Rinus VeeKay continued his impressive 2025 campaign, bringing the No. 18 askROI Honda for Dale Coyne Racing home in second place at Sunday’s Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto.
The result marks VeeKay’s best NTT INDYCAR SERIES finish since placing runner-up at Belle Isle Park in 2021.
“It was a really good day,” VeeKay said. “We’ve been making progress all season, but we’ve usually had to fight from the back. This time we qualified well, and I knew we could move forward.”
VeeKay opened the season by starting 12th and finishing ninth at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding. Since then, he has climbed from 24th to ninth in the Sonsio Grand Prix, 18th to seventh at World Wide Technology Raceway, 22nd to 10th at Road America and 26th to ninth at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
This weekend, however, VeeKay started closer to the front, qualifying ninth on Saturday before making the leap to the podium. He opted not to pit under the race’s first caution but stopped on Lap 13.
VeeKay was in contention to win, leading Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward on track before his final pit stop on Lap 57. O’Ward, who pitted on Laps 4 and 29, stopped one lap later than VeeKay and executed a faster stop, cycling to the lead for good.
“Unfortunately with Pato, he had a much shorter fuel fill,” VeeKay said. “I was really, really deep into the collector coming through the pits — fuel doesn’t flow any faster than that. We lost a bit of time there. I gave it everything, but by the end, the tires were gone. Pato’s tires were gone too. We were all sliding around. Second was the best we could do today, and it was still a really good result for us.”
The finish caps a strong stretch for VeeKay, who has seven top-10 results this season, which is especially notable considering he was the final full-time driver announced for the 2025 season, just weeks before the opener.
“There have been a number of places this year where I’ve had the best car I’ve ever had in my INDYCAR career,” VeeKay said. “It was a crazy off-season. With everything that happened, it feels like a turning point in my career.”
Simpson Earns Career Day at Toronto
Kyffin Simpson earned the first podium of his NTT INDYCAR SERIES career, finishing third in the No. 8 Journie Rewards Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
That marks the 20-year-old Cayman Islands native’s best result in 30 career starts.
Simpson had no top-10 finishes in his first 19 races, but he has since found his stride, scoring five top-10s in his last 11 starts. Four of those have come in the last seven events, including three on street circuits.
Simpson’s progress has been impressive. He charged from 19th to finish fifth in Detroit, started 23rd to finish sixth at Road America, and he marched from 14th to finish third on the streets of Toronto.
“Morale is very high right now,” Simpson said. “We’ve all been making big strides all year. Pit stops have gotten better with every race, and strategy has been on point all season. I feel like I’ve learned a lot this year and just grown more comfortable in the car.”
Simpson pointed to qualifying as a key area of improvement, which has helped put him in position for better race results.
“Qualifying has been a big step up this year, he said. “Everything’s kind of coming together for us. We’re in a good spot. We’ve got some work to do on the ovals, but as far as road and street courses go, I think we’re looking pretty good.”
Ferrucci Endures Two Major Blows On Race Day
Santino Ferrucci faced a tough Sunday, taking two significant hits — one on track and one in the championship standings.
The first incident occurred during the morning warm-up session when Ferrucci crashed his No. 14 AJ Foyt Racing/Sexton Properties Chevrolet. Just minutes ahead of the session’s conclusion, he made heavy contact with the Turn 7 wall, followed by a secondary impact with the tire barrier in Turn 8.
Although Ferrucci was medically cleared to race, the severity of the damage meant there wasn’t enough time to prepare a backup car ahead of the start just after noon. As a result, he was unable to start the race.
The crash left Ferrucci with a heavily bruised right hand, but the team does not expect the injury to keep him from competing in Sunday’s Java House Grand Prix of Monterey (3 p.m. ET, FOX, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network).
“Just an unfortunate incident this morning in final warm-up right before the race,” said team president Larry Foyt. “We made a tough call because the damage was pretty extensive, and we decided as a team to start focusing on Laguna instead of rushing to get something on track today. Santino banged up his hand a bit, so I’d rather have him rest and be ready for next weekend. We’ll be back strong.”
Ferrucci also took a second hit in the championship standings. He entered the weekend 10th in points but leaves 12th.
Max Garcia Clinches USF Pro 2000 Title, Earns Scholarship To INDY NXT
Max Garcia secured the USF Pro 2000 championship with a victory in Saturday’s race, allowing the 16-year-old to clinch the title early and earn a scholarship valued at nearly $600,000 to compete in INDY NXT by Firestone in 2026.
The series will conclude its season with a doubleheader at Portland International Raceway, scheduled for August 9–10.
A native of Coconut Grove, Florida, Garcia has dominated the 2025 campaign with seven wins while driving for Pabst Racing. He now joins current NTT INDYCAR SERIES drivers Kyle Kirkwood and Christian Rasmussen as one of the few to claim back-to-back titles in USF2000 and USF Pro 2000.
In his 2024 USF2000 season, Garcia earned five wins, 10 podiums, and 15 top-five finishes, highlighting a rapid and consistent rise through the Road to Indy development ladder.
Odds and Ends
· O’Ward’s victory marks just the second street course win for Chevrolet since Toronto in 2022. The other came in the 2024 season opener at St. Petersburg by O’Ward
· This was O’Ward’s third career street circuit win and ninth overall victory.
· Marcus Ericsson (No. 28 Delaware Life Honda) earned a season-best fifth-place finish. His previous best was sixth in the season opener at St. Petersburg. That’s also his last top-10 of the season.
· Kyle Kirkwood finished sixth and led all drivers with a 3.25 average finish in four street course starts this season.
· Graham Rahal (No. 15 United Rentals Honda) finished seventh, earning his seventh top-10 finish in his last nine Toronto starts, including five in a row.
· Alex Palou leads O’Ward by 99 in points entering Laguna Seca. He’s the defending Laguna Seca race winner and is 4-for-5 on natural road courses this season. The only race he didn’t win was a runner-up finish to teammate Scott Dixon at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.