Honda records seventh Indy car win of the season
TORONTO, Canada, July 15, 2018 – 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.