Dixon ends up the victor in Race 1 of Toronto‘s doubleheader

While Scott Dixon took home the first win in Toronto, the story of the race boiled down to the emotional victory for Sebastien Bourdais' runner up finish, and the 25 second penalty handed down to Dario Franchitti after blocking Will power on the backstretch.

Bourdais brought his Dragon Racing Chevrolet back in second place, and decided the great result for his team warranted burnouts in the final turn after the checkered flag.

After the podium celebration, which saw Bourdais drop his glass trophy which shattered on the ground, Brian Barnhart handed down a 25 second penalty to Franchitti for blocking Will Power on the backstretch sending him into the barrier.

With the penalty, Marco Andretti was promoted to the podium but then came the news that the penalty to the Scotsman did not block Power and his third place was reinstated.

Therefore, Andretti finished fourth in the points and in the race results as he lost the gift that the substitute Race Director for the Toronto weekend awarded the son of Michael Andretti, and his Andretti Autosport team.

The race's standing start did not go as planned as Josef Newgarden's car stalled on the grid, causing Barnhart to call off the standing start and proceed with a traditional rolling kick off to the race. Since the first-ever standing start for the IndyCar series did not happen, they will try again tomorrow.

Dixon and Franchitti will start on the front row tomorrow after their 1-2 qualifying times.

About his race today, Dixon said, “The car was fantastic. This is what we need. We need to get this momentum going."

For Bourdais the second place finish for himself and Dragon Racing, was like a victory. It is the best finish in the IZOD IndyCar Series for team owner Jay Penske. “I did doughnuts at the end it just feels like after everything we went through to be on that podium just feels like a million wins,” Bourdais said. “I can’t thank these guys enough for giving me the opportunity, the car and sticking with me. It’s been a rough ride so far so hopefully we can turn this thing around and score big from now on.”

Franchitti was pleased that the original penalty was put on the shelf and he indeed did earn third place points but at the time, he did not mince his words: "I was defending. It's always someone else's fault with Will. I went to the outside, and he went to the inside when there was only a half a car length."

Ending fourth, Andretti commented: “(I) just hung in there, honestly. I mean, I lost my strong suit today.”

Once the dust settled, the rest of the field had some good battles and some moments they may not want to remember.

KV Racing teammates were both pleased with their finishes on the demanding street circuit; Tony Kanaan was in the fight for the podium, and ended his day in fifth while his young teammate Simona De Silvestro placed 10th.

Kanaan summed up today’s race: "It was a tough race”.