Alex Palou extends championship lead with dominant performance in Portland
- Jeffrey Hrunka
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Jeffrey Hrunka - INDYCAR Contributor
Alex Palou continued to extend his championship lead with a dominant victory in the OnlyBulls Grand Prix of Portland at Portland International Raceway on Sunday evening. The Spaniard out-strategized the field with an early overcut en route to his sixth victory this season.
“Having Alex and his talent, like there's nothing that replaces that,” No.10 Chip Ganassi Racing Race Strategist Barry Wanser said. “No matter how good the car is, you need the driver to be able to extract that performance out of the car.”
Clean air reigned supreme when it came to holding the race lead. Although Felix Rosenqvist, driver of the No.60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda, led the first 31 laps, a better pit sequence and an in-lap from Palou forced him to settle into second. Once Palou assumed the lead on Lap 32, he immediately opened up a four-second lead and didn’t look back.
“You risk it to close the gap,” Palou said. It doesn't always work, because I was lucky that there was no traffic. I was lucky that my car was still handling super well. But as soon as I could see that my car was so good, I started pushing [and] the lap time started going down. I knew if the pit stop was good, we're going to get him.”
Rosenqvist gained the time back over the course of the race, within a one-second gap over the final set of stops, but lap traffic on his in/out laps plagued him and many drivers in countering Palou’s strategy. Rosenqvist struggled to rally back, crossing the line with a runner-up finish.
“That first stint he outsmarted us, did one lap longer,” Rosenqvist said. “I didn't know he did that, so maybe we need to work on communication. I don't think I could have kept up with that pace he did anyways, if I saved that much fuel.”
The only other contender through 110 laps was Will Power, driver of the No.26 Andretti Global Honda, as he saved a fresh set of the softer-compound alternate tires for his final pit stop in an attempt to counter Palou's advantage in clean air. Projected to come out of the pit lane neck-and-neck with Palou, miscommunication on Lap 86 coming to the pit lane saw him stay out an extra lap, getting stuck in lap traffic on his in-lap.
The hold-up saw Power drop from the race lead and settle in behind second-place runner Rosenqvist. Power rounded out the podium places with a third-place finish.
"I think without sounding salty, I don't think I would have won the race anyway, but I think it's kind of time for us as a series to grow up and not have the lapped car situation,” Power said. “I think it makes us all look stupid.”
With his win, Palou extended his points lead to 110 points over Kyle Kirkwood and David Malukas, who sit second (-110 points back) and third (-118 points back), respectively. Kirkwood jumped Malukas in the points standings after finishing fifth to Malukas’ twelfth.
Although Palou has extended his points lead to triple digits, two new street courses over the next two weeks present uncertainty to him and the rest of the field.
“There's still a lot of points to play. It was important to maximize,” Palou said. “A win gives you a big, big amount of points. The same way that in the last two weekends we got a huge gap, someone else can do the exact same thing. So we need to keep on pushing.”
NTT INDYCAR SERIES OnlyBulls Grand Prix of Portland Results:
Alex Palou #10 - (WINNER)
Felix Rosenqvist #60 -4.117s
Will Power #26 -8.063s
Rinus Veekay #76 -16.577s
Kyle Kirkwood #27 -19.378s
Marcus Ericsson #28 -20.032s
Scott McLaughlin #3 -21.424s
Josef Newgarden #2 -22.102s
Christian Lundgaard #7 -25.75s
Kyffin Simpson #8 -29.278ss
Pato O’Ward #5 -33.09s
David Malukas #12 -34.024s
Dennis Hauger #19 (R) -42.55s
Scott Dixon #9 -43.45s
Louis Foster #45 -48.933s
Mick Schumacher #47 (R) -59.007s
Romain Grosjean #18 -59.104s
Nolan Siegel #6 -59.473s
Alexander Rossi #20 -1:00.707s
Caio Collet #4 (R) -1 lap down
Santino Ferrucci #14 -3 laps down
Sting Ray Robb #77 -3 laps down
Graham Rahal #15 -3 laps down
Christian Rasmussen #21 -3 laps down
Marcus Armstrong #66 -78 laps down (Mechanical)
The NTT INDYCAR SERIES returns to action on the Streets of Markham for the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Markham on Aug. 16. Fans can tune into the action at 12:00 pm EST on FOX or the FOX One app.
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