Simon Pagenaud not cleared to return for Toronto, Tom Blomqvist to make IndyCar debut

After making 190-straight starts to begin his full-time IndyCar career, Simon Pagenaud will miss a second consecutive race Sunday after series medical personnel declined to approve him to return for Honda Indy Toronto following his violent practice crash July 1 at Mid-Ohio.

In his place, Meyer Shank Racing sportscar ace Tom Blomqvist, the two-time defending Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona winner, will man the No. 60 Honda in Pagenaud's place for his IndyCar debut. Honda Indy Toronto on-track action begins Friday afternoon with the series' first practice of the weekend at 3 p.m.

Pagenaud traveled to Indianapolis from his North Carolina home early this week to be reevaluated by IndyCar medical director Dr. Julia Vaizer, who conducted his initial scans minutes after his crash during the Mid-Ohio race weekend and saw him again that Sunday morning before making a decision on his race condition. Ultimately, Dr. Vaizer declined to medically clear Pagenaud to return to the cockpit that weekend, requiring Conor Daly to hop in and replace MSR's full-time driver on short-notice, due to Pagenaud's ongoing concussion-like symptoms.

After more than a week of rest, those symptoms have persisted.

"After undergoing further medical evaluation this week under the care of the IndyCar medical team, I have not been cleared to race," Pagenaud wrote in a statement posted to Twitter Tuesday afternoon. "While I feel good, I am still recovering. With back-to-back races, there just wasn't enough time to allow my body to fully recover in time to compete this weekend.

"I will continue to follow the medical team's recommendations so I can be back racing soon. Thank you everyone for your support."

The news comes after Pagneaud walked away from a violent crash during a July 1 practice where his car spun off-course at roughly 180 mph after suffering a brake failure. The car made more than six barrel rolls and came to a stop upside down up against a tire barrier. After he was extricated by the AMR Safety Team, Pagenaud walked to the medical truck under his own power and told reporters following his initial scans by IndyCar's medical team that he was "feeling fine."

Pagenaud's tone remained the same Sunday morning after the team announced he'd miss the July 4th weekend race, though the series veteran applauded the IndyCar medical team's handling of the situation.

"I'm 'okay', but I'm not a doctor. When you look at the violence of the crash, I think that had a big influence on it all, and I'm not going to fight the doctors that are telling me I'm not 100%," Pagenaud told IndyStar hours before the Mid-Ohio race. "I feel fine, but I respect their opinion. You can't negotiate with the doctors.

"A few years back, I don't think the process would've been as detailed, and I think I would be racing, but would that be good for me? Probably not. I was excited to see the care. It was amazing right away, but then the protocols that went in, I was busy all-day (Saturday after the crash) with the medical staff. I feel they have our back 100% with our health, and that's great."

'I'm feeling fine': Simon Pagenaud walks away from scary Mid-Ohio crash

'I could finally drive how I wanted': Inside Conor Daly's last-minute ride with MSR

In addition, Pagenaud revealed the medical team had told him at the time of his initial reevaluation before Mid-Ohio they didn't have any doubt he'd be ready to go for Toronto.

In the nine days since, circumstances clearly changed.

"We're obviously still working to get Simon as healthy as possible. He is feeling fine and is ready to get back in the car once he is cleared," MSR team owner Mike Shank said in a release Tuesday. "The decision to put Tom in the car was an easy one. He's coming off of an IMSA win at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park last weekend and I have all the confidence in the world putting him in our Indy car."

Less than a month after being booted from his No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing ride following Detroit, Daly drove Pagenaud's No. 60 car from last on the grid (27th) to 20th by the checkered flag at Mid-Ohio. Shank said after the race that MSR would look at a variety of options to stand-in for Pagenaud at Toronto, including Daly and other drivers not currently in a ride that the team is considering hiring for 2024. Among those potential candidates, Blomqvist seemed an obvious one, as a driver already within the MSR stable who days ago was racing — and winning — just over an hour outside Toronto on Sunday at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and who's made no secret of his IndyCar ambitions for the future.

Last fall, MSR handed Blomqvist a maiden IndyCar test at Sebring in October after he and teammate Oliver Jarvis followed a Rolex 24 victory that January with six podiums over the final seven races, en route to the IMSA DPi class championship. The 29-year-old, who was born in the United Kingdom and raised in New Zealand, heavily impressed Shank with his initial pace in that test, setting Blomqvist up as a driver MSR is likely to slot into one of its two full-time IndyCar rides come 2024.

Before his recent run of success with MSR in IMSA over the past 18 months, Blomqvist rose through the open-wheel racing ranks in Europe at a young age, notching 12 wins from 2011-14 in various Formula 3 categories. In 2010, he edged Lewis Hamilton's mark, becoming the youngest champion of the Formula Renault UK series at just 16. From 2015-21, he bounced around between various full-time and part-time opportunities in DTM, the World Endurance Championship, Formula E and IMSA before finding a home at MSR at the start of the 2022 IMSA DPi campaign.

His IndyCar debut will come in Sunday's 85-lapper run on Toronto's 11-turn, 1.786-mile street course.

“First and foremost, I'm thinking of Simon and hoping that he recovers as quickly as possible so that he can get back behind the wheel. I have to thank Mike and Jim (Meyer) for considering me to fill in this weekend," Blomqvist said in a release. "I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what IndyCar has to offer.

"Diving straight into the deep end is an understatement after only having one test in the MSR Indy car last year. I’m excited but aware of the challenges getting up to speed during a race weekend, so I’m not putting any pressure on myself. Just going to go out there soak it all in and give it all I’ve got.”

Pageanud's consecutive starts streak in IndyCar dated back to his full-time series debut with what is now Arrow McLaren (and then Schmidt-Hamilton Motorsports) at the start of the 2012 campaign. In three seasons in the No. 77 ride, he logged his first four IndyCar wins to go with three consecutive top-five championship finishes, including a best of third in 2013. For the start of 2015, Pagenaud moved to Team Penske, where he'd win a 2016 title and the 2019 Indianapolis 500, along with a pair of runner-up championship finishes in 2017 and 2019.

Last year, Pagenaud opted to continue his full-time IndyCar career rather than shift into a sportscar role with Team Penske, joining MSR's team that was expanding to two full-time cars for the first time. There, he notched seven top-10s with the midfield team and finished 15th in the championship. During a struggle of a second season --which marks the end of his current deal with the team -- Pagenaud's No. 60 entry currently sits 23rd in points among 27 full-time entries, right on the bubble of IndyCar's Leaders Circle program that would hand MSR nearly $1 million in extra funding directly from the series in 2024.

At Mid-Ohio, Shank told IndyStar his team has locked in one of its two full-time entries for 2024 -- set to be announced in August -- though he declined to elaborate whether he was referencing Pagenaud's No. 60 or the No. 06 currently driven by Helio Castroneves, who is also in a contract year with the team.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IndyCar: Simon Pagenaud not medically cleared for Toronto, Tom Blomqvist to replace him