For the thirtieth year, the cars and stars of the IndyCar Series headed north of the border to Ontario, Canada for the popular race on the demandingly bumpy street circuit around downtown Toronto’s Exhibition Place. It’s one of the biggest events of the year, always in front of a huge Canadian crowd. Here’s all you need to know from IndyCar’s only Canadian stop:
Maximum Power
He’s done it again! For the third time in four races, Australia’s Will Power had landed himself in the winner’s circle. After back-to-back victories in Detroit and Road America, the Queenslander finished second last week in Iowa, and stormed to the front in Toronto to take another win, finishing 1.5275 seconds ahead of his nearest challenger, teammate Helio Castroneves.
To be honest, though, this was an unlikely win for Power. The 85-lap race was dominated by Target Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon in the #9 Chevrolet. Dixon, the Queensland-born New Zealander, was running away with the event when a late race caution fell at the worst possible time. On the last round of stops, Dixon’s crew had left him out one lap longer than the rest of the front-runners, and a yellow flag for Josef Newgarden’s accident sent the defending IndyCar Series champion outside the top ten.
Conversely, Power’s crew brought him in just before the caution, allowing the 2014 IndyCar Series champion to cycle to the front as everyone else pitted. Runner-up Castroneves was on the same strategy – whether it was insane luck or absolute knife-edge timing, we’ll never know – and followed Power home. It was a popular third place finish for Canada’s favourite racing son, James Hinchcliffe.
You have to feel desperately sorry for Dixon, who had everyone’s measure for the bulk of the event, leading 56 of 85 laps. Were it not for an unlucky call, the Kiwi would almost certainly have been celebrating his second victory of the year – he won the second race of the season on the Phoenix oval – but instead had to settle for an eighth place finish, after a barnstorming final stint, charging from thirteenth.
There was some great, hard side-by-side racing through the field – particularly the early battle between Newgarden and Juan Pablo Montoya, and seemingly at every restart – in front of a huge Canadian crowd befitting the event’s thirtieth birthday. This is a great event, and we should all hope that IndyCar continues to visit Toronto for many years to come.
Points Race
Alongside Dixon in being caught out by the Newgarden accident and the subsequent yellow flag was points leader, Frenchman Simon Pagenaud. A ninth-place run for the Team Penske driver resulted in him losing a major chunk of his sizeable points lead to Power. Newgarden’s accident allowed Power to slide into second place in the championship hunt, just forty-seven markers back with five races left.
Make no mistake, Power in that silver #12 for Team Penske is right in the hunt.
Oh, Canada
It was a good day for James Hinchcliffe in his home race. A masterful job stretching fuel resulted in a two-stop race thanks to timely cautions, and a trip to the Toronto podium. It was a popular result with the locals and a good one for Hinch, who has had some awful luck in Canada during his career. Canadians have a good history of winning in Toronto – local Paul Tracy won twice during his glittering career – and I’d love nothing more than to see Hinchcliffe win in front of his adoring fans one year soon.
Josef Newgarden
The Iowa winner took a shot as he ploughed into the outside wall on lap 58 to bring out the race-defining caution. Remember that the American has been racing with a broken hand and collarbone. He was visibly in pain after the accident, and the DNF will just about put an end to his championship aspirations.
Back to Front
Driving for AJ Foyt, Japan’s Takuma Sato scythed through the field to gained fifteen positions during the race to finish an impressive fifth. Sato is either hot or cold. There’s no in between for him. Today, he was hot, and it was great to see the likeable Japanese native, who is one half of the strangest driver-owner combination in the IndyCar Series paddock, up near the front.
Marco Andretti was similarly impressive coming through the field, charging from twenty-second to tenth in his Andretti Autosport Honda. It was Marco’s strongest non-oval run in recent memory.
The Mad Russian
Robin Miller said it best on NBC’s pre-race show: the Mad Russian is the new cult hero of IndyCar racing. After a strong run in Iowa last Sunday night, Schmidt Peterson Motorsport’s Mikhail Aleshin spent most of the day leading the Honda charge, overtaken only by his teammate Hinchcliffe. Aleshin’s sixth-place finish was a highlight of the day. He’s getting better week by week, and doubtless benefits from having Hinchcliffe as a teammate.
Mid-Ohio is Next!
