Photo Gallery: Pato O'Ward wins IndyCar race in Toronto
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Indianapolis Star
3 hours ago
- Indianapolis Star
'The dream is still very much alive': IndyCar interest gives Linus Lundqvist belief he'll return
Linus Lundqvist has attended nearly every IndyCar race in 2025, despite not having a ride, in hopes of remaining on teams' radars for 2026. TORONTO — It's been a painful 10 weeks for Linus Lundqvist, spending nearly every weekend watching Indy cars race around the Midwest from the sidelines. But it's a purposeful agony he's chosen, and the 2024 IndyCar Rookie of the Year is hoping the emotional scars he talks over with his therapist will before long pave the road back to the cockpit of the only job he's ever wanted. 'It's hard, because my passion is driving and winning, and it hurts to be at a racetrack and watching everybody else do it and not me,' Lundqvist told IndyStar while serving as a reserve driver for Arrow McLaren, a one-off opportunity spurred by the mild concussion Nolan Siegel suffered last weekend at Iowa Speedway. Lundqvist, who has 20 IndyCar starts under his belt with a resume that includes a pair of podiums, a pole and a 16th-place finish in the championship as a rookie with Chip Ganassi Racing a year ago, was tabbed to be on standby this week and weekend in case the team's full-time driver of the No. 6 wasn't cleared to return. Lundqvist actually traveled with the team Thursday morning with Siegel back in Indianapolis awaiting clearance – a call the young American driver eventually received, meaning the 26-year-old Swede will roam the IndyCar paddock this weekend in a papaya uniform instead of plain clothes, his seat marginally different while on the timing stand instead of the grandstands. Ultimately, Sunday was largely the same. 'I'm very up front about the fact that in this sense, it sucks, but I also know that it's my best shot at being back at a track and driving next year is being here and going through all of that and being ready,' Lundqvist continued. 'It's like, yeah, it's pain, but pain I'm willing to go through to hopefully be on the grid next year.' Days ahead of this season's IndyCar opener at St. Pete, Lundqvist announced he wouldn't be on the grid full time in 2025, noting he'd been 'formally notified' by CGR in January that what he described as a 'multi-year agreement' had been terminated after just one year. The writing appeared to have been on the wall for some time, with his former home announcing back in October that its roster for 2025 was set and seats elsewhere around the paddock largely having been almost entirely set for months. Whereas his former teammate Marcus Armstrong, who similarly had inked a multi-year deal with CGR, had been loaned out to Meyer Shank Racing, a team CGR entered into a technical alliance with ahead of this season, Lundqvist felt he'd been left high and dry as IndyCar's newly launched charter system that allows teams to run a maximum of three full-time cars for guaranteed entry into each race forced CGR to scale its lineup back from five cars to three. 'I am hopeful that through the provisions in my CGR agreement, we will be able to reach a resolution that would place me back in a competitive seat,' Lundqvist wrote on social media in February. 'In the meantime, I will continue to pursue other racing options, preferably in IndyCar where I hope to continue my career and build on my open-wheel successes to date.' That pursuit, Lundqvist has explained, has involved attending most IndyCar races within driving distance of his Indianapolis home, taking his helmet and safety equipment with him and preparing as if he was scheduled to be in the car, so that if such an opportunity were to come about, he'd be ready to best prove himself, knowing he may only get one more shot to audition for a second chance. After all, in a short three-race substitute stint for Meyer Shank Racing near the end of the 2023 season coming off his rather dominant 2022 Indy Lights championship run, Lundqvist made his IndyCar debut and took the paddock by storm, starting in the top 12 for all three races and notching a 12th-place finish on the IMS road course in his second career race. Just a couple weeks later, he'd been scooped up by the hottest team on the paddock of late. Siegel energized for Toronto return: 'I have a greater appreciation for what I'm doing.' 'For me, this is very much a no-brainer. (IndyCar) is my Plan A, B, C and D. There's no backup plan,' he said. 'I'm very determined to make this work somehow, and the only thing I know is to be here, ready and available and staying sharp, because I know that if you're at home feeling sorry for yourself, nothing's going to come of it. 'So every race I can be at, the best thing I can do for myself is to be here, be ready, and when I got the call from Arrow McLaren, it was, 'OK, I must be doing something right. I'm still in the ballpark to be considered in case something were to happen.'' When at the track, Lundqvist can be frequently seen chatting up various team owners and officials, doing his best to ensure he's top of mind for anyone who may have an opening, whether that's a short-term one like Arrow McLaren this weekend, or a full-time shot for 2026 and beyond as IndyCar's silly season begins to kick into high gear in the coming weeks. 'I'm still quite positive about my chances of being on the grid next year. Obviously, this is IndyCar and motor racing, and you never know until something is done, but I also think if those conversations I've been having with teams were, 'No, we're not interested,' then I'd probably at some point stop showing up to races and say, 'OK, this isn't going to work,'' Lundqvist said. 'But I keep showing up because people keep saying they're interested and that there might be opportunities, so that's what I live on right now, that the dream is still very much alive.'
