Team soul-searching fuels Rossi's second place

Alexander Rossi's second place at Toronto is his best finish of the year, and his best result since winning the 2016 Indy 500. The 25-year-old also hopes it breaks the narrative of Andretti Autosport's collective struggle this season – though at the start of the weekend, it looked to be more of the same.

"We were really at the bottom of the barrel, staring into the bottom of the barrel, I guess, Friday afternoon," Rossi admitted after Sunday's race. "We were really lost. We were the slowest, Andretti Autosport cars. Here is a tough place to be coming from to start off strong."

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Team Penske dominated each Toronto practice session, so the rest of the Verizon IndyCar series competitors were jockeying for the best of the rest of the top 10. After finishing 18th and 14th in Friday's two practice sessions – while his teammates ran anywhere from sixth to 11th – Rossi said his team stayed late to find a solution to the No. 98 Honda's lack of speed. 

"We had a lot of soul-searching Friday night," he said. "We stayed quite a bit later at the in a long time. We just really analyzed everything that we could, and made some pretty solid changes overnight that suited me really well Saturday (when he finished seventh fastest in practice and qualified eighth).

"Today again we made a pretty big step forward. It's a huge relief to finally get a podium and get it off our back. Something we've been close to and searching for a long time, and it hasn't happen. Finally we made the right calls and made it. I'm thankful to the team for that opportunity."

As Rossi continues his sophomore season and learns more about the tracks on the IndyCar schedule, it's hard to pinpoint what kind of track suits him best, even with his extensive road racing background. His previous two top fives this season came at Barber and Belle Isle, while the rest of his top-10s were on the Indy road course, his seventh-place at the Indy 500 and another seventh place in the second Detroit race. Add in a Texas crash, contact with the wall in Phoenix and a mechanical issue at Long Beach, and it's an incomplete picture.

"The ovals were definitely our strong suit in 2016," he said. "I think there were a couple this year that got away from us anyways from mechanical issues and whatnot.

"I think this was a bit overdue. But this is an incredibly competitive championship, more than anyone really gives it credit for except for the people that are involved. That's something that I learned right away in my debut in St. Pete in 2016.

"When you get a podium and a win here, it feels like you've accomplished something pretty cool."

Sunday's race seemed to be an all-around accomplishment for the four Andretti cars. In addition to Rossi's second, Marco Andretti and Ryan Hunter-Reay earned hard-fought fourth and sixth-place finishes, respectively, and Takuma Sato came home 16th.

"If you look at where we were last year, the last four cars in qualifying, to having three cars in the top 10, really having something to fight for today, it's a testament not only to this weekend and the strength the team has shown, but also this off-season and how much better 2017 has been for us, has been for Honda."