Louis Foster chances for his first IndyCar Series win came to an abrupt end near the halfway point of the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Markham.
After starting on pole, the 23-year-old Briton was out front and in control of the 90-lap race. An untimely caution during the pit cycle caught Foster before he had stopped, while several rivals had already pitted, dropping him down the order after he came in from the lead on lap 33.
Two further cautions over the next seven laps set up a charge from Foster on the lap-40 restart. He propelled by the likes of reigning and four-time IndyCar champion Alex Palou, Will Power, and Graham Rahal, among others, to move from eighth to fourth.
Summing up his run at the front of the field for IndyCar’s first race in Markham, Foster spoke to the fine margins at this track and reiterated Mick Schumacher’s concern about the concrete walls themselves.
“I’ll survive,” Foster said. “I’ll be all right. Yeah, just frustrating.It was so fast. But yeah, I went for a move on Marcus and thought I left enough room to the wall. I mean, I got halfway around it almost, but because we don’t have these radius walls here, we just catch the edges.
“And I think Kyle’s (Kirkwood, who crashed on Lap 53) done the exact same thing that I’ve done by the looks of it. So, you know, us drivers complain about these walls for this exact reason.”
The pivotal moment came on Lap 43 as Foster attempted an inside move on Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson for third and regain control of the race on strategy. Upon attempting the move, however, Foster’s No. 45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda clipped the inside wall of Turn 3 that sent him hard into the outside barrier nearly head-on, ending his day.
