By INDYCAR
TORONTO – All Colton Herta needs to do now is complete the weekend sweep of the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto.
Herta has been the fastest NTT INDYCAR SERIES driver in each of this weekend’s sessions so far at Exhibition Place, capping Saturday with a pole-winning run in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda of Andretti Global with Curb-Agajanian.
Herta bested Andretti Global teammate Kyle Kirkwood by just over a tenth of a second to take the 14th NTT P1 Award of his career. Herta’s lap of 59.5431 seconds earned him his second pole in this event, the other coming in 2022. He finished second in that race.
SEE: Qualifying Results
This was Herta’s third pole of the season, but he has yet to convert one into a race win. In fact, the last time Herta went to victory lane was on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course race in May 2022. For a driver of his caliber, that’s too long of a drought.
“We just need to (do) the same,” Herta said of maintaining his advantage on the 11-turn, 1.786-mile temporary street circuit. “This (car) has been a rocket ship all weekend (and) really has (been) the past few races. Luck hasn’t turned our way for a win yet, and I’m hoping it’s here tomorrow.”
The 85-lap race is set for 1 p.m. ET (Peacock (United States, TSN4/TSN+ (Canada), INDYCAR Radio Network). Herta has finished second and third in the past two Toronto races and finished seventh as a rookie in 2019.
Kirkwood gave Andretti Global a sweep of the front row with a lap of 59.6735 seconds in the No. 27 AutoNation Honda. Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist earned the third starting position to give Honda a 1-2-3 look at the green flag. Given the technical alliance between Andretti Global and Meyer Shank Racing, that’s also a top-three sweep for that group.
MSR’s David Malukas also earned a spot in the Firestone Fast Six, and he will start sixth in the No. 66 AutoNation/Arctic Wolf Honda.
Theo Pourchaire had an even more dramatic day, replacing the injured Alexander Rossi (broken right thumb) despite having never competed on the track being used this weekend. Pourchaire was in his native France when Rossi’s car hit the tire barrier in Turn 8 in Friday’s practice, and he had to make a quick trans-Atlantic trip. He boarded the first of two flights shortly after midnight ET and arrived in the paddock about an hour before qualifying. Remarkably, his best lap (of nine) was less than 1.1 seconds from…
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