The IndyCar hotshot met at the Exhibition Place Street Course in Toronto, Ontario last Sunday and the story was Simon Pagenaud and Team Penske. The 36-year-old driver from Montmorillon, France is enjoying a dream season and dominated the weekend, winning both the pole and the race.
On a beautiful clear day the race was for second place for the rest of the field. One of the biggest and most memorable moments of the season came when Robert Wickens and his fiance drove a specially prepared car for him around the circuit, then Wickens called the start of the race. It was wonderful to see how well his rehab is progressing.
As to the race itself, the pit stops were smooth for most of the teams. Takuma Sato caused some excitement when he steered his burning race car into his team’s pit area. The fire was put out as Sato jumped out of the cockpit and ran to safety. Scott Dixon was eating Pagenaud’s dust for most of the race and it paid off with a 2nd place finish. It was Dixon’s 7th podium finish this year and he leads all drivers in that category. Alexander Rossi held off Josef Newgarden for 3rd, and Newgarden’s 4th place finish was enough to maintain his lead in the championship points race over Rossi by 4 points. Rookie Felix Rosenqvist finished 5th. The 27-year-old driver from Sweden is 10th in series points and looks to be headed for the Series Rookie of the Year honors. Canadian born and crowd favorite James Hinchcliffe finished 6th. Rookie Colton Herta finished 7th — his best finish since his win at the Circuit of America in Austin Texas. Sebastien Bourdais was 8th, Graham Rahal was 9th, and Marco Andretti finished 10th.
Will Power continued on his string of bad racing luck. Qualifying 15th, the Aussie driver tried to power through the field to join the lead cars. This resulted in a spin into the tire barrier and a 4 car spin-out which included Matheus Leist, Jack Harvey, and Zake Veitch and brought out a full course caution. All the cars continued in the race but it eliminated Power from any kind of contention for a high finish. He placed 18th.
There are 6 races left in the 2019 IndyCar series. It still looks to be a contest between Newgarden and Rossi for the series championship but do not count out Pagenaud and Dixon. Dixon is at his best in the late stages of the series and Pagenand is having a great season as well. So now it’s on to Newton Iowa and the Iowa Speedway Oval.
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