IndyCar: 2010 Honda Indy Toronto [SPOILERS]

2010 Honda Indy Toronto – Click above for high-res image gallery

The IndyCar Series made a major announcement since the last race at Watkins Glen, deciding to stick with Dallara as its chassis supplier, but opening the game up a bit by allowing other manufacturers the option to supply aero packages and engines. Many think this will boil down to more of the same in IndyCar, but at least on paper, it has the potential to get more companies involved. Some of the bigger nuggets to drop from the official announcement were the new, lower prices of these 2012 IndyCar chassis and the fact that Dallara is building a plant right near the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to generate a few more jobs for the state’s residents and to make it quicker and easier to make chassis changes during the season. But all of that is still a couple of years off and they still had a race to run this weekend.

The 2010 Honda Indy Toronto is the second race run on this particular 1.755-mile street circuit around the Canadian city of Toronto, although there has been a major open-wheel street race in Toronto since 1967, and CART/IRL races have been held there ever since 1986. Dario Franchitti won the race in 2009 and went on to win the championship last year as well. This year, Franchitti trails Team Penske’s Will Power for the points lead and after Saturday’s qualifying for Toronto, the Target Chip Ganassi driver found himself fifth on the grid behind Ryan Hunter-Reay (Team IZOD Andretti Autosport) in fourth, Helio Castroneves (Team Penske) in third, Power in second and polesitter Justin Wilson of Team Z-Line Designs/DRR Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, who has posted some impressive results this year and currently stands eighth in the championship standings. Could Wilson stay out front for his first win of the season? Could Franchitti repeat from last year and possibly take the points lead for 2010? Or would Will Power place high enough to retain his lead?

Follow the jump to see how the 2010 Honda Indy Toronto played out.

[Images: Robert Laberge, Streeter Lecka/Getty Images, Frank Gunn, Adrien Veczan/AP]

With Justin Wilson starting on pole, it reminded fans that there are some competitive teams besides the Penske/Ganassi/Andretti juggernaut. If Wilson were to bring home the win, it would be just the fifth victory outside those top three teams in the past 43 races, however, although the third by Justin. He had won races last year and in 2008 with two different teams – Newman/Haas and Dale Coyne. This year, he is running with Dreyer & Reinbold, and despite it being his third different team in as many years, Wilson is showing he is a tough competitor with good speed and great technical knowledge and ability.

Another driver hoping to make it tough for the big three was Paul Tracy, the local boy whose dad actually painted the CN Tower looming in the distance. He was starting near the end of the field in 24th, but Paul had won here in Toronto twice before and hoped his experience might help move him up through the pack by the end of the day. Tracy actually decided to start from the pits rather than dice with everybody at the back on that first lap, where things can always get messy. In fact, when honorary starter Greg Kinnear waved the flag to start the race, Dan Wheldon was the first to find out how bad that traffic can be, as he was clipped sticking his nose in where it didn’t belong and had to pit to swap in a fresh one.

Within a handful of laps, Tracy was already up to 18th, closing in on Tomas Scheckter for 17th. On Lap 10, the stewards waved the flag on Milk-And-Donuts, sending the perpetually slow driver into the pits to see if something could be done to get her back above the minimum race speed and thereby reduce the likelihood that somebody else might get sidelined as well trying to negotiate the rolling chicane that is Milka Duno. On Lap 17, Takuma Sato was taken out by his KV Racing teammate, Mario Moraes, going into Turn 3, bringing out the first full-course yellow of the race and launching the first round of pit stops. It was a madhouse in the pits and several drivers came out of it moving several positions up or down the running order.

