Dixon wins IndyCar pole for 1st time this season at Toronto

The IndyCar veteran Sebastian Bourdais sits in the fifth spot.

Will Power claimed a third win in four races after taking advantage of his team’s call to pit early.

“So stoked for Team Target – it’s great to be back on the pole”, Dixon said. You’ve got to leave it to qualifying, that’s when it makes the most. I think the doctors want to err on the side of being sure.

“Not often you catch a yellow like that”.

Newgarden enters Sunday’s race on the temporary street course as one of the favorites.

IndyCar, like Formula One, uses a knockout-style qualifying format in which all drivers are eliminated except the fastest six (10 in F1). The Canadian finished ninth at last weekend’s Iowa Corn 300. “The hand is the biggest thing, because when you get hit by curbs and everything, it just hurts”.

Simon Pagenaud will start out of the third position from his efforts in qualifying on Saturday.

After just one podium finish in the opening seven rounds of the season, Will Power has won three of the last four races in the Verizon IndyCar Series, with the other finish being a second.

Schmidt Peterson Motorsports driver James Hinchcliffe, of Canada, drives during practice sessions at the Honda Toronto Indy in Toronto, Friday, July 15, 2016. Rossi crossed the line down in eighth, meaning he stays third in the standings.

A caution returned on lap six due to debris on the back stretch after Newgarden was clipped by veteran Juan Pablo Montoya. Hinchcliffe’s third-place finish was the best of his career at his home track. The race takes place today at 3:37PM ET and will air on the NBC Sports Network.

Dixon made reference to the tightness of turns 10 and 11 in trying to get the cars lined up for a two-by-two start and there was some suggestion the drivers might ask for the start to be out on Lake Shore Boulevard, where there’s more room. And I hate to say we’re overdue, but we’re overdue. “It would so great to win here, but I always just wanted to give the Toronto fans a good result to cheer for because they’ve been so supportive from Day 1 in my IndyCar career, whether the results were good, bad or indifferent”.

“Whenever you can start on the pole, especially on the street courses, it’s a big help”, he said. The 25-year-old winced in pain following contact with the wall and did not finish the race.

Newgarden, meanwhile, is still driving with a wrap on his right hand from the break he suffered in a crash at Texas last month.

Although pole points aren’t added until after races, Dixon drew to within 87 points of the series lead. Much of the development is in the form of high-rise housing, and even though the race track runs through the grounds of the Canadian National Exhibition, it couldn’t avoid the urban sprawl, with construction of a new luxury hotel forcing the most extensive changes to the racing layout since 1995.

IndyCar on Saturday morning altered the course so that the wall in Turn 8 was changed to the configuration used in previous years.