IndyCar: Notable omission from Toronto entry list

Only 25 of the 26 full-time IndyCar entries are set to compete in this Sunday afternoon’s race in Toronto, the first at Exhibition Place since 2019.

For the first time since 2019 (pictured), IndyCar is set to return to Toronto for the Honda Indy Toronto around the 11-turn, 1.786-mile (2.874-kilometer) temporary street circuit on the streets of Exhibition Place.

But this Sunday afternoon’s 85-lap race will be without one of the 26 full-time entries for the first time in the 2022 season: the #11 Chevrolet of A.J. Foyt Enterprises.

No IndyCar race has featured fewer than 26 cars this season. While the entry list for this Sunday’s race hasn’t been formally released, that will change this weekend.

Due to ongoing sponsorship issues, the team have opted not to run the #11 Chevrolet this weekend for rookie Tatiana Calderon, who has driven the car in the other seven road and street course races that have been contested so far this year.

This decision is one that had been rumored for several weeks, and now it has finally come to fruition.

The team have not confirmed the future of the car beyond this weekend, but with Sunday’s race being the first of five races in a 22-day span, the current situation with primary sponsor ROKiT does not exactly present the most positive of outlooks for the entry moving forward.

J.R. Hildebrand drove the car in the two oval races, including the Indy 500, earlier this season, and he is scheduled to drive in the other three.

But with two of those three races scheduled to take place at Iowa Speedway next weekend, there are questions as to whether or not we will see the 2011 Indy 500 runner-up back in the car this year.

Calderon’s best finish in seven starts this season is a 15th place effort in the race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, where she led a lap for the first time in her career. Her average starting position is 25.1 and her average finish is 22.0.

Hildebrand finished in 14th place at Texas Motor Speedway and 12th in the Indy 500 after starting in 25th and 17th, respectively. He led a lap at Texas Motor Speedway.

The Honda Indy Toronto is set to be shown live on Peacock beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, July 17.