The IndyCar Series has a week off before entering the home stretch of the 2016 season, reconvening at the natural terrain Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio over the last weekend in July. Ohio native Graham Rahal is the defending champion.
Monday, July 18, 2016
Monday, July 11, 2016
2016 IndyCar Series: Iowa Corn 300 Talking Points
Two weeks after a massively successful return to the epic natural terrain road course at Road America in Wisconsin, the IndyCar Series moved to Iowa Speedway, a 0.851-mile short track in the middle of corn country. Here are the talking points from the third oval event of the 2016 season:
Newgarden Dominates
When you’re good, you’re real good, and Josef Newgarden was absolutely superb on Sunday afternoon, completely and absolutely obliterating the rest of the field en route to his first ever IndyCar Series oval victory. The Tennessean, a rising star who will be the face of the series for hopefully many years to come, led 282 of the 300 laps run around the fast, tight oval out in the American heartland.
Whichever way you look at it, Newgarden’s drive was a butt-whooping of the highest order, but when you consider that the young American is driving with a broken hand and clavicle, with thirteen screws inserted into it, following a vicious crash at the postponed Texas Motor Speedway race, his effort to head off the entire field on a track where the G-force loading is extreme is even more amazing.
I don’t think any of us not on out there racing can properly understand the nature of short-track racing. An IndyCar laps Iowa at an average speed of 160mph, better than 250kmh, and it’s bumpy as hell. At that speed, every bump the car hits is going to hurt. Graham Rahal tweeted that he’d never been so sore after a race and, to a man, IndyCar drivers believe that Iowa is the toughest track, physically speaking, that they run, including the insane speeds at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The physical nature of the track, combined with the injuries Newgarden brought in make his dominating triumph perhaps the most impressive victory in recent IndyCar Series memory. JoNew totally deserved this one, and after two years dominating at Iowa but not quite getting the win – a late pit stop snafu in 2015 handed victory to Ryan Hunter-Reay, and it was a crushing loss for the Tennessean – it was great to see him in victory lane. I daresay we’ll see plenty more of the affable American in IndyCar victory lane in years to come.
The Points Chase
After two straight wins – the second leg of the double header in Detroit and Road America in dominating fashion two weekends ago – Australia’s Will Power has once more furthered his championship cause. A late-race burst saw the Queenslander overtake current championship leader Simon Pagenaud and New Zealand’s Scott Dixon to take a strong second place and, importantly, to shave six points from Pagenaud.
Currently, Power sits in third, seventy-five points back of his Penske teammate Pagenaud but only two markers back of Newgarden. The key here is that Newgarden crashed out of the eventually-postponed Texas race – the moment he sustained the clavicle and hand injuries – and will not line up for the resumption, so Power figures to jump ahead of the American.
Another victory or two, and a handful of finishes ahead of Pagenaud, and the series championship is going to come right down to the wire. There’s plenty of racing left in the 2016 season – and don’t forget the double points on offer at the Sonoma Raceway finale.
Mikhail Aleshin
A great fifth place finish for the Schmidt Petersen Motorsports driver. The Russian has shown flashes of speed throughout his short IndyCar Series tenure, and drove a smart race on Sunday, leading home the Honda contingent, seven seconds behind Newgarden, and the last man on the lead lap. The next step in Aleshin’s development is to develop season-long consistency, but it was an impressive drive nonetheless.
Attendance
It was a disappointing turnout at Iowa, which has become a bastion of IndyCar Series racing in the last few years. There were noticeable gaps of empty seats on the grandstands, and the great shame of that is that behind Josef Newgarden, the racing was fast and furious, with plenty of side-by-side action.
Generally, it’s IndyCar who chooses start times and days, with input from television partners, but by all accounts, it was the track who wanted a late Sunday afternoon start. By the time the field took the green flag, it was nearly five o’clock. Surely, such a late start and the prospect of a long drive home before work on Monday kept plenty of folks away.
Earlier in the weekend, the track announced that it had extended its contract with the IndyCar Series, meaning there’ll be races in the cornfields in 2017 and 2018. The powers-that-be would be smart to have the green flag drop at around 1:00pm local time.
You need only look at Road America, who did exactly that, and look at what sort of a turn-out they had – attracting fans from as far away as suburban Chicago. The early start allows people to get home at a reasonable time on Sunday evening. Proper timing should see an uptick in attendance.
