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Josef Newgarden wins another IndyCar Series race in Toronto

IndyCar driver Josef Newgarden lifts the trophy after claiming victory at Exhibition Place in Toronto on Sunday.
(Chris Young / Associated Press)
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Josef Newgarden raced to his second Toronto IndyCar title in three years Sunday, dominating on the streets surrounding Exhibition Place.

Newgarden came out in front on Lap 25 after a crash by Tony Kanaan caused a caution and maintained an advantage of over two seconds for the majority of the rest of the race. The American has five career victories, also winning in Alabama in April.

Newgarden gave Team Penske its 193rd victory, the most of any team.

“I think that is twice I have had good calls and got into the pits at the right time,” Newgarden said. “Thank you to the guys and thank you to Tim (Cindric) for making that call. We got it right, but it was all about managing the race after that. I thought we had a very fast car, we got a pretty good start, and stayed out of the mayhem. Very, very happy for all of Team Penske.”

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Alexander Rossi was second for his first podium finish of the year and best since winning the 2016 Indianapolis 500.

“It’s been a long time coming, looking for that first podium and hopefully it can be a foundation to go into more wins,” Rossi said. “At least we finally kind of got the monkey off our back. It was a huge turn around overnight by Andretti Autosport to get this car to where it needed to be.”

James Hinchcliffe finished third in his hometown race for the second straight year.

“We were catching Alex and Josef in that last stint,” Hinchcliffe said. “The car really came alive on the blacks so big thanks to Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, all the guys — great stops — and all the fans in Toronto. I mean the support that we feel each and every year is amazing.”

Marco Andretti was fourth, followed by Simon Pagenaud, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Max Chilton, Helio Castroneves, Graham Rahal and series leader Scott Dixon.

Dixon has a three-point lead over Castroneves with five races left.

Kanaan had his brakes lock up while leaving the pits and connected with the protective tires in Turn 1. The caution caused the top-three cars of Castroneves, Pagenaud and Rahal to fall back.

Thundershowers were a threat throughout the race but held off. It started out sunny and humid, then clouded over during the event and it rained lightly at a few points.

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Esteban Gutierrez, the rookie who crashed late in qualifying Saturday, was cleared to race after experiencing concussion-like symptoms. He finished 14th.

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