The command was given by hometown-hero James Hinchcliffe, the engines were fired, and thee field lapped three times behind the safety car before a single-file green got things underway on the streets of Toronto.
As soon as the pace car hit pit road, Power jumped ahead, increasing his lead from pole. Montoya pressured his teammate Pagenaud entering Turn 1, as Dixon watched from a distance. The field went untroubled in the first turn, but Tristan Vautier and Stefano Colletti met each other later in these early stages of the race, although caution was waved as both managed to get back on track on their own.
On Lap 7, the first major happening of the race took place as Montoya ran wide while under pressure from Dixon. The points leader dropped five spots, all the way down to eighth, losing positions to Bourdais, Filippi, Sato and Helio.
Two laps later, Marco Andretti became the first driver to venture into the pits for slicks. He rejoined last, almost a lap down to race leader Will Power who, at the time, led Pagenaud by over 5 seconds.
He was followed by Juan Pablo Montoya a lap later in making the move to Firestone red alternate tires. Sebastian Bourdais, Helio Castroneves and Tony Kanaan, among others, hit the pit road on lap 12, following Marco’s steps, who not only avoided falling a lap behind Power, but also managed to shake him off and pull away as the dry tires began working their magic.
As the race approached the 20 lap mark, wet tires were no longer necessary. Simon Pagenaud closed in on the race leader Will Power, and, a few seconds behind these two, Sebastien Bourdais took over third position from Scott Dixon.
On Lap 24, the battle for the lead between the Penske teammates was on. Pagenaud went side-by-side with Power at Turn 3, but could not complete the move. Meanwhile, Takuma Sato, in sixth, slashed the gap from Dixon and Filippi by a margin of half a second per lap. In the same Turn 3, Helio tried to pass Montoya on the outside, but ran wide and lost two spots to Rahal and Kanaan.
On Lap 28, the first round of pitstops for fuel commenced. James Jakes put on a fresh set of blacks and refueled at this time, but things did not work out well for him; he lost control in Turn 5 and went nose-first into the tire barrier, breaking his front wing and bringing the first full course caution of the day on Lap 29.
On Lap 31, pit road opened and everybody but Helio Castroneves, Josef Newgarden, Rodolfo Gonzalez and Carlos Muñoz came in. Will Power won the race off pit lane as the top five positions remained unchanged.
The restart came on Lap 34 with Helio leading the field, followed by Newgarden, Muñoz and Gonzalez. Power completed the top-five and remained under heavy pressure from Penske stablemate Simon Pagenaud in the No. 22 Chevrolet.
The second full course caution of the afternoon came when Stefano Coletti collided with Charlie Kimball, puncturing the rear right tire of the Ganassi driver and causing damage to his own front wing. The KV Racing Technology driver then met the wall in Turn 5, leaving debris on track - the cause of the caution period. This caution came at a bad time for leader Castroneves who was on a significantly different strategy.
The halfway mark was reached behind the pace car. Newgarden led ahead of Muñoz, Power, Pagenaud and Bourdais. Dixon, Filippi, Montoya, Sato, and Rahal in the top-10.
Action got back underway on Lap 47 and the race immediately began to increae in excitement. Pagenaud had barely crossed the finish line before attacking Power. A lockup into Turn 1, however, caused him to lose four places on the restart to Bourdais, Dixon and Filippi. Bourdais, a race winner in Detroit in similar track conditions, made the best of the situation, moving past Power shortly thereafter into third position. Meanwhile, Sato and Montoya fiercely battled for the eighth place, with the Colombian shortly prevailing before losing the position for good.
On Lap 55, Graham Rahal opened the second window of pitstops, as Josef Newgarden widened his gap up front. At this time, with 30 laps to go, the young American had a lead of over four-seconds to Carlos Muñoz, who was reportedly dealing with gearbox issues.
The leader made his last scheduled stop with 26 laps to go, an untroubled 8.1-second stop. Newgarden rejoined in seventh behind Filippi, Montoya, Kanaan, Helio, Gonzalez and Saavedra. Six laps later, only Helio and Rodolfo Gonzalez were ahead of him, 23 laps removed of their last stops. On Lap 66, the No. 3 Penske driver pitted for the last time, handing the lead to Gonzalez. The Brazilian, rejoined fourth, up from 11th before the first caution, where strategies diverted, trailing only the Dale Coyne rookie, Newgarden, and Luca Filippi.
The last 15 laps were a shootout. Italian Luca Filippi was sandwiched between leader and CFH Racing teammate Josef Newgarden and Team Penske's No. 3 car of Helio Castroneves. Neither Castroneves nor Power in fourth had anything for the two CFH cars into these final laps although these four were all within four-seconds of each other.
A light rain began to fall over the 1.755-mile circuit, bringing out slick-surface flags in various corners, but the young American in Josef Newgarden was able to hang on at the front to win for his second time this season.
CFH Racing completed their first 1-2 finish in this, their first year of competition, and Helio Castroneves, Will Power, and Sebastien Bourdais completed the top-five. The points leader and winner of two races himself this year, Juan Pablo Montoya, crossed the line in seventh. Graham Rahal was the best Honda of the race with a ninth-place finish.
The next race for the Verizon IndyCar Series will be round 11 at the MAVTV 500 on June 27. Be sure follow @VAVELIndyCar on Twitter for more as this, the third 500-mile race of the year, draws near.
Pete Liguori is a writer for the VAVEL USA Racing section. Follow him on Twitter at @PeteUSSports.
