By: Spencer Neff
July 17, 2025

This weekend marks the final race on a temporary street course in 2025 and the lone trip outside the United States for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES.

For the 39th time in 37 years, the series will run on the 1.786-mile 11-turn street course in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

It is the 13th race of 17 for the 2025 season and the fifth of six in five weeks during the month of July. Sunday’s race will be 90 laps, up five laps from last year and the most since 2003.

Here’s a look at the big stories ahead of this weekend.

Headlines

This past weekend, Iowa Speedway hosted a pair of 275-lap races. Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward held off pole sitter Josef Newgarden from Team Penske and earned Chevrolet’s first win of 2025 in Race 1.

Newgarden’s teammates Will Power and Scott McLaughlin completed Chevrolet’s 1-2-3-4 effort, On Sunday, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou continued his legendary season by earning his seventh victory of 2025.

Teammate Scott Dixon finished second in a reversal from the week before at Mid-Ohio. Former teammate Marcus Armstrong, who now drives for Meyer Shank Racing under a technical alliance, match his career-best finish in third. Honda swept the podium in Race 2.

Outside last weekend at Iowa, neither Honda or Chevrolet had swept the podium in any race this season (Chevrolet last did so at Milwaukee Race 1 in 2024, Honda in the 2024 race at Toronto.)

Palou now leads O’Ward in the standings by 112 with five races left. Neither driver has won in Toronto and Palou’s 2023 runner-up finish is the lone podium between them at Exhibition Place.

O’Ward’s best effort in three Toronto appearances was in 2023-where he started third and finished eighth.

2024 Toronto winner Colton Herta of Andretti Global is still in search of his first win of 2025. Last year, Herta led five of the seven on-track sessions he participated in and bested teammate Kyle Kirkwood by .3469 of a second, the closest finish in the history of the race.

Kirkwood, who has won twice on street circuits this year (Long Beach and Detroit), started alongside Herta on the front row.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Louis Foster leads the Rookie of the Year standings by five over PREMA Racing’s Robert Shwartzman and 62 over Dale Coyne Racing’s Jacob Abel.

This past weekend, Shwartzman (ninth) and Abel (11th) both recorded their best INDYCAR finishes during Race 2 on Sunday.

Shwartzman’s 10th-place finish at Worldwide Technology Raceway in June and Sunday’s effort are the lone Top 10 finishes by any rookie in 2025.

Also of note, on Thursday, Arrow McLaren’s Nolan Siegel was cleared to drive for this weekend. Siegel was diagnosed with a mild concussion following a crash in Saturday’s race and did not participate in Sunday’s race.

His Arrow McLaren team did not field the No. 6 entry in the Farm to Finish 275. For this weekend’s race, they have announced that Linus Lundqvist will serve as reserve

Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto Fast Facts

Pit Assignments Spotter Guide

Race weekend: Friday, July 18-Sunday, July 20 Track: Streets of Toronto’s Exhibition Place, an 11-turn, 1.786-mile (2.874-kilometer) temporary street course Race distance: Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto: 90 laps/160.74 miles/258.69 kilometers Push-to-pass parameters: 200 seconds of total time with a maximum time of 20 seconds per activation. Hybrid energy deployment parameters: Unlimited activation with a maximum deployment of 295 kilojoules (kJ) per lap. Firestone tire allotment: Five sets primary, five sets alternate to be used during the event weekend. Teams fielding a rookie driver may use one additional set of primary tires. Teams must use one set of primary and one set of new (sticker) alternate tires for at least two laps in the race. X: @HondaIndy, @IndyCar, #indyTO, #IndyCar Instagram: @HondaIndy, @INDYCAR, #indyTO, #INDYCAR Threads: @INDYCAR, Facebook: @HondaIndyToronto, @INDYCAR, #INDYCAR TikTok: @INDYCAR, #INDYCAR YouTube: @INDYCAR Event website: www.HondaIndy.com INDYCAR website: www.INDYCAR.com 2024 race winner: Colton Herta (No. 26 Gainbridge Honda) 2024 NTT P1 Award winner:Colton Herta (No. 26 Gainbridge Honda), 59.5431 seconds, 107.982 mph Qualifying record: Josef Newgarden, 58.4129 seconds, 110.072 mph. July 13, 2019 (Note: Gil de Ferran set the outright lap record of 57.143 seconds, 110.565 mph on July 17, 1999) FOX Sports telecasts: NTT INDYCAR SERIES: Practice 1, 3 p.m. ET Friday, FS2 (live); Practice 2, 10:30 a.m. ET Saturday, FS1 (live); Qualifying, 2:30 p.m. ET Saturday, FS1 (live); Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto Noon ET, Sunday, FOX (USA)/TSN4/TSN+ (Canada) (live). Will Buxton is the play-by-play announcer for FOX’s coverage of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, alongside analysts Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe. Georgia Henneberry, Kevin Lee and Jack Harvey are the pit reporters. INDYCAR Radio Network broadcasts: Mark Jaynes is the anchor alongside driver analyst Davey Hamilton. Jake Query and Nick Yeoman are the turn announcers. Michael Young and Alex Wollf are the pit reporters. The Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto race (11:30 a.m. ET Sunday), NTT P1 Award Qualifying (2:35 p.m. ET Saturday) and all NTT INDYCAR SERIES practices air live on network affiliates, SiriusXM 218, racecontrol.indycar.com and the INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA. At-track schedule (all times local): Friday, July 18 3:05-4:25 p.m. – NTT INDYCAR SERIES Practice 1 (45 minutes for all cars, followed by two groups for 10 minutes each), FS2 (USA) /TSN+ (Canada), (Live). Saturday, July 19 10:30-11:30 a.m. – NTT INDYCAR SERIES Practice 2 (45 minutes of green flag running or 60 minutes), FS1 (USA) /TSN+ (Canada), (Live). 2:30-4 p.m. – Qualifying for NTT P1 Award (Three rounds of knockout qualifying), FS1 (USA) /TSN+ (Canada), (Live). Sunday, July 20 8:32-8:57 a.m. – NTT INDYCAR SERIES Warmup, FS1 (USA) /TSN+ (Canada), (Live). Noon p.m. – FOX/TSN4 on air 12:15 p.m. – Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto “Drivers, start your engines” 12:22 p.m. – Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto (90 laps/160.74 miles/258.69 kilometers), FOX (USA) /TSN4/TSN+ (Canada), (Live).

Header Image By Joe Skibinski/INDYCAR