TORONTO — Team owner Trevor Carlin’s foray into the Verizon IndyCar Series has been a work in progress, but Charlie Kimball gave Carlin a boost Sunday at the Honda Indy Toronto with the team’s first top-five finish.

Team manager Colin Hale called Kimball’s fifth-place finish in the No. 23 Novo Nordisk Chevrolet the culmination of a dedicated effort since the long-time successful European open-wheel team announced in late 2017 that it was joining the Verizon IndyCar Series with a two-car effort for Kimball and Max Chilton.

“I think it’s a combination of the hard work in the last eight months,” Hale said. “Everybody in the team, not just on Charlie’s car, but everybody in the team deserves credit for this because it’s a real team effort.”

Kimball started 20th out of 23 cars on Toronto’s street course and benefited from a pair of timely full-course cautions early in the 85-lap race. After making his first pit stop on Lap 23, leapfrogged into eighth place when other drivers made pit stops under the yellow periods from Laps 28-32 and 34-38. The Californian never ran lower than eighth the rest of the race and even led on Lap 57 – the first lap led by Carlin in Verizon IndyCar Series competition – before making his final pit stop a lap later.

The eighth-year Verizon IndyCar Series driver came out of the final pit cycle in seventh place and moved up a spot when Takuma Sato brushed the wall on Lap 66. Kimball appeared destined for a sixth-place finish until Marco Andretti had to stop for a splash of ethanol fuel on the next-to-last lap.

It gave Kimball his first top-five finish since the 2016 Indianapolis 500. It also came on a weekend when Novo Nordisk teamed with Diabetes Canada sponsor Kimball, the first Type 1 diabetic to be licensed by INDYCAR and be a race winner.

“It was down to having a really good race car,” said Kimball. “The guys did a really nice job all weekend just developing the car, staying on top of it and pushing forward. We started with a solid foundation after the Detroit Race 2 (an eighth-place finish on the previous street-course race in June), so they did awesome in the pits.

“They have fought so hard this year, tooth and nail, week in and week out, so this top-five is really for them and it’s awesome to represent Diabetes Canada and Novo Nordisk Canada here in Toronto.”

Kimball’s charge through the field was turnaround from practice, when he ranked near the tail of the field. Kimball was the second-highest finisher in the race for Chevrolet, behind Simon Pagenaud in second place.

“It’s nice to score some manufacturer points for Chevrolet,” Kimball said. “They’ve done a great job all year. They brought a new package in for us this weekend and we stuck with it, fought through it and I think we ended up with a pretty good result for them out of it.”

Team manager Hale applauded the result and pointed to the continued growth of the team.

“Charlie drove an excellent race and they got the strategy right and we had reasonable pace, but in order for us to get Charlie’s car there, it’s only what everyone here has done. I can only sing their praises more than anybody. It’s been a long, hard slog and hopefully now we can start getting a few more of these results.”

The next Verizon IndyCar Series race is the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course -- where Kimball won his only INDYCAR race to date in 2013 -- on Sunday, July 29. It airs live at 3 p.m. ET on CNBC and the Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network, with an encore telecast at 6:30 p.m. on NBCSN.