IndyCar Preview: Indy Toronto
- Dan Jones
- Jul 18
- 8 min read
It's time to cross the border for IndyCar as the series travels north to Exhibition Place, Toronto for one last battle on the streets in 2025. With many drivers having nothing to lose in the remaining rounds of 2025, it's completely gloves off, as all 27 drivers solely seek to find themselves in Victory Lane on Sunday. IndyCar's annual visit to Canada plays host to Race 13 of 17 in the 2025 season.
What happened at Iowa?
After Penske's disastrous 2025 season thus far, all eyes were on the Captain's team heading into the double-header weekend at Iowa Speedway, the team having gone 11 winless up until that point. Things didn't look any brighter for the team when Scott McLaughlin crashed on his qualifying run, although things soon turned as Josef Newgarden took his first pole of the season in Race 1, whilst Álex Palou claimed his first short oval pole on Race 2.
Newgarden drove like a man on a mission in the opening race, leading 232 laps and was looking destined to finally claim a first victory of 2025. However, a small error in his final stop allowed Pato O'Ward to overcut the American with the Mexican holding off Newgarden's charge to claim his, and Chevrolet's first win of 2025.
It was an agonising result for Newgarden, but he looked destined to turn that around in Race 2, particularly when he took the lead from polesitter Palou mid-way through. However, Marcus Ericsson crashed as Newgarden came into the pits under green which cycled him down to 13th on a track that was very difficult to make moves on.
Newgarden wouldn't give up there and recovered to take the race lead heading into the final stop. Lightning then struck twice as Newgarden was caught out this time from Colton Herta's crash relegating him to 10th. Palou, who had stayed out was the huge benefactor as he claimed his first career victory on a short oval, ahead of Scott Dixon and Marcus Armstrong, who claimed his first podium on an oval.
A controversial repave to the circuit prior to the race last season had made overtaking very difficult previously, and although the groove did not open up to pre-repave standards, the racing was significantly better than last year's event.
Viewership figures continued to be a struggle, as has been the case in recent races, with 576,000 viewers on average for the opening race and 719,000 for Sunday's event.
You can read the full race reports here and here, the DIVEBOMB IndyCar Podcast's race review here and my gradebook here.
If it didn't already feel inevitable, Palou's seventh victory of the season has almost certainly clinched his name on the Astor Challenge Cup for a fourth time, barring any catastrophic collapses before Nashville. O'Ward's strong weekend has since solidified his position in second in the standings, whilst a tough weekend for Kyle Kirkwood meant he dropped from second to fourth. Top 10 are as follows:
Palou - 515
O'Ward - 386
Dixon - 342
Kirkwood - 335
Lundgaard - 300
Rosenqvist - 298
Armstrong - 267
Power - 244
Herta - 244
Ferrucci - 237
All you need to know about Toronto
The Streets of Toronto have been a staple on the IndyCar calendar ever since 1986. It has only been missed off the schedule during the reunification season of 2008 as well as the 2020 and 2021 seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Double-header races were also held at the venue between 2013 and 2014. The circuit is 1.786 miles (2.874 km) long and features 11 corners with seven to the right, and four to the left.
Drivers will start their lap down Princes Boulevard before a narrow slow-speed right-hander at Turn 1, which has been the sight of major pile-ups in the last two races. The kink onto Lake Shore Boulevard provides the best overtaking opportunity on the venue into the slow right-hander at Turn 3 before drivers navigate a slow speed complex at Turns 4, 5 and 6.
The run down Manitoba Drive opens up a tricky braking zone into the Turn 8 right-hander, with a reprofiling of the corner seeing several accidents last season. The pit entry opens up on the left, and those opting not to pit will take the left-hander at Turn 9, right-hander at Turn 10 and left-hander to close the lap at Turn 11 to bring them back onto the start/finish straight.
This is one of very few road and street courses on the schedule where a lap can be completed under 60 seconds. Herta's pole time last year was a 59.5431.
Toronto will play host the final street course race of the 2025 season with Palou and Kirkwood splitting the honours between the other three street races this season. Toronto was one of several races to have their lap count increased during the off-season to promote multiple strategies with five further laps added to bring the total to 90. It still remains the shortest race of the season though at just 160.74 miles.
Herta is the defending race winner at Toronto, as he led Kirkwood home for a dominant Andretti 1-2. As he was at this point last year, Herta is still winless this season, but has a good record on the Canadian streets, with podiums in each of his last three visits.
Christian Lundgaard has impressed many in 2025 in his first season with Arrow McLaren, particularly on road and street courses where he has claimed four podiums. His only career victory came at Toronto for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in 2023 after taking pole position and never looking back.
