Two killed after collision with truck on Hwy. 417 near Limoges, Ont.
Ontario Provincial Police say two people were killed after a car and a transport truck collided in the westbound lanes of Highway 417 near Limoges, Ont. on Tuesday afternoon.
When Alex Palou and teammate Scott Dixon missed the first turn on the first lap at Portland International Raceway, it put Pato O'Ward in position to take firm hold of the IndyCar championship.
But the two Chip Ganassi Racing drivers didn't panic, even when IndyCar sent Palou and Dixon almost to the back of the entire field at a race neither could afford to lose to O'Ward.
Instead, they strategized on how to salvage Sunday, a feat accomplished when Palou recovered for his third victory of the season and Dixon finished third. The victory put Palou back on top of the points standings with two races remaining to crown the IndyCar champion.
"I think that many people after the first lap thought that Pato was going to win and that we were going to lose 40 points," Palou said. "And it was the opposite. That's why IndyCar is IndyCar -- I think that makes the racing super exciting and the championship super exciting until the end."
Palou won the first pole of his career to set the tone for what he hoped would be a weekend rebound after back-to-back poor races moved O'Ward past the Spaniard and into the points lead. The second-year IndyCar driver had an engine failure at Indianapolis and then crashed at Gateway to go from 42 points up in the title race to trailing O'Ward by 10 headed into Portland.
The pole earned him one point and cut Palou's deficit to nine points when the green flag flew, but mayhem ensued before the very first turn on the permanent road course. Palou and Dixon hurtled toward the first turn and Felix Rosenqvist -- the driver Palou replaced this year at Ganassi -- appeared to clip Dixon.
It caused Dixon to lock his brakes as he and Palou rode side-by-side. Neither Ganassi car was going to make the turn and both followed Rosenqvist through a runoff to avoid crashing.
It took 10 laps under caution for IndyCar to figure out how to reorder the field, and Palou and Dixon were dropped to 17th and 18th for the restart on Lap 11 -- the first lap under green. In all the ducking and weaving to avoid a multi-crash accident, O'Ward had cycled from seventh on the start to the lead before he even made it through the first turn, and yet Palou felt the race was still in his control.
As IndyCar took 10 laps to line the cars back up, Palou realized he'd likely have enough fuel to make the 110 laps on only two pit stops.
"I think when they were taking a long time to penalize us, I was counting laps and I was like `OK, this is a good thing. I know we can make the fuel mileage to make it in two only stops,"' Palou said. "Even if we were on the same strategy as everybody, maybe we were not able to win, but we were able to be in the top five, top six. You never know."
Although O'Ward led 28 laps, he couldn't put a complete race together and the Ganassi drivers slowly picked their way back into contention. Palou had returned to the lead and was out front for a pair of restarts in the final 20 laps, holding off Alexander Rossi both times to preserve the victory.
The 24-year-old moved back atop the standings and takes a 25-point lead over O'Ward into next week's road course race at Laguna Seca in California. The season then concludes Sept. 26 on the streets of Long Beach, marking three tracks where Palou has never raced to close the season and his first championship.
"Laguna Seca is going to be good for us. We tested there. I feel strong there," Palou said. "Long Beach, that's going to be interesting and exciting, but nothing I can do about it. Never been there, all my competitors been there and won races there, so it's a bit scary."
Rossi finished a season-best second for his first podium of the season and was followed by Dixon, who despite finishing third lost ground in his bid for his seventh IndyCar title. The reigning champion went from 43 points down to O'Ward to 49 points behind Palou.
"It's definitely been a trying season for us, but ultimately if it comes down to we need to help Alex, that's fine, too," Dixon said. "I think for us it's about keeping the championship at home and at the team. Unless you're out, you're not out. It's all possible."
Jack Harvey finished fourth, and two-time series champion Josef Newgarden rallied from his 18th-place starting position to a fifth-place finish. He's fourth in the standings, 34 points behind Palou.
James Hinchcliffe, Romain Grosjean and Helio Castroneves were all involved in the opening lap accident and all three went to the garage for the repairs.
It marked the third consecutive race at Portland in which Hinchcliffe, who is likely out at Andretti Autosport at the end of the season, was crashed in the first turn of the first lap.
"It's comical at this point, it's so sad," Hinchcliffe said.
Andretti Autosport is expected to make a pair of driver changes at the end of this season, with an announcement that Ryan Hunter-Reay is out coming as early as this week. Grosjean is expected to replace Hunter-Reay, and Hunter-Reay has been mentioned as a candidate at Ed Carpenter Racing.
It's not clear what options Hinchcliffe might have.
The race for the US$1.3 million IndyCar scholarship awarded to the Indy Lights champion remained tight in Portland, where leaders David Malukus and Kyle Kirkwood split the weekend races.
Malukus beat Kirkwood on Saturday, and Kirkwood beat Malukus on Sunday. Both drivers have seven wins each this season and Malukus holds a five-point lead in the standings headed into next weekend's doubleheader at Laguna Seca. There are four races remaining in the Lights season and the champion takes the prize money for a shot at an IndyCar Series seat.
IndyCar races next Sunday at Laguna Seca Raceway, where Colton Herta won in what was the 2019 season finale. The race was canceled last season because of the pandemic and returns as the penultimate event in the IndyCar championship.
Ontario Provincial Police say two people were killed after a car and a transport truck collided in the westbound lanes of Highway 417 near Limoges, Ont. on Tuesday afternoon.
High waters flooded neighborhoods around Houston on Saturday following heavy rains that have already resulted in crews rescuing hundreds of people from homes, rooftops and roads engulfed in murky water.
As Wegovy becomes available to Canadians starting Monday, a medical expert is cautioning patients wanting to use the drug to lose weight that no medication is a ''magic bullet,' and the new medication is meant particularly for people who meet certain criteria related to obesity and weight.
Electric scooters (e-scooters) have been gaining popularity in the capital and this season comes with some changes and updates.
Crucial witnesses took the stand in the second week of testimony in Donald Trump's hush money trial, including a California lawyer who negotiated deals at the center of the case and a longtime adviser to the former president.
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
York Regional Police say they are continuing to search for a suspect in an auto theft investigation who was captured on video running over a police officer in Toronto last month.
Montreal's Felix Auger-Aliassime has advanced to his first ATP Masters final, and he hasn't had to play all that much tennis to do it.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.