PORTLAND — 4-time IndyCar champion Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing won the Grand Prix of Portland for the third time in his illustrious career on Sunday afternoon. Palau took home the trophy in dominant fashion, leading by as much as 25 seconds at times, and leading for a whopping 60 laps out of the 110-lap race.
Palou moved closer to sole possession of third place all-time in IndyCar championships with the win. With a championship that appears all but his at this point in the season, the Spaniard continues to etch his name into the record books in the top flight of American open-wheel racing.
“I don’t take it for granted,” Palou said. “I don’t think anybody on the team does. It’s not once a year that I think about it, it’s like every single day.”
The race played out without much incident, with just one mechanical failure and one driver being run off the track.
After winning pole position in the qualifying round on Saturday, Meyer Shank’s Felix Rosenqvist held an unrelenting lead through the first 30 laps. But a trip to the pits sent him tumbling to fourth, allowing 14th place starter Josef Newgarden of Team Penske to take the lead.
Newgarden held the position admirably for five laps before a pit stop of his own gave way for Palou to claim possession of first place. Newgarden and Palou had been building a huge gap between them and third-place Will Power of Andretti Global, so Palou held a lead of nearly five seconds by the time Newgarden emerged from the pits.
In the chaos of the first few laps, Meyer Shank’s Marcus Armstrong fell victim to a mechanical failure, knocking him out of the race after just 32 laps. Armstrong was a strong contender to rise in the championship standings, as the 15th-ranked driver attained the fastest lap time by far in Practice 2.
Veteran driver Graham Rahal of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing started in 8th position, but fell to 23rd by the end after being run off the track mid-way through the race. It was a crushing blow for the 13th-ranked driver, who came into the day setting his sights on a top-ten rank at the race’s conclusion.
But the story of the race in the first half was the meteoric rise of Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard up the leaderboard. Lundgaard, a native of Norway, started in last place as a rough weekend mechanically for McLaren came to a head, knocking Lundgaard out of the qualifiers in the first stage. Starting at the back of the pack in 25th, Lundgaard brought his best in the early goings, getting as high as fifth place before dropping to 17th after a pit stop allowed the middle of the pack to pass him by.
Penske’s David Malukas was another high riser, after a grid penalty dropped him to 15th at the starting line. He took advantage of miniscule mistakes and timely pit stops to elevate his position to as high as 8th, before a stop in the pits pushed him back to 12th.
For the most part, the race went as expected for the top drivers, with the top five starters remaining within the top six nearly all the way through the race.
The back-to-back winner of the Grand Prix of Portland coming into the day, Power found himself in third for much of the race, leading for just six laps.
“Very great day for [Andretti],” Power said following the race, acknowledging his teammates, who all finished top six. “I didn’t quite have the pace, but it was a seriously fast-paced day and it’s such a quality field.”
Rosenqvist grabbed the silver, as he couldn’t quite catch Palou. The Swede led for just three laps after being overtaken during his first pit stop.
“He was a little bit quicker, especially on the blacks at first,” Rosenqvist said of Palou. “He kind of outsmarted us.”
Palou’s success in Sunday’s race and in the IndyCar season overall comes with a heap of humility. The Spaniard now sits just two wins away from the eight race wins he achieved last season, a feat that hasn’t gone unnoticed by fans.
“Yeah, it’s crazy; last year was magical, and it’s tough to repeat,” Palou said. “Maybe we can even improve on it, so we’ll do our best.”
Palou sits in first place on the season with 510 points, followed by Andretti’s Kyle Kirkwood with 400 points. Malukas, who dropped to third with his disappointing finish, has 392 points and work to do to regain second.
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