- Scott Dixon scores his
third victory of 2018 at the Honda Indy Toronto, extends
championship lead
- Hometown favorites Robert
Wickens finishes third, James
Hinchcliffe fourth
- Honda records seventh Indy car win of the
season
TORONTO, July 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Continuing his
mid-season charge towards a possible fifth championship,
Scott Dixon took control of the
Honda Indy Toronto on Lap 33 of the 85-lap contest, and went on to
score his third victory of 2018 and take a 62-point lead in the
fight for the title.
Starting second, Dixon trailed early leader Josef Newgarden through the first round of pit
stops. Then, on a Lap 33 restart following a full-course
caution, Newgarden slid into the barriers lining the 1.786-mile
street circuit. Dixon was quick to take advantage, and moved
into a lead he would only surrender during the remaining routine
pit stops, taking the lead for good on Lap 59.
Dixon's 44th career win, behind only Indy car legends
A.J. Foyt [67] and Mario Andretti
[52], gives him 464 points after 12 of 17 races. Newgarden,
who recovered to finish ninth, is second in the standings with 402
points. Honda's seventh win of the season gives it an
unofficial 135-point lead [1,017-882] over rival Chevrolet in the
chase for the Manufacturers' Championship.
Toronto-area natives
Robert Wickens and James Hinchcliffe gave their hometown fans a
pair of drivers to celebrate today. Wickens finished third
after a battle with second-place Simon Pagenaud that saw the pair
make contact at least twice in the closing laps. His Schmidt
Peterson Motorsports teammate, Hinchcliffe, last week's winner at
Iowa Speedway, prevailed in a similar battle with fellow Honda
driver Marco Andretti when the
latter was forced to pit for a splash of fuel at the start of the
final lap. Andretti would recover to finish
10th.
Zach Veach recorded the
second-best result of his rookie season with a seventh-place finish
for Andretti Autosport. Teammate Alexander Rossi recovered to
finish eighth after making no fewer than six pit stops as a result
of multiple instances of contact during the race.
Video recaps from this weekend's Honda IndyCar Series racing
activities in Toronto are
available on the "Honda Racing/HPD" YouTube channel. Produced by
the Carolinas Production Group, the video packages can be found at:
https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV.
After back-to-back race weekends in Iowa and Toronto, the Verizon IndyCar Series now takes
a week off before returning to one of Honda's "home" events, the
July 29 Honda Indy 200 at the
Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. With multiple Honda
manufacturing, corporate and R&D facilities, thousands of Honda
associates will be on hand to cheer for their favorite Honda
IndyCar drivers.
Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi
Racing Honda) Started 2nd, finished 1st;
3rd IndyCar Series win of the season for Dixon,
7th for Honda: ""I'm worn out, man, it was
definitely a physical race. The car was superb. We just needed some
clean air and we were able to check out [from the rest of the
field]. It was definitely a tough race, definitely tough on
the restarts. We just have to keep these [championship] points
rolling. Huge congrats to the Chip Ganassi team, and Honda.
I'm stoked. This is awesome."
Robert Wickens (Schmidt
Peterson Motorsports Honda) Started 10th, finished
3rd: "We had a great car in the race. I don't think
anyone had anything for Scott
[Dixon] today. He was kind of in a class of his own, but to
go punch for punch with him in the second stint…I thought we really
showed some great strides [for the team]. Thankfully I'm not an
overly teary guy, but that [finishing on the podium in Canada] was really cool. I can't thank these
Toronto fans enough. I mean this
whole week has been such a whirlwind of emotions, and to stand on
the podium in my first professional home race, I couldn't ask for
anything better."
Art St. Cyr (President,
Honda Performance Development) on today's Honda IndyCar Series
win in Toronto: "That was a
hard-fought race, with many championship contenders having
issues. Except Scott Dixon. He was disappointed for
failing to win the pole in qualifying yesterday, but was clearly
the dominant car and driver combination this weekend. It was
great to win here today in front of all our friends from Honda
Canada, and all credit to the excellent runs for Canadian favorites
Robert Wickens and James Hinchcliffe. Scott gave his
championship hopes a big boost today, and we're all looking forward
to returning to another of our 'home' tracks in two weeks for the
Honda 200 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course."
Verizon IndyCar
Series Honda Indy Toronto
|
Circuit:
|
Exhibition Place
(1.786-mile temporary street circuit), Toronto, Ont.,
Canada
|
2017
Winner:
|
Josef Newgarden (Team
Penske) 95.790 mph average
|
Weather:
|
Sunny, warm, 82
degrees F
|
Top-10 Race
Results:
|
Fn.
|
St.
|
Driver
|
Team
|
Manufacturer
|
Laps
|
Notes
|
1.
|
2.
|
Scott
Dixon
|
Chip Ganassi
Racing
|
Honda
|
85
|
93.898 mph
average
|
2.
|
3.
|
Simon
Pagenaud
|
Team
Penske
|
Chevrolet
|
85
|
+5.2701
seconds
|
3.
|
10.
|
Robert
Wickens-R
|
Schmidt Peterson
Mtspts
|
Honda
|
85
|
|
4.
|
9.
|
James
Hinchcliffe
|
Schmidt Peterson
Mtspts
|
Honda
|
85
|
|
5.
|
20.
|
Charlie
Kimball
|
Carlin
Racing
|
Chevrolet
|
85
|
|
6.
|
15.
|
Tony
Kanaan
|
A.J. Foyt
Racing
|
Chevrolet
|
85
|
|
7.
|
22.
|
Zach
Veach-R
|
Andretti
Autosport
|
Honda
|
85
|
|
8.
|
5.
|
Alexander
Rossi
|
Andretti
Autosport
|
Honda
|
85
|
|
9.
|
1.
|
Josef
Newgarden
|
Team
Penske
|
Chevrolet
|
85
|
|
10.
|
14.
|
Marco
Andretti
|
Andretti
Autosport
|
Honda
|
85
|
|
Other Honda
Results
|
12.
|
21.
|
Ed
Jones
|
Chip Ganassi
Racing
|
Honda
|
85
|
Running
|
14.
|
23.
|
Zachary Claman de
Melo-R
|
Dale Coyne
Racing
|
Honda
|
85
|
Running
|
16.
|
6.
|
Ryan
Hunter-Reay
|
Andretti
Autosport
|
Honda
|
84
|
Running
|
19.
|
17.
|
Sebastien
Bourdais
|
DCR with
Vasser-Sullivan
|
Honda
|
83
|
Running
|
21.
|
13.
|
Graham
Rahal
|
Rahal Letterman
Lanigan
|
Honda
|
68
|
Running
|
22.
|
7.
|
Takuma
Sato
|
Rahal Letterman
Lanigan
|
Honda
|
66
|
Did not finish -
contact
|
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SOURCE Honda Racing