Pruett's cooldown lap: Toronto

UFC Toronto was a blast to watch as only a handful of cars completed the race without donuts ground into the sidepods, damaged wheels, splintered floors, or bruised noses and front-wing end plates.

A Toronto race with lots of roughhousing is by no means uncommon, and after a two-year hiatus, Sunday’s 85-lapper was a perfect display of how hard IndyCar drivers — no matter where they are in the running order — venture into playing bumper cars with each other in ways we rarely see at other events. It's just the nature of the track, and for sheer entertainment, the annual trip to Canada rarely disappoints.

There were some broken wings, floors, and suspensions during the race, but teams were fortunate to escape without giant repairs to make with only a few days to complete the work between departing Toronto and loading into Iowa Speedway for this weekend’s Hy-Vee Country Music Festival and Double IndyCar Race Jamboree.

SPEAK YA CLOUT

I’ve always hated the ‘Ice Man’ nickname that was given to Scott Dixon many years ago, but it was a fitting moniker at Toronto as he drowned out all of the noise created by his teammate entering the event and produced his best overall performance of the year. It’s not as if Dixon is one to get easily rattled, but his singular approach to the event stood out as a perfect way to send a message that he’s still the boss among Ganassi’s driver quartet. If Dixon needs to retire, as some have suggested this season, then the rest of the field needs to retire as well.

Dixon’s win also came with a bit of a callback, as his former championship-winning race engineer Chris Simmons deputized for the weekend when his current and most recent title-winning engineer Michael Cannon did not travel to Canada. That’s another remarkable aspect of Dixon’s career. Plug in an Eric Bretzman, and wins and championships followed. Insert Simmons, and wins and championships followed. Drop in Cannon, and the same happened. Place Simmons on the timing stand at the last minute, and the winning ways continued.

It's not as sexy as talking about raw speed and dominating victories, but there’s no mistaking how Dixon’s chameleon-like ability to adapt to different race engineers, crew chiefs, teammates, cars, engines and everything else in his orbit and continue winning titles lies at the core of his success.

ABOVE THE CLOUDS

It was a get-right event for Colton Herta, whose front-running performance from the opening practice session through the end of the race was a welcome return to how things so often went in 2020 and 2021.

Of the many surprises to date this year, a big one has been the large volume of disconnected events for Herta where he’s been fast on Friday but struggling on Sunday, or quick in qualifying but in the wall or suffering from the wrong strategy call in the race. Or something else.

There’s been lots of ‘something else’ on the menu this season at Andretti Autosport, which made the absence of major adversity such a refreshing part of the Toronto weekend for the team’s new lead driver in the championship. Other than an issue with his balaclava obscuring his vision at times in the latter portion of the race, it was a clean day for the No. 26 Honda effort.

Stringing together all aspects of the event resulted in Herta’s second podium of the year which, after watching him destroy the field at the two closing rounds of 2021, was expected to continue once the new season got underway but hasn’t been his reality for most of the year.

After a rollercoaster ride through the first half of the season, Herta found himself in more familiar territory in Toronto. Gavin Baker/Motorsport Images

Two poles, two podiums, and one win have Herta sitting 97 points shy of the championship lead with seven races to go. If the on-target Herta+Andretti combo that just appeared in Toronto turns up this weekend in Iowa and delivers at the doubleheader, and again at the next race in Nashville, his hopes of vying for the title might come back into focus.

JUST TO GET A REP

The first IndyCar race to air exclusively via live streaming will be the subject of heavy conversation among team owners and the series’ leadership once the ratings are published. Provided the audience size is as small as anticipated, we can expect a volley of calls and emails from the paddock pleading for it to be a one-time experiment, but if it were to continue, Toronto might be the obvious event to continue using on the calendar.

Although it isn’t as big of an issue as it once was when IndyCar traveled to Brazil or Japan, some teams have sponsors with no products or services to sell outside the U.S., and in those cases, we see different liveries and one-off sponsors takeover however many cars for the event.

A lack of domestic TV advertising from sponsors and series partners when IndyCar visits Toronto or another circuit outside of the U.S. is another common occurrence, so with those two factors in mind, booking the Honda Indy Toronto for Peacock and Peacock alone might not come as a total shock.

SOLILOQUY OF CHAOS

It was a tough day for title contenders in the championship standings. Points leader Marcus Ericsson was the most fortunate of the group as he fought hard to improve from ninth to fifth and was thankful to have his closest rivals falter to varying degrees in the race.

Entering Toronto in 20 points behind Ericsson in second, Will Power was unlucky in qualifying and was unable to improve beyond fifth; his gap grew to 35 points, but he did manage to hold onto second in the standings. A tough weekend for Power’s teammate Josef Newgarden came with a drop from third to fourth in the championship, and his gap to Ericsson grew from 34 to 44.

Ericsson’s teammate Alex Palou was able to make big gains in the race as he improved from 22nd to sixth, and with the effort came a move to third in the standings. He’s 37 points out of first. Prior to his win, Dixon held sixth with a shortage of 67 points to Ericsson; the victory came with a nice improvement to fifth and a points tie with Newgarden, who gets the nod for fourth by virtue of having more wins.

A relatively anonymous weekend for Pato O’Ward saw him drop from fifth to sixth; his deficit to Ericsson went from 65 to 75, with 75 serving as the approximate equivalent of 1.5 race wins. Scott McLaughlin held station in seventh but his gap to first is now 77 points, up from 69.

Colton Herta’s run to second brought forward motion in the championship as he leapt from 10th to eighth – the position teammate Alexander Rossi held until ending the race in the wall. Rossi’s down to 11th in the standings, 115 points shy of Ericsson.

