new street races on the 2026 schedule. The inaugural Java House Grand Prix of Arlington weekend in North Texas played-out to rave reviews in March on a course running through the city’s popular Entertainment District. The third new venue is scheduled to host the Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C., on Sunday, Aug. 23.

Coverage of Sunday’s race is scheduled to begin at noon on FOX and FOX One in the United States and TSN in Canada. Audio coverage of all on-track sessions also is available on INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls on SiriusXM Channel 218 and the INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA.

NTT IndyCar Series Point Standings _ 1, Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing, 510; 2, Kyle Kirkwood, Andretti Global, 400; 3, David Malukas, Team Penske, 392; 4, Christian Lundgaard, Arrow McLaren, 375; 5, Pato O’Ward, Arrow McLaren, 355; 6, Felix Rosenqvist, Meyer Shank Racing, 338; 7, Josef Newgarden, Team Penske, 335; 8, Scott McLaughlin, Team Penske, 321; 9, Marcus Ericsson, Andretti Global, 278; 10, Rinus VeeKay, Juncos Hollinger Racing, 269;

11, Will Power, Andretti Global, 256; 12, Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing, 252; 13, Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 236; 14, Kyffin Simpson, Chip Ganassi Racing, 236; 15, Marcus Armstrong, Meyer Shank Racing, 230; 16, Alexander Rossi, Ed Carpenter Racing, 208; 17, Santino Ferrucci, A.J. Foyt Racing, 205; 18, Louis Foster, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 188; 19, Nolan Siegel, Arrow McLaren, 176; 20, Dennis Hauger, Dale Coyne Racing, 174;

21, Romain Grosjean, Dale Coyne Racing, 168; 22, Christian Rasmussen, Ed Carpenter Racing, 157; 23, Caio Collet, A.J. Foyt Racing, 147; 24, Mick Schumacher, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 146; 25, Sting Ray Robb, Juncos Hollinger Racing, 131; 26, Derek Daly, Dryer & Reinbold Racing, 24; 27, Takuma Sato, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 20; 28, Jack Harvey, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, 8; 29, Jacob Abel, Abel Motorsports, 6; 30, Helio Castroneves, Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian, 5;

31, Ed Carpenter, Ed Carpenter Racing, 5; 32, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Arrow McLaren, 5; 33, Katherine Legge, HMD Motorsports with A.J. Foyt Racing, 5.

FOX SPORTS’ 2026 NTT INDYCAR SERIES BROADCAST SCHEDULE/(RACE WINNER)

Note _ All times Eastern

Sunday, March 1 _ Streets of St. Petersburg, Fla., (Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing)

Saturday, March 7 _ Phoenix Raceway, Avondale, Ariz., (Josef Newgarden, Team Penske)

Sunday, March 15 _ Streets of Arlington, Texas, (Kyle Kirkwood, Andretti Global)

Sunday, March 29 _ Barber Motorsports Park, Birmingham, Ala., (Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing)

Sunday, April 19 _ Streets of Long Beach, Calif., (Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing)

Saturday, May 9 _ Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road-Course, (Christian Lundgaard, Arrow McLaren)

Sunday, May 24 _ 110^th Indianapolis 500, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Oval, (Felix Rosenqvist, Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian)

Sunday, May 31 _ Streets of Downtown Detroit, (Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing)

Sunday, June 7 _ World Wide Technology Raceway, Madison, Ill., (Josef Newgarden, Team Penske)

Sunday, June 21 _ Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wis., 2 p.m., (Christian Lundgaard, Arrow McLaren)

Sunday, July 5 _ Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, (Pato O’Ward, Arrow McLaren)

Monday, July 20 _ Nashville Superspeedway, Lebanon, Tenn., (Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing)

Sunday, Aug. 9 _ Portland (Ore.) International Raceway, (Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing)

Sunday, Aug. 16 _ Streets of Markham, Canada, Noon

Sunday, Aug. 23 _ Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C., TBA

Saturday, Aug. 29 _ The Milwaukee Mile Race 1, West Allis, Wis., 2:30 p.m.

Sunday, Aug. 30 _ The Milwaukee Mile Race 2, West Allis, Wis., 1 p.m.

Sunday, Sept. 6 _ WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, Monterey, Calif., 2:30 p.m.

Note _ Dates and times subject to change.

2026 INDYCAR NXT BY FIRESTONE SCHEDULE/(RACE-WINNER)

Sunday, March 1 _ Streets of St. Petersburg, Fla., (Nikita Johnson, Cape Motorsports Powered by ECR)

Sunday, March 15 _ Streets of Arlington, Texas, (Max Taylor, Andretti Global)

Saturday, March 28 _ Barber Motorsports Park, Birmingham, Ala., (Nikita Johnson, Cape Motorsports Powered by ECR)

Sunday, March 29 _ Barber Motorsports Park, Birmingham, Ala., (Alessandro de Tullio, A.J. Foyt Racing)

Friday, May 8 _ Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road-Course Race 1, (Enzo Fittipaldi, HMD Motorsports)

Saturday, May 9 _ Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road-Course Race 2, (Tymek Kucharczyk, HMD Motorsports)

Sunday, May 31 _ Streets of Downtown Detroit, (Enzo Fittipaldi, HMD Motorsports)

Sunday, June 7 _ World Wide Technology Raceway, Madison, Ill., (Myles Rowe, Abel Motorsports)

Saturday, June 20 _ Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wis., Race 1, (Lochie Hughes, Andretti Global)

Sunday, June 21 _ Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wis., Race 2, (Matteo Nannini, Cape Motorsports powered by ECR)   

Saturday, July 4 _ Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, Ohio, Race 1, (Enzo Fittipaldi, HMD Motorsports)

Sunday, July 5 _ Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, Ohio, Race 2, (Enzo Fittipaldi, HMD Motorsports)

Sunday, July 19 _ Nashville Superspeedway, Lebanon, Tenn., (Matteo Nannini, Cape Motorsports Powered by ECR)

Sunday, Aug. 9 _ Portland (Ore.) International Raceway, (Alessandro de Tullio, A.J. Foyt Racing)

Sunday, Aug. 30 _ The Milwaukee Mile, West Allis, Wis.

Saturday, Sept. 5 _ Weather Tech Raceway Laguna Seca, Monterey, Calif., Race 1

Sunday, Sept. 6 _ Weather Tech Raceway Laguna Seca, Monterey, Calif., Race 2