TORONTO — With no Honda Indy Toronto taking place for the last two seasons, that means Simon Pagenaud is still the reigning champion of the downtown street circuit as it finally makes its return in 2022.
As the racing world looks different from the last time the “Roar by the Shore” took place, so does Pagenaud’s racing career, as he moved from his long-time team Penske to start a new challenge with Meyer Shank Racing.
“It’s fantastic to be back, we certainly have missed Toronto tremendously, it’s been a very interesting year for me, very fresh with a young team that’s growing that has won a lot of races like Daytona 24 at the beginning of the year together,” said Pagenaud.
“The team has already had so much success, but we want to become a regular top team and that’s really the goal for me and Helio (Castroneves). There are moments of frustration because we have a lot of speed, but we have to execute the whole weekend. ... It’s one of my favourite tracks, so hopefully it’s the one where we can close the deal this year.”
Winning Rookie of the Year in 2012, a decade later Pagenaud is still making waves on the racing scene, joining a young yet already successful team to continue to push himself in a sport with a multitude of younger drivers on the grid.
At 38 years old, Pagenaud has already added a collection of accolades to his trophy cabinet, including capturing the NTT IndyCar Series title in 2016, coming second in the championship in 2017 and 2019, and winning the Indianapolis 500 in 2019.
Even with all his success at Penske, Pagenaud yearned for more when it came to his racing career, and in 2022 decided to take the leap.
“Coming to Meyer Shank Racing, the point for me was to show a different skill set than the one I showed at Penske. Team Penske has been around for 54 years, tons of experience, a lot of knowledge and you try to fit in. At Meyer Shank it’s very mouldable, as a driver you can leave your print and grow into what it could become in the future,” said Pagenaud.
“For that reason, it is interesting and allows me to show what it is I have not been able to show in the past and what people probably didn’t know I had like management, vision of the future for the team and ideas. That’s what I’m really into at the moment.”
As 2019 was the year Pagenaud took home the Honda Indy Toronto title, it would also be the last time he would win it with Team Penske — coming back to the city with a new team, he hopes to be able to bring Meyer Shank the same glory.
This season, Pagenaud currently ranks ninth in the NTT IndyCar Series standings, finishing eighth at the Indianapolis 500 and in the top 12 in his last four races, while teammate Castroneves, who won the Indianapolis 500 in 2021 with the team, sits 16th.
As Mike Shank and Jim Meyer joined forces in 2017 to re-brand as Meyer Shank Racing, they only entered into their first full-time IndyCar season in 2020 with Jack Harvey, and Castroneves joined the team in 2021.
Bringing Pagenaud in 2022, Meyer Shank added a 15-time NTT IndyCar race winner who not only has experience on the track but is also to be a leader and innovator on a team that is newer compared to long-term teams in IndyCar.
With his experience added with a team that allows Pagenaud to drive more creatively than ever before, the return to Toronto is something he has been looking forward to regardless of how his title defence plays out.
“It’s incredible to see the different demographics and to feel relevant in your sport, that’s really exciting, it’s a sport that is fully open to the fans, allows you to have incredible access to the drivers,” Pagenaud said.
“It’s very interesting right now, we have a wave of young drivers coming in who are very very good, and you have guys like me that are sticking around and have had great success in the past, fighting the young guns gives everybody what they want out of the sport."