Newgarden's difficult season has been discussed in great detail already, and although he hasn't been one of the primary contenders at Toronto in recent seasons, he claimed victories at the circuit in 2015 and 2017 and will be looking to replicate those results to end his victory drought, which stretches back to Gateway last season. Chevrolet are winless since 2019 though, with Honda taking the last three victories with three different teams.
Will Power is a three-time winner at Toronto, winning in 2007, 2010 and 2016 and also looks for a first Victory Lane visit in 2025. However, Power has not finished inside the top 10 at Toronto since that victory in 2016.
It won't be a surprise that Scott Dixon has the most wins of any active driver at the circuit, visiting Victory Lane in both of the races in 2013, as well as 2018 and 2022. Dixon has not finished outside the top five in Toronto since 2017, and not outside the top 10 since 2012 - this could well be his best venue on the calendar.
For his teammate, Álex Palou, this remains just one of two road and street courses that he has not won on the current schedule, alongside the Streets of Long Beach. Palou has never finished outside the top six though at the circuit.
As usual, drivers will have five sets of primary and five sets of the alternate, guayule tyre. 200 seconds of push-to-pass is available with a maximum time of 20 seconds per deployment, as well as the additional energy provided by the hybrid.
Nolan Siegel has been declared fit to race at Toronto after he had to sit out of the second race at Iowa after a late-race accident in Race 1. Linus Lundqvist remains on standby at Arrow McLaren should Siegel's circumstances change.
This also marks Devlin DeFrancesco's home event.
What to watch in Toronto
With Palou's lead in the standings now stretched to 129 points, no driver in the field is thinking championship, with many having a nothing-to-lose attitude as they all solely focus on claiming race victories in the closing five races of the 2025 season. This isn't a scenario that the series has been in for decades which could make the racing more aggressive than usual.
Palou has stated that his gap also gives him the flexibility to go more aggressive on strategy, like what was done at Iowa in order to claim victory. Palou has never been one to chase records in his career, but he would certainly love to get a Toronto victory under his belt.
Lundgaard is my one-to-watch this weekend. He has seemed to have the upper edge on O'Ward at many road and street courses this season, and this could be his best venue on the calendar and an excellent chance to claim his fifth podium of the year, or alternatively become the first non-O'Ward winner for Arrow McLaren. Lundgaard has never finished outside the top 10 in Toronto.
Street courses in recent seasons have all been about Andretti Global though. Kirkwood claimed street course victories earlier in the year at Long Beach and Detroit, whilst Herta aims to defend his Toronto crown this weekend. This could well be Herta's best venue on the schedule, not once finishing lower than seventh. It has not been the easiest of years for Herta, and this represents his best chance to turn it around.
I wouldn't sleep on Kirkwood either though based on his street course form. Second in the championship could be open between Kirkwood, Dixon and O'Ward and he needs a good weekend to bounce back from a difficult Iowa. Kirkwood has also not finished outside the top 10 on a street course since 2023.
What bodes well for Kirkwood and Dixon in that battle, is this is a circuit that O'Ward has never gone well at. O'Ward's best finish is eighth - his only appearance in the top 10, and he caused the major pile-up by spinning out all by himself last season. Lundgaard has generally had the upper edge on O'Ward pace-wise at road and street courses this season, which continues to remain an interesting dynamic within the team.
There will of course be pressure on Team Penske too. They are just two races away from matching their 15 race winless streak between 2007 and 2008 in the midst of their worst season in modern times. Penske has not had a winless season this millennium, and unless things change soon that could be a possibility. However, their best finish since the circuit returned to the schedule in 2022 is just fifth.
Meyer Shank Racing have also impressed in recent races, with two podiums across the course of the last three weekends with Felix Rosenqvist and Armstrong lying sixth and seventh in points respectively. Armstrong is also on a run of six top 10s in a row, which is the longest active streak of any driver.
I haven't mentioned it up to this point in 2025, but the Rookie of the Year battle is certainly hotting up with Louis Foster leading Robert Shwartzman by just five points with five races to go. Foster's pace on road and street courses, particularly in qualifying has been mightily impressive, although the No.45 stand have struggled on execution at times this season. Foster will be expected to extend that points gap, although you never know quite what to expect on a street circuit!
Timings:
Practice 1: 15:05 ET (20:05 BST) Friday
Practice 2: 10:30 ET (15:30 BST) Saturday
Qualifying: 14:30 ET (19:30 BST) Saturday
Warmup: 08:32 ET (13:32 BST) Sunday
Race: 12:22 ET (17:22 BST) Sunday
DIVEBOMB will bring you all the news and updates throughout the weekend as well as post-race analysis. With the gloves off and everybody chasing race victories we could be in for a thriller on the Canadian streets. Will Penske, Herta or Lundgaard claim first victories of the season or will we have the familiar sight of Kirkwood of Palou back in victory lane?
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