There’s not much a driver can do when the racing gods decide it’s not your time to take the sport’s greatest spoils. Penske’s Will Power was gracious in defeat on Sunday at Nashville Superspeedway when a fluke occurrence-the main safety belts that …
There’s not much a driver can do when the racing gods decide it’s not your time to take the sport’s greatest spoils.
Penske’s Will Power was gracious in defeat on Sunday at Nashville Superspeedway when a fluke occurrence—the main safety belts that lock his waist into the car became disconnected—required a pit stop just minutes into the 206-lap race to have the problem rectified.
The ace No. 12 Chevy crew led by championship-winning crew chief Trevor Lacasse jumped into action and did their best to minimize the time loss, but the belts put up a fight and five laps were surrendered before the issue was resolved. Call it bad luck, or fate, or just something that wasn’t deserved, but the outcome was the same as Power’s main rival Alex Palou encountered no issues and won the championship.
Power would eventually finish eight laps down, which saw his grasp on second place in the drivers’ standings slip to fourth.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1408]
“I was just driving down the front stretch there, and I just felt a pop on the lap belt, and like, man, that’s weird,” Power said. “It felt kind of loose in the car and the seat. So came out of Turn 2, and I was feeling around, and I felt the end of the belt. I’m like, ‘Man, my belt just came off. We’re gonna have to pit.’ Then it took five laps to [fix].”
It came loose once more.
“We learned after because it happened a second time [before] the end of the race,” Power added. “So we learned how to do it quickly. I don’t know what went wrong. We’ll have to send it back to the manufacturer. A very strange failure. Actually, I do wonder if I hit the wall, if it was going to break and I was going to have a real bad situation. But, yep, never had that before.”
Power was among the first drivers to reach victory lane and congratulate his friend Palou.
“I’ve had engine failures, you have gearbox failures; I had a belt failure, so, yeah, disappointing, but big congrats to Alex — a tough guy to beat,” he said. “He obviously did a fantastic job and it’s been fun racing those guys this year, and now we dropped back to fourth because of this day. But, man, happy with the season, the whole team, so we did well, but we want to win that championship, so we’ll come back fighting next year.”
Team Penske title contender Will Power starts fourth for Sunday’s 206-lap season finale at Nashville Speedway, and with a significant 33-point deficit to championship leader Alex Palou, he’ll need all the help he can get to overcome that gap and …
Team Penske title contender Will Power starts fourth for Sunday’s 206-lap season finale at Nashville Speedway, and with a significant 33-point deficit to championship leader Alex Palou, he’ll need all the help he can get to overcome that gap and secure his third NTT IndyCar Series title.
It wasn’t the pole position he’d hoped for, but Power was the recipient of a significant gift as Palou stumbled in qualifying. And with a grid penalty of nine positions looming ahead of the race for an unapproved engine change, the Chip Ganassi Racing driver will start 20 spots behind Power — deep in the field of 27 cars — and be forced to motor forward to maintain his championship lead.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1408]
All Power can do is try and race his way to the front and hope Palou stays mired back in the midfield — or worse — and see where the fortunes fall for his No. 12 Chevy team.
“We’re just gonna do our thing tomorrow, and hopefully have great cars in the race,” Power said. “Couldn’t do any more than I did in qualifying there. That’s all it had. And you know, obviously wasn’t good enough for pole, but we’ll attack tomorrow. It’ll be what it’ll be, and whoever wins deserves it.”
The end to an exhausting NTT IndyCar Series season is days away and before it’s over, two generational talents will settle the drivers’ championship where one will become a three-time king of IndyCar. For championship leader Alex Palou, his …
The end to an exhausting NTT IndyCar Series season is days away and before it’s over, two generational talents will settle the drivers’ championship where one will become a three-time king of IndyCar.
For championship leader Alex Palou, his formidable lead of 54 points over Will Power entering the Milwaukee doubleheader was trimmed to 33 points prior to Sunday’s 206-lap Big Machine Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Speedway. With a maximum of 54 points available to any driver, Power can overtake Palou, but it won’t be easy.
IndyCar’s point structure awards 50 for a win, one for pole, one for leading a lap and two for leading the most laps, and barring a weird scenario where a disqualification takes place and the runner-up is given the win, it’s almost impossible to claim an IndyCar victory without leading at least one lap — the last — to then come away with 51 points.
Since we can’t predict who will win the point for pole and who will lead the most laps, we’ll set those three points aside and work with 51 while looking at what Palou and Power need to do to become IndyCar’s newest three-timer.
The points scenarios for Palou, who could reach the lofty territory of winning his third title in four seasons, aren’t complicated. If the Chip Ganassi Racing driver finishes ahead of Power, no matter where they are in the field, the title obvious goes to the Spaniard.
If Power wins (51 points), Palou has the luxury of needing to place 11th (where he’d lose 32 of his 33 points and win by one point) or better to defeat the Team Penske driver.