Going back to green on Lap 22, it was now Tracy, Vitor Meira, Castroneves, Franchitti, Power, Wilson, Hunter-Reay, Kanaan, Dixon and Briscoe in the top ten slots, although Tracy and Meira had opted to stay out during the yellow. As the field got back up to speed, Helio had a ton of momentum going and got caught off-guard when Meira braked early, running up and over Vitor’s rear tire and launching the Number 3 car into the wall and into a long skid into the tires at the runoff outside Turn 3 – the same spot Taku had just gone into to bring out the previous yellow. Tracy was still up front, stretching his fuel even further by running so many laps under yellow, but it was going to be tough to keep that position as his tires were now just about gone.

At the restart on Lap 32, Dario was able to get by Tracy, whose strategy was to get ahead of the field by staggering his stops. A few cars back, Mario Moraes dove below a couple of cars going into – you guessed it – Turn 3, T-boning Mario Romancini and bringing out yet another full-course yellow. It was hard to say who had caused more damage so far, Moraes or Vitor Meira. Tracy finally pitted, falling back to the back of the pack again as the field was still bunched under yellow. A green-flag stop would have given him a chance to come out mid-pack or better in the stretched-out field, but c’est la vie.

Back to green on Lap 36, it was now Franchitti (whose Target car was a rather disorienting green for this race), Power, Wilson, Hunter-Reay, Kanaan (whose 7-11 car was a rather disorienting blue for this race), Dixon, Briscoe, Andretti, Patrick and Tagliani first to tenth. Thankfully, everybody seemed to have figured out how to get back to racing without crashing on the first green lap. Tracy was back in 19th, just ahead of Meira and Moraes, who had been given a drive-thru penalty for his aggressive driving. One of the coolest new in-car camera positions we’ve seen in a long time was being used by the ESPN broadcast crew, showing the footwell of Danica Patrick’s car so we could see her feet in action. Man, can she pump that loud pedal!

By Lap 54, the leaders were closing fast on several backmarkers, many of whom had pitted for the second time already and were coming out ahead of the front three with cold tires and slower lap times. Dario decided to pit rather than try to mess with passing Meira and the others. That gave Power the lead, making him the fourth leader of the day. Power and Wilson spent another lap on track running right up under the tail of the slower cars before they too pitted, but as they came out, the strategy appeared to have paid off – both emerged ahead of Franchitti, although the overall leader was Kanaan, who was yet to pit. When he eventually came in, Wilson, Power and Franchitti were once again the top three.

It looked like we might have a long green run to the checkers, but on Lap 62, Graham Rahal wasn’t able to stop going into 3 and plowed into Ryan Briscoe. Oddly, the race stayed green, even though there were large pieces of Ryan’s front wing on track and his car was facing the wrong way down the escape chute. The safety crew got it cleaned up and Briscoe was back underway quickly enough that it didn’t seem to be a problem for anyone, least of all race leader Wilson, who had opened a pretty good gap over Power and Franchitti.

But alas, a lap later, there was some excitement back in the pack, with Danica sliding under Marco, which disrupted the line of Matos, who was tagged by Tagliani, spinning Rafael into the outside wall. As Matos rebounded a bit, E.J. Viso wasn’t able to avoid him and both were out. That was the twentieth on-track incident for the KV team this season. About the same time, Paul Tracy saw daylight underneath Simona de Silvestro going into – yep – Turn 3, but he lost it under braking and stalled his car as it spun. No contact, but it took the crews a while to get him refired and back underway.

The field didn’t return to green flag racing until there were but 14 laps to go, everybody fueled up for the sprint to the finish. Wilson was still in front with Will Power right behind him, followed by Franchitti, Scott Dixon and Ryan Hunter-Reay. Just past the start-finish line on that restart, Power powered past, however, timing the flag perfectly. This could be a pretty excited finish coming for this, the tenth race of the season…as long as everybody avoided contact.