Indianapolis Star
16 hours ago
- Indianapolis Star
IndyCar race at Toronto continues TV ratings lull as Fox's struggles in first year continue
IndyCar's summer lull in the TV ratings game continued this weekend north of the border with a Toronto street race that captured an average audience of 734,000 viewers — the series' fifth consecutive race that failed to reach an average audience of 800,000 fans during the sport's busiest competitive stretch of the season. Sunday's noon Fox broadcast marked the first time the race had been shown to anything but a streaming-only audience since 2019, when it aired on NBC Sports Network and delivered an average audience of 504,000. Dating back to at least 2016, IndyCar's annual visit to Toronto hadn't been watched by an average audience higher than 530,000 (2016, CNBC), and Sunday's race audience was the largest since ABC's 2012 broadcast (1.129 million). The sub-750,000 average audience from Sunday's race won by Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward marks the eighth Fox network IndyCar race broadcast that has failed to reach even 800,000 this year, though the calendar has hit above 1 million four times. For comparison, NBC aired eight points-paying IndyCar race broadcasts a year ago, and only two failed to reach 800,000. Of those six that did, two (including the Indy 500) grabbed average audiences above 1 million. During NBC's tenure as IndyCar's exclusive media rights partner, the network registered 10 race broadcasts on network TV with average audiences below 800,000, not counting the pandemic-altered 2020 season. Of those 10, six of those were races up against the first couple weeks of the NFL season, meaning only four failed to eclipse 800,000 during an overlapping timeframe to IndyCar's Fox calendar. No NBC IndyCar season ever had more than one sub-800,000 average audience network race broadcast in a single season. Through 12 non-Indy 500 IndyCar network TV broadcasts on Fox in 2025, the series' new media rights partner sits at 829,833 in terms of its average viewership throughout a race broadcast. That number sits below NBC's 38 network broadcast from 2019-24 (excluding 2020 races, 500s, weather-altered races or ones that ran up against the NFL) of 998,342. When including those race broadcasts that went up against the opening weeks of NFL seasons, that figure drops to 935,408. Insider: Failure at Iowa sparks latest 2026 IndyCar schedule question: Will Penske Entertainment be able to promote? Strictly up against NBC's slate of non-500, non-NFL-conflicting network points-paying race broadcasts a year ago (of which there were 6), this year's Fox slate (minus its Indy 500 figures) trails 932,833 (2024, NBC) to 829,833 (2025, Fox), in terms of average race audiences. When including last year's season finale that ran up against Week 2 of the NFL season, that 2024 NBC figure dips to 868,571, still nearly 40,000 viewers ahead of Fox. Last weekend's IndyCar race at Toronto saw no formal in-race head-to-head competition with the NASCAR Cup series, with IndyCar's race ending just before 2:10 p.m. and NASCAR's green flag falling just after 2:15 p.m., though TNT's pre-race coverage of the Cup race began at 1:30 p.m. Sunday's head-to-head battle for IndyCar will be much more severe, with Cup's Brickyard 400 on TNT set to take the green just after 2 p.m. With IndyCar's estimated green flag time of just after 3:20 p.m., both races are slated to run head-to-head throughout the entirety of IndyCar's race broadcast.
Yahoo
19 hours ago
- Yahoo
The winners and losers of IndyCar's 2025 Indy Toronto
For the only time this year, the NTT IndyCar Series ventured north of the U.S. border for a race around Toronto, the final street circuit event of the 2025 season. Some used the opportunity to return to the states with hard-earned gains. Others were left eager to return home from The Six after a difficult race at a challenging circuit. And for one driver, the weekend was over before the green flag ever flew. Here are the winners and losers from the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto. Winner: Pato O'Ward times it right Patricio O'ward, Arrow McLaren, Zak Brown Few series in all of motorsport are more prone to major race shakeups when cautions fly than IndyCar. One timely yellow can be the difference between competing for the win and getting trapped in the they work out in your favor. Other times you're less fortunate. But rarely do those fates swing so significantly in the span of seven days. O'Ward was one of a few Chevrolet drivers caught out by the timing of a late caution last Sunday at Iowa Speedway, leaving them to take the wave around and fall out of contention for the last stint. But in Toronto, the Mexican driver caught every timely yellow and rode them to an unexpected win from 10th. So it goes in IndyCar. Loser: The shoe goes on the other foot for Palou, Ganassi Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing On the opposite end of the spectrum was Alex Palou. One week after he snagged a victory at the expense of David Malukas and Josef Newgarden, Palou found himself on the wrong strategy in Toronto. A decision to start on primaries and push the first stint long paid costly for himself, Scott Dixon and Malukas. Palou led a race-high 37 laps, but wound up 12th at race's end. Malukas and Dixon cycled out ahead of him to salvage ninth and 10th. They were all disappointing results. And at least on Palou's side, he had no one to blame but himself. 