Off to Toronto
No rest for the wicked, or for IndyCar Series teams, with the circus heading north of the border for the popular race weekend on the streets of Toronto next weekend. It’s always a spectacular race up in Ontario, with a wonderful crowd, many parochially support Canadian favourite James Hinchcliffe. I can’t wait!
Newgarden Dominates
When you’re good, you’re real good, and Josef Newgarden was absolutely superb on Sunday afternoon, completely and absolutely obliterating the rest of the field en route to his first ever IndyCar Series oval victory. The Tennessean, a rising star who will be the face of the series for hopefully many years to come, led 282 of the 300 laps run around the fast, tight oval out in the American heartland.
Whichever way you look at it, Newgarden’s drive was a butt-whooping of the highest order, but when you consider that the young American is driving with a broken hand and clavicle, with thirteen screws inserted into it, following a vicious crash at the postponed Texas Motor Speedway race, his effort to head off the entire field on a track where the G-force loading is extreme is even more amazing.
I don’t think any of us not on out there racing can properly understand the nature of short-track racing. An IndyCar laps Iowa at an average speed of 160mph, better than 250kmh, and it’s bumpy as hell. At that speed, every bump the car hits is going to hurt. Graham Rahal tweeted that he’d never been so sore after a race and, to a man, IndyCar drivers believe that Iowa is the toughest track, physically speaking, that they run, including the insane speeds at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The physical nature of the track, combined with the injuries Newgarden brought in make his dominating triumph perhaps the most impressive victory in recent IndyCar Series memory. JoNew totally deserved this one, and after two years dominating at Iowa but not quite getting the win – a late pit stop snafu in 2015 handed victory to Ryan Hunter-Reay, and it was a crushing loss for the Tennessean – it was great to see him in victory lane. I daresay we’ll see plenty more of the affable American in IndyCar victory lane in years to come.
The Points Chase
After two straight wins – the second leg of the double header in Detroit and Road America in dominating fashion two weekends ago – Australia’s Will Power has once more furthered his championship cause. A late-race burst saw the Queenslander overtake current championship leader Simon Pagenaud and New Zealand’s Scott Dixon to take a strong second place and, importantly, to shave six points from Pagenaud.
Currently, Power sits in third, seventy-five points back of his Penske teammate Pagenaud but only two markers back of Newgarden. The key here is that Newgarden crashed out of the eventually-postponed Texas race – the moment he sustained the clavicle and hand injuries – and will not line up for the resumption, so Power figures to jump ahead of the American.
Another victory or two, and a handful of finishes ahead of Pagenaud, and the series championship is going to come right down to the wire. There’s plenty of racing left in the 2016 season – and don’t forget the double points on offer at the Sonoma Raceway finale.
Mikhail Aleshin
A great fifth place finish for the Schmidt Petersen Motorsports driver. The Russian has shown flashes of speed throughout his short IndyCar Series tenure, and drove a smart race on Sunday, leading home the Honda contingent, seven seconds behind Newgarden, and the last man on the lead lap. The next step in Aleshin’s development is to develop season-long consistency, but it was an impressive drive nonetheless.
Attendance
It was a disappointing turnout at Iowa, which has become a bastion of IndyCar Series racing in the last few years. There were noticeable gaps of empty seats on the grandstands, and the great shame of that is that behind Josef Newgarden, the racing was fast and furious, with plenty of side-by-side action.
Generally, it’s IndyCar who chooses start times and days, with input from television partners, but by all accounts, it was the track who wanted a late Sunday afternoon start. By the time the field took the green flag, it was nearly five o’clock. Surely, such a late start and the prospect of a long drive home before work on Monday kept plenty of folks away.
Earlier in the weekend, the track announced that it had extended its contract with the IndyCar Series, meaning there’ll be races in the cornfields in 2017 and 2018. The powers-that-be would be smart to have the green flag drop at around 1:00pm local time.
You need only look at Road America, who did exactly that, and look at what sort of a turn-out they had – attracting fans from as far away as suburban Chicago. The early start allows people to get home at a reasonable time on Sunday evening. Proper timing should see an uptick in attendance.
Off to Toronto
No rest for the wicked, or for IndyCar Series teams, with the circus heading north of the border for the popular race weekend on the streets of Toronto next weekend. It’s always a spectacular race up in Ontario, with a wonderful crowd, many parochially support Canadian favourite James Hinchcliffe. I can’t wait!
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