As you’ve probably guessed, that was not to be the case. Scott Dixon went into the tires halfway around, and then, even more shockingly, Wilson spun, dropping to the tail end of the pack. He just went in too quickly and lost it under pressure from Dario. And just like that, it was Power and Franchitti by themselves out front, with the hard-luck Wilson bringing up the rear. Dixon pitted with right front damage, and just seconds later, Tagliani and Sheckter collided and stuffed themselves into the tires as well. There were several close calls throughout the field over the final 10 laps: lapped traffic running alongside drivers on the lead lap who were trying to pass for position. It was the best racing of the race, and perhaps even the season.

At the checkered flag it was Will Power claiming the win, with Dario Franchitti in second. Hunter-Reay had taken third, Kanaan was fourth, Rahal in fifth, Danica was up to sixth, Andretti seventh, Justin Wilson, Simona de Silvestro (who was having the race of her career) and Dan Wheldon in the next three spots. While Wilson seemed to have the car to beat all day long, that crucial mistake at the end cost him dearly and handed Power his fourth win of the year, helping him to extend his points lead over second place Dario Franchitti to 42 as the IRL IndyCar Series heads to its next race in Edmonton on July 25.

Qualifying:

QP	Car	Driver	Sponsor	Team	Time	Speed
1	22	Justin Wilson	Team Z-Line Designs/DRR	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	1:00.2710	104.827
2	12	Will Power	Verizon Team Penske	VerizonTeam Penske	1:00.4563	104.505
3	3	Helio Castroneves	Team Penske	Team Penske	1:00.8159	103.887
4	37	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Team IZOD	Andretti Autosport	1:00.8369	103.847
5	10	Dario Franchitti	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	1:00.9477	103.663
6	9	Scott Dixon	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	1:00.9541	103.652
7	6	Ryan Briscoe	Team Penske	Team Penske	1:00.9141	103.720
8	11	Tony Kanaan	Team 7-Eleven	Andretti Autosport	1:00.9212	103.708
9	77	Alex Tagliani	FAZZT Race Team	FAZZT Race Team	1:00.9996	103.574
10	26	Marco Andretti	Team Venom Energy	Andretti Autosport	1:01.2297	103.185
11	2	Raphael Matos	HP Luczo Dragon	Luczo Dragon/de Ferran Mtrsprts	1:01.2820	103.097
12	7	Danica Patrick	Team GoDaddy.com	Andretti Autosport	1:01.4580	102.802
13	8	E.J. Viso	PDVSAJet AviationKVRT	KV Racing Technology	1:01.4087	102.884
14	02	Graham Rahal	NHR/Quick Trim	Newman/Haas Racing	1:01.7024	102.395
15	4	Dan Wheldon	National Guard Panther Racing	Panther Racing	1:01.6926	102.411
16	36	Bertrand Baguette (R)	Conquest Racing RACB	Conquest Racing	1:01.8072	102.221
17	34	Mario Romancini (R)	Conquest Racing	Conquest Racing	1:01.9575	101.973
18	5	Takuma Sato (R)	Lotus-KV Racing Technology	KV Racing Technology	1:01.8130	102.212
19	24	Tomas Scheckter	MonaVie/DRRMonaVie/DRR	Dreyer&ReinboldRacing	1:02.0426	101.833
20	32	Mario Moraes	KV Racing Technology	KV Racing Technology	1:02.0953	101.747
21	78	Simona de Silvestro (R)	Team Stargate Worlds/HVM	HVM Racing	1:02.0547	101.813
22	06	Hideki Mutoh	Formula Dream/Panasonic	Newman/Haas Racing	1:02.1453	101.665
23	19	Alex Lloyd (R)	Boy Scouts of America	Dale Coyne Racing	1:02.6142	100.904
24	15	Paul Tracy	Make-A-Wish/KV Racing Technology	KV Racing Technology	1:02.5387	101.025
25	18	Milka Duno	CITGO	Dale Coyne Racing	No time	No speed
26	14	Vitor Meira	ABC Supply Co./A.J. Foyt Racing	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	1:03.0741	100.168

Finishing Order:

