Meyer Shank Racing’s Tom Blomqvist in the No.60 AutoNation / Sirius XM Honda started Sunday’s Honda Indy Toronto from 20th place on the grid. Still, sadly for the British-born Swede, his race only lasted one corner. Blomqvist was caught up in an incident with Benjamin Pedersen, Ryan Hunter-Reay, and Jack Harvey.
Speaking following the race, Blomqvist commented saying:
“This is the last thing that I wanted to have happen today. I knew that was a treacherous corner through watching video of last year’s race. And I was on the outside and I knew that I didn’t want to be there but I didn’t really have much of a choice. Unfortunately then you are at the mercy of the people on your inside and unfortunately they couldn’t make it work. I’m pretty devastated because I’m not out there fighting for anything, I just wanted to get a race distance under my belt. I’m really sorry for the guys too, they’ve worked really hard to give me this opportunity.”
It is unclear if Blomqvist will be back in action next week in Iowa for the doubleheader, as Simon Pagenaud could be returning to action he is passed fit to compete.
Helio Castroneves also retired from the race following contact with Alex Palou and speaking following the race he commented saying:
“Man, I don’t even know what to say. A lot of people were kind of jumping the start back where I was. Turn 10, which is a very tough corner, someone really came in strong and hit me from behind and then I got stuck in second gear. The AMR safety team did an absolutely amazing job. It’s just a shame – we were cruising and I think that’s where our pace was at, between 12th to 14th. The AutoNation / SiriusXM machine was actually running strong. Tough day for both myself and Tom.”