By Canadian Press

Colton Herta dominates chaotic Honda Indy Toronto to earn first win of season

Jul 21, 2024 | 12:51 PM

TORONTO — Colton Herta cruised to a dominating victory at the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto, leading from pole position and maintaining control throughout the chaotic race at Exhibition Place on Sunday.

It marked the 24-year-old American’s eighth career victory and first in over two years on the NTT IndyCar Series.

Teammate Kyle Kirkwood started and finished in second, while four-time Toronto champion Scott Dixon rounded out the podium.

The race featured six restarts, including a massive multi-car crash that caused red flag on the 73rd lap when Pato O’Ward, third in the season-long standings, spun out into a wall, leaving the nose of his car jetting out onto the track.

Marcus Ericsson locked up into the wall behind O’Ward, then three more racers — Pietro Fittipaldi, Santino Ferrucci and Nolan Siegel — clipped O’Ward’s nose. Ferrucci’s car went airborne and landed upside down, but the American immediately signalled to his team that he was OK and emerged from his vehicle relatively unscathed.

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The other four drivers also escaped without injury, but none were able to continue.

Herta dominated throughout the weekend in Toronto, posting the fastest times in both practices, qualifying and Sunday’s warm-up before winning the race — the first time someone has completed a clean sweep in IndyCar history.

Herta and Kirkwood appeared to work together throughout the race, with the latter giving his teammate room at the front after each of the race’s six restarts. Dixon started in 15^th and chose to pit well after the rest of the field. The strategy bore fruit as he re-entered the race in sixth before slowly moving up the standings as cars seemed to exit left and right.

Current NTT IndyCar Series championship leader Alex Palou began the day in 18th but was able to climb up to fourth. He increased his season-long lead to 49 points over Will Power, who placed 12th after a late penalty that caused teammate Scott McLaughlin to go into the wall and out of the race.

Christian Lundgaard, the defending Toronto champion, placed seventh.

Christian Rasmussen went into the wall on the first lap and Agustin Canapino slammed the concrete on the fifth almost immediately upon the restart. Both drivers were forced to exit the race, but neither was injured.

Rookie Kyffin Simpson was also forced out of the race after crashing with 18 laps to go.

For the second time in the race’s history, there were no Canadians in the field. The last time that happened was in 2015.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 21, 2024.

Myles Dichter, The Canadian Press