If Power isn’t on pole and runs second all day and finishes second (40 points), Palou needs to finish 22nd (where he’d lose 32 of his 33 points and win by one point) or better to earn the Astor Cup.
If Power finishes third (35 points), he can’t beat Palou, who will earn five points once he crosses the starting line on the opening lap and bring his tally from 33 to 38 points.
For Power, it’s win, a second, or bust. If that sounds like a tall task, it is, but we’re also dealing with someone driving for the best oval team in IndyCar, one of the few drivers in the field with experience at the 1.33-mile Nashville Speedway, and a person who’s thrived in medium- to large-size ovals.
Take Power’s wins at Fontana, Texas, Pocono and at the Indianapolis 500, plus all of his trips to victory lane Milwaukee, Gateway, and Iowa, and the driver of the No. 12 Chevy is the perfect candidate to face the long odds of beating Palou to the championship.
Palou has yet to win on an oval, but that doesn’t mean he’s easy prey for the Australian. When things go normally for the driver of the No. 10 Honda on ovals, he’s somewhere on or near the podium, which serves as Palou’s super power and could act as Power’s kryptonite.
At Milwaukee, Penske drivers held an advantage over Ganassi’s drivers, and yet, Power’s run to second in Race 1 was shadowed by Palou, who finished fifth. The last thing Power needs is for Palou to sit a few cars back and cruise home in Nashville, but that’s what tends to happen.
And then we have Milwaukee Race 2 where the rarest occurrence for Palou — poor reliability struck on the parade laps — and he had his second-worst finish of the year, a 19th, which should have handed the championship lead to Power. But Power spun, gave up the advantage and finished 10th.
If Palou can take the green flag and get those five points, the remaining 205 laps become an anxiety-filled affair as concerns for more reliability issues, engine malfunctions, pit stop issues, stalls, and risks of spins and contact will rule the afternoon or racing for both drivers. One needs to soar to earn the crown, the other needs to be good, but not great, and how might the racing gods intervene?
After the pre-race primer begins at 3pm ET on NBC, the drama plays out starting at 3:30.
Before we look at the Leaders Circle competition, let’s quickly divert to another factor that has impacted the championship.
Looking to the start of the season and the disqualifications that set St. Petersburg polesitter and race winner Josef Newgarden and third-place teammate Scott McLaughlin back, Newgarden earned 54 points for his complete domination of the event, which were voided when the push-to-pass cheating penalties was levied. McLaughlin lost his 35 points as well.
For Newgarden, returning the 54 points he surrendered would make no difference in his ability to vie for the championship at Nashville; his deficit today of 160 points to Palou would be reduced to 106 which, with that 54-point maximum at every event, still eliminates him from the championship fight by a wide margin.
His season full of great-or-terrible results — independent of the push-to-pass points forfeiture — took him out of contention a while ago, and where McLaughlin has risen into title contention, Newgarden has been stuck fluctuating between seventh and ninth in the standings since winning the Indianapolis 500. He’s eighth at the moment.
Scott McLaughlin’s consistency has been nearly a match for Palou’s, but his St. Petersburg DQ has him still needing a miracle to pull off a championship. Brett Farmer/Motorsport Images
By contrast, McLaughlin would be second in the championship if the scandal didn’t happen and his points from St. Pete were returned. He’s 50 points shy of Palou, and while he’d need a miracle to win the championship, if those 35 points were added back to his tally, he’d be a close second to the leader in the drivers’ standings and need just 16 points to overtake the Ganassi driver at Nashville. Without the DQ, McLaughlin would be vying for his first IndyCar title, which speaks to his amazing consistency since joining the series as a full-timer in 2021.
He was Penske’s top driver in last year’s championship after placing third behind Palou and Ganassi’s Scott Dixon, and he’s third again, 17 points shy of Power. Depending on how Power’s fortunes fall, McLaughlin — a force on ovals as well — could climb to second in the final standings.
Only one Penske driver has a semi-realistic chance of demoting Palou, so it would be a surprise if McLaughlin and Newgarden aren’t running in his draft, but if Power has any issues in the race, the New Zealander is poised to secure his best championship finish if he has a competitive run.
With the Rookie of the Year championship over and done and decided in Linus Lundqvist’s favor, the Leaders Circle scrum to place inside the top 22 in the entrants’ championship and receive one of the 22 $1 million contracts will reach its end in Tennessee.
On the bubble in 22nd, it’s the No. 41 AJ Foyt Racing Chevy of Sting Ray Robb (175 points). But those in front of the No. 41 are by no means in clear water. The No. 30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda with Pietro Fittipaldi sits in 21st, but he’s only two points ahead the No. 41 (177 points) and needs to beat Robb.
The No. 66 Meyer Shank Racing Honda driven by David Malukas is safer in 20th (187 points), but an early issue could wreak havoc for the team in the Leaders Circle. The cluster of the Nos. 66, 30 and 41 and their efforts to remain on the good side of the line is the first theme to follow.
