Colton Herta, Kyle Kirkwood 'Freaking Fast' in Toronto
Colton Herta is back on top of the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto.
After settling for the 10th spot in Friday's time chart, the veteran NTT INDYCAR SERIES driver who won last year's race at Exhibition Place from the pole paced the morning practice today.
SEE: Practice 2 Results
Last year in this event, the driver of Andretti Global w/ Curb-Agajanian's No. 26 Gainbridge Honda led a 1-2 team finish with Kyle Kirkwood second. Today, Kirkwood was also second in the No. 27 Silver Gold Bull Honda. Herta's best lap time was 1 minute, .0578 seconds. Kirkwood's best was 1:00.1578. The two drivers are about a half-second faster than the next-best driver.
Herta has been the top qualifier two of the past three years at this track.
"These Andretti guys are freaking fast," Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward said after the session.
Next on the schedule is NTT P1 Award qualifying at 2:30 p.m. ET (FS1, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network). The 90-lap race will be at noon ET (FOX, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network).
One of the session's objectives was to adjust to modifications to an area of the track approaching Turn 3. That's at the end of the long straight, and drivers reported a significant bump in the braking zone. There was work done overnight to improve the situation.
Late in the session, Dale Coyne Racing rookie Jacob Abel hit the wall in Turn 6 and then crashed in Turn 7.
Arrow McLaren team principal Tony Kanaan said the cars of O'Ward (No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet) and Christian Lundgaard (No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet) would undergo engine changes this evening in preparation for the race. Kanaan said Chevrolet had previously wanted to change the engines after the race but moved up its schedule.
Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon (No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) leads active drivers with four victories at Exhibition Place. Team Penske's Will Power (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet) has three race wins here while teammate Josef Newgarden (No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet) has two.
Lundgaard (2023) and Herta (2024) are the other previous Toronto race winners in this 27-car field. Last year's podium featured Herta, Kirkwood and Dixon. The winner has come from the pole each of the past two years and three times in the past four years.
This is the fourth and final street race of the season. The last events on the calendar will be held on a pair of road courses (WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and Portland International Raceway) followed by two oval tracks (The Milwaukee Mile and Nashville Superspeedway).
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