FP	Car	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Status	Points
1	12	Will Power	Team Penske	85	01:47:15.2554	Running	50
2	10	Dario Franchitti	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	85	01:47:16.5311	Running	40
3	37	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	85	01:47:17.0159	Running	35
4	11	Tony Kanaan	Andretti Autosport	85	01:47:18.7936	Running	32
5	02	Graham Rahal	Newman/Haas Racing	85	01:47:24.9903	Running	30
6	7	Danica Patrick	Andretti Autosport	85	01:47:27.1993	Running	28
7	22	Justin Wilson	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	85	01:47:27.6337	Running	29
8	26	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	85	01:47:31.5914	Running	24
9	78	Simona De Silvestro	Team Stargate Worlds/HVM	85	01:47:36.7875	Running	22
10	4	Dan Wheldon	Panther Racing	85	01:47:38.4091	Running	20
11	14	Vitor Meira	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	85	01:47:41.1514	Running	19
12	06	Hideki Mutoh	Newman/Haas Racing	85	01:47:41.5432	Running	18
13	15	Paul Tracy	KV Racing Technology	84	01:47:22.2377	Running	17
14	32	Mario Moraes	KV Racing Technology	84	01:47:36.0002	Running	16
15	24	Tomas Scheckter	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	84	01:47:40.0046	Running	15
16	36	Bertrand Baguette	Conquest Racing	84	01:47:48.5165	Running	14
17	77	Alex Tagliani	FAZZT Race Team	84	01:47:59.1675	Running	13
18	6	Ryan Briscoe	Team Penske	83	01:47:47.7712	Running	12
19	8	E.J. Viso	KV Racing Technology	82	01:47:42.3138	Running	12
20	9	Scott Dixon	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	71	01:30:49.6017	Contact	12
21	2	Raphael Matos	de Ferran Dragon Racing	64	01:19:32.1410	Contact	12
22	34	Mario Romancini	Conquest Racing	31	00:42:55.1542	Contact	12
23	19	Alex Lloyd	Dale Coyne Racing	26	00:34:11.2015	Contact	12
24	3	Helio Castroneves	Team Penske	21	00:25:30.3675	Contact	12
25	5	Takuma Sato	KV Racing Technology	15	00:16:08.2982	Contact	10
26	18	Milka Duno	Dale Coyne Racing	8	00:09:21.3022	Handling	10

Driver’s Standings:

CP	Driver	Champ Lead	Oval Lead	Road Lead	Points	Gap
1	Will Power	X		X	377	0
2	Dario Franchitti				335	-42
3	Scott Dixon		X		299	-78
4	Ryan Briscoe				292	-85
5	Ryan Hunter-Reay				286	-91
6	Helio Castroneves				285	-92
7	Tony Kanaan				273	-104
8	Justin Wilson				240	-137
9	Dan Wheldon				231	-146
10	Marco Andretti				225	-152
11	Danica Patrick				218	-159
12	Vitor Meira				191	-186
13	Raphael Matos				186	-191
14	Alex Tagliani				182	-195
15	Mario Moraes				177	-200
16	E.J. Viso				169	-208
17	Alex Lloyd				158	-219
18	Hideki Mutoh				154	-223
19	Simona De Silvestro				143	-234
20	Mario Romancini				137	-240
21	Graham Rahal				125	-252
22	Takuma Sato				120	-257
23	Mike Conway				110	-267
24	Bertrand Baguette				103	-274
25	Milka Duno				102	-275
26	Sarah Fisher				53	-324
27	Tomas Scheckter				51	-326
28	John Andretti				35	-342
29	Ana Beatriz				33	-344
30	Paul Tracy				33	-344
31	Jay Howard				20	-357
32	Ed Carpenter				20	-357
33	Townsend Bell				18	-359
34	Sebastian Saavedra				15	-362
35	Davey Hamilton				14	-363
36	Adam Carroll				14	-363
37	Bruno Junqueira				13	-364
38	A.J. Foyt IV				0	-377

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