Pato O’Ward wins in Toronto for second victory of season

INDIANAPOLIS — Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward executed the perfect strategy to win Sunday afternoon’s Indy Toronto for his second victory in eight days.

The win gets O’Ward 30 points closer to championship leader Alex Palou, who finished 12th.

O’Ward started on the alternate tires, then pitted for the primary compound tires before a lap three caution. He had to make three stops, but ran the primaries the rest of the race.

“Oh, man, I can’t say I saw this (win) coming,” said O’Ward. “But I was feeling so good on the (primary) tires all weekend really. We were just struggling to get the alternates to work in qualifying. Sadly, that’s the one you need to transfer.

“But I knew we had a great car under me to race with, and (the crew) nailed it on the strategy.”

Dale Coyne Racing’s Rinus VeeKay finished second for his first podium since 2022, while Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyffin Simpson crossed third for his first career podium finish.

Andretti Global occupied the next three finishing positions with the polesitter Colton Herta coming in fourth, Marcus Ericsson fifth and Kyle Kirkwood sixth.

Team Penske’s nightmare season continued as Scott McLaughlin lost a lug nut and hit the wall. He finished 26th. Josef Newgarden was involved in an incident that saw Jacob Abel’s car land on top of Newgarden’s. He finished 23rd. Will Power hit the wall, but managed to finish 11th.

AJ Foyt’s Santino Ferrucci didn’t start the race after crashing and bruising his hand in the morning practice.

There are only four races left in the IndyCar season with the next stop next week at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.