The second story centers on the No. 41 and the No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevy driven by Christian Rasmussen, who had the car on the bubble entering Milwaukee 2 and lost it by one point (174). With the razor-thin separation between the Foyt and Carpenter entries, those 206 laps on Sunday will have a Robb vs Rasmussen watch in motion.
Last again among Leaders Circle contenders in 24th is the No. 51 Dale Coyne Racing Honda (160 points), and with 14 points to gain, Katherine Legge would need to have an excellent day while those in front of the No. 51 falter. Coyne’s No. 18 Honda sits 25th and last (137 points) and has no hope of claiming the last contract.
Palou vs Power, with McLaughlin the longest of long shots. Robb and Foyt vs Rasmussen and Carpenter, along with Robb and Rasmussen vs everybody in their vicinity. Let’s go.
Will Power was disappointed with the mistake he made in Milwaukee on Sunday that went from leveling the NTT IndyCar Series championship battle with Alex Palou to handing back a big helping of points to his rival. Returning to green after the caution …
Will Power was disappointed with the mistake he made in Milwaukee on Sunday that went from leveling the NTT IndyCar Series championship battle with Alex Palou to handing back a big helping of points to his rival.
Returning to green after the caution for Sting Ray Robb’s spin and stall in Turn 2, Power was trying to get a good shot out of Turns 3 and 4. Dipping into the No. 12 Chevy’s throttle too aggressively, Power was sixth at the time and trying to get back to the lead where he spent 64 laps earlier in the race, but the burst of horsepower was too much and sent him spinning and into the wall with a light touch of his front wings against the barrier.
He’d pit twice in the ensuing laps, losing a lap, and returned in 13th place before rallying to get to 10th at the checkered flag.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1408]
“That might have been one of the wildest races I can ever recall,” Power told RACER. “Kicking myself for that spin. I did it because I was like, ‘Alright, I gotta get a good jump here,’ because on the last restart, I got eaten up by Marcus Ericsson. Ericsson always jumps it very well, very well. He’s just on the border of being legal, but he gets it.”
Palou had bigger struggles of his own as an electrical problem shut down his car on the parade laps, and after trying to resuscitate the car, the battery was fried. With the system rebooted and a new battery installed, Palou started his race 29 laps down, but thanks to all of the crashing and adversity, he recovered to place 19th and restore his championship lead to 33 points thanks to Power’s problems.
With a maximum of 54 points on offer at the Nashville Superspeedway season finale, Power can catch and pass Palou if another sizable dose of misfortune hits the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, but it’s a long shot.
“It’s not insurmountable, but it is,” Power said. “It is him having some sort of deal like today and me winning, basically. That’s what it is. We let a chunk of points go today. Too many. A bit frustrating. What we had there, the yellow fell, but that’s just life, man. It’s just the way it goes, and I can’t complain.”
The recent signing of David Malukas to A.J. Foyt Racing could be a signal of where Roger Penske’s NTT IndyCar Series team is headed in the future. Through its technical alliance with Foyt, Team Penske has an increasing influence with its affiliate …
The recent signing of David Malukas to A.J. Foyt Racing could be a signal of where Roger Penske’s NTT IndyCar Series team is headed in the future. Through its technical alliance with Foyt, Team Penske has an increasing influence with its affiliate program, and with the addition of Malukas to the Foyt team in 2025, the Illinois native has a perfect opportunity to show he deserves an invitation to the big team when a seat becomes available. The “when” is an interesting item to consider.
Penske veteran Will Power is returning to the No. 12 Penske Chevy in 2025, the final year of his current contract, and wants it to be known that he has no intention of voluntarily stepping aside.
“I want to continue. I’m not retiring. I’m just simply not retiring. Yeah, I know people probably like to spread that around, rumors or whatever, in the hope that they can take my seat. Yeah, I’m staying here for a while,” he said after winning last weekend’s race in Portland.
Will Power has been a Team Penske driver since 2009, when he won in his fifth start for the team. Perry Nelson/Motorsport Images
The victory, Power’s 44th, moved him to fourth on the all-time IndyCar win list. He already owns first place on the all-time IndyCar pole position list with 70. And yet again, and despite being in the twilight of his career, Power is Penske’s best challenger in the championship.
The thought of farewelling Power in 2026 for a promising young talent like Malukas, albeit one with zero poles and zero wins, would make sense if the driver of the No. 12 Chevy was showing a decline in speed and overall prowess. But as Penske’s most recent championship winner in 2022, and his most effective star in 2024, Power’s output has him sitting atop the team’s depth chart.
Retirement is in his future, but there’s no evidence to suggest it should be in 12 months’ time.
“If Will keeps driving the way he is driving now, it will be hard to look elsewhere,” Team Penske president Tim Cindric told RACER.
Being prepared for change and mapping out transition plans is also part of Cindric’s job; there’s no question that Power will eventually stop driving for Penske, but it’s back to that matter of when.
