Colton Herta Wins Smash and Crash IndyCar Toronto Race

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It was a wild Sunday afternoon on the streets of Toronto.

The 12th race of the NTT IndyCar Series season turned into a crashing, smashing misadventure that included Santino Ferrucci’s late-race airborne ride, a subsequent red flag and a total of five cautions.

Colton Herta weaved through the debris of the day to score a narrow Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto win over Andretti Global teammate Kyle Kirkwood. It was Herta’s first win in two seasons. He led 81 of the 85 laps. Scott Dixon was third.

The loudest of five cautions was prompted 12 laps from the finish when Pato O’Ward lost control of his Chevrolet in turn 2. O’Ward slid into the fence and was hit by Marcus Ericsson. Ferrucci rolled into the crash area and hit O’Ward’s car, the contact launching Ferrucci into the catchfence. Ferrucci’s car landed on its side in the middle of the track.

Several other drivers were involved in the crash, which redflagged the race.

O’Ward expressed surprise that the field wasn’t put under caution quickly after the initial part of the crash.

"I am so surprised that they did not call a yellow, as you are just calling for a massive shunt,” O’Ward said. “There was a solid five seconds of waiting before telling everyone what was coming. I am glad that everybody that was involved in it is okay."

O’Ward said the rear end of his car locked up, causing his spin.

Arrow McLaren team principal Gavin Ward also was critical of IndyCar’s response. "I'm just glad we don't have any more injured drivers at the end of the day,” Ward said. “I think IndyCar needs to take a deep dive into the delay in going yellow. That incident started off with Pato having a spin and not going to a full-course yellow until there's a car in the catch fence, and we’ve totally crashed two good race cars. It's just not good enough."

Ferrucci said he didn’t see O’Ward’s crashed car. “Nothing on the spotters. There was no yellow, no nothing. I didn’t know to check up,” Ferrucci said. “Super unfortunate. Trying to take care of equipment, trying to have a recovery day. Just a bummer, but we’re going into a couple of ovals. We’ll recover there and go for some wins.”

Alex Palou finished fourth and kept the series point lead with five races remaining.

First-lap Chaos Mangles the Start

The race was only seconds old when caution flew for the first time. And Santino Ferrucci was involved.

As the field rolled through the first couple of turns and drivers wrestled for position, Christian Rasmussen, Marcus Ericsson, Christian Lundgaard, Pato O’Ward and Ferrucci crashed. Ferrucci pitted for a new front wing. Rasmussen parked and finished last, officially failing to complete a lap.

On a lap-four restart, Scott Dixon and Agustin Canapino collided, resulting in Canapino smashing into the turn 4 wall.

Pit Issue Hampers Newgarden Run

Josef Newgarden finished 11th after he lost positions on lap 53 when the Penske team had issues changing the right rear tire.

“That’s just kind of how our year has gone, unfortunately,” Newgarden said. “This No. 2 Hitachi crew has been so solid all year long, but we just had a communication issue on the first stop.... The Andretti cars were going to be very hard to catch, but we were in a great position to maximize our day, and you never know what can happen late in one of these races.”

Pourchaire 14th in Fill-in Role for Arrow McLaren

Theo Pourchaire scored a 14th-place finish Sunday as replacement driver for Arrow McLaren’s Alexander Rossi.

Rossi suffered a broken right thumb in practice Friday. Pourchaire arrived at the track from Europe on Saturday to take Rossi’s seat.

“I probably arrived 26 hours ago,” Pourchaire said. “I didn't know the track, and I haven't raced in about five weeks. It's an amazing job to go from P26 to P14 and avoid major incidents. I made one small mistake during the race that cost us perhaps a top-10 finish. I am just proud of myself and the team. We showed great pace, and I am so proud and happy that I was able to race again."

Pourchaire finished a lap behind winner Colton Herta.