A race-long duel between season-long championship contenders ended with Will Power capturing his third NTT IndyCar Series win of the year at Portland International Raceway.
From lap 8 until the checkered, Power only saw one thing in his rearview mirror during the Bitnile.com Portland Grand Prix, and it was championship leader Alex Palou. But the IndyCar veteran drove a perfect race, held off multiple charges by the Spaniard and kept his championship hopes alive.
“I came here very determined, to get qualifying right, then execute in the race,” Power said. “It was about a last ditch effort, but very difficult. Absolute team effort. Very lucky to drive for this team, very lucky to have a sponsor like Verizon and Chevrolet, so going to keep fighting ahead here. Had a couple of bad races before this but really love this series.”
It was a massive bounce back weekend for the No. 12 Team Penske Verizon Chevrolet team after a crash on a late restart at World Wide Technology Raceway derailed his championship efforts. But this was a new weekend, and his temper and unfriendly gestures of a week ago were in the past. With the win, Power carries momentum to two venues he might have an edge on Palou, the Milwaukee Mile where he won in 2014 and Nashville Superspeedway, where in his lone attempt in 2008 he finished 11th.
“We’ve been very good on ovals,” Power Said. “Very solid. Obviously there are two ovals we haven’t raced on in a long time. It’s anyone’s game. I hope we get it right. We will do our best and take the fight to Alex.”
While Power dominated, it wasn’t easy. Defending IndyCar champion and current points leader Palou never let up. On two different occasions as Power was stuck in traffic, Palou cut the gap into the lead, put his nose on the rear wing of the No. 12 and looked for a way around. But it never worked out to complete the pass. Instead, Palou leaves Portland with a reasonably comfortable 54 point lead.
“The team behind me, they did a good job,” Palou said. “We maybe did wrong with the strategy there, and then really didn’t have any good used alternates. It was tough work there with primaries, having to catch Will, but the 12 deserved it today. They were very, very fast. ”
Last week’s winner Josef Newgarden fast pit stops to jump up to third. Colton Herta kept his career best season rolling, finishing fourth and Marcus Armstrong in fifth, his fifth top five of the year.
Polesitter Santino Ferrucci was the talk of the paddock after qualifying, but after his final stop, he cycled further down the grid from his top five running order, finishing eighth.
The race may have ended Scott Dixon’s fading championship hopes to snag his seventh title. On the first lap, Dixon was alongside Kyle Kirkwood, but close racing led to the Chip Ganassi Racing No. 9 being run off the track which resulted in the Kiwi struggling to regain control of his car. Pietro Fittipaldi tried to pass, but in doing so went over a rumble strip which lifted his car into the air, hitting Dixon’s front right wheel. With a broken suspension, Dixon had nowhere to go but into the wall. It was his first crash on the opening lap of a race since 2005 at Motegi, per NBC Sports.
2024 BITNILE.com Grand Prix of Portland Race Results
But it was Power gaining his 44th win of his career, and heads to Milwaukee Mile as one of only four drivers to have raced there previously as he tries to close the gap to Palou in the standings.
The next stop on the IndyCar schedule is the return to the famed Milwaukee Mile in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for the Hy-Vee Milwaukee 250s Doubleheader. Coverage will begin on Saturday, Aug. 31 at 6 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 1 at 2:30 p.m. with both races on the USA Network and Peacock.
About the author
Tom is an IndyCar writer at Frontstretch, joining in March 2023. Besides writing the IndyCar Previews and the occasional Inside Indycar, he will hop on as a fill-in guest on the Open Wheel podcast The Pit Straight. His full-time job is with the Department of Veterans Affairs History Office and is a lieutenant colonel in the Army National Guard. After graduating from Purdue University with a Creative Writing degree, he was commissioned in the Army and served a 15-month deployment as a tank platoon leader with the 3d ACR in Mosul, Iraq. A native Hoosier, he calls Fort Wayne home. Follow Tom on Twitter @TomBlackburn42.
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