Eric Smith

5 burning questions for Sunday’s Honda Indy Toronto (1:30 p.m. ET, Peacock, INDYCAR Radio Network)

Can Teams Improve On Street Courses Between Detroit and Toronto?

2 of the first 3 races to the 2023 season were on street courses. At that point, you kind of had what you had on them. However, there was nearly a two-month gap between Long Beach and Detroit. Was that enough time to make improvements on your street course package or is what you had earlier this season what you have all season?

The thing is, from Long Beach to Detroit has been a busy one. A week after Long Beach was the Indy 500 open test. After that was to Barber in Alabama for a natural road course. Then, there was a week off before another natural road course at Indy. After that was full focus for the next two weeks on the IMS oval before showing up to Detroit this weekend.

Was it worth to focus on your street course package in this busy time?

It proved to not be. Ganassi won again and looked like the superior organization. Now, with more time off this round with a week between Detroit and Road America, a week again between Road America and Mid-Ohio and a week after that between Mid-Ohio and now, was that enough time to improve?

I mean after Detroit, you had two natural road courses up next, so where’s the balance?

Penske won 3 of the 5 street course races last year with Ganassi and Scott Dixon taking the other two. Ganassi (Marcus Ericsson, Alex Palou) is 2-for-3 this year with being winners in 4 of the last 5 while Andretti took the other in Long Beach.

Did anyone do enough to close that gap?

Will Power at the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Toronto. Photo Credit: INDYCAR Media Site

Can Chevrolet Close The Gap To Honda?

Honda is a perfect 3-for-3 on street courses in 2023 between wins as well as poles too. They’ve also scored 6 of the 9 podium spots as well.

In fact, if you go back to last season, they’ve won each of the last 5 of them on these types of tracks. Why do they have such an advantage and is there anything that Chevrolet can do to close the gap?

Honda stole the show in Chevrolet’s backyard in Detroit the last time out but can Chevy repay them in a Honda promoted event north of the border?

Chevy did have three cars finish in the top five in Detroit including 2 of the 3 podium positions.

Is Penske or McLaren the Top Chevy Team on Street Courses Now?

Team Penske started the 2022 season off with three street course wins by three different drivers in three tries. Scott McLaughlin won St. Pete. Josef Newgarden won Long Beach. Will Power won Belle Isle. In the five races since?

They’re 0-for-5.

They went 9-10-15 in Toronto and 2-6-11 in Nashville a year ago.

This year, they went 7-13-17 in St. Pete, 6-9-10 in Long Beach and 2-7-10 in Detroit.

That’s just two podiums in the last five tries after having three straight wins. Can they make up for it in Toronto, a place where they’ve won 3 of the last 5 races here or do they slip further back?

Josef Newgarden has 2 wins in his last 6 Toronto starts and 5 top 10’s in that same span. Prior to that, his best finish was 11th in 5 tries. He’s made the 2nd round in each of his last 6 Toronto starts too (11th, 8th, 7th, 1st, 5th, 3rd). However, he’s been just a top 10 guy, not a top 5 one in street courses lately. Newgarden finished 17th (St. Pete), 9th (Long Beach) and 10th (Detroit) this year on them. He’s finished either 9th or 10th in 2 of the last 3 years here too.

Will Power is a three-time winner (2007, 2010, 2016) but his last four finishes are 21st, 18th, 18th and 15th respectively too. Power, has just two podiums in his last 12 Toronto starts with 8 of those 12 seeing him finish 15th or worse at that. He qualified 15th and 16th his last two times out in Toronto. That’s why despite a runner-up in Detroit, seventh in St. Pete and sixth in Long Beach, I’m fading him.

Scott McLaughlin was ninth a year ago, but on street courses this season, he’s finished 13th, 10th and 7th respectively.

The other question is, has Arrow McLaren Racing joined the fray as top Chevy team on these circuits?

They went 2-4-19 in St. Pete, 7-17-22 in Long Beach and 3-5-26 in Detroit.

Does Qualifying Mean Something on Street Courses Again?

Starting position is everything in an NTT INDYCAR Series race. More importantly, on street courses. The tight confines of a downtown circuit makes passing as difficult as anywhere on the annual schedule.

However, there were times that it didn’t matter on these tracks too.

In 2021, four of the five street races were won from 14th on back. Last year, 2 of the last 3 were also won from 14th on back.

  • 2021: 15th (Belle Isle 1), 16th (Belle Isle 2), 18th (Nashville), 14th (Long Beach)
  • 2022: 1st (St. Pete 2022), 2nd (Long Beach 2022) and 16th (Belle Isle 2022), 2nd (Toronto), 14th (Nashville)
  • 2023: 4th (St. Pete), 1st (Long Beach), 1st (Detroit).

This year, track position is back. 2 of the 3 races were won from the pole and the other from fourth. Even if you go back to all of last season, five of the eight were won from the front row and six of the eight from the top two rows.

Have teams gotten smarter on these tracks or have the drivers gotten better?

18 of the last 20 races in Toronto including 29 of the last 31 races were won from the top seven. The only other starting spots since (13th in 2001, 11th in 2014 and 11th again in 2015). So, it says it’s important in Toronto still.

Kyle Kirkwood on the streets of Detroit. Photo Credit: INDYCAR Media Site

Can Andretti Autosport Get The Finishes To Match The Speed

The 2023 season started off with a ton of promise for the Andretti Autosport camp. They looked strong in both the Thermal and Sebring tests, then they won 3 of the first 4 poles to the season and ushered Kyle Kirkwood to a Long Beach win.

However, despite fast race cars, that’s their only bright spot.

Despite 3 cars in the Fast 6 in St. Pete, all 4 were collected in crashes in the race itself. Texas saw 3 of the 4 crash, Indy was a disaster, Detroit saw more carnage, Road America they had a pole and should have been a win while Mid-Ohio they had another pole and 2 of the top 3 starters. They didn’t win there either.

Andretti has had a front row starter in 6 of 9 races run this season but has just one win to show for it.

Can they finally get the results to match the speed?

Maybe this is the weekend to do so.

Herta enters this weekend on the heels of two straight poles. He was on the pole here last year. The only problem is the fact that he also doesn’t even have a podium to show for it this season.

Kirkwood has qualified 5th (St. Pete), 1st (Long Beach) and 12th (Detroit) on street courses this year. He’s finished 15th, 1st and 6th respectively in them.

Romain Grosjean qualified 1st, 3rd and 3rd on the same three tracks this season but has finished 18th, 2nd and 24th in them.

If they leave 2023 with just one lone trip to victory lane, this season will be classified as a major disappointment.

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