{"id":36150,"date":"2025-07-20T23:32:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T03:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=36150"},"modified":"2025-07-20T23:32:38","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T03:32:38","slug":"pato-oward-conquers-the-streets-of-toronto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/07\/20\/pato-oward-conquers-the-streets-of-toronto\/","title":{"rendered":"Pato O’Ward Conquers the Streets of Toronto"},"content":{"rendered":"

Toronto brought an exciting race with a number of different strategies and a ton of battles. Here\u2019s what happened on the streets of Toronto, which led to Pato O’Ward’s victory<\/span><\/p>\n

Pato O’Ward Wins Toronto, Veekay and Simpson Impress With Podium Finishes<\/strong><\/h2>\n

IndyCar\u2019s only international race on the calendar has been won by Pato O\u2019Ward<\/a>, earning his second win of the season. More importantly, he slices Alex Palou’s lead in the championship by 30 points with four races to go.<\/span><\/p>\n

Joining him on the podium was Dale Coyne Racing\u2019s Rinus VeeKay in second, while Chip Ganassi Racing\u2019s Kyffin Simpson rounded out the podium, finishing third, earning his first-ever IndyCar podium.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Rinus VeeKay, Pato O’Ward, and Kyffin Simpson – Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto – By: Chris Owens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pato on the Prowl\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

On a street course that the Mexican <\/span>driver historically<\/span> has struggled on, there was no sign of that on Sunday\u2019s race. After starting in 10th on a set of alternate Firestone Firehawk tires. Pato then made the switch just before a caution on Lap 3 was triggered by Scott McLaughlin hitting the wall after losing a tire.<\/p>\n

This strategy required him to execute a three-stopper, but it allowed him to use the primary compound for the remainder of the race, which worked out well when trying to make up those important places.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was feeling so good on the (primary) tires all weekend. We were just struggling to get the alternates to work in qualifying. Sadly, that\u2019s the one you need to transfer,\u201d O\u2019Ward said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The turning moment of the race was after a caution that ended Josef Newgarden, and Jacob Abel\u2019s race. At the restart on lap 43, O\u2019Ward was sitting in fifth, and by the end of lap 45, he was up into 2nd behind Veekay. The different pit strategies between the top two runners worked out in O\u2019Ward\u2019s favor as he was able to use the overcut on the Dutchman.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Read More:\u00a0Revisiting Pato O\u2019Ward\u2019s Career Milestones\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Strategy woes for Chip Ganassi<\/span><\/h3>\n

Alex Palou started second behind pole sitter Colton Herta. He and Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon were among the few starting on the primary tire, a strategy call from the Spaniard.<\/span><\/p>\n

It looked like the call had been the right one, given the amount and length of the caution periods in the first half of the race; four cautions in the first 37 laps. But as the race settled ultimately,\u00a0 the call had both CGR drivers spending the final segment in the mid-pack. Dixon finished 10th while Palou finished 12th.<\/span><\/p>\n

Palou entered the weekend with a 129-point lead over O\u2019Ward. But 30 points evaporated at Exhibition Place, dropping their separation to 99 points with four races remaining.<\/p>\n

Other Notable Moments<\/h3>\n

Toronto brought everything to the table. It featured 226 on-track passes, the most in the event since 2014.\u00a0 It also had 201 passes for position, the most since 2019. Both totals were the fourth-most overall for racing on the downtown streets of this Ontario city.<\/p>\n

Only 26 drivers took to the grid as it was announced before the race that AJ Foyt Santino Ferrucci would not participate due to heavy damage to his car that he sustained in a crash at the end of warmups. Ferrucci hit the Turn 7 wall on the left side, sending the car sliding into the Turn 8 run-off area.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

First, the left rear lug nut of Scott McLaughlin\u2019s car came off following a pit stop, pushing the No. 3 Gallagher Insurance Team Penske Chevrolet into the Turn 2 wall.<\/p>\n

Practice for the Java House Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca begins Friday at 5 p.m. ET (FS2, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network). The 95-lap race, the 14th of the 17-race season, is Sunday at 3 p.m. on FOX.<\/p>\n

Read Next:\u00a0Chip Ganassi Gets a 1-2 Finish at Race 2 at Iowa\u00a0Speedway<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Main Photo:\u00a0<\/strong>Travis Hinkle, Penske Entertainment<\/p>\n

Recording Date: 7\/20\/2025<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toronto brought an exciting race with a number of different strategies and a ton of battles. Here\u2019s what happened on the streets of Toronto, which led to Pato O’Ward’s victory Pato O’Ward Wins Toronto, Veekay and Simpson Impress With Podium Finishes IndyCar\u2019s only international race on the calendar has been won by Pato O\u2019Ward, earning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5307,"featured_media":36154,"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":[2,6,1663],"tags":[2492,398,2164,2561,1627,1628],"class_list":["post-36150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-indycar","category-ntt-indycar-series","tag-arrow-mclaren","tag-chip-ganassi-racing","tag-honda-indy-toronto","tag-kyffin-simpson","tag-pato-oward","tag-rinus-veekay"],"modified_by":"Hayden Murdock","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36150","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=36150"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36156,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36150\/revisions\/36156"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}