TORONTO — The prodigious steak and the banana split dealt with, Alexander Rossi rose from his table in a corner of a venerable Elm Street steak house after being beckoned to another table of Honda Canada executives.

The introduction was made by a veteran of Honda media relations and was just audible enough, contained just the right sequence of words, to pierce the din on a busy Saturday evening.

“ … Indianapolis 500 winner …”

It’s a descriptor that will follow the 24-year-old Californian, to his pleasure, for the rest of his life.

“It’s pretty trippy,” he said.

How many more chances he has to burnish his introduction as a potential multiple winner of open-wheel racing’s greatest spectacle is unclear. It could become clearer soon. The surprise victory has changed his life and his potential career arc. And he means to exploit it, as one would and should after slogging for a decade without getting what he really wanted: a full-time ride as a Formula 1 driver.

IndyCar hopes the intoxication of so much glory so fast leaves him yearning for what the next 15 years could bring back home. But it might have had the opposite effect.

“I think what happened after the 500 was my stock value as a racing driver changed dramatically on both sides,” Rossi told USA TODAY Sports Sunday before the Honda Indy Toronto GP. “It’s opened doors I didn’t even know existed.”

What’s simple and heartening for those who hope he stays is that Rossi enjoys racing in the Verizon IndyCar series — more than he expected — and said such before winning its most important race. Andretti Autosport, which fields his No. 98 Honda in a partnership with Bryan Herta, wants him back. Honda executives would like to see him return. All see the talent and acumen of the now and are enthralled by how it could develop in the future.



It gets complex when Rossi must make a decision. Manor Racing passed him over for a full-time F1 ride this season after fielding him in five races in 2015, but signed him as a reserve driver for this year — a duty he does in conjunction with his IndyCar schedule. There is an offer from Manor for 2017, he said. And he expects to make a decision in weeks, not months, with just five races remaining in his rookie IndyCar season.

“Manor and I, we’ve had a relationship since 2014 and it was kind of a surprise to all of us I wasn’t racing this year,” he said. “There’s obviously been discussions about the future.

“I’m definitely deciding between Formula 1 and IndyCar.”

This season has given him much to consider. That’s complex, too.

Rossi earned his career-defining moment at Indianapolis with a master class in fuel conservation at the end of the race, but his assimilation to North American open-wheel racing, particularly the oval tracks that were foreign to him before this season, has been equally impressive. In April, Rossi started and finished 14th at Phoenix International Raceway (a 1-mile track) in his first oval race, and after winning at the 2.5-mile Indianapolis circuit, finished sixth after starting 17th in the most recent oval race at the 7/8th-mile Iowa Speedway July 10.

“You just don’t know how you’re going to adapt to the ovals,” team co-owner Michael Andretti said. “Some guys can and some guys can’t and he was luckily one of the guys who could and has done a really good job. He’s not intimidated by it at all.”

Seventh in points after finishing 16th at the Toronto street race, Rossi and the rest of his teammates are scuttling for consistency after abysmal consecutive weekends at Iowa and Toronto. Although he is the highest of Andretti’s four drivers in points, Rossi doesn’t consider this season a success. He credits his quick assimilation on ovals to Andretti’s historical strength on them.

“Aside from Indy, I wouldn’t say it’s been a good year,” he said. “We’ve capitalized on some situations. I think the whole month of May we were strong. I think that was to be expected. Andretti is always pretty spectacular anyway. … I think generally, except for the odd race here and there, we’ve struggled. I think as a four-car unit, we haven’t been anywhere near where we need to be. So yeah, I think we’re doing a good job to be seventh in the championship, and I want to be higher than that come Sonoma, and I think we have the potential to, we just need to unlock a bit of pace from the car, honestly.”

Andretti is more complimentary of the entirety of his efforts, saying, “Obviously, he’s been great.”

“We had good feelings about him when we talked to him before the season, but you never know before you get him in the heat of the season. He’s done a great job. He’s got a really good head on his shoulders you know? He’s a complete package,” he said. “He’s fast, smart, great with the sponsors, I mean, he has the whole deal going.”

Sponsorship, Andretti said “always is” the key to maintaining and cultivating a perceived commodity, and the team has yet to secure a package to coerce him to stay as it attempts to re-sign Rossi for 2017. Honda Performance Development president Art St. Cyr would like Rossi to remain in the manufacturer fold, but said the company doesn’t involve itself with lineups or sponsorships.

A spike in performance couldn’t hurt Andretti’s position, but F1 will have its leverage regardless.

“There are things about Formula 1 that I miss. That’s normal, I think,” Rossi said. “That’s what I grew very accustomed to the last six years of my life. There’s things that I think Formula 1 does very well. There’s also things I think where IndyCar far exceeds Formula 1 and European racing, and one of those things is the on-track competitiveness and the actual racing, which is …

“I’m a racer and this is what I love to do, what I fell in love with when I was 10 years old and I think IndyCar is some of the best racing on planet.”

So Andretti must make the cars worker better and the money work quickly and hope it’s enough. And hope that some other attractive IndyCar team doesn’t swing open one of those new doors Rossi has discovered since May.

For Rossi, it’s been much to digest.