“Right now, he’s on top of his game, so it’s hard to speculate,” Cindric said. “Our team is always looking to put the best players in the seats. You have to look to the future. Whether it’s Malukas or any of these other young guys, you have to be looking at that. And you continue to see some of these guys get chances before they’re ready. So there’s that balance, too.”
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1408]
Cindric and Penske kept an eye on young Josef Newgarden when he arrived in the series in 2012. Fast and raw in a small team, Newgarden’s potential was evident, but he lacked mileage and seasoning. He’d continue developing at the Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing outfit for a total of three years before the outfit merged with Ed Carpenter Racing.
At the renamed CFH (Carpenter Fisher Harman) Racing squad, Newgarden had a deeper program to work within and flourished in his fourth season, winning twice, and by his fifth year in the series at the re-renamed ECR, Newgarden was winning and giving bigger teams like Penske all they could handle on the way to placing fourth in the championship.
Altogether, Newgarden spent a half-decade learning and growing and readying himself for the big time, and with his readiness to graduate, Penske signed a razor-sharp young veteran who was instantly effective and went on to win the championship on his debut with Team Penske.
Newgarden’s journey from being an unproven prospect to someone who, after five years of hardened learning, was worthy of stepping into a title-contending car, could be educational if we assume that’s the path Malukas is on with Penske.
After 2.5 seasons in IndyCar, Malukas has been massively impressive at times, but spending a single year at Foyt might not be enough to be fully prepared for the crushing weight of expectations carried by a Penske driver. Team Penske is notoriously averse to hiring young and incomplete drivers, which is why it waited so long — longer than necessary — to acquire Newgarden. If Malukas needs more than one season at Foyt to get there, Penske will likely wait until he’s truly ready.
And with a new car supposedly on the way in the coming years, there’s another prime opportunity for Power to play a significant role in its development, just as he did for Chevrolet when the Dallara DW12 debuted in 2012, for Chevy again when it was fashioning its manufacturer aero kit in 2015, and more recently as the lead test driver for Chevy with the new hybrid powertrain that came online in June.
Change is coming to Team Penske, but will it rush the process or wait until the time is right for both drivers?
Will team orders come into effect this weekend at the Hy-Vee Milwaukee doubleheader for the two main championship contenders? It’s asking a lot for Saturday’s 250-lap NTT IndyCar Series race, but it’s more possible once we get to Sunday’s …
Will team orders come into effect this weekend at the Hy-Vee Milwaukee doubleheader for the two main championship contenders? It’s asking a lot for Saturday’s 250-lap NTT IndyCar Series race, but it’s more possible once we get to Sunday’s 250-lapper, the penultimate race of the season.
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou in the No. 10 Honda has led the championship for nine of the 14 races run in 2024, including the last seven — since Laguna Seca in June — and has 54 points over Team Penske’s Will Power in the No. 12 Chevy. Palou’s teammate Scott Dixon was in the title conversation until the last race, and now sits 101 points behind Palou.
There’s almost no scenario where Dixon would be able to overcome that big of a deficit in three races, but nonetheless, the team isn’t ready to ask the six-time champion to fall back and become Palou’s tail gunner.
“We’ve never had team orders,” CGR managing director Mike Hull told RACER. “We’ve always left the drivers to have some practical sense about it. We have two 250-lap races, so if we get down to lap 248 of laps, and something has to happen, the drivers can figure it out. But it’s a one-mile flat oval and I don’t think that we can plan on who’s going to do what to whom until we get down to well after the last stop. I can’t imagine that Penske would do it any differently, nor would anybody else do it any differently.”
With a maximum of 162 points available starting at Milwaukee 1, Dixon isn’t completely out of the title conversation with his 101-point gap, but it would take a miracle for him to get back into the game. Power’s teammate Scott McLaughlin, in fourth with a 88-point deficit to Palou, is in a similar situation.
Penske’s Josef Newgarden, in seventh with a giant 131-point shortfall, would need three straight miracles to join the championship battle, but that doesn’t mean he and McLaughlin will fall in behind Power on Saturday. As Hull noted, a lot of laps need to be turned before strategy calls to rally an entire team behind the two leading title candidates are made, but Power would welcome the help and encourages the Penske outfit to support its strongest competitor.
“I think if we have the cars to win, and we want to win the championship, yes, that’s probably what we should do with three to go,” Power said. “We should probably be looking at how can we get the 12 car in the best possible position. Really, that’s our only chance. We’ve got three really good drivers — four really if you include (A.J. Foyt Racing’s) Santino (Ferrucci) — that are capable of running at the front that can take up a lot of positions. If I’m the head of that group and we win the race, that starts to make things look possible.”
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1408]
If the McLaughlins and Dixons and Newgardens are in a deeper championship hole once Saturday night’s race is done, team orders could become a more formal matter within Ganassi and Penske. Hull is also wary of asking Palou’s teammates to race with an agenda.
“If you don’t race the way you normally have raced all year, if you don’t have that mindset, the odds of you having the same result are pretty slim to start with,” he said. “That’s really how we’ve always looked at it, and it hasn’t mattered how many drivers we have.”
