By Luis Torres, Staff Writer
INDYCAR silly season have gone full bonkers.
There’s no sugarcoating the upcoming Honda Indy Toronto is highlighted by teams making noise for right or wrong reasons.
Instead of the talks primarily focusing on the sport’s return to Canada for the first time since 2019, it shifted to what happened Tuesday.
The common minimum of 26 entries we’ve seen for much of the season won’t come into fruition. Toronto will be missing one entry. That being the No. 11 AJ Foyt Racing team that’s piloted by Tatiana Calderon.
Following sponsorship payment woes from RoKIT, the team pulled the plug of the team this weekend. Kyle Kirkwood, also sponsored by the same company, will be racing but with minimal presence of the brand.
This unfortunate news became an afterthought once a three-way dance involving Chip Ganassi Racing, McLaren Racing and driver Alex Palou shook the paddock.
Initially, Ganassi announced they’ve exercised the option of keeping the defending INDYCAR champion in 2023. Only for Palou himself denying such announcement and shortly thereafter, McLaren announced him as one of their drivers.
Time will tell if this controversial outcome will lead to legal battles, but Palou is still racing for Ganassi in Toronto.
While Palou’s racing career with McLaren is yet to be seen, it’s stirred the pot that’s really reached its boiling point. More so after the fiasco that was Mid-Ohio for Andretti Autosport where drivers were mad at each other.
Alexander Rossi will be leaving the team at season’s end and head to McLaren. Colton Herta’s future in INDYCAR is yet to be seen, especially after driving a McLaren Formula One car in Portugal for two days leading up to Toronto. Romain Grosjean’s tenure is rocky at best and it reached a frustrating peak two weeks ago.
Safe to say, Toronto will be a madhouse filled with events that’ll gradually unfold over time. On top of the fact that 13 of the 25 racers never partaken at one of the series longest tenured street circuits. This is in large part of the COVID-19 pandemic cancelling both 2020 and 2021 editions of the race.
Further fueling the fire of what’s expected to be a wild card weekend in this season’s championship trail. To further drive it home, it kicks off a four-week stretch of nonstop racing. As always, any mistake will be costly for the competitors and this stretch is the worst time to have it.
When the green flag drops at…
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