LUNDGAARD WINS HONDA INDY TORONTO

Story by Mary Bignotti Mendez

Whenthe NTT IndyCar series arrived at Toronto’s Exhibition Place to compete on the treacherous, 11-turn, 1.786-mile course, many wondered if anyone could beat Ganassi’s Alex Palou, who had a 110-point lead with four wins in the last five races (nine of seventeen events).

Driving the No. 45 Vivid Clear Rx Honda, Christian Lundgaard, in only his second start at the Honda Indy Toronto, won from the pole with a commanding lead of 11.789 seconds over Palou when the checkered flag fell on Lap 85.

“The car was awesome, and we were fast all weekend,” said Lundgaard, who led 54 laps. “We proved we had a better car. I did not expect to be this fast. The fuel mileage was just too easy. This team, they do deserve this. If we look at where we were earlier this season and even last year at this point, we were nowhere near this. I can’t thank the team enough for all the progress they’ve made this year.”

Lundgaard, by starting on the alternate tires, managed a three-car gap into Turn 1 over Chevy-powered Scott McLaughlin. The Penske driver started alongside using the primary (harder) tires. It was no contest. And, team co-owner, Bobby Rahal, instructed Lundgaard “not to wait for anybody” once the Green Flag flew.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Driver Earns First Career Indycar Victory

“There were a lot of drivers on different strategies,” explained Lundgaard. “I started on the green Firestones, the softer tires, and McLaughlin was on the primaries (black tires). The primaries, at least for us, are quite difficult to activate and he was just struggling to build tire temp, The softer tires are always easier to activate and they’re faster. We also had the game plan that we needed to pull away as soon as we could in the first part of the race.”

Lundgaard built up a five-second lead during the first 18 laps before pit stops. He regained the lead from McLaughlin, who led the next 16 laps, pitting on Lap 35 for fuel and the softer tires (during the race drivers must complete at least two laps on both tire types). When the Yellow came out on Lap 42 for Romain Grosjean, who made contact in Turn 10 driving for Andretti Autosport, most drivers pitted for their second and final stop. But McLaughlin was told to continue on his softer tires until they lost grip, making his second stop under green on Lap 61, coming out in 16th place as Lundgaard resumed the lead.

Palou started 15th when he failed to advance out of the first of three tiers in Qualifying on Saturday. The Spaniard admitted he just didn’t get the most out of his Honda powered car before the rain started falling. While he recovered to finish second, he was involved in the third and final incident on the Lap 45 restart, when Kyle Kirkwood, exiting Turn 10, hit the rear of Helio Castroneves as he appeared to slow, spinning the Brazilian. In avoidance, Palou touched the wall damaging his right front wing.

As the race progressed, that wing became looser, bouncing over the bumps and many manhole covers to the extent the nose section sheered 75 percent horizontally, like a cracked egg. Some questioned why the officials did not call Palou in for repairs.

“We had a lot of pace, saved some fuel, and tires,” revealed Palou, who started on primary tires in the hopes of moving forward. “We could catch the guys up front. Then we had the opportunity to pit on the yellow flag (Lap 44). We thought all the people were going to do it.

“I’m just glad that the front nose was still on the car at the end because I could feel it dragging. I could feel that it was increasing. I thought we were not going to end the race with that nose. I think only the vinyl (the colour scheme wrap) was holding it because there’s nothing else there.

“I was concerned about fuel, which was the biggest problem for our strategy. I was concerned about tires, because with the front wing, I just couldn’t turn left. Toronto is one of those tracks where there’s no way you can do anything to avoid bumps. It was a tough day, but a good one.”

Colton Herta, who also failed to advance from his qualifying group even though he was fastest in Saturday’s practice, finished third after starting 14th on the grid. The American has two poles this season but Toronto was his first podium.

“Happy to finally get a podium as it’s a little embarrassing it took this long,” remarked Herta. “We’ve had good cars all year, but it’s been frustrating so far with how everything has gone. We’ve had chances before to get on the podium and maybe even win but haven’t been able to take advantage of them. Hopefully, we can go right back to having strong performances in qualifying. That just makes your race so much easier when you are able to race at the front. Then a race like this comes around, where we really didn’t think we have a chance of getting on the podium, and here we are.”

There were 16 laps under caution. The first one involved eight cars at the back of the grid on the start between Turns 1 and 2 when Jack Harvey, Ryan Hunter-Reay, and Tom Blomqvist went three wide. Also involved were Alexander Rossi, Santino Ferrucci, Benjamin Pedersen, and Canada’s Devlin DeFrancesco. With the track blocked, Graham Rahal, who started 27th after spinning during wet Qualifying, backed up six car lengths to take the run-off through the Princes’ Gate. With that heads up move at the start he worked his way to a ninth-place finish.

“This is the last thing I wanted to happen today,” described Blomqvist, who was driving in his first IndyCar event, replacing the injured Simon Pagenaud at Meyer Shank Racing. “I was on the outside exiting Turn 1 and had no choice. You are at the mercy of people alongside and they couldn’t make it work. Pretty devastated. The team worked so hard and I’m very frustrated that I didn’t even get one lap in.”

DeFrancesco was caught behind Hunter-Reay when he spun but didn’t make contact. He finished 23rd after a mechanical issue put him out with only ten laps completed.

“I felt good with the car during warm up and was happy with how we ran,” stated DeFrancesco, who has shown improvement at Andretti Autosport in his sophomore season. “We ended up running into some mechanical issues that prevented me from finishing today. I’m disappointed considering this is my home race. The team will evaluate the issues we were having and address them properly.”

Team Penske’s race strategy prevented front row starter McLaughlin from a podium (finished sixth). Josef Newgarden finished fifth (started 11th), starting on alternate tires, but Will Power fell from fourth to 14th, forced to pit with one lap to go.

“The team gave me a fuel number,” explained Power, on the same strategy as McLaughlin. “I could quite easily make it. The car was really good. The strategy was right, but I had no idea we’d run out. We must review all that (two percent calculation error). If I didn’t make the numbers and attacked too soon, it was my fault. I was trying to run the two guys ahead of me (Kirkwood and Scott Dixon) out of fuel and may not have been watching my fuel close enough.”

Lundgaard’s victory ended a three-year drought for his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team to capture their 30th victory. The Dane now ranks seventh in the championship. Palou has a 117-point lead (417 points) over Dixon (300), followed by Newgarden (291), Marcus Ericsson (275), Pato O’Ward (274) and McLaughlin (258).

“When I raced, I never felt confident about anything,” revealed Bobby Rahal, co-team owner, who won the first Toronto Indy in 1986. “I think the organization is really working well, which we saw at Mid-Ohio. We came out of Indy very disappointed. It was hell. Hardpressed to believe we actually won the race two years earlier. Then we were on the back row, and one guy (Graham) didn’t make it in the race in our car. That shook us to our core. The race that had a bigger negative effect was Detroit because we were not good at all. That’s when we decided to make internal changes and we’re seeing the results of that change.”

In front of a record crowd over the last two decades, there were seven lead changes among four drivers. Lundgaard became the sixth different winner of the season. And Honda has won seven of ten races, leading the Manufacturer’s Championship, 855 to Chevy’s 751 points. Now in his second IndyCar season, the maiden win gave the 21-year-old Danish driver an early birthday present, allowing him to finally shave off his moustache in Victory Circle, having made a bet last December with his best friend, Viktor Petersen, who was in attendance. IT