Pato O'Ward wins in Toronto, inches toward Alex Palou in season race
Mexico's Pato O'Ward eked out his second win in three weeks on Sunday at the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto, keeping alive his underdog chances to win the season championship.
Alex Palou rode a dominant start to the season to a 129-point lead in the points race, the largest margin this deep in a season since IndyCar began using the scoring system. After the Spaniard finished 12th in Toronto, O'Ward sliced that deficit to 99 with four races to go.
O'Ward started back in 10th but led 30 out of 90 laps in his No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet and beat the Netherlands' Rinus VeeKay by 0.4843 seconds. Kyffin Simpson of the Cayman Islands was third, his first podium finish in two IndyCar seasons.
'I knew I had a great car under me to race with and the guys nailed it on the strategy,' O'Ward said in his post-race interview.
That strategy was for O'Ward to start the race on his alternate set of tires before moving to his primary tires early on Lap 3.
'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,' O'Ward said.
Palou, conversely, started on his primary tires from the No. 2 position. The seven-time winner this year led 37 laps but faded down the stretch.
'Well, I chose the strategy, so that's what we did wrong today,' Palou said. 'I was pushing for that strategy. I thought it was going to give us the best opportunity to win. I wanted to be up front trying to avoid being trapped in traffic.'
Simpson was the biggest mover of the day after starting the race 13th.
'It was a crazy race,' Simpson said. 'So many ups and downs. At one point we thought we were in the worst position, and then very quickly it turned into one of the best positions.'
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