Felix Rosenqvist’s fine third resulted in his going from 11th to ninth and 107 points shy of the lead, while Simon Pagenaud was displaced from ninth to 10th and needs 108 points to catch Ericsson as Iowa beckons.

TAKE IT PERSONAL

Plenty of fans are asking why Rosenqvist wasn’t penalized for the contact that ended Rossi’s day. A question of inconsistent officiating has been raised as well, citing Rossi’s drive-through penalty at Mid-Ohio which came after three clashes with his Andretti teammates, and one in particular where he understeered into Romain Grosjean in the Keyhole which led to Grosjean nosing into the tires.

I think we’re looking at the difference between multiple incidents at Mid-Ohio for Rossi resulting in a penalty and hard, close racing that led to contact on one occasion between Rosenqvist and Rossi that race control did not deem worthy of a drive-through.

Maybe it’s in the minutia here. Rossi hit the radio button right after he understeered into Grosjean and made it clear that it was unintentional. The in-car footage confirmed his statement. If that had been his only contact of the day, I’m not sure if IndyCar hands down a penalty.

Rosenqvist experienced the same issue, albeit with the rear of his car as he went to the throttle and dealt with oversteer that kicked the back of his car into Rossi. This, too, was hardly intentional. The outcome for Rossi was anything but good, and if Rosenqvist had turned the steering wheel towards Rossi and initiated the race-ending contact by moving over on him, I’d think race control would have called for a slow trip down pit lane.

But that’s not what happened. It was wheelspin and oversteer in a super-tight corner as they fought for position that triggered the unfortunate outcome for Rossi, and that’s probably why it was treated as a racing incident instead of a penalty to be assessed to Rosenqvist for incident responsibility.

No harm, no foul. (At least, according to race control – Rossi would probably disagree). Phillip Abbott/Motorsport Images

MOMENT OF TRUTH

A Mailbag reader wrote in a few weeks ago asking if I thought Canada’s COVID vaccination mandate would cause problems for IndyCar teams crossing the border for the Honda Indy Toronto, and I replied – in brief – saying that no, I didn’t. Good Lord, I could not have been more wrong.

Most of the IndyCar teams who raced in Toronto last weekend dealt with shortages in some form, and in the extreme cases a few were forced to scramble to find enough people to operate their cars. Doubling and tripling responsibilities and workloads were experienced within at least one team that I know of. I believe Arrow McLaren SP might have been among the only teams with no crew changeouts required, which is impressive.

One final note is that with increased scrutiny placed on those who want to enter Canada, testing positive for COVID or a lack of COVID vaccination was not the only barrier for teams, manufacturers, vendors, family members, etc. Stronger background screenings flagged some folks as being ineligible for entry, so all absences were not attributable to the virus.

SKILLS

I was absolutely convinced Saturday’s Fast Six qualifying session was as tight as we’ve seen at Toronto. Colton Herta took pole with a lap of 59.2698s, and down in sixth, Scott McLaughlin posted a 59.9558s, just 0.6860s behind the Andretti driver. The notion arrived after the umpteenth reminder of how teams have been using the Dallara DW12 since 2012 and how there’s not much left to improve after 10.5 seasons of tuning and tweaking the same old battle axe.

Well, so much for that theory. A look back to the DW12’s debut at Toronto reveals the opposite to be true, which included the then-new 2.2-liter turbo V6 engines from Chevy and Honda that were comparatively undeveloped relative to where the motors have gotten to in 2022.

At a time when teams knew far less about the DW12 as it went into its 10th race, Dario Franchitti’s pole of 59.3510s was complemented in sixth place by Alex Tagliani’s 59.5616s, just 0.2106s off of the Scot and a third of the gap between Herta and McLaughlin on Saturday. What a surprise…which I’d apparently forgotten since I was there in 2012…

MISC

* NBC’s Intergalactic Stat Lord Russ Thompson shared a photo of the new tree that was planted at Road America near the media center in honor of our late colleague Robin Miller and the plaque that was recently installed.

* It wasn’t a fun race for the sons of Canada as Dalton Kellett’s No. 4 Chevy experienced problems that put him out after 30 laps. The opposite was true for Devlin DeFrancesco who had a career-best qualifying run to P12 but had myriad issues in the race that left him in P18.

* Great to see Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing return to form with Graham Rahal flying all weekend and Christian Lundgaard using his speed and smarts to come home as the top rookie in eighth.

* IndyCar fan Zach Dean thinks Will Power said a bad word during the qualifying broadcast. Or did DJ Will P uncork the world’s longest ‘SHUUUUUUUUUUUCKS’?

https://twitter.com/ZacharySDean/status/1548712991717093376?s=20&t=dPpZ33DUUp6kSSEf6zq8cg

* It took four events for it to happen, but a Honda-powered driver finally won an event sponsored by Acura/Honda. Chevy drivers took Long Beach, Barber, and Mid-Ohio, but thanks to Scott Dixon the Honda Indy Toronto—the last race of the year bearing the Japanese brand’s name—went to the title sponsor.

* It was a great weekend for the Road To IndyCar in TO as Myles Rowe and teammate Jace Denmark swept the weekend in USF2000 and in Indy Pro 2000, Louis Foster — a serious talent — swept both rounds on his own. Indy Lights is back in action this weekend with its first oval event of the year at Iowa.

* Kyle Kirkwood has finished two of his last six races and has fallen to next-to-last among the full-time drivers in the championship. Coming off a needless exit from the race at Toronto, getting to the end of both Iowa races with the car intact — as his Foyt team deals with a diminished budget — is an absolute must for the rookie.