The NTT IndyCar Series has a tough challenge this weekend on Sunday (Aug. 25) at the last road course on the 2024 schedule for the BitNile.com Grand Prix of Portland.
How do they follow up the show under the lights at World Wide Technology Raceway at their next race?
While the next stop at Portland International Raceway (PIR) may not have the newfound multi-groove racing like Gateway, it still puts on one of the better road course races on the calendar. Just like Mid-Ohio and Road America, PIR has some of the most physical wheel-to-wheel action on a road course.
The 1.964-mile circuit has great passing opportunities and, with the hybrid added into the mix, will provide plenty of stories to watch.
Last Year
The 2023 IndyCar season was basically snatched from the rest of the contenders with Alex Palou’s victory in the Pacific Northwest. It was his second visit to victory lane there and sealed his second title with one race to spare.
It’s possible that he could repeat and do that all over again, but more on that later.
Turn 1
Most tracks have that dreaded funnel-of-doom turn on the first lap where all the cars transition from a massive blob of high-speed racing machines into an itty bitty space. At PIR that’s turn 1, which is a hard right-hander that should have had the Tums sponsorship well before Charlotte’s ROVAL. Perhaps Rolaids is in the market?
That turn could be all that some drivers have the misfortune of experiencing if a wreck were to occur. While the front might be where drivers want to start to avoid any mayhem, that’s not the case. Just this year Linus Lundqvist, a front-row starter at Road America, crashed with teammate Marcus Armstrong just a few turns after the green flew. Nowhere is safe for anybody.
Just last year, Kyle Kirkwood experienced the Dukes of Hazzard run-off venture when he was forced off in turn 1, having to fight to make up all that lost ground.
All this means is that danger lurks there, and it could bite any contender on Sunday.
Start Engraving
Look, I don’t know if a driver’s name gets chiseled or laser cut into the Astor Cup trophy, but let’s assume it does otherwise this metaphor is worthless.
Which might be how the rest of the field feels once the race concludes and Palou is still running at the end. If he does Palou-type things and takes whatever result he can get – and it may well be the win – then the championship will be all but over with his name engraved back on the Astor Cup for his third title in four years.
Of course, there are three races after Portland. And they’re ovals, where some guy at Frontstretch wrote Palou sort would falter, but he didn’t last weekend and nearly won his first oval at Iowa. As Alex Gintz said on The Pit Straight this weekend, the angst of the paddock will be directed at Palou if he comes out of Portland unscathed.
Did I mention Palou has won at PIR twice as well? Because he has.
Let the angst brew.
Stellar Year
Colton Herta is having his best season, and that’s with the fact that he finally broke through his drought to win at Toronto two races ago. If not for a poor back-to-back showing in the Midwest, when he wrecked in the Indy 500 and then another incident a week later at Detroit, he’d be in the title hunt. Instead, he’s adrift, 59 points back.
That gap shouldn’t disappoint the young American; he has finally started earning consistent finishes. Besides the previous two incidents, his only other finish outside the top 10 is an 11th in the first Iowa race. He mathematically has a shot for the title, even though the rational part of my mind says it’s a lot harder than it looks. Palou has shown a devout ability to sustain championship pressure. For Herta, he tends to win more in the latter half of the year, with five of his eight IndyCar wins coming past a season’s halfway point.
Portland has been relatively good to him, with one top five and two more top 10s. But he will need to notch his first win there if he wants to give himself a shot at the Astor Cup.
A Team Penske Duo
Even though Josef Newgarden won the race at Gateway, his bid for a third title will have to be put on hiatus until 2025. But his teammates are still in the trenches, though one of them took a big hit in his title pursuit.
Will Power’s wreck at the end of the Bommarito 500 was emotional, and it’s easy to understand why. He has only so many chances to cut into Palou’s lead, who doesn’t give his competitors much margin to begin. When his No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet rolled to a stop on the frontstretch, the passion was quick and fierce.
Now he has to rebound at a track he won in 2019 to see if he still has a shot at his third title.
His teammate in the No. 3 car, Scott McLaughlin is doing exactly what he did last year – knocking off a string of consistent finishes to vault up and be the best Team Penske car in the standings at year’s end. Toronto hurt him, where he finished 16th, but besides that bump, he’s had five podiums in the last seven races. His win at Portland in 2022 is sandwiched by Palou victories, so perhaps 2024 goes back to him?
Rest of the Field
Sting Ray Robb earned his first top 10 of his career with his ninth at Gateway. Unfortunately, his best result on a road course this year was 16th at Mid-Ohio, so he might have challenges to string two consecutive top-10s together.
The 2013 Indy 500 winner Tony Kanaan looked like a genius last weekend, as his driver Nolan Siegel, who he vouched for to jump in the No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, earned his first career top 10. He had to make his way from a pit road violation too, making the result even more admirable. As far as road courses are concerned, he finished 12th at Road America earlier in the year, so he has shown he has the speed to get to the front.
It’s been a rough year for Pietro Fittipaldi. Out of all the drivers that have completed the whole season, he is one of two not to earn a top 10. The other driver is rookie Kyffin Simpson. Worse yet, three other drivers who will only do partial schedules already have more top 10s then him. His teammate Graham Rahal had a good car early in last year’s race, so that bodes well for them heading into PIR this weekend.
Frontstretch Predictions
This is a Palou race. It feels that way because he continues to knock down results, take what the race gives him, and rack up points.
- Palou – third win in four years for him.
- Power – recovery race for him, but mentally gives Palou the finger because he still loses points to him.
- Herta – end of the year is Herta-mania time.
The BitNile.com Grand Prix of Portland at Portland International Raceway will start at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday, Aug. 25, with coverage on USA Network and Peacock.
Tom is an IndyCar writer at Frontstretch, joining in March 2023. Besides writing the IndyCar Previews and frequent editions of Inside IndyCar, he will hop on as a fill-in guest on the Open Wheel podcast The Pit Straight. A native Hoosier, he calls Fort Wayne home. Follow Tom on Twitter @TomBlackburn42.