For the second time in eight days, the overcut won Pato O’Ward the race.
The driver of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet pitted a lap later than Rinus VeeKay (58) to cycle out ahead and led 31 laps on his way to winning the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto.
“Hats off to the boys and girls at Arrow McLaren, also Team Chevy,” he said.
“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.”
It’s his ninth career victory in 100 NTT INDYCAR Series starts.
VeeKay couldn’t make the undercut work and brought his No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda home to a runner-up finish. Kyffin Simpson rounded out the podium in third for the first time in his career.
“Yeah, that was an awesome race,” VeeKay said. “We really had the feeling that he could do this today. We’ve been moving forward every race in the last six races. But we’ve been starting in the back. It was important for us to qualify good, and we qualified ninth. Did a bit of a different strategy to others. In a crazy race it was today, it was the right thing.
“Great team effort to go with that strategy. Yeah, we saved a lot of fuel. Unfortunately with Pato, he had a lot shorter fill with fuel. I was really, really in the collector coming through the pits. Fuel doesn’t flow quicker than it does. Unfortunately we lost some time there.
“Tried my best, but in the end the tires were gone. Pato’s tires were gone. We were all slipping around. Second is the best we could do for us, but second was a good day for us.”
Pole sitter Colton Herta and Marcus Ericsson rounded out the top-five.
Kyle Kirkwood, Graham Rahal, Callum Ilott, David Malukas and Scott Dixon rounded out the top-10.
Pato O’Ward overcuts Rinus VeeKay to win in Toronto
Race summary
Herta led the field to green at 12:22 p.m. ET. Several driver pit on Lap 2. Caution flew on Lap 3 when a wheel nut detached from Scott McLaughlin’s left-rear wheel, which came off and the car hit the wall on Lake Shore Boulevard. Alex Palou, who pitted on Lap 3, stayed out and took over the race lead. Kirkwood gave up three positions for a start violation (he got out of line too early).
Back to green on Lap 8, caution flew on Lap 15 when Christian Rasmussen hit the wall exiting Turn 5.
Back to green on Lap 18, the field settled into a green flag rhythm. Caution flew on Lap 30 when Alexander Rossi hit the wall off Turn 11, destroyed his right-rear wheel and stopped in the Turn 1 runoff. Palou and Dixon stayed out while the rest of the field pitted. Marcus Armstrong turned Kirkwood on pit road during the caution. He received a pass-through penalty for avoidable contact.
Back to green on Lap 37, caution flew for a multi-car incident in Turn 1. Palou pit from the lead under this caution and VeeKay inherited the lead.
Back to green on Lap 43, O’Ward pulled inside of Will Power in Turn 3 and put him into the wall. Power got the car rolling and the race stayed green. Palou kickstarted the final cycle of pit stops on Lap 54. VeeKay pit from the lead on Lap 57. O’Ward pit from the lead on Lap 58 and cycled out ahead of VeeKay. Herta pit from the lead on Lap 63 and O’Ward cycled to the lead.
Felix Rosenqvist and Nolan Siegel made contact in Turn 10 and stalled on track with three laps to go. The race ended under caution and O’Ward drove on to victory.
Pato O’Ward overcuts Rinus VeeKay to win in Toronto
What else happened
Santino Ferrucci missed the start of the race, after a wreck in the morning warmup session.
Pato O’Ward overcuts Rinus VeeKay to win in Toronto
Nuts and bolts
The race lasted one hour, 48 minutes and 23 seconds, at an average speed of 88.972 mph. There were six lead changes among five different drivers and five cautions for 20 laps.
Palou leaves Toronto with a 99-point lead over O’Ward.
The NTT INDYCAR SERIES returns to action, next Sunday, at Laguna Seca.
Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto Race Results
- (10) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 90, Running
- (9) Rinus VeeKay, Honda, 90, Running
- (13) Kyffin Simpson, Honda, 90, Running
- (1) Colton Herta, Honda, 90, Running
- (8) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 90, Running
- (6) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 90, Running
- (5) Graham Rahal, Honda, 90, Running
- (11) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 90, Running
- (15) David Malukas, Chevrolet, 90, Running
- (17) Scott Dixon, Honda, 90, Running
- (4) Will Power, Chevrolet, 90, Running
- (2) Alex Palou, Honda, 90, Running
- (19) Christian Lundgaard, Chevrolet, 90, Running
- (3) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 90, Running
- (21) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 90, Running
- (20) Robert Shwartzman, Chevrolet, 90, Running
- (25) Sting Ray Robb, Chevrolet, 89, Running
- (12) Nolan Siegel, Chevrolet, 87, Contact
- (16) Felix Rosenqvist, Honda, 86, Contact
- (22) Christian Rasmussen, Chevrolet, 82, Retired
- (7) Louis Foster, Honda, 67, Running
- (26) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 57, Retired
- (27) Jacob Abel, Honda, 36, Contact
- (18) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 36, Contact
- (24) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 29, Contact
- (14) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 2, Contact
- (23) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 0, Did Not Start
Race Statistics
Winners average speed: 88.972 mph
Time of Race: 01:48:23.9092
Margin of victory: Under caution
Cautions: 5 for 19 laps
Lead changes: 6 among 5 drivers
Lap Leaders:
Herta, Colton 1 – 3
Palou, Alex 4 – 40
VeeKay, Rinus 41 – 56
O’Ward, Pato 57
Ericsson, Marcus 58
Herta, Colton 59 – 61
O’Ward, Pato 62 – 90
NTT INDYCAR SERIES Point Standings: Palou 536, O’Ward 437, Kirkwood 363, Dixon 362, Lundgaard 317, Rosenqvist 309, Armstrong 283, Herta 278, Power 263, Malukas 259, VeeKay 252, Ferrucci 240, McLaughlin 239, Simpson 226, Rasmussen 217, Newgarden 213, Rossi 199, Daly 199, Ericsson 195, Rahal 195, Siegel 168, Shwartzman 159, Foster 159, Ilott 135, Robb 133, DeFrancesco 123, Abel 95, Takuma Sato 36, Helio Castroneves 20, Ed Carpenter 16, Jack Harvey 12, Ryan Hunter-Reay 10, Kyle Larso
