Colton Herta capped off a flawless weekend with a virtually perfect effort, dominating to win from the pole at Toronto in a second consecutive IndyCar race marred by a wild crash.
Herta led 81 of 85 laps and won by 0.3469 seconds over teammate Kyle Kirkwood to snap a 40-race winless drought that dated to May 2022 (a span of 799 days).
In addition to qualifying first, Herta led all three practice sessions in his No. 26 Dallara-Honda.
“We’ve been knocking on the door of a win for so long, 41 starts without a win is a long time,” he told NBC Sports’ Dillon Welch. “It’s been disappointing for us. Michael (Andretti) is an owner that demands perfection, demands results. I’m so happy, this Honda was so fast. Finally, finally to get a win in such a long time. It feels so good. I wish we didn’t have this long break now, I want to go right back into it and win another one.”
Herta’s eighth career victory also was the first this season for Andretti Global, which earned its first 1-2 finish since Kirkwood and Romain Grosjean at Long Beach in April 2023.
“I was more on defense than anything,” Kirkwood told Welch after a season-best second. “Street courses like this, you want to salvage a 1-2 and putting us at risk was just not the move today. I played a little more defense. Super happy with second place. This was the goal today. Colton got the pole and was deserving of the win today.”
Said team owner Michael Andretti: “We needed this so bad. We’ve been competitive all year; just haven’t been able to get the final result. To come out of Toronto with a 1-2 is awesome. It was a big day.”
Scott Dixon finished third, followed by Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Alex Palou and Marcus Armstrong. David Malukas, Christian Lundgaard, Rinus VeeKay, Grosjean and Graham Rahal rounded out the top 10 in a race of attrition in which only 12 drivers finished on the lead lap.
The race was stopped by a red flag of nearly 20 minutes for a multicar crash involving Pato O’Ward, Marcus Ericsson, Nolan Siegel, Pietro Fittipaldi and Santino Ferrucci, whose No. 14 Dallara-Chevrolet went airborne and landed on its aeroscreen.
“Very, very thankful to IndyCar and the medical team,” Ferrucci told NBC Sports’ Charlie Kimball. “The cars are so safe to have a scary accident like that and just to walk away fine.”
The pileup began when Pato O’Ward locked the rear tires on his No. 5 Dallara-Chevrolet and spun in Turn 1. After Ericsson spun into the crash, Fittipaldi caught some air after going over O’Ward’s front tire. Ferrucci’s car then launched off O’Ward’s front end into a half-somersault before Siegel also slammed into O’Ward, his Arrow McLaren teammate.
O’Ward took issue with IndyCar race control waiting too long to throw a caution.
Thankful for the Aero screen or else I wouldn’t be writing this right now. Sorry to my team and all involved by no fault of their own. As for the incident… maybe next time at least throw a local yellow when a car is in the most dangerous spot possible @IndyCar ? Just a thought pic.twitter.com/KGQIEkvsQP
— Pato O'Ward (@PatricioOWard) July 21, 2024
“I’m so surprised IndyCar didn’t call a yellow,” O’Ward, who started 14th after failing to advance from the first round of qualifying, told Kimball. “You’re just calling for a massive shunt. They had a solid 5 seconds to call a yellow and tell everybody that was coming. I’m glad everyone else in it is fine.
“Sorry for the team. Obviously, we were having a better race than what we’ve had had all weekend. It’s really been miserable.”
It capped a rough weekend for Arrow McLaren, which lost Alexander Rossi to a fractured thumb in a practice crash Friday and had to scramble to fly in Theo Pourchaire (14th) from France overnight.
In a postrace release, Arrow McLaren team principal Gavin Ward said, “I’m just glad we don’t have any more injured drivers at the end of the day. I think IndyCar needs to take a deep dive into the delay in going yellow. That incident started off with Pato having a spin,and not going to a full-course yellow until there’s a car in the catchfence, and we’ve totally crashed two good race cars. It’s just not good enough. Thanks to Théo for jumping in a very difficult circumstance and keeping his nose clean.”
The fifth and final caution flag flew on Lap 77 after Scott McLaughlin was forced into the Turn 5 wall by teammate Will Power. After exiting his car, McLaughlin waited on track so he mockingly could applaud the passing car of Power, who was given a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact.
“It’s a low-percentage move when we probably were both going to have a pretty good day,” McLaughlin told Kimball. “Do you do that to a teammate? I don’t know. I mucked up at Laguna Seca, and we had contact as well. It always happens. I get that we’re racing for a championship, but when we’re both ahead of (points leader Alex) Palou, it’s just a low-percentage (move).
“Disappointed for everyone at Team Penske. We weren’t the quickest today, Colton, props to him he had a very fast car this weekend, but I thought we could salvage some really good points and put ourselves in the championship fight. This will make it a bit harder, but unfortunately, contact with a teammate.”
The incident ensured that Team Penske would have no cars in the top 10 as Josef Newgarden struggled to an 11th ahead of Power (12th) and McLaughlin (16th).