The other strategy for Ganassi to consider — which doesn’t exactly work for Penske with Power’s sizable 54-point gap to Palou — is to have their non-contenders play offense rather than defense.
“If Dixon wins the race over Will Power, he takes points away from Will,” Hull added. “If they’re together at the end of the race, and Scott would be in a position to win, and Will’s in a position to be second, that’s the best thing in the world for us to do if Alex isn’t leading. That’s if you’re trying to look at it strategically.
“Penske has three cars. They’re going to try to take points away from everybody they can, let’s face it, to try to try to help themselves, because the three of them are still in it. There’s two of them in a position to be able to move up in the championship. And why wouldn’t Dixon want to do the same? Those are the main thoughts about it.”
NTT IndyCar Series championship leader Alex Palou will be crowned if he can push his lead to 55 points by the end of Sunday. If his closest title rival Will Power can overtake Palou by the end of the Milwaukee Hy-Vee 250 doubleheader, a fun fight …
NTT IndyCar Series championship leader Alex Palou will be crowned if he can push his lead to 55 points by the end of Sunday. If his closest title rival Will Power can overtake Palou by the end of the Milwaukee Hy-Vee 250 doubleheader, a fun fight will move to the season finale at Nashville Speedway where he’ll give everything he has to become IndyCar’s newest title winner.
And while third-place Colton Herta and fourth-place Scott McLaughlin have a remote chance of vaulting past them to earn the championship, the odds favor the top two aces in the drivers’ standings to achieve a rare feat: Across 100-plus years of IndyCar racing, only 12 drivers have won three or more championships, and with Palou and Power, the run from Milwaukee through Nashville is primed to add a new member to the club.
The race for three is officially on, but the odds are by no means equal as with three races to run, Power is short on time to draw down Palou’s lead prior to the final checkered flag of the season that waves in Tennessee on Sept. 15. To start, Palou holds a 54-point lead over Power, which is the equivalent to a maximum race of points in his favor (50 points for a win, one point for pole position, one for leading a lap, and two for leading the most laps).
There are many ways the Team Penske driver can catch and pass the Chip Ganassi Racing standard bearer, which begins by earning an average of 19-20 points more than Palou at each race. Without getting into bonus points for pole and the rest, Power could take the championship with three wins at 50 points apiece and Palou finishing no better than fifth in each race (30 points).
But that’s a lot to ask of Power to win four races — including last weekend in Portland — in a row. If Power places second at the last three with 40 points apiece, he’d need Palou to finish no higher than 10th each time (20 points), and that would be uncharacteristic for IndyCar’s most consistent driver. If Power delivers a trio of thirds (35 points per race), he’d need Palou to come home in 15th (15 points), which seems unlikely.
The greatest problem facing Power, and Herta (67 points back), and McLaughlin (a dire 88 points down) is Palou’s aforementioned dependability. From the 14 races completed this season, Palou has 12 finishes of fifth or better. Said another way, Palou’s only had two poor results from 14 tries; that’s a top-five delivery rate of 86 percent, and now his rivals need him to trip and stumble a few more times in consecutive events, which isn’t his forté.
It’s the crushing consistency that makes Palou a perennial title threat and someone who rarely accommodates the needs of a Power, Herta, or McLaughlin by having one bad finish after another.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1408]
One of Palou’s rough oval results was at the first Iowa race where he crashed on his own while running 11th and he was credited with 23rd at the finish, so it’s not impossible for the Ganassi driver to fall short at least once at Milwaukee or Nashville. But two or three times? That would be uncharted territory for Palou.
The other issue facing Power and the other contenders is Palou’s underappreciated rise in oval competitiveness. He was fifth at the Indianapolis 500, crashed at Iowa 1 but shook it off and rebounded the next day to take second at Iowa 2, and placed fourth at the last oval at World Wide Technology Raceway. He’s still chasing his first oval win, and Penske is expected to continue its oval dominance at the final three races, but Palou’s average oval finishing position is 3.6 when he reaches the checkered flag — and he almost always reaches the checkered flag. Reinforcing the point, Palou finished every oval race in 2023 and did so with an average result of fifth.
Power needs to win and win and win and hope Palou doesn’t stick to his oval average of 3.6, or even 5.0 at the finish lines, because if he does, there’s nothing the Penske driver, or Herta at Andretti Global, or Penske’s McLaughlin can do to prevent him from becoming a three-timer.
With 54 points on Palou’s side, the settling of the championship isn’t centered on how well Power and the rest perform. For the pursuers to have realistic shots at the title, Milwaukee 1, Milwaukee 2 and Nashville will be about Palou and whether he’s struck with adversity. For them to win, he needs to fail. Minus the adversity, Palou is on the way to claiming his third championship in five seasons.
In the Rookie of the Year standings, it will be a Ganassi driver winning the award, and with Linus Lundqvist sitting on a 64-point margin over Kyffin Simpson, Lundqvist in total control.
