2022 Honda Indy Toronto results: Scott Dixon wins 52nd career race, tied for second most all-time in IndyCar

Scott Dixon needed all of his veteran wiles and racecraft to hold off a charging Colton Herta at Exhibition Place to win the Honda Indy Toronto, breaking through for his first win on the season and 52nd of his career to tie Mario Andretti for second most in the series. A.J. Foyt is the all-time wins leader with 67. 

“We struggled a little on the ‘reds’,” said Dixon, a six-time series champion. “It was a tough drive. It is great to end that [no wins] streak, fantastic. Back in the winner’s circle.”

The grid was a reflection of Indy’s past, present and future. Behind Dixon and Herta was Felix Rosenqvist in third, followed by Graham Rahal in fourth (his best finish on the season), current series points leader Marcus Ericsson and series defending champion Alex Palou in a race that featured a little bit of everything. 

There was plenty of strategy calls playing out, as witnessed by Rahal and Palou, who both started deep in the field. There was plenty of passing, particularly at the mid-pack of the field, and there were plenty of bent cars and bruised egos over the 85 laps at the 11-turn, 1.786-mile temporary street circuit. 

In what turned into a fuel-saving race, race telemetry became spotty for all the teams, making it mostly guesswork as to whether the cars had enough left to finish, or if they had more and could challenge for positions. 

In the end, Herta’s rear tires were too worn for him to really challenge, and it was doing all he could to hold off Rosenqvist, who was right on his gearbox was told he was free to attack for position, which could have been a bit of a psychological ploy by the Arrow McLaren SP team to rattle Herta into making a mistake. 

“We had to fight really hard for this,” Rosenqvist said. “We took our opportunities to move forward. First podium with the team.”

The Andretti Autosport driver was able to block out the channel, focus on his car, and brought him home in second.

“Felix was really fast, and he looked like if there were a few more laps he would have gotten us,” Herta said. “It’s good to be back on the podium. Hopefully we can continue on with consistency. We need to make this a little more regular.”

All that only allowed Dixon to motor away from the two, making career-win 52 and a bit of history, all from a nice Sunday cruise at the finish.

“It’s fantastic that we still have A.J. and Mario in the pits, that we can still talk to them,” Dixon said. “I’m hoping this is the start of a roll.”

Unofficial results for the 2022 Honda Indy Toronto

1. Scott Dixon
2. Colton Herta
3. Felix Rosenqvist
4. Graham Rahal
5. Marcus Ericsson
6. Alex Palou
7. Simon Pagenaud
8. Christian Lundgaard
9. Scott McLaughlin
10. Josef Newgarden
11. Pato O’Ward
12. David Malukas
13. Rinus VeeKay
14. Callum Ilott
15. Will Power
16. Romain Grosjean
17. Helio Castroneves
18. Devlin DeFrancesco
19. Jack Harvey
20. Conor Daly
21. Jimmie Johnson 
22. Kyle Kirkwood
23. Alexander Rossi
24. Dalton Kellett
25. Takuma Sato