TORONTO -- It wasn't the start James Hinchcliffe wanted at his hometown homecoming.
The 25-year-old from Oakville, Ont., will face a 10 grid spot penalty for the Honda Indy Toronto race after an unscheduled engine change that ended his day early during the second practice on Friday.
On the first lap of the afternoon session, Hinchcliffe experience mechanical problems and headed straight to the Andretti Autosport pits. It wasn't long before he was told to shut down and the No. 27 GoDaddy.com car was hauled back to the paddock for work.
"It's too bad what happened in the second session because with the first session not going too smoothly, we were really looking to make some gains," Hinchcliffe said. "Hopefully, we can learn a lot off what Marco (Andretti) and Ryan (Hunter-Reay) accomplished, but it's just putting us on the back foot -- not only with setting the car up but with the engine penalty as well.
"Certainly it makes it more a more challenging weekend than we wanted, but at the end of the day it's still possible for the GoDaddy car to move forward. Last time we got an engine penalty we were able to come back and finish on the podium. So we may be down but we're certainly not out."
Hinchcliffe posted the 15th-best time at 1:01.9272 during the first practice session, but he was quick to point out to reporters afterwards that, "thankfully it's only day one."
One tent to Hinchcliffe's left and it was a completely different story.
Dario Franchitti was all smiles, posting the fast lap at 1:00.2786 around the 11-turn, 1.75-mile temporary street course.
Rookie Simon Pagenaud had the second fastest time followed by Franchitti's Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon in third.
A four-time IndyCar Series champion, Franchitti finds himself in an uncharacteristically eighth place in the standings and is looking to soar up the standings.
But even as a three-time winner in Toronto, Franchitti is still a bit puzzled by why he's been so successful north of the border.
"I think you've got to adapt to different surfaces changes here and stuff like that and it seems to work well," Franchitti said. "I don't know why but it worked well here in the past and I hope it continues."
Franchitti also praised race organizers who were instrumental in making improvements to the track.
"The back stretch into turn three is really smooth, it's something we've asked for," Franchitti said, "and I say thanks to everyone who made that happen."
Last year's track was notoriously bumpy, with Dixon describing it like "jutterbugs." The New Zealand driver was still thinking of the perfect Kiwi slang to describe this year's course when he spoke to sportsnet.ca but he said organizers have done quite the job smoothing things out.
"The surface changes are a big deal this year, the back straight is fantastic, they've done a really good job smoothing that out," Dixon said. "I think it's going to create a lot of passing in addition with the push-to-pass. The other areas like in (turns) one, three, five, eight and nine are pretty different with the surface changes but it's pretty good."
As for the race itself, Franchitti may have to watch his back for his teammate. The two finished 1-2 last year but Dixon believes it should have been him at the top of the podium.
"Last year we definitely had the car to beat but strategy-wise we messed up," Dixon said. "But I'm looking forward to this weekend. We've got some speed to come so hopefully we can pull something up. "
The drivers will get another practice session on Saturday morning before hitting the track for qualifying at 1:50 p.m. ET.
NOTES: Drivers Justin Wilson and Sebastien Bourdais, both former winners in Toronto, were involved in a collision in the pits during the first session, injuring four crew members with Dragon Racing's Raffi Aroyan and Chuck Homan having to be taken to hospital for further evaluation. They were both treated and released. … Canadian Alex Tagliani posted the 11th fastest time at 1:00.9297 but the Lachenaie, Que., native also received a 10 grid spot penalty for an unapproved engine change.
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