Toronto Indy 2016

As the Indycars came back to Exhibition Place for the Honda Indy Toronto, Scott Dixon took the lead from the pole. 

Dixon and Helio Castroneves had no time to get a jump though, because a caution came out on lap 1.  Ryan Hunter-Reay and Charlie Kimball both were involved, and dropped to the back of the pack. The green flag dropped on the restart and the race went clean until Juan Montoya clipped the back of defending race winner Josef Newgarden.  Josef would have to pit for a new back wing, and would fall to 50 seconds behind the leader, in last place. 

Later in the race, Castroneves had a left front tire go down, and he stopped for a new one at the first round of pit stops.  On lap 45, curbing came up on one of the turns, and it later caused problems for Josef Newgarden, and his car got sent into the wall. 

Will Power would have the yellow flag fall his way, and he took the checkers for his 3rd win in 4 races.

Top Ten

1. Will Power: His third win in four races.  Wow!

2. Helio Castroneves: His fourth podium at Toronto in the last five races there.

3. James Hinchcliffe: Great to see him on the podium at home in Canada.

4. Tony Kanaan: Pitted from the lead with less than ten laps to go.
5. Takuma Sato: His best finish of the year since the third race of the year in Long Beach.

6. Mikhail Aleshin:  His second top 6 in the last two races.

7. Sebastian Bourdais: His best finish since his win in Detroit Race #1.
8. Scott Dixon:  Led the most laps but got caught out with the final yellow.

9. Simon Pagenaud:  Only his third top 10 in the last 6 races after having started the        season with two seconds and three wins.

10. Marco Andretti:  His second best finish of the season. (ninth at Detroit Race 2)

Different Teams: 6 (Penske, Schmidt Peterson, Ganassi, A.J. Foyt Racing,  KV Racing, Andretti Autosport)

Different Countries: 7 (Australia, Brazil (2), Canada, Japan, Russia, France(2), New Zealand, USA)

FUN FACTS

 Average Speed:  88.739 mph

 Time: 1 hour 42 Minutes 39 Seconds

Lead Changes: 6 among 6 drivers (Dixon, Pagenaud, Bourdais, Daly, Kanaan, Power)

Best Lap: 105.728 mph by Helio Castroneves

THOUGHTS:

Another gritty run by Josef Newgarden.  Fighting back from early damage due to Juan Montoya only to have his fatigued hands give out and he crashed late in the race.

Montoya is having a tough few races lately and some bad luck.  Wondering when he will bounce back.