Duel in Toronto: By The Numbers

Mike Conway brings home the victory in Toronto, Canada.  Source: Fox Sports

This Sunday we saw rain-filled racing in Toronto, with the first “true” double header in IndyCar since June 28th, 1981.  That race was won by Rick Mears at Atlanta Motor Speedway.  Both Mike Conway and Sebastien Bourdais took home impressive wins in their races, but the races get even more impressive when we look at them by the numbers.  


4:05 Drivers had just around four hours between races Sunday, about 1/6th of the time they were expecting to be able to recover for the second race in.  If the race was a week away, (like the normal schedule), drivers would have had roughly 36 times more rest before they had to get back into the car.  

15 The number of points Will Power gained on Helio Castroneves’ championship lead after Castroneves finished 12th in the second race in Toronto.  The gap is down to just 13 points separating first and second place, with only four races left in the season.  

266 Points are available over the course of the final four races.  The 500 mile Fontana race receives double points (as did the two other 500 mile races this year).  Strictly speaking, any driver in the top half of the points standings (roughly) could still win the championship.  

20 Caution laps in race 2 of the double header.  This was over the course of 7 cautions (the second most in a race at Toronto in the last five years), and the race worked out to be under yellow for 35.7% of the time.  Race 2 had the 5th most caution laps of any race this season.  Race 1 was under yellow for only 7.7% of the time.  

73.168 Was the average speed (mph) of Race 2 in Toronto.  This is attributed to a relatively large part of the race run under caution.  This was the lowest average speed at this track during an IndyCar race over the last 5 years.  

2443 Days before Sunday’s race was Sebastien Bourdais’ last racing win.  The win came at Mexico City in late 2007.  With this win, Bourdais climbed to 10th in the standings, 175 points behind Castroneves.  

The Toronto races brought some interesting numbers out to play and tightened up the championship race, with about half of the field gaining points on Helio Castroneves.  Between the next three races and double points in Fontana, the championship standings are only going to get tighter.   

          -Drew Bennison