'I chose the strategy, so there's what we did wrong today,' Palou said. 'I was pushing for that strategy. I thought it was going to give us the best opportunity to win.' Not this time. Winner: Everyone that didn't get caught up in carnage Will Power, Team Penske If your favorite driver made it to the checkered flag on Sunday and did so without a trip to the wall or broken wing along the way, they probably netted out alright. Only 16 drivers finished Sunday's race on the lad lap. Seven were lost to after crashes, with three others multiple laps down after contact ruined their runs. It was an attrition-filled race, particularly in the opening half. Related: See how crashes and on-track incidents defined the 2025 Toronto Indy Of those that made it to the end, many still endured contact along the way. Kyle Kirkwood was spun on pit road and rallied to sixth. Marcus Armstrong endured a penalty for causing the contact and quietly slotted 14th. Will Power ended up against the outside wall at one point, but came home a respectable 11th. Just reaching the finish was enough for a salvageable result. Loser: Santino Ferrucci falls out in the warmup Santino Ferrucci, A. J. Foyt Enterprises It's been a good summer stretch for Santino Ferrucci. The Connecticut native has four top-fives, five finishes of eighth or better and had risen up into the top 10 in the series standings entering Toronto. But IndyCar's law of averages tends to catch up with everyone at some point. It was Ferrucci's turn on Sunday. The 27-year-old was rolling through turn 7 in the final minutes of the morning warmup session when his car snapped loose, sending him into the wall hard at corner exit before sliding into the tire barrier and runoff in turn 8. That proved to be a day-ender for Ferrucci's AJ Foyt Racing team. There wasn't enough time to repair his No. 14 Chevrolet, sending the controversial star out hours before the green flag. Winner: Two-stop strategy bears fruit for Veekay, Simpson Rinus Veekay, Dale Coyne Racing If you don't qualify at the front of an IndyCar field, it can be difficult to rise into contention. But with eventual race's like Sunday's comes opportunity for those willing to be different. Enter Rinus VeeKay and Kyffin Simpson. After qualifying ninth and 13th, the pair took advantage of the early cautions and stretched their alternates for 13 (Veekay) and 16 (Simpson) laps. That put the duo on a two-stop strategy, which they executed to perfection to score a pair of unexpected podiums in second and third. Creativity rewarded. Loser: Team Penske's turmoil continues in Toronto Josef Newgarden, Team Penske This week in Team Penske trauma, we saw a new twist on the organization's seemingly endless string of crashes, mistakes and general poor luck. Scott McLaughlin had pitted to get off the quickly-degrading alternate tires at the end of lap 2 and was getting his first primary set up to temp when he lost a wheel, sending him out of the race in 26th. Josef Newgarden avoid incidents during the opening stint, but wound up crashed when a slowed Jacob Abel made contact with Louis Foster and checked up into - and then on top off - his No. 2 Chevrolet on a lap 37 restart. That ended his day in 24th. Will Power, Team Penske Will Power continued on, surviving an early run-in with Christian Rasmussen. But he got the worst of a mid-race battle with winner O'Ward and wound up having to back up off the wall before rallying to a serviceable result. Loser: Ed Carpenter Racing's very bad, no good weekend Alexander Rossi, Ed Carpenter Racing The good news is that Ed Carpenter Racing announced Tuesday that it's building a new headquarters in Westfield, Indiana. The bad news? Pretty much everything else that played out for the team this week. ECR's promising duo had a weekend to forget in Toronto. Christian Rasmussen qualified 22nd and fell out of contention with a broken front wing after contact with Will Power early on. Alexander Rossi started behind him in 24th and fell out after 29 laps when he hit a jut in the outside wall and destroyed his car's right-rear. Winner: Another good day for Prema Racing Callum Ilott, Prema Racing IndyCar's promising newcomer is making a habit of this at this rate. On another challenging weekend, Callum Ilott and the No. 90 team made the Fast 12, qualified 11th - even with poor timing keeping Ilott from completing a full lap at pace - and then put together a complete race to finish a respectable Shwartzman was less fortunate, ending up mid-pack in 16th on a similar primary tire strategy to Palou and co. But in the end Prema saw both cars survive, finish on the lead lap and end the weekend better than they started. This season's all about growth for a rookie team. Results like this are exactly what it needs. Loser: The pace car runs out of juice Street circuit races are known for their attrition - but it doesn't usually include the pace after Rossi's race-ending shunt in the race's opening half, race officials had to change pace cars after the field-leader pulled off to the side with a sudden loss of power. Embarrassing? Sure. But the impact was thankfully minimal. And it could always have been worse (see above)… Read Also: See how crashes and on-track incidents defined the 2025 Toronto Indy Pato O'Ward, Arrow McLaren score strategic win in Indy Toronto Kyffin Simpson rides two-stop strategy to breakthrough first IndyCar podium Ed Carpenter Racing announces new Westfield headquarters, set to open in 2027 To read more articles visit our website.
