{"id":36065,"date":"2025-07-17T22:30:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T02:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=36065"},"modified":"2025-07-17T22:30:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T02:30:08","slug":"indycar-toronto-grand-prix-schedule-predictions-and-how-to-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/07\/17\/indycar-toronto-grand-prix-schedule-predictions-and-how-to-watch\/","title":{"rendered":"IndyCar Toronto Grand Prix: Schedule, Predictions and How to Watch"},"content":{"rendered":"

IndyCar is heading north of the border this weekend for the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto. LWOS IndyCar will fill you in on all the action, from practice 1 to the checkered flag, but first, here\u2019s some info and insights ahead of the weekend.<\/p>\n

IndyCar Round 13: Honda Indy Toronto Preview and Predictions<\/h2>\n

IndyCar is on the streets of Toronto<\/a> this weekend for the only international race on the calendar. This race is the third race weekend in four weeks. It’s also their third different track in as many weeks.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Toronto, CA – Kyle Kirkwood during the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on the streets of Toronto. (Photo by Joe Skibinski | IMS Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last week in Iowa featured a doubleheader, which saw Pato O’Ward earn his first win of the season in Race 1<\/a>, while Alex Palou continued his dominance, adding win number 7 on the season in Race 2<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This weekend brings elements like track conditions, tight layout, and unpredictable Canadian weather that could flip the grid around and potentially get some expected podium finishers.<\/p>\n

Race Preview:<\/h3>\n

Indy Toronto, like any street track, will bring chaos in one form or another. The streets of Toronto are unforgiving. The plenty of overtaking opportunities may look enticing, but the tight layout and bumpy track will require the drivers to be sharp, as one mistake could put them into the wall.<\/p>\n

This was evident in last year’s race as it was cautions galore, it even featured a red flag due to five car pile up which saw Santino Ferrucci go airborne. More of that this year and those yellows could shakeup things up especially with the timing.<\/p>\n

Another thing to watch out for this weekend is going to start on pole. The past two winners here in Toronto, Christian Lundgaard<\/a> in 2023 and Colton Herta in 2024, have won the race from pole.<\/p>\n

In a press conference held on Thursday, Herta spoke on the importance of qualifying here in Toronto.”Starting on pole is a huge help here, when you’re that second car, it’s hard to overtake the leader,” he said. “Starting on pole, being able to control the field makes your life a lot easier.”<\/p>\n

The Track – Toronto Streets:<\/h3>\n

Starting in 1986, Toronto is IndyCar’s second-longest running street race, only behind the Grand Prix of Long Beach,<\/sup> and is the third oldest race on the current schedule, tied with the Mid-Ohio 200 in number of races run.<\/p>\n

The Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto is a tight 11-turn, 1.786-mile Exhibition Place street circuit that offers great views of downtown Toronto. The track allows for plenty of overtaking attempts, but going unscathed is never guaranteed. The long frontstretch leading into the Prince’s Gate at Turn 1 and the high-speed run down Lakeshore Boulevard into the tight 90-degree Turn 3.<\/p>\n

Drivers to Watch:<\/h3>\n

Christian Lundgaard<\/strong><\/p>\n

Denmark’s Lundgaard earned his first IndyCar victory in Toronto in 2023, but in a press conference, he declared the win unexpected due to a little bit of luck on Saturday. That luck came in the form of heavy rainfall during that year’s qualifying. He and his team took advantage and put it on the pole.<\/p>\n

Read More:\u00a0IndyCar: 5 Takeaways from Toronto<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Lungaard said the weather during qualifying can play a huge role in where drivers start.<\/p>\n

“I think that’s just a recipe for shaking the field up at the end of the day. If we have a qualifying where the weather can be tricky, you can have cars up front that potentially shouldn’t be there, and vice versa.”<\/p>\n

Luckily for Lundgaard this week’s weather forecast is predicting similar conditions. If he’s done it once before why not do it again.<\/p>\n

Colton Herta\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Toronto, 2024 celebrated his first IndyCar Series win in over two years with a dominant weekend. He became the first IndyCar driver ever to top both practice sessions, take pole in qualifying, and go on to win the race in one weekend, but it wasn’t easy. The race featured six restarts, which easily could’ve caught him at the wrong time, or even one bad restart could have hindered his result, but he was picture perfect.<\/p>\n

We haven’t seen a performance like that this season, but he has been strong on street courses, showing a 7th in Long Beach and a 3rd in Detroit.<\/p>\n

Herta said he has had this race high list after a tough season up to this point.<\/p>\n

“If last year is anything to go off of then we should be able to have a competitive package. This is one if there’s ever going to be a chance to get a win and get our season going is going to be this”<\/p>\n

How to Watch the Honda Indy Toronto:<\/h3>\n
\n
\n

Friday, July 17:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  • Practice 1<\/strong>\n
      \n
    • 3:00 PM Eastern<\/li>\n
    • Coverage is on Fox Sports 2<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Saturday, July 18:<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

      \n
        \n
      • Practice 2<\/b>\n
          \n
        • 10:30 AM Eastern<\/li>\n
        • Coverage switches to FS1<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
        • Qualifying<\/b>\n
            \n
          • 2:30 PM Eastern<\/li>\n
          • Coverage continues on FS1<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

            Sunday, July 19:<\/strong><\/p>\n

              \n
            • Warmup<\/b>\n
                \n
              • 8:30 AM Eastern<\/li>\n
              • Coverage is on FS1<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
              • Race<\/b>\n
                  \n
                • Noon Eastern<\/li>\n
                • Coverage is on Fox<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                  Stay Tuned To The Last Word on Motorsport for all updates from IndyCar’s Toronto Takeover<\/strong><\/p>\n

                  Main Photo:\u00a0<\/strong>Joe Skibinski, Penske Entertainment<\/p>\n

                  Recording Date: 7\/21\/2024<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                  IndyCar is heading north of the border this weekend for the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto. LWOS IndyCar will fill you in on all the action, from practice 1 to the checkered flag, but first, here\u2019s some info and insights ahead of the weekend. IndyCar Round 13: Honda Indy Toronto Preview and Predictions IndyCar is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5307,"featured_media":36081,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1663],"tags":[1600,1791,1154,2164,1657],"class_list":["post-36065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indycar","category-ntt-indycar-series","tag-alex-palou","tag-christian-lundgaard","tag-colton-herta","tag-honda-indy-toronto","tag-kyle-kirkwood"],"modified_by":"Hayden Murdock","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5307"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36065"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36084,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36065\/revisions\/36084"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}