Ryan Hunter-Reay scores third win in a row with Toronto victory

Via IndyCar.com

July 8, 2012 (Toronto, ON) - Following his final service stop with 30 laps remaining in the Honda Indy Toronto, Ryan Hunter-Reay was enjoying his Sunday drive on the Exhibition Place street circuit.

Hunter-Reay, in the No. 28 Team DHL/Sun Drop Citrus Soda car, inherited the lead on Lap 57 when JR Hildebrand pitted and upped his margin over Tony Kanaan from .6040 of a second to 4.0794 seconds in the matter of five laps on the 1.75-mile, 11-turn course.

Charlie Kimball replaced Kanaan as the protagonist on Lap 72, but the challenger didn't matter. Hunter-Reay pulled away by 7.6 seconds with 10 laps left and -- staying ahead of a restart pileup between Turns 1 and 3 with three laps left -- went on to his third consecutive victory.

Hunter-Reay crossed the start-finish line under caution, with Kimball securing a career-best runner-up finish and Mike Conway coming from the 11th starting spot to place a season-high third (the first podium for A.J. Foyt Racing since Brazil in 2010). Tony Kanaan finished fourth and Oriol Servia was fifth.

Hunter-Reay, who entered the race three points behind front-runner Will Power in the IZOD IndyCar Series championship standings, heads to the Edmonton Indy with a 34-point lead as Power's No. 12 Verizon Team Penske car finished 15th (contact with the car driven by Josef Newgarden on Lap 56). Helio Castroneves, who finished sixth, overtook Scott Dixon (out early with an engine issue) for third (46 points back).

Ten different teams are represented in the top 10 of the standings.

Hunter-Reay joined Power as winners of three in a row this season. AJ Allmendinger in 2006 was the last American driver to win three consecutive races and Sam Hornish Jr. -- also in '06 -- was the last American to lead in points when he won the championship in 2006.

Andretti Autosport principal Michael Andretti won seven times as a driver at Toronto. This was his first as a team owner.