Colton Herta dominates in Toronto for first IndyCar victory in more than 2 years

TORONTO — Colton Herta won the chaotic Honda Indy Toronto on Sunday for his first victory in more than two years, starting from the pole and maintaining control throughout at Exhibition Place.

The 24-year-old American completed the first weekend sweep in IndyCar history, posting the fastest times in both practices, qualifying and the warmup Sunday before winning the race for his eighth career victory.

“It’s awesome. It’s amazing,” Herta said. “For whatever reason it just hasn’t gone our way. We’ve had speed, we’ve had plenty of podiums, we’ve had a lot of poles, a lot of top fives, but no wins. And so it feels great to finally get one back.”

The race was the first street event for the hybrid powertrains introduced two weeks ago on the road course at Mid-Ohio, with Herta putting a lot of extra stress to the engine by spinning around his car in triumphant doughnuts.

“I love doing doughnuts,” Herta said. “And this engine’s getting ripped out after this race so I can destroy it as much I want. … I hate when I don’t get to do doughnuts and this was the perfect race to win.”

Andretti Global teammate Kyle Kirkwood was second, 0.3469 seconds back on the street course, followed by four-time Toronto champion Scott Dixon of hip Ganassi Racing.

“Super happy with second, especially when a teammate wins,” Kirkwood said. “That was the goal today. We started 1-2 and we wanted to finish 1-2. Of course I would have (preferred to) have won, but I also wasn’t going to push the envelope whatsoever.”

Series leader Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing was fourth after starting 18th following a penalty for interference in qualifying. He increased his lead to 49 points over Will Power, the Team Penske driver who ended up 12th after a late penalty.

The race featured six restarts, with a multi-car crash forcing a red flag on the 73rd lap after Pato O’Ward spun out into a wall, leaving the nose of his car jutting out onto the track.

Marcus Ericsson locked up into the wall behind O’Ward, then three more racers — Pietro Fittipaldi, Santino Ferrucci and Nolan Siegel — clipped O’Ward’s nose. Ferrucci’s car went airborne and landed upside down, but the American immediately signaled to his team that he was OK and emerged from his vehicle.

Frenchman Theo Pourchaire was 14th for Arrow McLaren, subbing for the injured Alexander Rossi. Rossi broke his right thumb in practice Friday when his car hit a tire barrier and then skidded into a concrete wall.

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AP IndyCar: https://apnews.com/hub/indycar