O’Ward Masters Strategy; Wins in Toronto

Pato O’Ward hoists the trophy after pulling off his second win in three races at the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto. (Photo: Sydney Redden | The Podium Finish)

TORONTO – Coming into the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto weekend, Pato O’Ward had failed to finish better than eighth place in his three career races at Exhibition Place.

Needing all the points he could accumulate to put pressure on Alex Palou’s 129-point lead coming down to the final stretch of the season, O’Ward was looking for a little lady luck on his side.

Or luck from a bird.

The Mexican native masterfully captured his second victory in three races and his ninth career win in 102 starts on the 11-turn, 1.786-mile street circuit, all thanks to the omen of a little bird feces that landed on the car prior to the morning warmup session and an impressively executed pit strategy by the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet team.

“I can’t say I saw this one coming today,” said O’Ward. “I was feeling so good on the prime (primary) tire all weekend really. We were just struggling a bit to get the alternate (soft tire) to work in qualifying, and sadly that’s the one you need to transfer.

“The guys nailed it on the strategy. Before warmup today there was a bird that dropped a load on the car. I said that’s a living myth, that’s going to be a good day today.”

Rounding out the podium were a pair of drivers looking to get their seasons turned around. Rinus VeeKay finished second in the No. 18 askROI Dale Coyne Racing Honda, and Kyffin Simpson got his best career finish for his first career podium in third place in the No. 8 Journie Rewards Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. This marked VeeKay’s fifth career podium, and first since Barber Motorsports Park 2022.

“It was a good day, really good day,” said VeeKay. “We’ve been coming from the back. We qualified well with ninth. I knew we could move forward and these guys and strategy, they know what they’re doing. The Honda fuel mileage makes it so much easier to hit that two-stop (pit strategy).”

Simpson had not seen the top 10 in his first 19 INDYCAR starts. Finding the speed with his No. 8 Journie Rewards Chip Ganassi team, Simpson scored his fifth top 10 in his last 11 NTT INDYCAR Series races, along with the biggest mover of the race jumping 10 positions from his 13^th starting spot.

“It was a crazy race,” said Simpson. “So many ups and downs. At one point we thought we were in one of the worst positions, and very quickly turned into one of the best positions. Huge thank you to Journie and Chip Ganassi Racing and Honda. Did an incredible job today on pit lane.”

Kyffin Simpson on his way to his first career podium at the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto. (Photo: Tammy-Mariah Gill | The Podium Finish)

Last year’s Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto winner and this weekend’s NTT P1 Award winner, Colton Herta, led all Andretti Global drivers and came away with a fourth-place finish in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda. Marcus Ericsson had his best finish of the season in the fifth position in the No. 28 Delaware Life Honda and Kyle Kirkwood brought it home sixth in the No. 27 Silver Gold Bull Honda.

The race saw four differing strategies in play during the 90-lap event. Like much of the starting field, O’Ward started on the less-favorable alternate Firestone Firehawk tires. Thanks to a timely pit stop on Lap 2 ahead of a Lap 3 caution, O’Ward was able to win the race off pit road and meet the required stint for each tire compound.

In doing so, O’Ward was able to use the more durable, longer-lasting primary (black) tire compound for the rest of the race as others suffered from quicky diminishing lap times on the less-durable green alternate tires.

The turning point for O’Ward and the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet team was yet another perfectly timed pit stop on Lap 29, just before a Lap 30 caution flag for Alexander Rossi making wall contact in Turn 11. This allowed the team to put on another set of longer-lasting Firestone primary tires, which meant O’Ward only had to make one more stop the rest of the race.

The woes for Team Penske in 2025 continued on the 1.786-mile street circuit. After a Lap 3 pit stop for Scott McLaughlin, his left rear wheel nut was not securely tightened during his pit stop, causing the tire to come loose on his out lap and sending the New Zealander into the Turn 3 wall with extensive damage.

Then, Josef Newgarden and his No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet was collected in an incident between Jacob Abel in the No. 51 Abel Construction Dale Coyne Racing Honda and Louis Foster in the No. 45 Droplight Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda. As mayhem erupted, Newgarden found himself in a four-car pileup with Abel’s car resting on top of his. Later in the race, Will Power’s No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet was in a side-by-side battle that ended with Power in the Turn 3 wall.

Since 2024 on street-circuits (eight races), Newgarden has had five finishes outside of the top 10 while McLaughlin has six finishes outside of the top 10. The trio finished 11^th (Power), 23^rd (Newgarden) and 26^th (McLaughlin).

The race ultimately finished under caution for Felix Rosenqvist as he lost control of his No. 60 SiriusXM Honda and was hit from behind by Nolan Siegel in the No. 6 Smartstop Arrow McLaren Chevrolet on Lap 88.

The final street circuit race of the season saw six lead changes among five drivers, five caution flags for a total of 20 laps and the fastest lap posted by Herta on Lap 66 with a time of 1:01.6540. Santino Ferrucci failed to start the race due to an accident in the morning warmup session when his No. 14 Sexton Properties AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet made contact with the Turn 7 wall and slid to a stop in Turn 8. The damage was too extensive to make repairs in the three-hour window prior to the start of the race.

The NTT INDYCAR Series heads into a two-race west-coast swing starting with the Java House Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. The weekend kicks off on Friday, July 25^th for practice at 5:00 p.m. ET on FS1.

Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto Results: