IndyCar News: Lucky O'Ward wins Toronto IndyCar race

Points leader Alex Palou was dominating the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto until his Chip Ganassi Racing pit strategy went awry and mired him back in traffic the remainder of the race, handing an easy win to the #5 Arrow McLaren of Pato O’Ward.

The race finished under yellow when Nolan Siegel and Felix Rosenqvist tangled with two laps to go.

It was the 2nd win in a row for O’Ward, who won last week in one of the Iowa doubleheaders.

Rinus VeeKay – Photo courtesy of Penske Entertainment: Travis Hinkle

Dale Coyne Racing’s Rinus Veekay came home second in the #18 Honda, sitting on the rear wing of O’Ward. This is the Dutchman’s best finish since the second race at Detroit back in 2021. His fifth career podium and the first since Barber Motorsports Park in 2022.

“That was an awesome race. 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. I mean, to do that two-stop, I have to thank Honda for the great fuel economy.”

“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 (O’Ward) 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. ”

Kyffin Simpson Biggest Mover Photo courtesy of Penske Entertainment/Travis Hinkle

Kyffin Simpson brought the #8 Ganassi Honda home third behind O’Ward and Veekay.

“It was definitely kind of a race that came to us. I at no point thought we were one of the quickest cars. I think we had pace. We weren’t one of the slowest cars.”

“Yeah, early on it was looking like it wasn’t going to be a very good race for us. Got that turned around real quick. We ended up with a really good spot after that. I guess it was third safety car, third or fourth safety car. From there on I just tried not to mess it up really. ”

The Andretti Hondas of Colton Herta and Marcus Ericsson rounded out the top-5.

Stuck back in traffic, Palou had to settle for a 12th-place finish but still holds a substantial 99-point lead over O’Ward for the 2025 IndyCar title with just four races remaining. The Indy 500 winner has a virtual lock on his 4th IndyCar championship.

An unlucky Alex Palou on his way to another IndyCar title at the Princess Gate – Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto – By Penske Entertainment

Palou still has reason to be optimistic. Of the four races left on the schedule, he has won twice at each of the next two road courses: WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca (2022 and 2024) and Portland International Raceway (2021 and 2023). O’Ward won last year’s race at The Milwaukee Mile, which hosts the third of the season’s final four.

Santino Ferrucci was on the grid before the race started, but not in his No 14 Sexton Properties Chevrolet. The American had an incident in the morning warm-up and his car was too damaged to make the race this afternoon. He was also nursing a sore left hand with some ice.

Twenty laps of yellow slowed the race down. The entire field made it through Turn 1 without incident, but on Lap 3, Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin lost his left rear wheel nut and made contact with the barrier on the backstretch. The New Zealander would retire from the race.

On Lap 15, the second yellow came out when Ed Carpenter Racing’s Christian Rasmussen spun between Turns 5 and 6. The car continued on course but left debris on the track. Rasmussen ducked into the pits for repair and service but received a ‘Back of the Field’ penalty because the pits were closed.

On Lap 30, his teammate, Alexander Rossi, made contact with the barrier in Turn 11. The American did not continue his race.

On Lap 37, a multicar incident happened in Turn 1 when Jacob Abel spun, and Josef Newgarden ended up with Abel’s Honda on top of his car. Newgarden, and Abel would retire. The Canadian, Devlin DeFrancesco, did not make it through the incident and ended his race there also. Nolan Siegel and Callum Ilott had to come to a stop but avoided damage and continued.

On Lap 88, the final yellow came out with two laps to go in the race when AJ Foyt Enterprises’ David Malukas and Arrow McLaren’s Nolan Siegel made contact in Turn 10. The race continued under yellow until the checkered flag flew on Lap 90.

Alex Palou is still leading the championship points with 536 points. Pato O’Ward retains second place with 437 points. Kyle Kirkwood moved back into third place with 363. Scott Dixon dropped back to fourth, only one point behind Kirkwood. Christian Lundgaard is in fifth place with 317 points.

2025 Toronto Race Results

Pos	No	Name	Laps	Behind	Gap	Led	ST	Engine	Points	Team
1	5	Pato O’Ward	90	0.000s	0.000s	30	10	Chevy	437	Arrow McLaren
2	18	Rinus Veekay	90	0.4843	0.4843	16	9	Honda	252	Dale Coyne Racing
3	8	Kyffin Simpson	90	1.5343	1.0500	0	13	Honda	226	Chip Ganassi Racing
4	26	Colton Herta	90	2.1607	0.6264	6	1	Honda	278	Andretti Global w/Curb‑Agajanian
5	28	Marcus Ericsson	90	3.7515	1.5908	1	8	Honda	195	Andretti Global
6	27	Kyle Kirkwood	90	4.9472	1.1957	0	6	Honda	363	Andretti Global
7	15	Graham Rahal	90	5.5657	0.6185	0	5	Honda	195	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
8	90	Callum Ilott	90	6.5438	0.9781	0	11	Chevy	135	Prema Racing
9	4	David Malukas	90	7.6451	1.1013	0	15	Chevy	259	AJ Foyt Enterprises
10	9	Scott Dixon	90	8.6954	1.0503	0	17	Honda	362	Chip Ganassi Racing
11	12	Will Power	90	14.0964	5.4010	0	4	Chevy	263	Team Penske
12	10	Alex Palou	90	14.9701	0.8737	37	2	Honda	536	Chip Ganassi Racing
13	7	Christian Lundgaard	90	17.3640	2.3939	0	19	Chevy	317	Arrow McLaren
14	66	Marcus Armstrong	90	43.9148	26.5508	0	3	Honda	283	Meyer Shank Racing
15	76	Conor Daly	90	45.4310	1.5162	0	21	Chevy	199	Juncos Hollinger Racing
16	83	Robert Shwartzman	90	46.0249	0.5939	0	20	Chevy	159	Prema Racing
17	77	Sting Ray Robb	89	1 LAPS	40.7050	0	25	Chevy	133	Juncos Hollinger Racing
18	6	Nolan Siegel	87	In Pit	1 LAPS	0	12	Chevy	168	Arrow McLaren
19	60	Felix Rosenqvist	86	60.0407	5.0778	0	16	Honda	309	Meyer Shank Racing
20	21	Christian Rasmussen	82	4 LAPS	3 LAPS	0	22	Chevy	217	Ed Carpenter Racing
21	45	Louis Foster	67	23 LAPS	15 LAPS	0	7	Honda	159	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
22	30	Devlin DeFrancesco	57	28 LAPS	5 LAPS	0	26	Honda	123	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
23	51	Jacob Abel	36	Contact	0.3220	0	27	Honda	95	Dale Coyne Racing
24	2	Josef Newgarden	36	Contact	0.4097	0	18	Chevy	213	Team Penske
25	20	Alexander Rossi	29	Contact	6.2480	0	24	Chevy	199	Ed Carpenter Racing
26	3	Scott McLaughlin	2	Contact	1.1055	0	14	Chevy	239	Team Penske
27	14	Santino Ferrucci	‑‑‑	DNS		0	23	Chevy	242	AJ Foyt Enterprises

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 Larson 6, Marco Andretti 5

Lucille Dust reporting live from Toronto