Sting Ray Robb has put Foyt’s No. 41 into the top 22, and his oval form augurs well for his chances of keeping it there. Josh Tons/Motorsport Images
The fascinating squabble to secure Penske Entertainment’s final Leaders Circle contracts — which split the bulk of the season’s prize money into 22 equal contracts worth approximately $1 million apiece for those who finish in the top 22 of the entrants’ championship — is getting down to business time. Landing in Milwaukee, the cluster of teams on the right side and wrong side of the top 22 threshold has evolved.
The No. 66 Meyer Shank Racing Honda driven by David Malukas went into Portland in 19th with 154 points and left in 19th with 164. Barring a dramatic downward turn, Shank’s call to park Tom Blomqvist, hire Malukas and get the No. 66 into the green with the Leaders Circle has worked. Credit is also due to Sting Ray Robb, who took the No. 41 A.J. Foyt Racing Chevy from 21st to 20th (156 points) entering the ovals where he’s particularly solid.
Tied at 156 points, but behind the No. 41 Chevy, is the No. 30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda, which went to Portland in 20th with Pietro Fittipaldi and exited in 21st after a punishing race.
In 22nd, it’s the No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevy, which holds its spot on the bubble (141 points). In 23rd and tied on points at 141, Conor Daly in the No. 78 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevy is locked in a battle with Christian Rasmussen in the No. 20 ECR car — his former ride — to claim the last contract.
Of the many plot lines to follow this weekend, the ECR vs JHR, Rasmussen vs Daly thread is a big one.
Last again among Leaders Circle contenders in 24th is the No. 51 Dale Coyne Racing Honda (133 points), but it wouldn’t take much for Katherine Legge to join the ECR vs JHR scrap if she has a strong showing in Milwaukee. Coyne’s No. 18 Honda remains a distant 25th (107 points).
The ongoing volley between Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing at Portland International Raceway went in favor of Penske drivers for the third time in the last five years at the circuit, breaking the tie between the NTT IndyCar Series’ two dominant …
The ongoing volley between Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing at Portland International Raceway went in favor of Penske drivers for the third time in the last five years at the circuit, breaking the tie between the NTT IndyCar Series’ two dominant organizations.
In 2019 it was Penske’s Will Power, and upon the race’s 2021 return from a COVID-affected 2020, it was Ganassi’s Alex Palou who stood atop the podium. In 2022, it was Penske’s Scott McLaughlin, and in 2023, it was Palou again for Ganassi. And with Power’s romp to a demonstrative win on Sunday at the BitNile.com Grand Prix of Portland, the deciding factor in his 9.8-second victory over Palou was tire longevity.
Whether it was new or used Firestone primaries or alternates, Power’s No. 12 Chevy had better traction in all phases of the lap – accelerating, braking, and turning – for the entirety of his four stints. Palou wasn’t as fortunate as his tires, new or used, and of either compound, lacked the chassis setup to match Power’s pace as the stints continued.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1408]
The knockout punch came on the final pit stop, when Power’s race strategist Ron Ruzewski saved a fresh set of the faster alternates while Palou, who’d used his on the third stint to no avail, spent the race’s final stanza on slower used primaries. Power drove off into the horizon and left his main championship rival to settle for a distant second.
“I think we didn’t really pick the right choices on tires,” Palou said. “But it comes from qualifying. We didn’t really think that the used alternates were going to last. Used both of them in qualifying. Yeah, a shame that we couldn’t really battle much. At the beginning I thought we had a lot of pace when the 12 [was] on primaries. I was really comfortable.
“But as soon as Will went on [alternates], I just couldn’t really follow him. I had a chance on the back straight when he had a little bit of traffic, but couldn’t really make it. So yeah, happy, but obviously a little bit frustrating that we couldn’t really get there. It was tough. Like, our pace was not at his level today. I think he had a seventh gear today. Couldn’t really catch him.”
Power had Palou draw near on a couple occasions when they were about to lap tailenders, but other than those moments, the Penske veteran was able to reestablish a safe margin over the Ganassi ace.
“I had traffic; I was at the mercy of the pace of the car in front,” Power said. “I saw that gap just shrink really quickly. I think he pulled into the pits or I passed. However that played out. As soon as I got clear track, I knew I could put quite a bit of time into him. Especially at the end of the stint, it seemed like his car used the tire more than ours.
“On [alternates] we were simply better. Our car was really good on [alternate] tires. Yeah, kind of equal, I’d say, [on primaries]. He even looked like he dropped off on [primaries]. It was really a lot to do with traffic management. If it was a clear track for me, I always felt I could pull a gap on him.”
The 14th race of the NTT IndyCar Series Season is over and an angry Will Power turned his frustration from last weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway into a flag-to-flag display of dominance at the BitNile.com Grand Prix of Portland. Furious at …
The 14th race of the NTT IndyCar Series Season is over and an angry Will Power turned his frustration from last weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway into a flag-to-flag display of dominance at the BitNile.com Grand Prix of Portland.
Furious at the circumstances that led to the crash and loss of a fourth-place finish or better at WWTR, the Team Penske driver channeled that disappointment as he so often does and rebounded with total mastery of the 110-lap contest in Oregon, beating championship leader Alex Palou with relative ease while leading more than 100 laps along the way.
“He’s a good teammate,” Power said of AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci, who started from pole in a car that receives technical support from Penske and didn’t put up a big fight when Power took the lead later in the first lap.
“Very fair. I have to thank him for helping out there. We definitely had a better car on [Firestone’s alternate tires over Palou]. A good day.”
Palou kept Power in sight, and even came close to making a pass when they hit traffic, but the driver of the No. 12 Chevy kept Palou anywhere from 1-3s behind on most laps, to over 10s in the closing laps of the contest. Other than the brief moments where he pitted and others inherited the lead until they stopped, Power was in command the entire time.
With his win, Power vaulted from fourth in the Drivers’ standings to second. Palou arrived at Portland with 59 points over Colton Herta in the championship; with the victory, Power demoted Herta and sits 54 points back from the driver of the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
“I thought the primary and the alternates were going to be closer, and they were not,” said Palou, who leaves with a full race of maximum points ahead of the field. “Hopefully we can pick up a little more points in Milwaukee. I like where we’re sitting. I like the opportunity in front of us.”
Penske’s Josef Newgarden continued his late-season surge with a run to third, one position ahead of Herta. Ganassi’s Marcus Armstrong sealed his third straight top 10 finish with a strong performance to take fifth, and the often-unlucky Marcus Ericsson had a clean day on the way to sixth.
“From where we started, I’m pleased with the progress we made,” Newgarden said.
The biggest mover was Penske’s Scott McLaughlin who fired from 20th to seventh, and after running in the top three early in the day, polesitter Santino Ferrucci from AJ Foyt Racing held on to claim eighth.
It wasn’t terribly exciting to watch, but Portland delivered everything Power and Penske needed to keep themselves in the title fight. The championship battle reconvenes next weekend in a doubleheader on the Milwaukee Mile.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1408]
Ferrucci led the field to the green flag and lost the lead to second-place Power and championship leader Palou slotted in behind in third. The opening lap was clean through the Turn 1 chicane, thanks to the green being thrown early, but the lap ended under caution as title contender Scott Dixon was hit by Pietro Fittipaldi entering the back straight and shot across the track into the barrier, which folded his left-front suspension. Dixon, third in the championship entering Portland, was done for the day, 28th and last.
Five drivers starting at the back of the field used the caution to pit for fuel and move to an alternate strategy.
The lap five restart saw Power lead Ferrucci and Palou. Fittipaldi was ordered to pit lane for a drive-through. Lap eight and Palou took second from Ferrucci, 0.8s behind Power. McLaughlin was up from 20th to 15th.
Lap 10 and Romain Grosjean ran fourth, Herta in fifth. Lap 18 and Christian Luandgaard dropped down to P12 after locking up at the chicane and Linus Lundqvist fell to P25 after overshooting the final corner and needing to return via the drag strip. Power held 1.3s over Palou and 3.8s over Ferrucci.
At lap 21, Kyle Kirkwood pitted from P6, the first of the leaders to stop. Three laps later Fittipaldi tried to pass Conor Daly into Turn 1, locked up on the inside, and speared Daly into a spin. Both continued.
The next lap, Power’s lead was down to 0.6s over Palou while Ferrucci was down by 4.6s.
Lap 26 and a slow Fittipaldi in front of Power nearly allowed Palou to get by; he pitted at the end of the lap to serve a penalty for the Daly hit. Lap 30 saw Power’s lead over Palou stretch up to 1.0s. Ferrucci was 3.4s back as the first pit stop loomed. Grosjean was 4.7s behind; Herta, 5.3s down; Josef Newgarden in sixth was 6.5s arrears; Marcus Armstrong was 7.8s back in seventh. Lap 32 and Ferrucci pitted. McLaughlin following him in.
Power pitted at the start of lap 33 as did Grosjean, Herta and Armstrong. Palou followed on Lap 34 and it wasn’t overly fast; Power returned to the lead with Palou in second. Herta was forced off of Turn 2 by Grosjean and rode through the dirt as Ferrucci made the pass and took P6 from the No. 26, right behind Grosjean. No action taken by race control on Grosjean.
In two more laps, Power was 1.6s clear of Palou. By lap 44, not much changed, barring Power taking greater command of the race with 2.5s over Palou and 7.5s over Kirkwood.
Lap 50 and the gap extended to 3.5s between Power and Palou. Kirkwood got to within 4.5s of Power, and in fourth Newgarden was 8.1s back. Lap 51 and Kirkwood ducked in for his second stop. Lap 52 and Palou cut the lead to 2.1s. Lap 56 and Christian Rasmussen went off at the last turn and used the drag strip to resume his race. A blocky Kirkwood got the call from race control to give up two positions.
One lap later, Palou pitted first; Newgarden joined him as Power and Ferrucci stayed out. The two finally pitted at the end of the lap. Power’s lead was about 2.0s before Palou stopped. Returning after his stop, Power increased it to 3.1s.
Lap 62 and Herta pitted from the lead. Grosjean spun at Turn 1, got going again, but pulled in front of Rasmussen at the apex, was hit and got his left-rear tire flattened. Rasmussen, who wasn’t at fault, has his race ruined and pitted to replace his broken front wings.
Power was back in the lead and had 1.6s over Palou. Newgarden was 7.0s behind in third, then it was Herta at 12.7s down, and Ferrucci in fifth with 16.8s to Power.
Lap 67 and Palou ran 0.6s back and was charging as they got into traffic. Grosjean received a drive-through. Free of traffic, Power was stretching the lead again, at 1.4s after 71 laps.
Ten laps later, Ferrucci made his final stop. Power ran 2.0s clear of Palou and 2.5 from Newgarden. Lap 86 and Herta stalled leaving his pit box, but resumed quickly after re-firing the car on his own.
Lap 87 and Power and Newgarden pit as Palou stayed out. One lap later, Palou was in. He returned in second, setting up a straight lap time battle to the finish.
By lap 89, Power had lead 79 laps. Lap 91 and he was up by 3.4s on Palou and 9.1s on Newgarden. Unless something drastic happened, it was his race.
Power stretched the lead to 4.9s over Palou and 18.5 to Newgarden. Turn out the lights, the party was over.
Josef Newgarden said he intended to clear the air with Team Penske teammate Will Power as soon as he had an opportunity after a chain reaction that followed a late restart on Newgarden’s behalf resulted in Power crashing out of Saturday night’s NTT …
Josef Newgarden said he intended to clear the air with Team Penske teammate Will Power as soon as he had an opportunity after a chain reaction that followed a late restart on Newgarden’s behalf resulted in Power crashing out of Saturday night’s NTT IndyCar Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway.
Newgarden led as the field lined up for a restart with 10 laps remaining but launched for the green later than the cars behind him expected, resulting in several cars checking up and Arrow McLaren’s Alexander Rossi slamming into the rear of Power’s car.
Power was clearly incensed as he returned to the pits, and while he took care not to name Newgarden specifically while describing the incident during the race broadcast, he emphasized that he believed that the blame lay with “whoever was leading.”
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1408]
“I’ll go talk to him immediately once I get done with you guys,” Newgarden said during the post-race press conference. “As soon as I see him, I’ll talk to him.
“I know Will pretty well. I get that he’s upset. He got wrecked out of the race. He’s a championship contender. When you get run into, especially after the night he had — he had a great night, a fast car, he drove super-well – he led two-thirds of this thing. Imagine how he feels. I get it. I get that he’s upset.
“I think he’s going to try to place blame wherever he directly sees it right off the bat. He gets hot quick. I think when you calm down and look at it, it’s probably not going to be exactly what he thought it was in the moment.
“But the point is, he’s going to be upset because this is not good for his championship. Believe me, the last thing I want to happen is for Will to get hit. I can tell you that right now.
“If I go and sit with my boss tonight, he’s going to look at me and say, ‘Did you do a good job tonight?’ I want him to think I did a good job every single night that I see him.
“I wouldn’t change much from my procedure. It’s not that different than what I’ve done in the past. I hate that Will got caught out in a situation tonight, someone running into him. It’s not fun.”
Newgarden admitted that he went late on the final restart. “It was definitely late,” he said. “I was trying to go as late as I could. It’s not that different of a restart than I’ve done before.” But he denied accusations made by Power in the immediate aftermath of the incident that he had been repeatedly speeding up and then slowing down.
“If anyone, especially on our team, wants to look at the data, you’re going to see a very consistent speed,” he said. This was verified by the series, which said that Newgarden’s speed remained at 80mph in the moments immediately prior to the incident.
Race control manages restarts by using the lead driver’s throttle data as the cue for when to return to green flag conditions. Newgarden admitted that he was waiting until as late in the restart zone as he possibly could before taking off, as he is free to do within the rules, but suggested that the green flag might have been shown early, which would have signaled to drivers in the line that it was time to accelerate even though Newgarden had yet to return to racing speed up at the front.
“What looked like happened is that it went green momentarily before I went, just momentarily,” Newgarden said. “I’m talking like half a second or a second.
“If it’s just that slight difference in timing, if race control goes green and I haven’t gone yet for just a second… I think people were trying to jump, which we’ve had a problem with, to be honest. We’ve had a problem with jump-starts the last two years. It’s a constant topic in the driver meetings.
“If there’s just a slight miscue there, I think people are very on edge on these restarts trying to get the run. It looked like it mistimed in the back, at least with one individual, and that’s what caused a problem.
“From my side, it’s the last thing you want to happen at the end. I don’t want to create a wreck. I was not trying to do that. That was not my intention. I don’t know that I’d do much different because it’s how I would do a restart.”
