Herta’s Toronto Domination Continues; Wins Pole at Exhibition Place

Colton Herta celebrates his second NTT P1 Award of 2025 at the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto at Exhibition Place. (Photo: Sydney Redden | The Podium Finish)

TORONTO – Colton Herta left last year’s Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto with a weekend sweep by qualifying on the pole and capturing the race victory.

Fast forward one year later in 2025, the second-generation Valencia, California native is one more step away from repeating that feat once again.

Herta captured the NTT P1 Award once again in Toronto for the second year in a row and the third time in four years, with a blistering lap of 59.8320 seconds around the 11-turn, 1.786-mile street circuit at Exhibition Place.

“We have a great car here, it’s plain and simple as you see,” Herta said. “I’d like to think (the team’s drivers are) better than everybody else, but the cars are really just that good. I think the cars make us look really good.”

This marks Herta’s second NTT P1 Award of the season and 16^th of his career, with his first at another street course at the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear back on June 1st.

Kyle Kirkwood navigates the streets of Toronto during qualifying for the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto. (Photo: Tammy-Mariah Gill | The Podium Finish)

As dominant as Kyle Kirkwood has been the past few seasons on street circuits, one of the biggest surprises was not seeing the Jupiter, Florida native on the front row with his teammate after placing first and second respectively in the two preceding practice sessions and finishing second to Herta last year. Kirkwood was looking strong during his qualifying lap in the No. 27 Silver Gold Bull Honda but lost the handling and quickly aborted his lap.

“We just gave away a pole, without a doubt,” Kirkwood said. “I started the lap and the first time all weekend, I got a huge snap. The car has been understeering and the one time I go through (Turn 2) when it matters for pole it bottoms out and I have the huge snap. It’s unfortunate. It feels like I’m throwing away poles left and right on street courses.”

Kirkwood looks to win his third street circuit race of the season on Sunday, after winning the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach in April and the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix last month.

Series championship leader Alex Palou qualified second with a lap of 1:00.1078 in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. Palou currently holds a 129-point lead over Arrow McLaren driver Pato O’Ward with five races remaining in the 2025 season.

The remaining Firestone Fast Six includes Marcus Armstrong in the No. 66 SiriusXM Meyer Shank Racing Honda, Team Penske’s Will Power in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, Graham Rahal in the No. 15 United Rentals Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda and Kirkwood in the No. 27 Silver Gold Bull Andretti Global Honda.

The 90-lap event at Exhibition Place in Toronto, Ontario is set for noon ET and will air on FOX, INDYCAR Radio Network and INDYCAR Nation SiriusXM channel 218.

Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto Qualifying Results: