Oilpressure

The Honda Indy Toronto is this weekend. This race has always been held in mid-July going back to the beginning of this circuit in 1986. I always consider this the halfway point of the season, even though this year’s race is the tenth race in a seventeen-race schedule. I guess since it is the halfway point of the summer, I think that should apply to the NTT IndyCar Season as well.

We had planned to go to this race; but work, money and life prevented us from going. We will get there one day, preferably next year. The closest I’ve come to attending this race was in 1995, when I found myself in Toronto about two weeks after the race. I had the people I was with take me to Exhibition Place. They were still dismantling some of the stands, and I drove on part of the track – including what is considered the main straightaway heading toward the Princes’ Gates, the signature structure of the track; along with driving along Lake Shore Blvd.

Street races are not my favorite type of IndyCar racing to watch on television, but I’ve always thought that Toronto was one of the more entertaining street courses. It’s a short track – only 1.786 miles in length. It has eleven turns, but only three of those are 90° or more. The circuit has a long and wide backstretch along Lake Shore Blvd with a tempting passing zone at the end.

This race has been around on this same circuit since 1986. It did not run in 2008 due to open-wheel reunification, nor in 2020-21 due to COVID. But there were double-headers run there in 2013-14, so this weekend’s edition will be the thirty-seventh IndyCar race campaigned at Exhibition Place.

If you go back and watch You Tube videos of this race from the early 90s, then compare it to what it looks like on Sunday – you’ll notice how the area has been developed over the years. The pits along the main straightaway have already been engulfed by urban sprawl, and have been moved across Princes Blvd. Hotels now sit where the old pits used to be.

Sunday’s race holds a lot of intrigue, not the least of which is to see whether or not Alex Palou can win four races in a row, and five out of the last six – to add to his 110-point lead in the championship. Most have already handed Palou the championship for this season. If he wins this weekend and actually extends that lead – well, there’s always next year. If Palou stumbles and finishes close to last, and someone like Scott Dixon or Josef Newgarden wins – then suddenly we’ve got something to pay attention to. Regardless if you are a Palou fan or not, I don’t think anyone really wants to see the championship wrapped up before Labor Day.

Another point of intrigue will be taking place at Meyer Shank Racing (MSR). For the second race in a row, Simon Pagenaud will be held out of the car due to the frightening crash at Mid-Ohio. I’m assuming he is in what the NFL calls Concussion Protocol, but I am only assuming he has a head injury. No one has come out and said that. If that is the case, head injuries are difficult to predict. If Pagenaud is not quite right, then IndyCar has absolutely done the right thing by holding him out for another race.

In his place will be Tom Blomqvist, who drives in IMSA for MSR. The rumor for a while has been that next season will see Blomqvist and Helio Castroneves essentially switch rides. The assumption is that Helio will go back to sports cars fulltime in 2024 and will only run IndyCar in the Indianapolis 500. The other half of that rumor has Blomqvist running IndyCar fulltime for MSR and possibly driving in selected IMSA events. Whether or not that is the actual plan, I have no idea. The scenario I described is purely conjecture – but it makes sense.

The way things have gone at MSR this season, I’m not sure either driver is back for their IndyCar team. This has been a disastrous season for MSR, only their second season to run two fulltime cars. In football, it’s always easier to fire the coach than get rid of all the players – the same applies to racing. It’s always easier to replace the driver than it is to make wholesale changes of team personnel. I don’t know what the problem is at MSR, but I don’t thing Pagenaud and Castroneves suddenly forgot how to drive. It’s hard to fathom how MSR can be so successful in IMSA, yet so lost currently in IndyCar.

Please remember that this weekend’s race is on Peacock exclusively. All practices, qualifying and race broadcasts will be found on Peacock. There are no cable or over-the-air options. If you are not a Peacock subscriber, you will either need to sign up for one month at $4.99 (I think) or listen to the IndyCar Radio Network online – which certainly is not a bad option. Mark Jaynes and his crew do a fantastic job, and they are sometimes overlooked and taken for granted.

Friday’s practice will begin at 3:30 pm EDT. Saturday morning’s practice gets underway at 10:35 am EDT. Qualifying starts Saturday at 2:50 pm EDT. The Sunday morning warm-up commences at 10:15 am EDT, while Sunday’s race coverage on Peacock gets underway at 1:30 pm EDT.

Who do I predict will win, or should I ask; whose race will I ruin by picking them? Since 2013, this race has been won by either Team Penske or Chip Ganassi Racing – except for three odd races in their double-header period when the race was won by KV Racing Technologies, Ed Carpenter Racing and CFH Racing. Scott Dixon has won this race four times, Will Power three times and Josef Newgarden twice. The odds favor all three of those drivers due to their own history and their team. Scott Dixon won last year. I’m really going out on a limb here, but I think either Dixon or Newgarden will win on Sunday. This is more of a gut feeling than anything else, but I’m predicting Scott Dixon will win Sunday’s Honda Indy Toronto. My apologies to the entire Dixon family!

George Phillips

This entry was posted on July 14, 2023 at 4:02 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.