Alex Palou suffered his worst race finish of an otherwise dominant 2025 IndyCar campaign with a 12th place finish on the streets of Toronto.
McLaren’s Pato O’Ward picked up his second victory of the season after overcutting Dale Coyne Racing driver Rinus Veekay at the final round of pitstops.
O’Ward flexed his trademark racecraft when fighting through the pack early in the race before firing in a quick in-lap to jump VeeKay and then cruised to the victory from there.
Meanwhile, Palou’s 20-year-old Ganassi team-mate Kyffin Simpson earned his maiden IndyCar podium in third place.
In Detroit, Palou was given a 25th place ‘finish’ but in reality, Palou’s race ended in the wall and he didn’t complete the last 28 laps.
So his 12th at Toronto marks the weakest race finish of a season that’s included seven race wins - including the Indianapolis 500 - in just 12 races and this is the first time he's failed to finish inside the top 10 this season.
Palou started from the front row alongside polesitter Colton Herta, and he remained in the lead group early in the race, even if Marcus Armstrong and Kyle Kirkwood demoted him to fourth on the opening lap.
Those demotions were partly down to Palou picking the alternate harder tyres for the race start while those around him had softs.
It only took until lap three of the 90-lap race for the first caution of the race with Team Penske’s tricky streak continuing via a loose wheelnut sending Scott McLaughlin into the wall.
Herta, Armstrong and Kirkwood all took the chance to make an early pitstop to rid themselves of the soft tyres, with Palou staying out and leading the race on the hards.
Palou built up a solid lead that suggested he could be on for yet another victory, but things went south when there was another caution when Alexander Rossi clipped the wall and destroyed the right rear of his car.
That wiped out Palou’s advantage and put him into an unusual scenario of having to fight to get inside the top 10.
Amid further chaos and cautions, which included Josef Newgarden helplessly having Jacob Abel's car on top of his Team Penske-run machine, Palou made progress to 12th but ultimately fell short with the timing of the cautions meaning his strategy backfired.
So if it was down to strategy, can Palou feel like he didn’t do anything wrong?
“Well I chose the strategy, so there’s what we did wrong today,” Palou said when that was put to him.
“I was pushing for that strategy, thought it was going to give us the best option to win [as] the car was really fast, I wanted to be up front trying to avoid being there, trapped in traffic.
“But honestly it happens, we knew it was going to be a risky strategy compared to starting on alternates.
“It was kind of working, I was able to open a big gap after that first yellow, but it was not enough today, not our day.”
This is by no means much of a blow to Palou’s hopes of a fourth IndyCar title but may just mean he’s got to wait a little bit longer.
O’Ward’s win - only Chevrolet's second this season! - helps him to close the gap to Palou from 129 points to 97 points - that’s still just short of two full race wins and there’s only four races left!
It’s a big boost for O’Ward’s chances of finishing second in the championship for the first time, though, as he’s now 77 points clear of Scott Dixon, who followed Palou’s strategy and finished 10th.
