Race Report: Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Markham

MARKHAM, Canada (August 16, 2026) -- The Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Markham weekend got off to a slow start with track build delays  but the race today did not disappoint the thousands of fans attending the inaugural event at the newly constructed street circuit. The race proved to be chaotic as first time events usually are, it was full of surprises and ended with a masterful drive by Marcus Ericsson to claim victory.

Six cautions - five for contact with the walls - slowed the race for 25 laps. Ferrucci managed to avoid the carnage, despite some close calls.

Santino returns to the pits after his running out of fuel once the rce ended.

Struggling in practice and hampered by an untimely red flag in qualifying, Santino Ferrucci was to line up 21st but started 18th in the No. 14 Homes For Our Troops Chevrolet because several teams changed engines resulting in six-spot grid penalties. Capitalizing on others' calamities, quick pit stops and an on-point strategy, Ferrucci was up to ninth in the closing laps. However, he was forced to save fuel to make it to the checkered flag and dropped to 10th. He ran out of fuel just past the finish line.

"A very solid day for us in the Homes For Our Troops Chevrolet," said Ferrucci. "Strategy was really good. I wouldn't say we were either unlucky or lucky. We just drove a really hard race, made a fuel number, and we had good pace. Pit crew was fantastic all day. We didn't really get any full [field] yellow stops, so I don't know if we jumped anybody, but we definitely didn't lose any ground. That's for sure, which is awesome. You know the momentum that the guys have had has been phenomenal. I think our team did a great job with the car all weekend from getting unlucky in qualifying, and yeah, I wish we had a little bit more there at the end to get a little deeper into the top-10, but we will walk away with a solid top-10 today."

It was a star-crossed weekend for Ferrucci's teammate Caio Collet who showed raw speed in the No. 4 Combitrans Amazonia Chevrolet when the cars took to the track yesterday. Ending the first practice as second quickest in the 25-car field, Collet was in the top four in practice 2 but he spun and hit the barrier trying to avoid another competitor who was stopped on track.

His crew, along with several mechanics from the 14 crew, thrashed to repair the car's substantial damage in time for qualifying. They made it out in time but fuel pressure issues caused him to stop on track in the middle of the session, bringing out the red flag and dropping him to the end of the group. Scheduled to start 23rd, he started 19th due to the grid penalties.

On the first lap Collet and Felix Rosenqvist made contact. Rosenqvist had a punctured tire and Collet sustained a broken toe link and wishbone on the left rear. He lost 17 laps with the repair, partly because the crew had to stop working on the car during a caution when multiple cars began pitting. He rejoined the field to fight for points as several cars crashed or dropped out over the course of the 90-lap race. As a result, Collet gained six positions to finish 19th.

"I have to see the video and my onboard [camera] as well," Collet said afterwards about his mishap. "I had some contact with the 60 - Rosenqvist, but I just need to see it. I don't know really. I think that there was not enough space there, and we ended up breaking a toe link, so we had to stop to fix everything. Then we were just trying to pick up a couple of positions on people that had incidents or mechanical stuff. We managed to do that, but yeah, overall a bit of a frustrating weekend. I felt that we had a lot of pace, especially from the beginning, to fight at the front, but we just couldn't execute everything."

Ericsson made his pass for the lead with just five laps to go ending Romain Grosjean's chances for his first career victory in IndyCar competition. Rounding out the top-five were Will Power, Alex Palou and Pato O'Ward.

The NTT INDYCAR Series heads to Washington, D.C. for the Freedom 250 Grand Prix which will be broadcast next Sunday by FOX. The 90-minute pre-race show starts at 11:30 a.m. ET with race coverage beginning at 1 p.m. ET.

Santino tries to push his car to safety after the race when his car stopped just past the finish line--out of fuel.