Will Power collected his and Team Penske’s first win of the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season by stretching his tires to win the BITNILE.com Grand Prix of Portland on Sunday (Aug. 10). Power was followed to the line by Christian Lundgaard and, for the fourth time in five seasons, championship glory belongs to Alex Palou, who finished third.
With his future at Team Penske and in IndyCar at large up in the air, Power was candid speaking in victory lane.
“It’s just a big win for all of the team,” Power told FOX Sports’ Jack Harvey.
“We’ve had a rough year and it’s not really because we’ve been off the pace. It’s been unfortunate circumstances — I’ve had two engine failures, a tire failure. It’s a good, hard-fought win. We kind of split the strategy in the beginning. We picked the strategy to run hard, pull enough of a gap, a bit dicey at the end there, but yeah, man.
“Just stoked. I’ve had a great career with Verizon, with Penske. I really enjoy winning for the guys and everybody I’ve worked with for a long time. It’s awesome.”
The day’s other winning driver, Palou, steadily moved up as the race began, asserting himself among the race’s frontrunners. Pato O’Ward, who led the race’s opening laps, experienced apparent electrical problems around the 20-lap mark, essentially clinching Palou’s second title in a row prior to the title becoming official in the race’s final 10 laps.
“My team!” Palou said when asked what gave him the edge all year.
“The team I have behind me. All of our partners. Honda, who has given us all the power we need every single weekend. But my team, the car has been unbelievable, also today. It was a shame that we couldn’t end it with another win. But we fought. I gave everything that I had. I tried everything to overtake Lundgaard, but I couldn’t make it today.”
None of them, however, had quite enough to touch Power, who went on to lead 78 laps. He made his tires last following a lap-61 pit stop, getting enough cushion in the closing laps ahead of Palou as well as Lundgaard, who took his sixth podium of 2025. Both Palou and Lundgaard had a testy fight for the runner-up spot within the final 15 laps, racing side-by-side with Palou even getting muscled off the racing surface with four laps left.
Palou wasn’t rattled, keeping his car going and maintaining his running position multiple seconds in front of fourth-place Graham Rahal, who’d finish fourth ahead of Alexander Rossi.
Despite Power’s win, Team Penske wasn’t immune from bad luck on Sunday, with Josef Newgarden being spun from rear contact by Scott Dixon on the 110-lap race’s 84th circuit while running in the top ten. Newgarden finished 24th.
Sunday’s race started slowly out of the gate, first from a 15-minute delayed start, followed by three cautions in the first 15 laps.
The first came on the second lap, when Santino Ferucci‘s hard collision with the wall near the pit entry brought out the caution. A multi-car incident followed shortly after between Kyffin Simpson, Rinus Veekay and Louis Foster, with Simpson drawing a penalty for his role in triggering the accident.
Then, at around 14 laps into the event, hard racing for position between Conor Daly and Christian Rasmussen resulted in heavy contact for Daly near the race’s ninth and tenth turns, ending Daly’s day early.
2025 IndyCar Portland Results
The NTT IndyCar Series rolls into its next-to-last race of the season Aug. 24 in the Sanp-On Milwaukee Mile 250 at the Milwaukee Mile. The race will be broadcast on FOX with coverage beginning at 2 p.m. ET.
Brad joined Frontstretch.com in 2020 and contributes to the site's 5 Points To Ponder column and other roles as needed. A graduate of the University of Georgia's Henry W. Grady School of Journalism and Mass Communication, he has covered sports in some capacity for more than 20 years with coverage including local high school sports, college athletics and minor league hockey. Brad has received multiple awards for his work from the Georgia Press Association.